Our Crazy Mixed up kids

Jess in Welsh traditional dress

Caribbean Community flag

Welsh Rugby shirt

Scottish football shirt


Today Jessica was proudly wearing her Union Jack T shirt!
Interestingly their maternal grandparents are from the Caribbean but have lived in England for the last 40 years. Their Paternal Grandmother is Welsh and their Paternal Grandfather is Scottish. Hence the Welsh dress and the Welsh or Scottish sports shirts. Last year at Bible college they met people who worked or were going to work as missionaries all over the world and when you hear them playing trains or airplanes they fly to places like Albania Angola Brazil or Nepal. They are pretty good at identifying different countries flags but at times Samuel does get confused and after driving a few hours in the car somewhere he will ask us what country we are in. The world is a global village and when they sing the Peruvian National Anthem, alongside their classmates they too know all the words and have their hand on their heart!

CEBP Conference week

CEBP is the Convencion Evangelica Bautista del Peru.
Please pray for Scott this week (Feb 2-6th) the Conference for the Peruvian Baptist Convention is being held in Arequipa. Scott is preaching (with his language teacher translating for him ) 4 times.
Our whole family will be introduced to the convention since this is our first conference since we arrived in Peru. We are also hosting Margaret Swires (also from BMS World Mission) and Pastor Pepe the president of the convention and his wife. So a busy week ahead, after which we will start thinking about packing and moving!

Day trip to Puno

Lake Titicaca
The boys


lama running around the streets


The Driver




Today Scott drove from Arequipa to Juliaca and back. The reason for the trip was to take some friends from our language school so they could collect a car. Puno and lake Titicaca is only a short distance from Juliaca so he was able to spend the afternoon enjoying the sights .
During the journey he saw wild llamas vicunas alpacas and flamingos. Throughout the day they experienced freezing cold, hot sun, rain , snow and hail. He drove over 4,500m altitude .
A fun time was had by all and he is grateful for a safe journey and for fun friends.

COMBI STRIKES

In Peru many people rely on combis (minivans) to travel short journeys.
In Arequipa you can travel from one end of the city to the other , the price for the journey is always the same 70 centimos (which is about 20 pence) .
For the last 3 days in Arequipa all the combis are on strike protesting about the governments proposed transport changes. This has caused maximum disruption as people can not get to their place of work or study, shops open later and close earlier . People travel in groups in taxis and many travel in the back of open lorries or pick ups which is incredibly dangerous.
Apparently the strike will continue indefinately for us who have our own car and who can afford to pay taxi fares it is a minor annoyance for many people it is a huge inconvenience and a very big problem! We were very concerned that the lady who helps us 3 times a week with cleaning and cooking risked her safety yesterday by travelling in the back of an open lorry to get to our house. We hope that the strike will soon end and people like her will be able to travel in safety.

Information about South America

While South America is a continent of extreme beauty, it is also a continent of earthquakes, civil unrest and grinding poverty. First, please pray for the people affected by natural disasters, and the BMS personnel who work to help them recover. The Church has been active in providing disaster relief, and it is a major cause of thanks to God - that the Church is acting to bear witness to Christ in this way. However, the Baptist church is still relatively young and small here. They need your prayers that they will continue to grow strong. There is much division between denominations in South America. The evangelical and baptist Christians have been persecuted. Please pray for help to come to those struggling in poverty, from the unemployed in the cities to those in the fields struggling to grow enough to eat. This is not helped by political instability, and the selling off of natural resources to foreign companies (which is a cause of civil unrest). Please pray in particular for the farmers of Peru, who have been demonstrating recently against the sale of water supplies to a foreign company who will charge 3 times more for much needed water.

Tim Saunders Action Team Ecuador

Driving test and Diarrhoea

Two major themes in the Williamson household over the last two weeks have been Diarrhoea and driving test.

First the driving theory test : 6 months after receiving his Peru ID card Scott's international driving licence becomes void. That time is approaching rapidly and a number of our colleagues who were at the same stage in language as us and tried to take the written test in spanish failed it.
Our next door neighbour Rosemary is a lawyer and knows some people in high places in the transport department .Rosemary and Scott spent a few hours every afternoon last week standing in queues , having meetings and gaining signatures so that Scott could have a translator in the exam. Today he dressed up in his dog collar to take the test and Scott is delighted that he passed! Thankyou for your prayers!
Later this week he will travel to Lima to go to the British Embassy to authenticate his British Driving license. The Peruvian roads are treacherous please pray for safety as we travel, last year more than 800 people died in RTAs in Peru.

Onto the next topic that has consumed us recently: the Diarrhoea and vomiting, we have all been ill particularly Jess last week ( diarrhoea 100 times in 1 week) and now this week Samuel, please pray for good health for us all!

Unexpected Visitors from Cusco

Today we had 5 surprise Peruvian visitors , 2 of whom are students who attend the bible study group we will soon be working with in Cusco. During their 3 months summer university holiday they are attending a 3 month theological course 1 hrs bus journey from Arequipa every summer (Jan-March) for the next 5 years. This is quite typical of Peru where we have noticed that people work incredibly hard sacrificing family or leisure time in order to work or study , often juggling a number of professions at once. Also quite typically of life in Peru their mobile phone and ours have both been lost/stolen so we had lost touch and therefore had no advance notice of their visit.
They decided to spend the weekend in Arequipa but what really surprised us was that they made no plans for their accomodation nor did they bring an overnight bag, well the lessons we learnt from them were to travel light and that God will provide!
We have a guest staying with us for a few days (the President of the Peruvian Baptist Convention) so Scott arranged for them to sleep at church. We threw together a makeshift meal including leftover Christmas treats maltesers and shortbread which they really enjoyed but the biggest blessing of all was seeing how excited Jess and Sam were to have Cusco guests they loved playing and chatting in spanish with them. When they left Samuel said he wanted them all to have a sleep over (which they may well do soon) and for us it is a wonderful opportunity to all spend time together before we move at the end of Feb to Cusco, this will make the next transition easier for us all too.

Samuel says Everything's Gonna Be Alright!

Today Scott and 4 year old Samuel had a deep and meaningful chat over a hamburger.
Jess and Anjanette were at home watching Jess's Barbie Mariposa DVD and Samuel initiated a serious conversation with his father. " So how are you feeling about being in Peru Daddy? Is everything going OK? Don't worry it's all going to be fine"
We may not have been too shocked to have a conversation like this with our very grown up almost 6 yr old Jess but Samuel's usual activites are bouncing his basket ball, singing dancing laughing,annoying his sister, making up his own language playing ker plunk and surfing on the ironing board.
We know that our wonderful God has our future in his hands but how wonderful to have Samuel reassure us of that too!

Jessica's Christmas

click on pic to enlarge and read about Jess's first Christmas in Peru