El mercado

Great news today

our new niece Victoria Frances

Marcus and Sam sliding down the rocks

Jess and Sam becoming more and more daring!

Saqsaywaman



enjoying the peddle boat after lunch

Pastor Marcus and the llamas!

Cristo Blanco

church service


We have had a lovely day with our visitors from Godalming Baptist church (one of our link churches) but the best news of all came this morning when we heard that Scott's sister Jacqueline gave birth to a beautiful baby girl Victoria Frances, we are delighted although a little sad that we are so far away and will not meet her for ages!

After church today we had lunch in a trout restaurant called the blue lagoon which is a trout farm with peddle boats. Following lunch we took our visitors to Sacsahuaman fort and enjoyed walking and sliding in the inca ruins. We are enjoying visiting the tourist sites of Cusco and it has been lovely to explore with Marcus Eric and Barbara.

Pastor Marcus Dickinson and Eric and Barbara Jarman have taken the time to come and visit us to encourage us and we were delighted that they also brought with them books, english tea bags bisto custard powder toys for the children and cream eggs, THANKYOU GODALMING !!
A prayer group from Godalming Baptist church meets faithfully each month to pray for their missionaries and we are grateful for regular prayer and financial support as well as the church posting us out their monthly churchmagazine and individuals in the church keeping in regular contact with us, all of these things show us the love and support of our churches back home and we are so thankful to you all!

Dance festival in the Plaza de armas

Today we enjoyed experiencing the sites and sounds of Cusco's dance festival in the plaza de armas, we watched impressive floats of inca warriors,a huge model of Machu picu, Giant guinea pig and impressive dance routines in brightly coloured outfits as they danced to the sound of live bands and firecrackers. Jessica's favourite was the dancing llama, Samuel's favourite was the warriors who danced in pants and feathers!

Cultural lessons

famous 12 angled stone

lady weaving beautiful patterns

llamas on every street corner

inca stonework
baby lamb
in the plaza de armas

This morning while Jess and Sam were at school our language teacher Lily taught us about Inca and Catholic history in the centre of Cusco.
We visited the cathedral and saw the painting of Jesus and the disciples eating guinea pig and other Peruvian food for the last supper.
She taught us about Inca architecture , we saw the famous stone wall with 12 angles and we visited some archeological ruins which are in the process of being restored. Cusco is rich in history and we are really enjoying learning about our new home! We are delighted to be living in such a beautiful interesting place even if we do get treated like tourists all the time!

video about our work here in Cusco

Psalm 100 verse 3

crazy slide and bike ride on a Sunday afternoon

found a piece of flat ground to enjoy the new bikes!




Crazy Slide!

This afternoon we tried out the new bikes (thankyou NMBC for the childrens' christmas money which we used to buy them) and the huge crazy Cusco slide.

Jess and Scott had numerous goes, once was enough for Sam and Anjanette!

Trafalgar Rd Baptist church's Peruvian evening

Drama with great costumes!!

Peruvian food went down a treat, don't think guinea pig was on the menu , maybe next time!

Hilary, our BMS rep and her colleagues at Trafalgar Rd.

Puppets

colourful displays!

Here are a few pics of a special evening hosted by one of our link churches Trafalgar Rd Baptist church in West Sussex,England in February. During the course of the evening they had Peruvian food and entertainment and learnt more about the work of Martin and Vanessa Bone in Iquitos Peru with Latin Link and also more about our work in Peru with BMS World Mission.
We've said it before and we say it again we are immensely grateful for all the efforts of our supporters in many ways and it is wonderful to know that churches in the UK are supporting us.

Thankyou Children of Kirkby Muxloe Free Church

Jessica received a lovely homemade birthday card today from the children from KMFC,(one of our link churches) along with a spanish book for a present. The support we have received from some of our link churches has been incredible and such a blessing from God.

We were also delighted to collect 2 parcels from the post office today from families from our home church NMBC who sent us British Tea bags and cadburys chocolate!!

We can actually buy most things in some form or other here but the tea bags do not taste the same and a bar of cadburys in the tourist market costs £4, in this age of email skype and facebook: all of which we are so grateful for ; it is still wonderful to go to the PO box and find a letter or a parcel from home so THANKYOU EVERYONE!!!

Punishment for being late

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On Monday Scott left the house early to collect someone from the airport and Anjanette sadly misjudged the time it takes to get herself and the children breakfasted dressed and up the hill to school for an 0800 start without any help from Scott, we got there on the dot of 0800 and the deputy head closed the school gates.
The punishment for being late is that you have to wait until 08 10 when they reopen the gate so that you don't interrupt the assembly in the playground. Poor Jess was sad to be the other side of the gate when she heard them singing the Peruvian National Anthem!
In a culture where it is normal and acceptable to be late the teachers try to encourage the parents to be on time, (although interestingly we often have a long wait when we collect the children from school or wait for the start of the director's speech on parents' evening!)
So we felt quite ashamed and embarrassed (although there were about 40 children behind us also late!) The outcome is that Jessica wakes up and puts on her uniform now at 06 30, we have time to do her new bible study book that Aunty Raewyn from New Malden Baptist church sent for her birthday (another good habit for every morning) although we still have to cajole Samuel to get dressed he also understands the consequences of being late for school , we leave nice and early so they have time for a long play in the playground with their friends before assembly and the outcome is good all round!

Jessica's 6th birthday

Jess dressed as Stephanie ready for the Lazytown party

Scott and Samuel decorated the cake

Jess received loads of presents cards and greetings, thanks everyone!

Well today was a day of celebration and thanksgiving for the gift of our wonderful Jessica Ruby six years ago .

We were quite apprehensive about having a birthday party only 14 days after moving into the area but Jess was insistent that she really wanted to celebrate with her friends.

The problem was we didn't know any of her classmates or their parents so along with a few missionary families we know ,we invited the whole class. Despite concerns about whether anyone would come and at what time, (it is customary for Peruvians not to RSVP also to arrive 1-2 hrs late) we all had a great time .

Peruvian parents attend parties with their children and unlike many here who hire a childrens entertainer we did old fashioned party games and introduced them to the delights of pass the parcel and musical bumps , a fun time was had by all and it was wonderful to see Jess so happy.
The parents enjoyed Scott's cooking and it was lovely to feel part of the community and to make friends with some other parents.

Tonight at bedtime she said she loved her party almost as much as she loves God, so it must have been a success!

Our week in Cusco

Samuel enjoying the rainstorm


peach tree in our garden with fabulous view of the Andes

Cusco city, Viva El Peru!

We are enjoying getting used to our new home, the children are settling into their new school and Samuel is speaking and singing a lot more spanish at home now which is great to hear.

Jessica loves spotting the beautiful turquoise humming birds in the garden but the main garden activity has been dealing with the dog! Pinky the garden dog has been on heat and escaping under the fence to meet her friends to attach herself to them as the children say. what a nightmare Scott, another friend and Pinky herself have all been scratched and injured on the fence trying to sort out this naughty dog, fortunately the fence has been reinforced and she can no longer escape.
Since she is so naughty and possibly pregnant (was not expected to go into heat anymore )it was suggested to us that we have her put down or even cheaper wrap her in a blanket and drown her , we can't bring ourselves to do either but it does show us that in a country where humans struggle to survive a dog's life really has little value, however the children and Scott really like her!

We had our first parents evening, what an experience 7pm at night in the cold dark we sat in the school playground on chairs to listen to a speech from the headmistress and meet the teachers, she started with some bad news, the school was hoping to buy the land it currently rents and since this is not possible it will be moving in the near future to a site as yet undecided!! Well as many other things in Peru seem uncertain, so does the location of the childrens' school but we are pleased that apart from some tummy ache when the spanish sums where hard Jess has settled well and we are particularly pleased with how happy Sammy is and that he now goes to Sunday school without Anjanette!

Other exciting adventures this week have been playing in the tropical rainstorm and seeing a very impressive hailstorm , mopping up all the leaks in the house then shortly after poor Scott gets sunburnt! We enjoyed having our first visitor from Arequipa, Mona from the Norwegian mission was visiting Cusco she had lunch with us and enjoyed collecting Jessica from Ausungate school where her children attended when they used to live and work in Cusco

Scott Anjanette and Lily (our new one to one private spanish teacher )are getting used to each other and making progress.

Perhaps the most amazing thing that happened this week is the miracle of Miguel. Our house help Goya has a 23 year old son Miguel, 10 days ago he fell from a ladder from a height of 8m and sustained a head injury. For a few days he was sedated in Intensive care poor Goya and her husband were only allowed to visit twice a day for a short period, it seemed like neurosurgery might be necessary and his condition was critical for a few days. After many people all over the world prayed for him he began to recover, surgery was not necessary, he was moved to the ward then discharged home and is recovering well. The doctors said that he shouldn't have survived a head injury from such a height and likened it to the raising of Lazarus back from the dead!
How wonderful to be reminded that even today our powerful God continues to do miracles that medical science can't explain!

verbs put people together

click on this link
http://bakkesblogg.blogspot.com/
to read what our friend and fellow missionary in training wrote about his experience of surviving language school with the Williamsons, has some good photos of our language school friends too.
We praise God for the wonderful friends we have made here in Peru. We have a special bond with a number of new missionary families : Andreas and his family from Norway and 2 other german families, all of us left our countries and arrived in Peru starting at language school at the same time 6 months ago , we felt it a promise and special provision from God that he would provide for all our needs by giving us great friends.

Jess describes the new house

Click on Photo to make bigger.

settling into our new home in Cusco

new school uniform


Jess and Sam enjoying their magazines. The Missionary literature association collects sponsors and then arranges the sending out of magazines to us, let us know if you are interested in sponsoring Rugby World magazine for Scott!

new baby bath big enough for 2!

thankful for the 4x4

welcome to your new home!

thankgoodness we have a 4X4!

When we arrived at our new house after a long drive we discovered that they are resurfacing the road.Every turn we took we were blocked by a big mound of earth.Eventually we made it to the house to be greeted by a huge pile of earth leading up to the driveway, we were told they would be resurfacing our part of the road in 2 days time which was yesterday (we still wait) so with a car packed to the hilt Scott put the car into 4X4 drive and drove through the dirt up the hill it is a bumpy ride but we are managing, needless to say the kids love it!

We have arrived in Cusco

Samuel and Pinky
view from our front gate


lots of fun in the hammock

Cusco flag


We are all delighted to be in Cusco at last. The journey was long and we suffered with the altitude but now we have had a few days to rest (unpack!) we are feeling settled and happy. Our house which we are renting from some missionaries for 10 months is plenty big enough for us and many guests so we are looking forward to lots of visitors in the coming weeks and months.

Some friends of ours who we met at language school are German doctors who work in Curhuasi 3 hrs drive from Cusco, they visit Cusco every few weeks to do their grocery shopping, they greeted us and helped us unpack it was lovely to see familiar faces, and great for Sam and Jess to be reunited with their children. The next day we had a lovely visit from Los Brown , the latin link family who live here and have helped us tremendously with our orientation, they are from Eastbourne and have 2 boys similar age to Jess and Sam, it was great to see them again. We praise God for the provision of good friends already!

The highlights of the house are the size of it! Pinky the garden dog who lives here and the hammock in the sun room! Of course the fact that the house is a 5 min walk across the field from Jess and Sam's school is fantastic even though it is up hill on the way there. On the way back the views of the Andes is spectacular!

Today we met Jess and Sam's new teachers , they are really excited about their new school it is bilingual and they have a spanish teacher and an english teacher the classes are 50% spanish 50% english.We are delighted that Jess's english teacher is from England!!

So begins another month of new beginnings new city new house new schools new language teachers, the journey continues thankyou for sharing it with us and praying for us.