Family fun in Lima

To celebrate Sam's birthday we decided to take a special family trip to Lima. There we enjoyed the cinema, went bowling, had lunch overlooking the ocean and saw lions, tigers, giraffes and hippos in Lima zoo, (none of which we are able to do in Cusco.)It was great to have a break and relax together just the 4 of us. The Lima summer starts in November and we loved the hot weather, although the combination of sun burn and christmas trees still takes some getting used to !

Happy 7th birthday Samuel

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We are so blessed to have Samuel Peter in our lives. The birthday celebrations began bright and early at 0455 !

Sam is becoming so grown up, he is the proud owner of a new skateboard and many other fantastic gifts.

After school we had a party in our house,Pastor chef did a wonderful job catering for loads of people. The whole church came and celebrated with us. With our family being so far away church family really is "our family" and it was wonderful to celebrate together.

We had a blast, at the end of the day when the football table had been assembled and Sam played his first partido, the action team finally finished dancing and the last guest left Sam said "That was fun!".

School camp

Before:bright eyed and bushy tailed, all ready for camp

After: exhausted and muddy , ready for bath and bed!

Jess and Sam are back from school camp exhausted but happy and feeling very grown up. For Samuel it was his very first night staying on his own away from other family members, he camped in a class room in his school with most of the other children in 1st grade. The highlight of his school sleep over was staying up late watching a movie eating popcorn! Jessica who is in 3rd grade joined grades 2-4 who camped in a tent on a school play ground near lake Huacarpay. The highlight for Jessica was the kids disco (chicoteca) It is amazing to see them becoming more and more independent, they packed their bags themselves, sadly they will not be washing all the muddy clothes themselves!
Scott and Anjanette managed not to miss them too much and spent a lovely evening out with friends so all in all a great time was had by all .

The inaugural ceremony!

the children pray for the new church

First church service in the new building

cutting the red ribbon


praying in the street waiting to cut the ribbon and go inside

No service at El Puente is complete without food and drink afterwards


We prayed outside the new church building and then Pastor Scott cut the red ribbon and welcomed us all into the new church. We had a terrific celebration service together, the space is so much bigger and the children's groups worked much better with larger rooms. The new church building has a warm welcoming feel .

We are so thankful for this new building, throughout the week we will move almost all of our mid week meetings to the new church .

Tues pm ladies bible study
Thurs pm men's bible study
Friday 0600 -0700 morning prayer meeting
Friday 4.30pm kids club
Sat 6.30pm youth group
Sunday 4.30pm worship service

We are currently thinking of starting up some new groups ( mums and babies group, group for retired people, keep fit, homework club) please join us in praying for wisdom as we plan new initiatives.

Getting the new church building ready

Once again the El Puente Iglesia church building is on the move.
(The 3rd church building in less than 3 years!)

This week has been a frenzy of moving and organising , thankfully we have had a great team effort and lots of people have helped.
The new church building has space for a separate creche area as well as a children's Sunday school room . We have signed a 2 year rental contract in the hope that in the next 2 years we will have raised enough money to purchase our own building. Please join us in praying that God will provide the money that we need to purchase our own church building and please do contact us or BMS World Mission if you would like to personally contribute to the Cusco church building fund.

The church has moved a 5 minute walk away to a residential area called Magisterio, we pray that this will give us new opportunities to get to know more families in the new area and to share God's love with them.

Huambutio medical campaign

Nancy explains to the patients how to take their meds

Carlotta helped with quechua translation

Sylvia praying with a patient



It was great for La Fuente to join in the medical campaign in Huambutio, some of our church members and action teamers also helped out, so it was a good opportunity for El Puente Iglesia to serve too. Huambutio is where we soon hope to start a clinic/cell church so it was wonderful to be working in that community delivering health care and praying with patients today. The building we will rent for the clinic/church is under construction and we are really excited at the prospect of working regularly in Huambutio very soon.

Medical campaign in Cachimayo

Juana one of our nurses giving out eye glasses

dental care


I had a kitchen for my consulting room.

patients queuing round the block

the health education tent

Parque Cachimayo is a large play park on the outskirts of Cusco with a huge communal room. This week La Fuente clinic staff are joining MMI (Medical Missions International) running a health campaign using christian doctors nurses physiotherapists, dentists and eye care. Most of the short term volunteers were from North America so it took a long time to communicate with patients using translators but we managed (mas o menos) . The communal room was divided into consultation rooms with bed sheets, so as you can imagine there wasn't much privacy.
Word of the medical campaign soon spread and patients were queuing round the block to be seen!

Church Retreat in Pisac

lots of great space to run around and have fun!


llamas randomly wandering around


wonderful mountain scenery when we went for a walk


bilingual card pairs game


standing on wobbly benches , an excercise in trust and team work


cooking time


Sylvia letting her hair down time!



Jess having fun with her friends


worship time


volley ball, always a Peruvian favourite



meal time


relaxing time



El Puente Iglesia thoroughly enjoyed our first ever church weekend away. We stayed in a christian camp in Pisac in the sacred valley We worshipped, studied, laughed, prayed, cooked, ate , played, danced and even cried together. Peruvians rarely go on holiday, so for many this was a very special time to have a break outside of the city in the beautiful countryside. For some of our church members this was the first time they had ever been on a spiritual retreat.
It was a wonderful time to bond with each other and spend time with God, great fun was had by all!