Another momentous day in the Williamsons household

Not wanting to be outdone by her younger brother's performance yesterday, Jessica has developed the desire to take the stabilisers off her bike too and today she also learnt how to ride,
hoorah at last, we are thrilled with them both!

A momentous day

We have moved house so many times and often have not lived anywhere suitable to try and teach Jess and Sam to ride their bikes, most things in Peru are available to buy but are poor quality so congratulations to Scott for persisting with the bike repairs and congratulations to Sam for learning to ride his bike today! He was so excited that he rode his bike in the moonlight tonight that is why this video of Sam riding his bike is so dark.
Hopefully the grandparents will forgive us we rang them at midnight UK time to share the good news!

Jess and Sam's blog entry

Pablo escapa en una canasta

Samuel's paper cup model of Paul escaping in a basket!

Sam's drawing

Jessica's ceramic work

Fun in the Winter Sun

friends enjoying the dressing up box!

sheltering from the sun under umbrellas!

Sam is so happy to have some space to play football

paddling pool in winter!

Scott, always happy when the barbecue is going!

Well technically it is winter in Peru; in July and August it is colder at night and August is the windy month when people fly kites and the Williamson family get themselves tied in knots trying to assemble kites! During the winter months the schools start and finish time is pushed back by 30 mins due to the cold mornings , the clinic where Anjanette works is even colder than usual , the ink in our pens freezes and the nurses need to warm the digital thermometers up in the sun each morning!
In Cusco city we haven't suffered more than we would expect for this time of year from the cold but folk living higher in the mountains have experienced an unexpected cold spell and places like Lima and the jungle have been unusually cold , you may have heard some parts of the country have been declared a state of emergency due to the cold. This week we celebrated our 2 year anniversary living in Peru thanks be to God for his faithfulness to us over the last 2 years. Here are a few photos of us having fun in the garden in the Cusco Winter! It is usually warmer outside in the sun that inside the house and in the evening at high altitude ( about 6pm) when the sun goes down then you really feel the temperature drop. We do miss the long summer nights in the UK , along with central heating and double glazing however it is great to live in a place where we can experience blazing hot sun in the day during winter!

Jacki's wedding in Lima

Jess and Sam all dressed up for the wedding

los padrinos

Heber and Jacki the happy couple



the arrival of the bride to the wedding march played on an electric guitar!

the amazing cakes and fountain at the front of the church

For the first time ever Jess and Sam went to bed at 11pm!!

We have just returned from cold grey damp Lima and were so excited to see blue skies and feel the sun in Cusco again!
We attended Jacki's wedding since we had the honour (along with Margaret Swires also from BMS) of being the padrinos, basically Godparents that help towards the cost of the wedding.
Jacki was one of the radicales who helped us get our church plant up and running this time last year and it was a joy to be involved in her wedding.


We were a little surprised to see that the altar had been decorated with many wedding cakes and Jacki's brother who led the music with his guitar at the front of the church was standing dangerously close to all the cakes!!

The ceremony was due to start at 6pm, it actually started around 7pm with a time of singing then at about 7.30 the groom and his mother entered to what sounded like some starwars music then we sang some more songs and at 8ish a page boy walked down the aisle carrying a bible, then the little page boy with the rings then bridesmaides and groomsmen made an arch with calla lilies and Jacki and her father arrived only 2 hours later than we were expecting to see the bride!

Jess and Sam were great even though it was well past their bedtime, they couldn't remember the last wedding we attended 2 years ago summer 2008 so it was very special for them. Jessica was hoping we would see water turned into wine, Samuel when he did sucumb to tiredness at about 9pm complained that the drummer wouldn't let him sleep and poor old Pastor Scott was very concerned about the fact that in the cold drafty church he couldn't feel his feet!
After the vows the bride and groom left for some photos, we had a few more songs ( the same ones we had already sung) then we moved the church chairs into a circle and when the bride and groom returned we had some nibbles, photos and speeches and a lemonade toast, including speeches from the padrinos!

The cooked meal was served at 10.30pm then at 11pm we took the bride and groom back with us all piled into Margaret's car which was decorated with flowers and we took them to a hotel for their wedding night!
God bless Heber and Jacki in their married life together!

Visit from Vale Community church

Vale Community church in Bedfordshire is one of our link churches that support us, the thing we love about Vale is that they too are a church plant, 2 years old! Kevin and Anita Hanwell from Vale are on a traidcraft tour of Peru and are currently visiting Cusco. Anita attended our church ladies bible study which the church ladies loved since she could fully participate as she is a spanish speaker.It is always such an encouragement to have visitors from home to strengthen our links with the UK churches and we are always grateful for the fact that they bring us goodies from home too! Here is a photo of Anita at our ladies bible study.

Enjoying the new garden

huge cactus in the garden

car wash clown

robot boy Samuel

Robot Pastor

fun to chalk on the path then fun to wash it off!

Anjanette is enjoying having a garden again!

Jess and Sam are on 2 weeks summer holiday, it is so much fun to enjoy having more space and to play and eat and entertain friends and run around like robots outside!
Thankyou God for our wonderful new house and garden!

First anniversary of El Puente Iglesia

Scott dedicating 6 children at the anniversary service!

church family

Scott and Marco barbeque pineapple!



We celebrated our first church anniversary today with a barbeque in our garden and then a special church service where we dedicated 6 children, it was a wonderful time together and we praise God for his faithfulness to us as a church this past year. A highlight of our anniversary was that our good friends attended our church barbeque and the service afterwards, it was their first time at an evangelical service, they wrote us an email afterwards saying:

Hi my sweet friends!
We feel so good and happy in the God
Home...
We would like to visit you more often.

we pray that in the coming year that many more folk come through the doors of our church and feel good and happy in the God home!