Delighted to be doing medicine again

Today Anjanette visited La Fuente (the fountain) clinic which is a christian medical clinic run by american missionaries. Since 1 year training at IMC then 8 months of language study here in Peru it has been a long time since seeing patients. Today I just observed the consultations but was able to understand most of what was being said and next week I will start seeing my own patients. How exciting!! Praise God for the wonderful work being done in this clinic and for the possibility of working there one day a week while I work towards my medical accreditation , the remaining days I will be having language classes as well as working with the student group.

Melting in the heat

melting pens

This week the children have enjoyed playing shops "tiendas" in our kitchen which has a leaky lean to conservatory type roof , the owners call it a solarium but that really is a bit too grand a name for it! Anyway it does get hot in there and in their cardboard box tienda they left out wax crayons plasticine and plastic felt tip pens all of which melted in the heat!
The weather is hot and sunny in the day (Scott gets sunburnt within minutes) but it is very very cold at night!

Jess describes her new school

click on image to enlarge

Visit from Stuart and Georgie Christine

Jess Sam and Auntie Georgie

We have just had a really great visit from our Regional director Stuart Christine and his wife Georgie who work with BMS World Mission in Brazil.
Stuart and Scott are both visionaries big ideas people so after discussing our plans and hopes and dreams and vision for the work here Stuart has helped us draw up a very exciting 4 year plan for our ministry here.

Phase 1: starting the student group in May, (meanwhile Anjanette attends the clinic weekly and applies for her medical accreditation and we both have on going language study) we will investigate the possibility of running an evangelistic cafe too.

Phase 2 : moving house next January and setting up a middle class cell church in our new home , also starting kids work with local families and inviting the students to attend this cell church

Phase 3 purchasing some land in a poor area in Cusco that has no churches at present and in future setting up church and social action projects (clinic/preschool) there.The hope being that peruvians from the middle class church will support the poor church so that it is sustainable

so very exciting and a little daunting now we have talk of coffee shops , buying land , starting clinics and cell church.

However we need to start somewhere and that is what we will be doing next week painting the small room we will rent in Ucchullo grande to start with!

On line shoppping with a difference-Weekend visit to Curahuasi

Daniel and Melanie

beautiful view from the hospital!

impressive Cactus plants!

Normally our missionary friends Daniel Melanie Elisa and Joshua who live in Curahuasi (2 hrs drive from Cusco) visit us every 2-3 weeks to do their grocery shopping. In Curahuasi they can not buy butter and other necessities and all the missionaries choose not to buy meat from the market where it stays in the hot sun all day. I understood why when Melanie and I walked past a shop selling whole (and I mean whole) plucked chickens as people walked passed the chicken on the counter they would affectionately pat its bottom !

However this weekend since we celebrated Daniel's birthday with a party in their home so we took the shopping to them and enjoyed seeing where they live.
Curahuasi is at a lower altitude and warmer than Cusco we saw many more tropical plants, bananas papayas bouganvilleas and poinsettia bushes! The views of the mountains were spectacular but the drive was stomach churning.

Daniel and Melanie are German doctors who have taken out 3 years to work in the new lutheran hospital recently built there, it was good to meet their colleagues and see the love and commitment that they have for God and the Peruvians that they serve here.

We met the music man and did some skillful driving!

Last night we had a 7pm meeting in the centre of town to hear Kiki the music man from Jess and Sam's school explain about the curriculum. One of things we love about Ausungate is that they are very strong on music drama and art and craft , one thing that's not so great is that the school does not have an indoor hall/auditorium for meetings hence the last parents evening we went to was in the school playground, last nights was a long way from school in the town centre. We were keen to attend as well as being told that it is mandatory (even though the sign in list was mislaid!)
The meeting hall was in a pedestrian area where cars were not allowed to stop so we turned the corner and drove up a narrow street for a long way until we reached a dead end. Poor Scott had to reverse back (no space to turn around and only room for 1 car's width)for about HALF A MILE !!
As you see from the photo our car is not small!!
When we finally found somewhere to park then found the venue at 7.45pm we hadn't missed too much since events rarely start on time in Peru!

STRIKE

bicycles and walking the only form of transport, people apparently being collected from the airport in tricycles!

stones blocking the main road that is normally choc a bloc with traffic!

Whilst the children were getting ready for school this morning we received a phone call saying that the roads were blocked with stones and the main road (la Cultura) from Larapa to the centre of town was blocked, anyone driving cars risked having stones thrown at the cars.
The reason for the strike is a protest whereby the agricultural workers from the countryside are protesting against the unfair price that they receive from the government for their produce. Hopefully the situation will be resolved and they will receive a just amount for their hard work.

So a minor inconvenience for us but more so for those who really needed to travel or work, people needing to travel have walked long distances today in the pouring rain !

Jessica was very disappointed to miss school, Samuel not so much! Anjanette did her best to home school, we had fun with jolly phonics, Jessica read to me , we made pen pots from some craft sets we received for christmas, we played alphabet lotto , Samuel did some cooking with Scott, we played Uno and doctors and nurses and then after lunch we let them watch TV while Anjanette had a lie down! A reminder to us of why we do not home school our children it was exhausting(and we are not very good at it either).

So the children almost had their Easter Monday bank holiday as they would have in the UK, but not really since we made them work.Hopefully for us this is only one day however it did remind me of the hardship that our colleagues face in other countries when they are told to stay in their homes and not go out for days on end!

Happy Easter

easter merringues

Jessica's easter banner

how many missionaries does it take to light a barbecue?

enjoying making some chick and fluffy bunny crafts that were sent from home!

Whilst far from home and celebrating in a different way we have enjoyed our Easter celebrations our wonderful risen Lord is the same whatever country or situation we find ourselves in.
Easter was a little strange for us as normally we are so busy with church events whereas this year we only went to church this morning Easter Sunday where we had a wonderful celebration service.
No easter eggs on sale here but quite few made their way across the miles which we are very grateful for!
Yesterday we had a barbecue and childrens' easter party for 6 other missionary families and we enjoyed celebrating with and getting to know new friends. We also signed the contract yesterday to rent the new room to start the church meetings in a few weeks so we anticipate next Easter being different from this one as we will be busy serving in the new church then.

Tomorrow the 4 day weekend is over and the children go back to school so back to normal for us although we have all appreciated a break from school and language classes for a short while!

THANKYOU CATHY PUGH

just a few tea bags!
Cathy arrived with loads of treats for us

Cathy Sam and Jess

Scott delighted that Cathy brought him a rugby world magazine

In the Plaza de Armas

Well what a lot of treats we have had today, Cathy Pugh a member from our home church NMBC is on a tour of Latin America and left her tour for the day in Cusco to spend the day with us.She picked the children up with Scott from school and had lunch with us at home. We were able to show her the clinic and the church where we will soon be working as well as some of the tourist spots.
We often hear people talk about the sacrifice of missionaries well Cathy made a huge sacrifice for us her suitcase was so full of gifts for us (books magazines DVDs ,lego,toys, custard powder ,bisto ,hot chocolate, easter eggs , shortbread, teabags,sweets....) that poor Cathy had very little space in the one suitcase she is allowed for her own clothes. It was lovely to have a brief visit from New Malden thanks Cathy you are a star!

Jesus eating Guinea Pig at the last supper.

This picture of Jesus easting cuy is found in Cusco cathedral, it is great!!
I spoke to our language teacher about Catholic traditions in semana santa (Holy week)
There are various religious processions throughout the week. The schools have 2 days holiday for Thursday and Friday on Thursday families in Cusco celebrate a special meal together as they remember the last supper together. To represent the 12 disciples they eat 12 dishes
Prawn soup, polenta, salad, corn cake, peach compote, rice with milk, purple corn pudding, corn empanada, merringue, cake, yellow bread and bread pudding. Not surprisingly after eating all that on the Thursday some families will then fast on Friday!

Great news about the Church plant

inside the room
urbanizacion ucchullo grande

standing outside the room which we will rent for the church plant

We had a small planning meeting with a few of the students in our house today, Jess took this photo!
Today we found a room to rent in the university residential area called URBANIZACION UCCHULLO we will start renting it on Sunday May 3rd when we will have a prayer meeting in our new place then that week we will start our meetings proper as the students return from their holidays.
Our hope is to have mid week cell meetings,chess club, movie nights maybe even English classes! Then on a Sunday we will hold our main meeting there.
This is all very exciting please pray with us as we take this next step in our adventure.
love from the Williamsons x

3 steps forward 2 steps back!

Thankyou for your prayers today, we really need them.

Today we had hoped to have our first church meeting, well maybe we did have it, where 2 or 3 are gathered....

If you bear with us we will explain Scott's afternoon to give you a flavour of our frustrations and happenings.

Michael is the student who was running the small student group last year, he has just completed 3 months holiday and popped back to Cusco for the day today before returning home for another month. We were very keen to have a meeting with him and all the students today so we could meet them before he leaves, so the plan was 2 pm meeting just with him then 4pm meeting with the students in our home.

Well a little after 2pm he arrives and tells us that no students can meet tonight since they have exams this week, the person who will work with us (Esau) is away and will return to Cusco at 7pm tonight Michael has lost his mobile phone so has few phone numbers to contact the students and Michael plans to leave Cusco by 8pm tonight.

So we persuade Michael to stay overnight so we can meet with him and Esau together then at about 3pm he announces he needs to meet his mother and visit his Uncle 1 hr drive from Cusco , Scott is anxious not to lose him so despite his broken toe drives Michael and his mother to visit their family.

Michael's 10min visit turns into 2 hrs and they make it back (with a car load of gas cookers pots and pans )just in time to collect Esau's brother at 8pm but waited almost another hour to meet Esau. By now it was late and our plan for a dinner meeting was abandoned .

Scott returned home smiling, feeling that we were a bit overoptimstic that we would have a British style house group meeting in our home today.

Well Anjanette has just enjoyed reading the book 3 steps forward 2 steps back by Charles Swindoll!

Tomorrow's plan is to meet with Michael Esau Benjamin and a few others also to look for a room to rent near the university where we hope to start cell church and evangelism in the near future, watch this space and please keep praying

love from Scott Anjanette Jess and Sam
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Scott visits the Sacred Valley

Psalm 19 verse 1
THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD; THE SKIES PROCLAIM THE WORK OF HIS HANDS





Yesterday Scott took our visitors on a whistle stop tour of the Sacred Valley to see the amazing scenery and the inca ruins. We are slowly realising that Cusco is a fabulous place to live. At this time of year when the hills are so green the colours are really magnificent!

Scott was able to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, he dropped our visitors off to explore Ollantaytambo and visited a restaurant owned by one of our Peruvian friends as he was asked to give some advice about how the restaurant is run. This may turn out to be a great two way relationship as we are currently praying about the option of running a coffee shop to generate income for our church and we will welcome our friends business advice too!

Yesterday Anjanette and the children stayed home and also helped to look after 2 little boys from a latin link family who are in the process of moving house.Anjanette soon realised our house is not toddler friendly!!
It has been a pleasure to help look after the boys these last 2 days and we too have been really blessed by the help and support of the missionary community here. Scott has made friends with an English pastor who he met at the weekly pastors meeting, yesterday we had a nice surprise when an american missionary who is doing church planting here made contact with us after reading our blog, he lives round the corner from us so we look forward to getting to know him and his family too.Tonight we will attend our first monthly worship evening when we get to meet all of the Cusco missionaries, God is good and we are starting to find our feet and make more friends here .Please pray that we will build up good friendships with Peruvian families too.