Getting our Feet Wet in Ilo

These last couple of weeks in Ilo have been very busy ones and also very interesting. Part of adjusting to life in Ilo has entailed furnishing our house. We have spent alot of time running from one furniture shop to another. We have discovered that buying furniture here in Peru is very different from the same in Ballymena! As we enquired abo various things we have been told to come back the next day or in a week and they will have it, as we do this we are often disappointed as the shop is either closed for no known reason or they still don't have the furniture! At times this has proved to be frustrating as we are keen to get settled and begin to have a more active role in the work here.

Aside from settling in to Ilo we have also been getting to know many of the believers in Ilo and Ite, this has been a real encouragement to us and we trust that over time God can use us to be a huge encouragement to them. Alicia has been attending the ladies meeting in Ite on a weekly basis with Christine and has really enjoyed getting to know these ladies. I have been helping out each Saturday at the Camp Centre where there is now weekly work days for the various churches. I also go out to the Camp Centre a couple of times a week with Trevor to help with the year long evangelism team that is currently based there. While there I am able to go on to the mid week meeting or youth meeting at the Ite church depending on the day. Last week I spent two days in Tacna with Trevor as he was looking for materials and equipment for the camp centre. The opening of the centre is Saturday 3rd November. The building work is not yet complete but we will have to be content with this come 3rd November as there is too much to be done to finish off. This week the workers will continue to work on construction, painting, wiring etc and then next week their time will be devoted to cleaning up and preparing for the opening. Fortunately the Gap team have been able to lend a labouring hand at the centre.

Sarah seems to have settled well here in Ilo. We had initially planned to put her in a nursery here as she developed so well and made some good friends in here nursery in Arequipa, however after giving if some thought we decided against this idea. The school year in Peru ends at Christmas time and then restarts in March. We thought that Sarah needed time to settle and adjust to life here before being thrown into another new situation. We felt that one change in March would be sufficient as if we sent here now if would be likely that she would have to change school again in March again as the nurseries here seem to be different from Arequipa. They go up to 3 years and then there is a different school for over 3s. So far it has worked out well, we are enjoying having her around the house a little more and she does not seem to be missing out on the chance to mix with other children or to speak spanish either. God has truly been good.

Life in Ilo

On Thursday past we left the sunny hills of Arequipa for the dull and gloomy shores of Ilo. However although there was not much brightness in the sky this trip signaled a new dawn for us as we prepared to set up home in Ilo. Surprisingly the move went very smoothly. We had arranged for a removal lorry to come at 9am to take our luggage and when a lady from the business arrived at the door at 10am to enquire what time we wanted the lorry at we began to doubt whether our stuff would ever arrive in Ilo! After this hiccup everything else went as planned.

We travelled to Ilo with Trevor Morrow who had come to Arequipa to pick us up and to get some items in Arequipa for the camp centre. Fortunately his time in Arequipa was very productive as he was able to get more than he had anticipated.

It was planned that we would stay with the Morrows in their house until we got things sorted in our own house and arrangements had been made to meet the owners of our house on Thursday afternoon, however after not getting left as early as anticipated we postponed this appointement until Friday morning. When we did see the house and meet the owners we found that the house was spotless and the owner had gone to great lengths to help us settle in. We are already thankful for the wonderful ladylords we have for our house and trust that over time we will be able to get to know them better.

Since we got the keys of our house most of our time has been consumed organising our stuff, going to the market to buy essential items and spending time with Sarah. Once again Sarah seems to have coped with the transition remarkably well. We can do nothing other than thank God for this and thank God for a wonderful toddler who brings us so much joy. We hope to allow Sarah a few weeks of adjusting to her new environment before we enroll her in a nursery and so this week we may begin looking at the various possibilities. We would appreciate your prayers that we would find somewhere where she would be equally as happy as she was in Arequipa and that she would soon make a new group of friends.

As we become more settled with practical items in our house we hope to be able to establish an idea of where we will best fit in to the work here in Ilo and Ite. We are praying that God will direct us to the right place. It is likely that our role will be multi-faceted and we are fairly certain that part of this will revolve around the new camp and conference centre in Ite. We ask for your prayers for the opening of the centre in the first week in November. As yet the construction is not completed and funds are low. Please pray with us that the deadline and also financial commitments could be met. I know that the MEET (Gap Year) Team would appreciate your prayers too as they arrive on Thursday. Their time here will involve planning and helping to run camps and also some evangelism work in the Baptist churches throughout the South of Peru.

Again we thank you for your support and for remembering us as a family and the rest of the work of Baptist Missions in Peru.

Stage 1 Completed

Today we finished our studies at the Language Institute. After 28 weeks of study at the Institute we said our goodbyes today during a small party that was held for our farewell. The goal had always been to move on from the Institute and not to stay here in Arequipa but after 28 weeks working with various teachers we have developed a bond with many of them and so our goodbyes were much more difficult to say than we thought they would be. On the other hand our graduation from the Institute gave us a sense of achievement and a great awareness of how with God's help we have developed from having very little Spanish to being able to converse in Spanish.

The end of this chapter also marks the beginning of the next chapter - our work in Ilo (which was the reason we came to Peru). We will make this move next Thursday. Tomorrow morning I (Dave) will join many of the teachers and students from the Institute for the weekly game of football and then afterwards we (as a family) have been invited to enjoy lunch with our teachers Julio and Miriam at their house. In the evening we have been asked to come along to the youth fellowship of of church in order to judge a fancy dress competition. It should be fun.

On Sunday we will say goodbye to many from our church, and will likely be required to say something to the church in relation to our leaving. Alicia has also been asked to play her flute during the service, something she has not had much opportunity to do since coming here.

Next week will involve packing up our last few things and also trying to fit in a number of things in that we have not yet been able to do in Arequipa. One of the things we want to see but have not seen is the project our church is involved in in a shanty town area of Arequipa. The church has a small school there providing free schooling and some nutrition for children who cannot afford such things.

On Wednesday we hope to have a little bit of time to visit Sarah's nursery as they are having a farewell for her there too. It will also give us a little longer to see how she has developed. Normally we don't see her in class as we are in class at the same time but according to her teacher she is talking away in Spanish and really interacting well with the rest of the class. More recently Sarah had been mothering one of the newer younger kids in the nursery!

As the title says step 1 (our time at the language institute) has been completed, however as I have written previously we still need more practice and time studying on our own in order to raise our level of Spanish. Step 2 will involve settling into Ilo. It will be a much more difficult step to measure in terms of its completion, however as we settle little by little we will get more involved in the work there. As we settle we will also be able to identify exactely what areas of the work we will be involved in.

The Road Ahead

Since we arrived in Peru in January we have been so encouraged at how so many of you have maintained an interest in our adjustment to life in Peru and news of of development here. as we come to the end of our time of official language study we feel it is appropriate to let you know of the changes and challenges that lie ahead so that you can be up to date with our situation and can continue to remember us in prayer.

Friday September 21st will be our last day at the language school. As is custom we will have a small party as a farewell on this day. On the one hand it will be an exciting day as it will be the closure of one chapter here in Peru and the beggning of the next chapter. Language Study has been a necessary step in the preparation for what we came to Peru for - to share the Love of Christ with those who have never heard of it. Having said this over the past six months we have made some good friends, particularly with the teachers who have invested so much time and energy into our development. It will be difficult to say our goodbyes to them but we will keep good contact with many of the friends we have made. The last number of weeks have been building up to us leaving the language institute as we have been spending lots of time working through some tests in order to identify our weaknesses and then the rest of the time has been spent working on these areas of weakness.

The time at the language institute has been hugely beneficial and it is encouraging that having arrived in Peru with virtually no Spanish we can now have conversations with people. We have been very impressed with the system that the institute has used and the amount of time and energy the teachers have been willing to expend in order to ensure we understand things well, however at this point and time we are far from fluent. We still lack alot of vocabularly that can only be adquired from experience and time in the country. We also need lots more practice in conversation in order to become more competant Spanish speakers. With this in mind we are pleased that we will soon move on and be more involved with people and involved in real life situations where we will have to make more use of what language we have. We feel that with the base we already have this will enable us to develop from our current level. We also plan to have a tutor working with us for a few hours a week who will help us.

After finishing language study on 21st September we will have almost a week to pack up and get ready for our move to Ilo. We are currently making plans for the removal of our personal stuff and a number of furniture items that we have bought in Arequipa over the last number of weeks. We have had to buy a number of things here in Arequipa as they are either not available in Ilo or there is not as good a selection there. Hopefully during this week we will also have enough time to say goodbyes to some of the people we have got to know here.

During our last visit to Ilo in July we had the opportunity to look at a couple of houses. One of the houses we saw we really liked and were praying that it would be possible for us to rent this house. There was a degree of doubt about the availability of this house to us but on Saturday past we heard that the owners were willing to rent it to us and wanted to accomodate us in any way they could. We praise the Lord that this is available to us and that we will be arriving in Ilo having seen inside the house we will be living in. God has been more than good to us, thank you for praying with us.

Our first couple of weeks in Ilo will mainly involve us getting settled into the house and organising our stuff. We plan to put Sarah into a nursery once again as it has helped her so much and it is good for her to have the interaction with other kids her age, but we will probably allow her a couple of weeks in Ilo to settle in her new surroundings before we enrol her anywhere.

A week after we arrive in Ilo the Baptist Missions Gap year team will arrive. We will be working alongside these young people who will be working at the Camp and Conference Centre in Ite with 9 Peruvian young people. We are excited about this opportunity. I know that these young people would appreciate your prayers as they prepare for a busy year of camps and evangelism with some of the churches in the mountains.

We are also likely to have some form of church involvement. At present the nature of this involvement remains to be seen, we are unsure whether this will be in the small church plant in Ite or in the more established La Pampa church in Ilo. We would appreciate your prayers that we would fit in where God wants us to be involved.

One other area for pray is regarding our driving licences. At present we do not have Peruvian driving licences but eventually we will have to drive in and out to Ite on a regular basis. We hope to be able to take our Peruvian driving test as soon as possible in order that we can get around a little bit more easily.

Once again we want to thank you all for your interest and prayers in the work of Baptist Missions and particularly in us as a family. We are deeply indebted to you because without your prayers we could not be here.

The End is in Sight

As we write this we are counting down the number of days we have left at the Language Institute - exactly 4 weeks. It is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of our formal language learning as in many ways we still feel very green to Peru and to the language.

We are very excited about the prospect of moving on to the next step but at the same time I am sure you can imagine that after spending 6 months of intensive language study with our teachers that we have bonded really well with them and become great friends. In many ways it is a disservice to call it a language institute as the teachers have helped us with our cultural adaptation, our emotional health and our spiritual health. We are grateful to God for having met our teachers and for the amount they have imparted to us.

Over the last week we were given a number of exams in the institute. The idea was to identify where we were and what our weaknesses are and then work on these areas over the last month. This has been really helpful to date and we look forward to polishing up a few more weaknesses in the coming weeks. We plan to keep studying when we leave the institute - perhaps a few hours a week so that we can continue to develop. Hopefully when we arrive in Ilo we will be able to find a tutor who can assist us with this.

The plan is that we will move house from Arequipa to Ilo on the 27th of September. Over the last couple of weeks and for the incoming weeks we have been and will be making preparations for our move. Things that we need to organise include transport of our stuff from Arequipa to Ilo. We are also planning on picking up some furniture here in Arequipa before moving as it is generally cheaper here, often of better quality and there is a much wider selection. This last week we were sofa shopping. At home this is a relatively straight forward task, the problem is often that there is too much choice. Here sofa shopping is a different story! It is rare to go into a shop and see the exact model you like here. Rather you must come to the shop with an idea of the style you would like and then from a selection of materials choose your covering, then choose the firmness of the sofa and then they make the sofa for you. It is important when you do this to pick an honest and well-known sofa maker as quality varies. After looking around many shops we have finally come to the point where we are about ready to make a decision. After we place our order we will be able to go and inspect the wood, material and filling for the sofa. To us this is another interesting aspect of the culture that we are being exposed to.

In the next week or ten days we will have to organise the transport of our sofa and other goods to Ilo. At present we believe we have found a suitable house in Ilo but will not hear until the end of August or the beginning of September if it will definitely be available to us. Once we know we can begin making a few more concrete plans and preparing for our impending move.

Our arrival in Ilo will just about coincide with the arrival of a gap year team from Ireland coming to work at the camp centre and in other projects for the the year. We are very excited about this team and look forward to meeting the individuals and working with them.

Once again we thank you for praying for us and know that all our forthcoming plans will be covered in prayer. We really appreciate your prayers and were touched by many people's concern and prayers after the recent earthquake, thank you. The media hype from this tragic event has subsided, however many, many people are still in desperate situations and it will take months and even years to rebuild their homes and their lives, please continue to pray for them.

Earthquake in Peru

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."

Romans 8:22

Last night the reality of the fact that the world that we live in is imperfect and is not our permanent home became much more real to us. At 6:41pm Peru time, Peru experienced one of the worst earthquakes the country has seen in recent times. The quake, now being recorded as having a magnitude of 8.0 shook buildings in Lima and other coastal areas, with the Ica region being the worst hit. At present the death toll has risen to almost 500 but with many people trapped under collapsed buildings it is expected to rise. Some regions are still without electricity, communications and running water while other regions have been cut off from the rest of the country as some major roads have virtually been split in two by the quake.

Fortunately Arequipa and the regions that Baptist Missions work in did not suffer much in terms of damage and no lives were lost in these areas however many of our friends here in Arequipa have relatives and friends in these areas and to date they have been unable to get in touch with them. It is a particularly distressing time for them.

We ask you to pray for the people who have lost family and friends and for others who have lost homes. In one city it was reported that 60% of the homes there had collapsed in the quake. As we watch the news and see bodies being lined up in the streets it is hard to understand this situation, however we would ask you to pray that Peru would realise that this earth is "groaning" and is an imperfect dwelling place for us but that God is building a mansion in heaven for those who trust in Him.

For more information on the earthquake: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6949984.stm

For pictures of some of the worst affected areas:

http://media.elcomercio.com.pe/peruenemergencia/

Holidays Come to an End

Today is our first day of not being on holiday for two weeks. We will resume classes this morning and the thought that we only have another eight weeks of language study left is a huge motivation to get stuck back in again but the same thought also terrifies us! How are we going to manage after language school?!

Our two weeks off from studies were two excellant weeks. The time off enabled us to relax quite a bit and divert from our usual daily routine. During our first week of holidays Sarah was still in nursery and so we had the freedom to do things together each morning in Arequipa, something whihc we have not had for a long time. As anticipated this involved visiting coffee shops amongst some other things.

On Friday 27th July we travelled down to Ilo by bus for a week. In the morning Sarah was required to be in nursery as the children were doing a special presentation for Fiestas Patrias - Peru Day. She had to dress up as a typical Liminian (Someone from Lima). Immediately after Sarah's presentation we got on the bus for the 4 hour journey to Ilo.

Our time in Ilo was very relaxing and very much a holiday, athough we did feel that we achieved a number of things while there as well. On the Saturday morning after arriving in Ilo there was a work day for all the churches at the Camp and conference centre, to help with the building of the centre. For almost three hours I (Dave) shovelled soil into a wheelbarrow so we could bring the foundation of the kitchen up two feet. It was really enjoyable as I was able to converse with many of the other Peruvians who I was working alongside. It proved to be a helpful experience from the perspective of giving me opportunity to converse a little in spanish as well. Unfortunately when I woke up on Sunday morning with aching muscles I did not value the experience quite so much!

We also had the opportunity to talk about some preparations for our move to Ilo at the end of September or the beginning of October. During the week we viewed two houses. One of the houses we really liked and would be very keen to take it. At this point we are unsure whether we will be able to get it but we are praying that if this is not the one then God would provide somewhere else for us. Please pray with us regarding this situation.

Since arriving back in Arequipa we have renewed enthusiam for studying and despite the break seem to have picked up where we left off. We have also began thinking through some of the practical details for our impending move. In the midst of all this we decided we did not have enough to occupy our minds and had a moment of madness and bought a dog. We had our eye on a little golden retriever pup for a number of weeks and eventually gave in as there seemed to be so many good reason why we should! Since buying it and bringing it home Sarah has named it after the Penguin in her DVD - Scamper! She adores the dog and the dog loves her - so much so that it jumps up on her and nearly knocks her over!

Once again we do appreciate your interest in what we are doing here and your prayers are very much valued. Could you please pray that we will continue well to the end of our language course and make good progress and that as we leave we would feel well equipped for the next step. Please also pray for all the plans that will need to be made in the coming 2 months.