Cusco here we come

all ready to set off for our long journey

the view of the mountains as we drove to Juliaca

la fraternidad de subjuntivo with their black armbands in mourning for the final class together!

farewell speech

more packing packing packing...............

Cayma church sing goodbye to us

We had a number of Despedida (goodbye) celebrations at our church and at language school , one was a knock at the door with singing outside and our church friends holding a mezcla half Union Jack / half Peruvian flag ,they came to sing goodbye to us and pray for us.
What a busy week, as well as a lot of packing and cleaning we had goodbye meals parties and Scott made a farewell speech in spanish, (Anjanette was excused since she was too emotional a good ploy to get out of public speaking!) And we are feeling emotional to be leaving; God has been so good to us we have been so happy during our 6 months in Arequipa. ABC Language school was not merely somewhere to learn a language but a special place where we have made friends for life (Peruvian Norwegian German Irish American British) and the teachers have helped us with so much more than just language they helped us find our home, buy a car, pass a driving test ........
Right now we are on the journey to Cusco staying overnight in Juliaca at the half way point , we drove for 4 hours through a natural reserve park where we saw wild lamas vicunas alpacas donkeys and a lake with flamingos ! The view as we drove through the mountains was spectacular. Our God is a wonderful creator God!
Tomorrow we look forward to arriving in our new home Cusco ready for the next chapter of our Peruvian adventure.

Carneval

During the month of February whilst out walking in the streets it is possible that you will have water thrown on you (for fun). This culminated today the Sunday before Lent starts with water fights everywhere you look. In the streets today people were throwing water at cars, passers by or at each other with buckets water balloons water pistols and apparently also throwing oil and powdered paint.

Jess and Sam sing some spanish Christian songs.

Samuel sings Me gusta esta en su casa celebrante con el pueblo
(I love to be in the Lord's house celebrating with the people)

Jess sings Tengo un marvilloso Dios
(I have a wonderful God)

hope you enjoy!! the clip is part of a video we made for one of our link churches

What a Relief!

Last week we felt far from home 3 of our family members back in UK all had hospital procedures or elective operations we were very concerned and felt quite homesick fortunately they are all recovering well and one turned out to be a false alarm!

We then received news that the house that we will rent from missionaries in Cusco has some of their family from overseas living there and would it be all right for us all to live together for an indefinate period of time. The answer was not really and we risked having to move into a hotel and search for alternate accomodation however everthing was sorted and they assure us that their family will move out before we arrive at the end of February!

So a bit of a rollercoaster this past week as well as language exams and a tearful goodbye to Cayma church, but in the midst of all the unsettled uncertainty we know that God is faithful.

We are now living in a chaotic house that we are in the process of packing as well as continuing with language classes and Jess and Sam have their teacher look after them at home for a few hours each day.Please pray for us as we try and get all the packing done over this next week.

Great news those who have been praying for our friends' daughter Martine(a missionary family who recently returned to Denmark as she needs treatment for a brain tumour) is that she is making excellent progress , seems to be responding to her treatment and that she has been riding her bike!!Very different from the weak listless little girl we said goodbye to when they left Peru just before Christmas!

CEBP Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpj0le8LLP8

Click to watch the Conference Video

Moving to Cusco by Jessica

More Photos of the CEBP conference

Dr Raquel (UBLA president, from Chile)

Pastor Pepe, President of the CEBP

Pastor Carlos, head of missions dept

Conference theme Transformados para Transformar (Romans 12:2)

Drama

Anjanette Jess and Sam privately impersonating Scott's preaching!



Presentation for the keynote speakers


traditional worship music from 1st Baptist church Arequipa


The Holy Spirit moving powerfully in peoples' lives


Scott invites the delegates to symbolically kneel at the cross.


The hall was decorated with colourful flags of Peru for the Mission celebration night.

The CEBP conference

Pastor Carlos (head of missions) praying for us and other missionaries, Sam fast asleep!

Jess and Sam and the map of Peru

Scott preaching

Scott and Pastor Pepe from Lima(president) and Pastor Carlos from Trujillo

Thankyou for your prayers , this week a fun time was had by all.
Scott esta en su salsa, a new phrase we learnt at language school, to be in your sauce as in to be in your element. We have really enjoyed getting to know Peruvian Baptist Pastors and it is good to understand more about the convention and to feel as if we belong to something exciting.

Scott has been preaching every day, as well as driving various people around town doing errands. The blurb in the conference magazine announces him as being Pastor of one of the largest churches in England, think a bit of poetic license went into that part !

The children have enjoyed the kids actvities and to Anjanette's joy and amazement Samuel has stayed on his own and cried when it was hometime! However the night that we were prayed for on the stage when "los Williamson" was introduced to the convention was just too much for Sam and he was fast asleep .

Our home has been pretty crazy with all the coming and going, the children are sharing a room so that we have 2 double spare rooms and this week we have had 6 different guests in total, not more than 3 at a time.

Other exciting things that have happened this week, Anjanette broke the key in the lock and locked us all out of the house so quickly had to learn the spanish words for lock and locksmith. Anjanette had started studying and trying to make sense of the subjunctive. Jess and Sam celebrated the month of Carnival with a traditional water fight for their last day of holiday school (vacationes utiles).
As the conference draws to an end and we say goodbye to our visitors the next big tasks are to attempt our language school tests and then to commence the packing!