Fancy teaching at AUSUNGATE bilingual school ?

Jess and her teacher Miss Hannah, we are so grateful for all the excellent staff who teach Jess and Sam

fancy a new challenge teaching here for a year in Peru??

The fabulous bilingual school where Jess and Sam go often has teachers from the UK or USA who teach English for a year. The students are preschoolers infants and juniors. The school day and each school year are split in two , so the students have classes in spanish and english. This year we have been so blessed that Jessica's english teacher Hannah is one such teacher who is working at Ausungate for 1 year. If you are interested in an exciting year living in Cusco and are a qualified teacher , the dates for the next school year are February - December 2010 . A salary is paid to the overseas teachers to cover their living costs.
If you know any teachers who you think may be interested please put them in touch with us.
The bad news is the teachers have to wear a tabard like Miss Hannah, the good news is they will have a terrific year living in a great city teaching at a fantastic school!

Yes another Strike in Cusco (note from Jessica)

Great meeting

Tonight we had 3 new people at our Sunday meeting, when the average size of the group is about 7 , then 3 new people is really worth celebrating!! One lady who came for the first time is keen to join us and help us , she lives very close to the room and has a little girl , she wants to help us with our childrens' ministry which is great news since she has contacts with many of the local families. Two of the Peruvian students led the whole meeting and we are delighted to be here supporting them and working alongside them.Thankyou too for praying for us , please do continue to pray for this small new group.
On the way home tonight we saw a beautiful starlight sky, what a wonderful creator God we serve!

scott cooking cuy

Scott as you can see has enjoyed cooking or rather teaching cooking today. He spent the day advising a new chef in a friend's restaurant in Olantaytambo. They also prepared some fancy gourmet guinea pig dishes!

Feliz Cumpleanos

Well we have been busy celebrating birthdays, on Saturday morning we celebrated Scott's birthday in Ecuador with our friends the Butchers. On Saturday night we had a joint birthday celebration with our friends in Lima then today we celebrated Anjanette's birthday in Cusco. Thankyou for all your greetings and cards and presents, love from Scott and Anjanette .

Eventful journey home from Ecuador

the lorry blocking the road when we returned to our house!

Vicky had warned us that at Guyaquil airport they do spot checks on the bags so we were not surprised when Scott was called off the plane to go and open his suitcase (unfortunately full of womens and childrens' clothes!) however we were surprised when we heard Anjanette's name being called on the next plane from Lima to Cusco. They had printed Jess's name twice on the boarding cards and not Anjanette's so thought that maybe she was lost ! We filled in numerous forms and answered questions about swine flu, were amused at the various outfits people wore at the airports a cross between surgical scrubs and the hairnets we had to wear when we used to fo washing up in the IMC kitchens. We did not however admit that Samuel has had a cough for weeks or that we had stayed in the house of children in Guyaquil who are currently in quarantine since they are amongst the thousand or so pupils who attend the school of a confirmed case!
We had delays leaving Lima due to fog but perhaps the greatest surprise was when the taxi couldn't enter our road due to a broken down lorry blocking the way , hopefully it will have moved by tomorrow!

New Experiences in Guayaquil Ecuador

coconuts growing

bananas growing

beautiful bouganvilleas

coffee growing


sloths

fabulous coloured parrots!

Today we saw real live sloths for the first time ,we learned how coffee beans grow and we enjoyed watching beautiful colourful parrots . what an amazing creator God we serve!
Tonight Scott is sharing his story of how he became a Christian at the bible study in Vergeles and tomorrow we will return to spend another morning with the PEPE preschool project there. Our trip has been a great mix of visiting ministry projects and learning from Pete and Vicky about their experiences church planting here as well as time to relax and have fun together too.

Visit to church clinic in Ecuador

the clinic at the back of the church



We really enjoyed visiting Doctor Marisol who runs a clinic in a baptist church every afternoon here in Guayaquil. She is a really inspiring lady of faith and it was wonderful to hear her stories and learn about her work there reaching out to to the poor community. We pray that in the future we will be able to set up something similar in Peru, using medical skills as a project of a church where we serve.

Jess and Sam's new friends

Jess and Sam having a ball with their new friends!

look at my missing tooth!

Sam's pic of Alex swimming in the pool

Jessica writes about her new friends

We are here in Ecuador on a training visit to the Butchers family, they have 4 children, Jess and Sam are loving spending time with their new friends.

Celebrating Feliz dia de la madre in Los Vergeles ,Ecuador

parachute games

some of Anjanette's mothers' day gifts

making coconut creams

Pastor Pete
the mothers' representative

Well here we are celebrating mothers' day in Ecuador. We attended the childrens' meeting in Los Vergeles this morning where the children sang and played games and made crafts for mothers' day . Then this evening at the 7pm church service the children sang for their mothers and presenting their coconut creams and cards. All the mums in the church had a lucky draw and the winner got to wear a red sash and to be the representative of all the mothers. How amazing to see a new church which has been going for a few years with new christians worshipping our wonderful God.
When pastor Pete asked the children to sing a verse of a worship song they sand so clearly and beautifully, my prayer is that in the years to come that these children continue to follow and worship the Lord who they sang to so beautifully.

What a week!

Michael leads bible study at Thursday meeting


What a week it has been!

*we have started our ministry with the students
*the dog was put down
*we bought a load of furniture from a missionary who is leaving Cusco
*we have had a great time with our house guests
*Sam is sick
*Tomorrow we fly to lima then Guayaqil Ecuador for a training visit !


Bible study, singing, pancakes, new people in the room in Ucchullo Grande that used to be a shop caused many neighbours to peep through the glass door to see what was happening tonight.
We are grateful for an excellent meeting even though the room is cold with a low echoing ceiling and the guitar needs tuning , we are delighted to be here serving and working with a great group of peruvian students in Cusco. Scott made a welcome speech in spanish, Michael led a bible study, Kati played the guitar and Edith and Veronica brought their friends along so we are delighted! After the meeting Scott carried our new furniture down 4 flights of stairs! Sadly Anjanette and the children missed the meeting and stayed at home since Samuel is unwell, we hope he will improve by tomorrow when we are flying first to Lima then the next day to Guayaqil in Ecuador for a training visit to BMS colleagues Pete and Vicky Butchers.

Blueberry pie!

Our american missionary friends Jason and Rebecca bought us 4 kilos of TUMANAS from the market. They are similar to mini blueberries and are only available for 1 month of the year.
In the picture we have washed them and are drying them in the sun before freezing them to make muffins at a later date!!

Top story tellers and babysitters!!!

Zoe and Sam on the balcony

Jess and Emma at the park

Story time

We are delighted to have lovely house guests for a few days , Emma and Zoe are staying with us.
We got to know Emma well when we studied together at language school in Arequipa, Emma is now working in Huaraz with latin link . Jess needed "madrinos" (godmothers) to attend her preschool graduation in Arequipa and Emma rose to the occasion. Jess and Sam enjoy having Emma and her sister Zoe read them story after story at bedtime, needless to say Anjanette is loving it too!!

Peruvian tooth fairy

Jessica's first wobbly tooth has come out and she is delighted!!

good first meeting

Thank you so much for your prayers , we had our first meeting with a few of the students this afternoon. Typically it started late and various people we'd hoped would come didn't , but it was great to meet to pray together and make plans for the future weeks. This week we will be prayer walking and hoping that the students invite their friends to a service we are having at 4pm Thursday afternoon.
We have asked the group to think about some bible verses to put on the wall and also to have a name for the group , they came up with Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) , so now we have a place to meet, a name, a core commited group, a plan and an almighty God in whom we do indeed have new hope!

getting ready for our first meeting

our new plastic cups 86 centimos each

Jess and Sam cleaning (smearing) the glass

Scott and his marigolds

the boys cleaning the chairs

Mrs Mop!

Here are some pics of Scott Jess Sam and Michaell getting the room ready for our first meeting, despite being the photographer Anjanette did help too!

A word from Jessica

trip to Ollantaytambo

Away from the tourists how the locals really live, lots of people live inside the small home

a typical Inca street

The ruins

Today (public holiday labour day) we spent the day in Ollantaytambo, a beautiful village in the sacred valley with inca ruins and many houses preserved from the Inca times. We spent the day with a peruvian friend who runs a restaurant there and Scott enjoyed giving them some chef advice about improving the restaurant so we had fun being tourists and Scott enjoyed being back in the world of catering for a day!