Williamson Family in Peru

Peruvian Baptist Assembly and ladies conference

2012-01-28T17:44:00.007-06:00

We are now back from the annual asamblea which was held this year in Lima.
It was great for the whole BMS World Mission Peru team to be present and to have the opportunity to spend quality time with our Peruvian brothers and sisters from many different churches in the convention.

Anjanette attended the ladies conference for the first few days after which Scott and the children arrived and joined in the asamblea.

Jess and Sam also had a lot of fun running around with their new friends ,some Peruvian children who were present at the conference .

We were able to participate in the presidential elections and it was good to hear Pastor Domingo the new President share his vision and aspirations for the coming years.

Sometimes being so far away geographically from other baptist convention churches we feel quite isolated here in Cusco; attending the conferences really helped us to feel part of the wider Peruvian baptist convention family and we have made some tentative plans to meet up with other pastors and churches on different occasions in the coming year.

Here are a few photos that Anjanette took at the ladies' conference.

Family beach holiday

2012-01-28T17:17:00.004-06:00

Life has been very hectic and at times quite stressful these last few months and it was great to get away from rainy season in Cusco to enjoy the Peruvian summer for a holiday.

We spent the week at the beach in Northern Peru (2 flights away from Cusco) with some of our friends .

Jess and Sam are now very confident swimmers, we enjoyed seeing red crabs scuttling and collecting shells on the beach, we saw sea horses and turtles in the ocean, Chef Scott cooked fish, shark, octupus, prawns and scallops for us , Anjanette read 4 books and a wonderful relaxing time was had by all!

Las Islas Ballestas

2012-01-28T15:52:00.008-06:00

penguins

sealions

pelicans

the giant candelabra geolyph 595 feet long , etched into the ground at a depth of 2 feet is visible by boat

We spent a week in Paracas where Scott led the EMM conference and Anjanette looked after the mission workers' children. The highlight of our time there was a boat trip out to the Islas Ballestas, it was great to see the famous Candelabra and the wildlife, we enjoyed watching the pelicans penguins and seals in their natural habitat. Visiting Paracas is something we have wanted to do since we moved to Peru and we were delighted to have the opportunity to spend the week working with the EMM missionaries and to visit the wonderful islands too!

Retreats holiday and asemblea

2012-01-06T20:52:00.002-06:00

The blog is about to go quiet for the next 3 weeks as we have some time away from Cusco.

week 1 Scott is the speaker at the annual retreat of another mission agency, Anjanette will be looking after the children (including Jess and Sam ) during the main sessions.We are looking forward to visiting Paracas for the first time.

week 2 Family beach holiday in hot sunny Northern Peru!!

week 3 We will all be in Lima for the national asemblea of all the Peruvian Baptist Convention churches.

Please pray for El Puente church over these next few weeks that we are away, and please pray for us and the different activities we will be involved in each week.

Thankyou

Nuestro Huerto

2012-01-05T13:26:00.006-06:00

We are having great fun growing vegetables in our huerto (translation:kitchen garden) . It is a challenge at high altitude without a greenhouse and the seasons are very different here, but we are experimenting and learning as we go along. We are growing choclo (maize) , cauliflower, beetroot, rocotto (type of hot pepper), pepinillo (gherkin) peppers and peas. We have already been eating some of our radish, lettuce and beans. It is a rewarding family activity and one we are all really enjoying !
Thank you Alan, Beverly, Simon and Dala for helping to dig the patch last year when you visited, we wish you could come back to Cusco and reap the harvest with us!
It was a pleasant surprise today when Jessica noticed some plums growing on a bush in the garden, we didn't even realise it was a fruit tree!

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T15:35:00.005-06:00

On New Years day we decided to have a morning church service in our home followed by a church lunch since it was a baptismal service , it is much easier to have the paddling pool on our garden lawn rather than inside the church building. We were delighted to baptise Toto, he has been attending El Puente for the last few months and is so excited about his new faith.
What a wonderful way to start the new year, we pray that we will see God at work transforming many more lives in 2012 too!

Dec 24th and 25th

2011-12-26T11:48:00.003-06:00

Dec 24th is the Peruvian Christmas day, at midnight they celebrate with fireworks gifts and a traditional meal. We chose not to eat a midnight meal but we did celebrate , we had lunch at our home and invited a number of our Peruvian friends who were on their own over the Christmas period, we then held an afternoon Christingle family service at church.

After church we tracked father christmas on the internet, had mulled wine, mince pies and prepared a lot of vegetables for the following days feast , we enjoyed a secret santa gift exchange with our BMS colleagues and Jess and Sam put up their stockings and left out a mince pie and carrot for Santa and his reindeer!

Dec 25th was our traditional British (with a twist of American) Christmas celebration. James and Julia Henley are staying with us for Christmas and New Year, we hosted the action team as well as some Peruvian and American families. We introduced the Peruvians to homemade christmas crackers and gravy our guests brought us a delicious dish of sweetpotato covered in marshmellows! Scott cooked for 19 people and although a little homesick we all really enjoyed celebrating our Saviour's birth and feasting together. We are so blessed that we have so many wonderful friends in Cusco and it was great to have the house full of friends on both 24th and 25th of December.

Canastas de Navidad (Christmas baskets)

2011-12-22T18:52:00.004-06:00

It is traditional in Peru for employers to give their employees Christmas baskets (a bit like Christmas hampers). We are in contact with a number of needy unemployed folk who struggle to put food on the table and for whom Christmas will not be a time of great feasting.
La Fuente clinic and also El Puente church have been making and distributing canastas to folk in the community who really need extra food, for them this has been an unexpected special Christmas gift!

Carol singing in the regional hospital

2011-12-21T16:55:00.003-06:00

Twice a week the action team visit the local government hospital to play with the children on the burns and trauma unit. Today the Williamson family joined them and we sang spanish Christmas carols and gave out hot chocolate bread and small toys.In this photo Jessica is giving out toys in the ward whilst we were singing.

This lady couldn't walk into the day room where we did a lot of singing but was delighted to have us visit her room and sing for her.

singing carols in the day room of the burns department.

Jessica giving out toys on the paediatric ward.
Today we were reminded that it really is better to give than to receive, many folk in the hospital do not receive any visitors so our visit and our carol singing was really appreciated. As we sang about peace on earth we pray that these patients and their families will experience God's peace this Christmastime.

Nativity service

2011-12-18T19:20:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful all age nativity service celebrating Christmas together, amazingly the children all arrived on time but sadly the narrator and her script were delayed and someone else (thankfully not Anjanette) did a great job improvising at the last minute. Our youth choir sang beautifully, the church enjoyed singing christmas carols in spanish, the children were all fantastic, we even had a real live well behaved baby Jesus ! We ended the service with a special time where we were able to thank God and pray for the Roper family as they leave Peru and start a new adventure.
Ya llego la navidad fa la la la la la la la la !

Chocolatada en Huambutio

2011-12-17T15:53:00.006-06:00

A few hundred people from the community in Huambutio attended the chocolatada.
We gave the children small toys and the young people received notebooks and pens. In this photo Jessica is marking the hands of each person who receives a toy. Jessica really enjoyed helping out and serving. She also spent a lot of time before hand helping to sort all the donated clothes into different sizes. We are delighted that she is developing a heart to serve and help others.

Distribution of sweet bread. At Christmas, it is traditional for the whole community to come together to drink hot chocolate and eat sweet bread to celebrate Christmas together.

Rodrigo giving out hot chocolate. We had a good turn out from El Puente and lots of our church members from Cusco came along to help, it was a great church event. Our church members have opened their hearts to this community where early in the New Year we hope to start the clinic/cell church group.

Samuel also joined in , especially since jumping in the back of our friends' pick up was so much fun! Here he is helping to load 50 bags of donated clothes into the truck.

Scott and Toto share the Christmas story with the community. Toto has only been attending our church for the last few months, how wonderful to have him join us in Huambutio reading the bible there!
It was a great time to be together sharing the good news, food, toys and clothes with our friends in Huambutio. Many thanks to those of you who donated clothes or money to make this possible, it was a very special event.

El Puente news

2011-12-12T14:02:00.003-06:00

Our real desire now that the church building has moved to a residential area is that folk who live in the new community will start attending our church plant. We are delighted that a new lady and her daughter who live a few houses down from the church have recently started attending, we are absolutely thrilled that Toto who has been attending our church for the last 2 months or so has come to faith and wants to be baptised soon.

We have now started a Friday evening aerobics class in the church building which is good to laugh at and with each other at the same time as doing some physical excercise, we hope that people from the community will also come and join in the fun too.
Our 0600 prayer meetings were (perhaps unsurprisingly) not well attended so we are changing them to 7-8pm every Thurs night, we will see how that goes.

so the new church timetable is as follows

Tues 9am young mums' bible study in our home
Tues 7.30pm ladies bible study at church
Weds 7.30pm mens bible study at church
Thurs 7-8 pm church prayer meeting at church
Fri 4.30 kids club, 8pm aerobics at church
Sat 6pm youth group at church
Sun 4.30pm Sunday service at church

This week we have some special events: on Friday our kids club will have a christmas party, on Saturday morning we will hold a chocolatada in Huambutio then on Sunday our church children will be taking part in a nativity service. Anjanette , the action team and our young people are also busy practicing spanish Christmas carols to be sung at church and also during hospital visits in the next few weeks. We will be preparing Christmas baskets to give out to some of our needy church members and also patients from the clinic where Anjanette works.

In the midst of this weeks seasonal activities and celebrations we have mixed emotions since Neil Amanda Daniel and Sophia have decided to move back to the UK. We are saddened by their decision to leave but excited about the way God will use them to serve and be a blessing in the UK as they have been here in Peru. So the childrens' nativity service will also be the church's Despedida (goodbye) to the Roper family. Please pray for the Roper family in this time of transition and re entry.

Newly painted rooms

2011-12-11T21:08:00.002-06:00

Thanks to a lot of hard work from the action team we now have 2 beautifully painted rooms in our new church building. The older childrens' Sunday school room has been decorated with an enormous rainbow, butterflies and a bible verse. The creche room walls have been transformed by waves with Noah's ark floating on the water. Thanks Rob Amy Liz and Jess we are all absolutely thrilled with the end result.

Feliz Navidad

2011-12-08T14:01:00.005-06:00

Sam putting the star at the top of the tree

two very silly reindeers

Today in Peru (Dec 8th) it is a public holiday to celebrate the feast of the immaculate conception.
It has been great to read and study the story of the annunciation this week both as a family and also with our church ladies bible study group. We have been amazed and challenged by Mary's simple obedience to God.

Anjanette has been experiencing some pressure from the rest of the family to put up the Christmas tree so since Jess and Sam are off school we decided to get the decorations out. Last Christmas we were in the UK so our tree has not had an airing for 2 years, we did have a mouse nibble it a bit while we were away but it still looks fine, this is our first Christmas in this house and as you can see from the photo of Sam putting the star on top of the tree the ceiling is lower in this house!

It is always a treat to get out the christmas tree decorations that we have accumulated over the 14 years we have been married and to remember God's faithfulness to us.
So the Williamsons now have a new Christmas tradition, we have decided that on Dec 8th we will decorate our tree each year.

Jess and Sam sing Feliz Navidad

Quechua Christmas carol

2011-12-05T15:19:00.002-06:00

We are currently having fun teaching the action team spanish Christmas carols, the fa la la la la and the glooooooooria bits are going well! Only 2 members of the Williamson family are singing quechua: Here Jess and Sam sing a song in quechua about a llama shepherd going to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus.

boxes of treats

2011-12-02T14:57:00.003-06:00

Our spare bedroom has been full of many boxes and bags of clothes and shoes for the last few months. A dear friend in the UK collects clothes which she sends out to us on a regular basis , we also have some large bags of donated clothes from a Peruvian family as well as stuff that Jess and Sam have grown out of .

Basically for the last few months we have been waiting for a time to sort through it all so we can give the clothes out to people that need them for Christmas. What a joy and a relief that the action team took this job in hand.

Now everything is sorted and organised and we have a list of what clothes and sizes and ages we have. Some of the clothes will be given to some quechua ladies from our friends church, most will probably be given out when we do a Christmas presentation and a chocolotada in Huambutio in the next few weeks. Hopefully many people will be happy and blessed to receive these gifts and we will be glad to have some space in our spare room for a while too!

Family fun in Lima

2011-11-28T20:57:00.003-06:00

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

2011-11-23T18:52:00.006-06:00

s
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

2011-11-18T16:14:00.004-06:00

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!

2011-11-13T19:08:00.004-06:00

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

2011-11-13T13:05:00.007-06:00

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

2011-11-10T16:42:00.003-06:00

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

2011-11-09T13:38:00.006-06:00

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

2011-11-06T17:41:00.006-06:00

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!

Language classes

2011-10-28T19:26:00.004-05:00

The action team are working here in Peru with us for just 6 months. We spent our first 6 months in Peru in full time language classes, so please pray that they will soon pick up some useful phrases and feel comfortable speaking basic spanish after their intensive 3 week spanish course.

Emy and Eily are 2 of our good friends who attend our church, they run a spanish language school that they tailor to peoples' individual needs and teach people in their homes.
Every afternoon they are teaching the action team spanish in our home; actually in Jess and Sam's play room!

Today during their spanish class the earth moved for them ( literally!) as they felt the after shocks of an earthquake in Nazca, Peru , never a dull moment here!

Riding llamas

2011-10-25T14:52:00.004-05:00

It is not all work and no play in the Williamson household.
Here are photos of Jess and Sam which were taken last weekend, riding a llama!

The Peru action team has arrived !

2011-10-20T12:05:00.005-05:00

praying for the action team in their first service at El Puente

Rob, Liz, Jessica and Amy are here in Cusco ! They will work with us for 6 months. The next few days will be taken up with finding their way round the local area and getting used to the altitude, they had another "commissioning " as our Peruvian church family prayed for them on Sunday .
This week the hard work starts as they begin their language classes. So far so good, they are excited and enthusiastic and currently all healthy, please pray for them as they settle in to life here and also pray for us as we host them, life has become very busy in the Williamson household!

Birthday Scheme - Prescription for life

2011-10-18T15:42:00.001-05:00

Birthday Scheme - Prescription for life from BMS World Mission on Vimeo.

This video was filmed last year, It is a day in the life of Doctor Anjanette working in the La Fuente clinic Cusco. hope this helps you to understand more about our work here.

Tropical heat then tropical storm!

2011-10-16T19:29:00.003-05:00

This morning was a scorcher, the washing on the line dried in 1 hr, Jess and Sam had great fun having a water fight in the garden. Then in the afternoon we heard thunder and along came the rain and serious hailstorm! We had on flip flops in the morning and raincoats and boots in the afternoon!

Moving church premises again!

2011-10-15T16:37:00.005-05:00

The space that we currently rent for our church meetings is basically a hall with a tiny corner separated for the creche area (imagine a largish cupboard) and our older church children go "off site" to the missionary's home for their Sunday school class. This is not ideal and to be perfectly honest if we were visitors or a young family looking for a church I don't think we would be very attracted to the current set up for childrens' minstry at El Puente. It is important that the childrens' work is taken seriously , our current rental contract is also up for renewal and the landlord could decide to increase the rent or ask us to leave so the church leaders decided that we would look for a bigger place that cost a similar amount. Some of us doubting that we would find such a place for the price available!

On Thursday morning Scott prayed that God would provide a suitable place for the church and then he looked in the newspaper where properties are advertised. We are all amazed that a few hours later 4 out of 5 of the church leaders are in the new place chatting to our prospective new landlady. 5 mins walk from where we currently meet is a ground floor maisonette to rent it has a large open space which we would use for our main meetings and then 2 separate rooms which would be used for creche and Sunday school.(As well as a kitchen and bathroom) It is in a safe , middle class residential area and is perfect for our needs and the price is right too ! Right now Scott and Luis (the 5th church leader who hasn't seen it yet) are talking to the new landlady about the contract .

We will possibly be moving our church meeting place in a few weeks time! In true Peruvian style we will have an inauguration ceremony! We are signing a 2 year contract and are very hopeful that in the next 2 years we will raise the money that we need to buy our own church building then we won't have to keep moving all the time . God is certainly showing us that El Puente church is the people and not the building!

When we first moved to Peru our language teachers told us that a missionary needs a bible in one hand and a suitcase in another, how true that is !!

Peter and John went to pray

2011-10-05T10:56:00.003-05:00

This video was the Williamson family's contribution to morning devotions at the BMS Latin America retreat a few months ago . Hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!

Clothes donation

2011-10-03T19:57:00.004-05:00

Jess and Sam are growing like weeds ,they are much taller than their Peruvian friends and Samuel's nickname at school is cuello largo which means long neck! We recently had a big clear out of clothes they have grown out of and which need a new home.
When we lived in the UK we passed clothes on to friends or often gave them to charity shops. Today it was a real joy for us to take sackloads of Jess and Sam's old clothes (and some dressing up shoes too which were well received!) to a christian orphanage on the outskirts of Cusco where some of our friends work. This afternoon they had a team meeting, so us visiting meant that we could help to look after the children while the staff held their meeting. The photos are of Jess and Sam and some babies, the reality was Sam played with the babies for about 30 seconds and played with the older kids for about 3 hours! Jessica was a huge help cuddling, feeding and singing to the babies as well as having a lot of fun running around with the older children too!
Hearing the stories of how the children came to be there was heartbreaking, but what a blessing to be in such a loving environment with happy well cared for cheeky children!

Peru Action team

2011-09-26T15:39:00.005-05:00

Whilst visiting her parents in the UK, Anjanette enjoyed meeting the Peru Action team at IMC (BMS training centre.)
It was a great reminder of God's faithfulness to us throughout our time with BMS. Exactly 4 years ago we started our 1 year course at IMC as we prepared for our Peruvian adventure. 4 years later we are preparing to receive the first ever Peru BMS Action team.
4 young people are taking a Gap year to work with BMS World Mission in Peru, (other teams are working in different countries around the world) This month they are at the training centre in the UK, then in mid October they will arrive in Cusco where they will spend 6 months working with us, followed by a few months visiting churches in the UK sharing about their experiences. We are really looking forward to receiving the team soon, please pray for them as they prepare for their Peruvian adventure......

God is in the details!

2011-09-14T11:34:00.004-05:00

Last week Scott was in Lima speaking at a conference, little did we know what a week he had in store!
Initially he wondered what he would do with his time since he was only speaking every evening. However whilst he was there he was able to support our colleague who is seriously unwell, it was quite amazing that he was there in that place at that time and his diary soon became very very full! Scott needed to extend his trip which meant that we had a very short turn around in Cusco, he returned back in Cusco on our wedding aniversary and then the next day Anjanette left to travel to the UK to visit her parents for 2 weeks. Please pray for us all it has been a stressful and unsettling time, thankyou !

Official Prayer letter Sept 2011

2011-09-08T07:58:00.004-05:00

Dear friends thank you for your faithful prayers and support for our work here in Cusco, Peru. We have just celebrated three wonderful years living in Peru, and are so grateful for your support that enables us to be here.
We have lots of news to share with you and so as we write about the different areas of our lives and ministry we ask you to join us in praying for the different needs as you read them.

Yucay
We were delighted to visit Yucay back in March when we returned to Peru and to see the maize from the BMS seed project being harvested. Our colleagues James and Julia Henley who are currently at language school in Arequipa plan to church plant in Yucay in the new year. Please consider using the sacred soil harvest video on the BMS website which is based on our work in Yucay and Cusco and please do pray for James and Julia as they start the new ministry there.

La Fuente clinic, Cusco.
Anjanette is nearing the end of her busy few months when she has been the only doctor at the clinic. Old and new doctors from different mission organisations are returning/arriving in Cusco soon to work at the clinic please pray that we will all work together well and be a blessing to the patients that we serve . Do look out for the BMS birthday scheme video it is a promotional video based on a day in the life of doctora Anjanette!

Hosting teams
In April we were very blessed to host a terrific team of ministers in training from Bristol Baptist college. We gave them a taste of our life in Cusco as they joined in hospital and clinic visiting, schools work, pastors meetings, church activities, special events and some manual work. We are now gearing up for the next team, the first ever Cusco BMS Action team will be joining us for 6 months in October please pray that God will touch the lives of these 4 young people and that their presence will have a huge impact here in Cusco.

Scott's travels.
Scott has been busy travelling to various cities in Peru attending and speaking at youth conferences and teaching on the subject of Youth Ministry. The Peruvian baptist convention has no trained youth ministers, please pray for Scott as he seeks to help with training in this area.

New work in Huambutio.
We are gradually getting to know folk in the community in Huambutio; Neil and Amanda teach in the school weekly, we recently had a very exciting time as El Puente Iglesia had an experience of "mission" running a children's' holiday club there and we are still planning to start a small clinic in Huambutio. Please join us in praying that the paperwork for Anjanette's medical license soon comes through so we can set up the clinic.

El Puente Iglesia news
God is transforming our small church plant into a loving, caring family of disciples. He has sent us some wonderful new church members and we are entering a really exciting time in the life of our church. We have some new Peruvian church leaders and it is wonderful to see many different church members serving in different areas of church life, a far cry from when we started the church 2 years ago and did all the preaching, music leading, children's and youth work ourselves. Anniversaries are very important here in Peru and we all really enjoyed celebrating our 2nd church anniversary in August, Pastor Pedro our old language teacher from Arequipa preached , this was a great reminder of God's faithfulness to us over the years. Once again our church is outgrowing the current premises and the time has come to try and purchase our own property. BMS recognises that in order for El Puente to be sustainable one day our supporters will need to stop paying the church's rent, so BMS has set up a special project fund for this sole purpose. If you would like your church to support our fundraising to build a new church in Cusco, please contact Alastair Clunie in our Church Relations Team on 01235 7620. Alastair will be pleased to talk you through how you can support the Cusco project through our Co-Mission programme for churches. With your help, we are hoping to raise the £100,000 we need for this important church planting project.

Well that's a summary of what we have been up to over the last 6 months, thank you for journeying with us.
Love from Scott Anjanette Jessica and Samuel.

Tuesday nights ladies bible study

2011-09-06T21:32:00.003-05:00

It is our desire for the people in our church plant to grow numerically but more importantly we want to see each individual grow spiritually. How exciting that our Tuesday night bible studies are achieving both objectives, we are seeing an increase in number ( an average of 10 ladies each week ) and during these studies as we grapple with spiritual principles and read God's word together we are growing in our faith and deepening our relationships with each other. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people attending our church plant and we thank God for them and for their enthusiasm and hearts to serve God.

Mes del viento

2011-08-30T16:58:00.003-05:00

August is the windy month, when Peruvians enjoy flying kites. Thanks to Uncle Stan and Aunty Dina who sent us wonderful good quality kites that took seconds to assemble this year's kite flying experience was completely stress free and very enjoyable! We had great fun flying kites in the sacred valley with our friends today (public holiday) the mountain scenery and blue skies were spectacular!

Learning what it means to be a church family.

2011-08-28T11:20:00.005-05:00

spending time with Daniella

We love our church family

celebrating with Claudia

comforting Sylvia

This has been a difficult week for our church, Manuel was the first church member to die and we have been supporting Sylvia at the hospital, the velorium, the funeral and afterwards. We also had a fun celebration as we celebrated Claudia's birthday together, Claudia is from Columbia, we know how it feels to be far from family and friends on your birthday so the whole church had a big party to celebrate with her , the celebrations actually started by singing happy birthday to her at midnight when our church prayer meeting finished!
God is reminding us that church is not somewhere we meet once a week, nor is it just a building, we are journeying together striving to live and worship together and to love each other sacrificially like the new testament church did.
El Puente church is rallying round Sylvia cooking meals, hosting her in our homes and helping her with practical arrangements, she needs to wait 3 months to receive her husband's pension and so meanwhile church family will love her and support her practically.
Our house has become the hub of the church, every day people from church are in and out of our home to share meals with us, to visit, for meetings, music practice or just to pop over play in our garden. This week we have all prayed together, laughed together and wept together, we are delighted that in the midst of all this new people are attending our church, we hope that they too will feel welcomed and loved and find a spiritual home at El Puente.

Cemetery with a view.

2011-08-23T17:29:00.004-05:00

We would like to thank you on behalf of our church family and also Sylvia's family for praying for us all following Manuel's death. Sometimes we can tangibly feel the strength of peoples' prayer supporting us and helping us. That has been our experience this week and is certainly the case for poor Sylvia at the moment, it is hard to believe that her husband and also her brother were buried on the same day, the strength that the whole family have shown has been extraordinary! After a church service in Cusco Scott drove the family for 90 minutes then held a small ceremony in their garden in the sacred valley followed by a final farewell in the cemetery. What a beautiful peaceful resting place for dear Manuel, the cemetery is surrounded by snow capped mountains and bright blue skies.

Manuel

2011-08-21T10:28:00.003-05:00

Manuel was a faithful member of El Puente, sadly he died this weekend , he loved his God and his family dearly. Please pray for his wife Sylvia and her daughters and grandchildren who are also part of our church .This is the first death we have experienced in our young small church , we pray that the whole church family will be a great support to them and that they will experience God's comforting presence as they grieve.

Fundraising to buy our own church building

2011-08-14T09:45:00.006-05:00

Happy birthday Margaret, thankyou for holding a fundraising garden birthday party to help us purchase our own church building in Cusco!

As you saw from the photos of our church anniversary celebration last week , when we have special events and visitors El Puente is bursting at the seams and people were standing in the doorway and in the street! Our small church space can comfortably sit about 40 people (we had about 75 at the anniversary celebration), however we do not have a suitable space for the childrens' Sunday school activities so at the moment the children meet and have their class in the homes of the missionaries who currently live close to the church, this is just a short term solution to our space problem.

More importanty the rent in the middle class area of Cusco where we work is expensive , it is covered by some of our supporters for which we are very grateful, but in the long term we need the church to be sustainable without the expats leading the church and also paying the rent , so we are saving up to buy our own church building.

Our small church in Cusco will be thinking up creative ways to make some money but we are also seeking some help from our supporters in the UK to meet this cost. (It will be at least £100,000 for a small one storey apartment.) We have already received some generous donations from some wonderful churches and individuals and currently we have raised about a third of the money we need. BMS World Mission have established a special project fund for this purpose and money can be sent directly to BMS earmarked for the Cusco church building project.

We are able to live and work here in Peru because churches and individuals give money to BMS for which we say a HUGE THANKYOU, we do not want to detract from this regular giving which makes it possible for us to be here.

We would like to thank dear Margaret, our BMS link rep from Union in High Wycombe, she recently celebrated her birthday with friends but asked for donations for our project in lieu of gifts .

Please think and pray about whether you can make a donation to the Cusco church building project and if possible like Margaret please enjoy yourself in the process! Every little helps.Thankyou .

Celebrating our 2nd church anniversary at El Puente

2011-08-07T19:36:00.004-05:00

Here are a few photos of our church anniversary celebrations. Pastor Pedro and Chi Chi (teachers from our language school in Arequipa) came to speak and share the occasion with us . We had a terrific service, a few of Anjanette's musician friends from other churches played in the band which was a special treat. The service was followed by 70 of us going out for Peru's national dish pollo a la brasa (chicken and chips!) We were delighted that 10 people from Yucay and many other visitors also came to join the festivities too! God has been so faithful to us over these 2 years,I don't think we could ever imagined being part of such a wonderful loving church family 2 years ago when we started out. We are so happy that our church is slowly growing, it was a real joy to welcome new people into church membership today as part of our celebrations.

Trip to Lake Titicaca

2011-08-05T19:39:00.004-05:00

B

In between running the Huambutio holiday club and celebrating the church anniversary we took off a few days during Jess and Sam's 2 week school holidays to visit Lake Titicaca in Puno.Samuel has been learning about lake Titicaca at school and was so excited to see it.
We went with our visitors Alan and Beverley and our dear Aunty Margaret (BMS colleague from Lima.) We celebrated Margaret's birthday with a trip on the lake to some of the islands. It was fascinating to see how simply the islanders live compared to our busy hectic technological lifestyle. The scenery was breathtaking, it was very relaxing travelling on the lake and was a wonderful experience.

Huambutio holiday club

2011-08-01T15:54:00.006-05:00

Thankyou for your prayers, we all had a lot of fun running the kids holiday club in Huambutio.What a great way to teach our church about mission, this week most of our church members were serving this poor village on the outskirts of Cusco. We walked around the village inviting local children to the club and were delighted that many joined us straight away, some adults even asked if there were activities for them too! It was a joy to see people from our church serving in this way for the first time and great fun to sing songs, play games, do crafts and teach the children bible stories. This video below shows what Pastor Scott and a few friends got up to in the courtyard whilst the rest of the team was busy beavering away during craft time!

Si Senor ,El Condor Pasa and the Peruvian national anthem.

2011-07-30T21:24:00.005-05:00

Here are 2 clips of the band playing at the Cusco united churches thanksgiving service this weekend. Similar services of thanksgiving took place in cities all over Peru simultaneously. With the recent inauguration of our new President, it was a good opportunity to pray together for the government and ruling authorities. It was fun to participate, although it inevitably meant lots of waiting around for people to turn up on time for band practice this week. Anjanette is now feeling very Peruvian having been persuaded to play a cheesy jazzed up version of El Condor Pasa in public!! However if she needs to stand on the stage with the worship band in similar events in future when the Peruvian national anthem is played she really needs to learn all the words!

Huambutio holiday club August 2011

2011-07-28T21:49:00.004-05:00

Please join us in praying for our first ever El Puente holiday club event which will take place next week.
On Monday and Tuesday 1st and 2nd August our church is running a holiday club in the school in Huambutio. Huambutio is the village on the outskirts of Cusco where we soon hope to start a small clinic and cell group, the headteacher of the school has invited us to run a holiday club event during the school holidays, we have no idea how many children will attend ( it could be as many as 200 if they all come!)
Please pray that the church members from Cusco who participate in the club will know great joy in serving, for all the logistics and practicalities, for safety , for good communication, for fun and friendships and most importantly that God's love will be shown to the community there. Thankyou!

New President of Peru

2011-07-28T12:35:00.003-05:00

Today is the day of Peru and our new president Ollanta Humala has come into power. Please join us in praying that he will rule fairly , peacefully and wisely.

The blessing of visitors

2011-07-25T07:18:00.003-05:00

This is the first week of the 2 week school hols and Scott and Anjanette are busy working this week, which leaves the usual problem of childcare. Problem solved since we have some friends from our home church visiting, Alan and Beverly Duncan. They have rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in with anything and everything that needs doing, helping with the construction at La Fuente clinic, counting out meds at the clinic, helping Jess and Sam dig our vegetable patch,doing mountains of washing up in our home and also at church, storytelling,helping with homework, babysitting, laying down lino and clearing up our church kids area , they will also be helping out with our holiday club next week.When they arrived and unpacked their suitcases it was like christmas! Their visit is encouraging us and helping us enormously what a blessing!

Festival cultural del colegio Ausangate 2011

2011-07-22T17:54:00.005-05:00

Sam and his spanish teacher

Jess and Sam in their fabulous Indian outfits

with Jess's teacher in her traditional Bolivian dress

This has been a hectic week for us. Scott has been busy revising his verbs and polishing up his grammar in Arequipa, he has been attending a weeks refresher course at our old language school. Anjanette has been busy working in the clinic , holding down the fort while Scott's been away, doing the school run, attending school activities, hosting visitors and getting locked out of the house! We have also been busy preparing for the school's international day, we contributed towards the UK exhibition, we made traditional foods, organised outfits for Jess and Sam and wrote out a small speech in spanish about the clothes Jess and Sam chose to wear in the parade. All very well until Samuel decided at the last minute (actually 0500 am the morning of the festival) to change his outfit from his kilt to his Indian outfit.
Our beloved Auntie Geetha keeps Jess and Sam in fabulous Indian outfits! As always the festival cultural was a great event. Right now however like many parents in the UK at present we are breathing a sigh of relief that it is the school hols, even if it is only 2 weeks it will be a very welcome break for us all !!!!

school sports day

2011-07-20T13:32:00.002-05:00

This week Jess and Sam's school held a 2 hr sports event for each separate year group. The focus has been on competition between the 2 classes in each year group rather than each individual child and it has caused lots of excitement in the Williamson household. The event was called "The Olympics!" So maybe we didn't get tickets to London 2012 Olympics but the Cusco 2011 Olympics was quite entertaining!!

New Friends (by Anjanette)

2011-07-18T21:05:00.004-05:00

with Kristen, looking good in our "la Fuente" outfits

con mis amigas Claudia y Cecilia

One of the saddest things about leaving the UK 3 years ago was saying goodbye to our fabulous friends and family. We know that God has a perfect plan for our lives and he has blessed us with amazing friendships over the last few years and also used us to befriend others in need of friendship. I would like to introduce you to some of my new friends.

Kristen is a nurse practioner from America, she and her husband moved to Cusco 2 months ago. Kristen and I work together seeing patients at La Fuente clinic and she is a terrific help. She decreases my medical work load and she also helps me with very important practical things like helping to drive the kids to school on the way to the clinic. We so appreciate the ex pats who helped us to settle in Cusco during those first few difficult months a few years ago, it is great to be of some help to others in a similar situation, she is fast becoming a good friend and I thank God for her.

It is every missionary's dream to develop deep and lasting relationships with local people. We are very blessed that in the last 2 months Claudia from Columbia and Cecilia (my Peruvian friend who recently moved back to Peru from USA) and her family have joined our church family. Both of them were looking for a new church since moving to Cusco, and we are so thankful that God sent them to El Puente. I have some wonderful new latino friends who I love spending time with regularly and my life is greatly enriched because of our friendships .

Jess and Sam's acting and singing debut

2011-07-17T19:22:00.005-05:00

Today was an exciting day. Amanda and Scott planned our church's first ever all age Sunday service. Messy church comes to El Puente, great fun was had by all, including some visitors who responded when we gave out fliers and they just walked in off the street. The theme was the lost sheep, Samuel had his acting debut and was proud to play the part of the lost sheep. Jessica has been itching to lead singing at the microphone at church for months and being our first family service we agreed to let her, my fears were not realised and she actually did quite a good job. The bible tells us to make a joyful noise and so we know that God certainly liked her singing anyway!! We enjoyed drama, bible readings, songs, crafts, a creative prayer time, a family talk, video and party food, que bueno!

Kids games

2011-07-16T19:57:00.004-05:00

Today we held our monthly kids games event in the local sports court, about 40 or so came ,they had great fun playing games, doing craft, having stories and snacks. We pray that some of the families we came into contact with will visit our church activities in the coming weeks. It was a real church team effort, Neil and Amanda did the organising, other church members provided the snacks and helped run the activities, Scott had fun at the microphone and Anjanette really enjoyed chatting with local families and onlookers.How great to now have a committed dedicated church team.We even roped in our visitors from New Malden , it is great to have Alan and Beverly with us, Alan helped out with the obstacle course and Beverly did a great job on the craft table.

Sacred soil harvest appeal promotion video

2011-07-14T09:04:00.003-05:00

Harvest 2011 Promo from BMS World Mission on Vimeo.

The Sacred Soil appeal is the resource that BMS filmed about our work in Cusco last year. The community in Yucay receive practical and spiritual help after floods destroyed their crops. Watch the promo then go to www.bmsworldmission.org/harvest to download the full resource which includes cooking demonstrations as well as bible readings from Pastor Chef! Please consider using this in your church services or house groups to promote the work of BMS World Mission thankyou .

Church day out

2011-07-09T17:19:00.006-05:00

Today our whole church had a day out at a Cusco retreat centre called C.O.R.A.S.O.N. it is in the Cusco mountains. We enjoyed praying and worshipping together on the prayer mountain, playing games and sharing our day together. We are blessed to have such a wonderful church family and really enjoyed each others' company today.

Hace mucho Frio !!!!!

2011-07-06T16:02:00.003-05:00

June, July, August is winter in Peru and we are feeling the cold. This last week has been unusually cold in the mountains, it has snowed in some parts of the Cusco region and we have been wearing many layers of clothes and even wooly hats to bed!!
We are blessed with a warm house and warm clothes to wear, we know that when we start feeling the cold that it must be so much worse for other people .
We would like to say a huge thankyou to Kirby Muxloe Free Church, they sent us a collection of wooly hats, gloves ,socks and scarves which we have been giving out to some of the patients at the clinic who are really suffering with the cold weather.

Anjanette writes about the March for Jesus

2011-07-02T21:58:00.012-05:00

Last Sunday (6 days before the March for Jesus) in conversation after church I mentioned to someone I met that I enjoy worshipping God on my flute, something I rarely do these days since I play the keyboard at church . Well it just so happened that he was in charge of coordinating the music for this years March for Jesus. So at very short notice I agreed to play, thinking perhaps that everyone else (keyboard, drums, congas, electric guitars, bass guitar, singers) would be organised with their parts already prepared and knowing what they were doing as I was joining at the last minute. I should have known better and what a cultural experience this has turned out to be !

Almost 20 hours of my week have been dedicated to practising, writing out parts (the band I played with tend to just play everything by ear), standing around waiting for people to arrive to open the door for practice , for others to turn up for practice and 4 of those hours included setting up and playing in the plaza during the actual event.

Most Peruvians learn music using do re me fa so la ti , well apart from the sound of music film I don't know too much about do re mi. I am not very familiar with people shouting out chords like do menor or fa mayor so I have been struggling with a number of foreign languages this week!

Despite the frustrations it has actually been a really wonderful experience. The March for Jesus involves many of the Cusco evangelical churches joining together, (something we were always very keen on when we lived in the UK) . I am pleased to say that I made some new friends this week from various churches, learnt some fantastic new songs, it was a privilege to play with some very talented musicians, I loved playing in a large band with people who are devoted to using their musical gifts to praise God. We played a number of different styles; among them flamenco, marching songs, Rap, ballads,calypso, rock, and a really fun Huayno/reggae fusion.
It was particularly good to be referred to collectively as the jovenes (young people) in the band!

It was great to be on the platform , playing and watching as 1500 Christians marched into the plaza de armas where we held the service. I enjoyed participating in the original March for Jesus in London about 20 years ago! This was our 3rd Cusco March for Jesus, it always gives us a boost and lifts our spirits. Pastor Scott was also involved, he prayed on the platform in english for all the onlooking tourists, we pray that they were touched and challenged by what they experienced. We certainly had a ball today, our little church at El Puente is very small and it was a joy to be in the plaza amongst a huge crowd of Cusco Christians all worshipping God together.

weekly timetable

2011-06-29T22:30:00.005-05:00

At last we have an organised weekly timetable. Please join us in praying for our various regular activities, for opportunities to share God's amazing love with those whom we meet.

Sunday church service

Monday Anjanette at La Fuente clinic
Scott pm bible study

Tuesday am ladies discipleship group , then team meeting
pm ladies bible study

Wednesday Anjanette at La Fuente clinic , Scott at Cusco pastors' meeting

Thursday pm mens' bible study

Friday am Anjanette at La Fuente clinic,
Scott teaching in Huambutio school
pm kids club

Saturday am monthly kids games event in local park
pm weekly youth cafe

Near and Far (a poem by Jessica Ruby Williamson age 8)

2011-06-25T17:55:00.005-05:00

Little children near and far,
Across the ocean wide,
though they do not look like us ,
they are the same inside.

Other children everywhere,
I would like to meet,
ones who live across the sea ,
others down the street.

By J.R.W

Dia de Cusco

2011-06-24T17:14:00.003-05:00

mad dogs english men and peruvians go out in the midday sun!!

fabulous backdrop at Sacsayhuaman

The Inca warrior

Soldiers march around the plaza de armas

many houses are flying their Cusco flags this month

We are enjoying having a 4 day weekend, yesterday was Corpus Cristi when the statues of the Catholic saints are taken out of the churches and cathedrals and paraded around the plaza de armas. Today is Inti Raymi the day of Cusco, there are Cusco flags everywhere and a reenactment of the Inca Harvest festival takes place in Cusco town centre and then continues at Sacayhuaman. Since Jess and Sam proved what good walking legs they have when we were on our recent hike we decided that this year we would join the crowd and walk up to Sacsayhuaman, the backdrop with the Inca ruins and the mountains behind the actors and dancers was stunning. It was fun to be part of the crowd and to witness the celebrations, our friends in Cusco take their cultural heritage very seriously and love to celebrate it!

Good news at El Puente Iglesia

2011-06-19T19:15:00.003-05:00

We often say that our experience as church planters is like a roller coaster ride. It is therefore a real miracle and testament to God's faithfulness that our church in Cusco is soon to celebrate its 2nd anniversary (anniversaries are a BIG deal here in Peru.)

When we started the church 2 years ago we felt as if we were doing absolutely everything ourselves , setting up , cleaning, preaching, leading worship, running the kids group. Our language was limited, we had little cultural wisdom or experience, we had never even been part of a UK church plant before! The only thing we had in those early days was a lot of energy, enthusiasm and through the power of your prayers God's help .

In time God has built up a small group of believers , when we went back to the UK for a few months recently we gave different people in the church responsibilities and it has been a joy to see church members using their time and skills to serve God in different ways. We were really sad to lose one of our key families during the time that we were back in the UK and we do sometimes have our moments when church planting in a different language and culture is so hard and frustrating that the fleeting thoughts of returning to pastoral ministry in the UK seem very tempting, ( at least we can speak the language fluently there!)

Yet when the encouragements come they are absolutely tremendous. It is great to have the Roper family serving with us and helping us with our Childrens and Youthwork, yet their goal as most missionaries is really to do themselves out of a job, meaning that in the few years that they are here they need to train up Peruvians to take responsibility for leading and running these activities. Our boss told us that every activity/club/visit they do should be done with a Peruvian. Well that sounded great in theory but I don't think any of us believed that with the few folk available at our church that we would see this theory put to practice.

Here comes the really exciting part... in recent weeks some new people have started attending our church, one is keen to serve with the childrens' ministry, another is a gifted musician who is already helping with the music in the services and others are expressing a desire to become more involved so not only do we have missionary co-workers, God is sending us national co-workers who understand the language and the culture and who also have a passion to make Jesus known in our community. Gracias a Dios para su fidelidad!

What's happening in the Williamson household this week?

2011-06-13T19:31:00.005-05:00

some photos of Jess and Sam with Olivia

Jess and Anjanette have unfortunately had tummy bugs and have been resting, watching disney movies, reading Enid Blyton books and drinking dioralite together , they are now feeling better thankfully.

Samuel is absolutely delighted that Olivia is here for a few days . Olivia is a friend from Carshalton Beeches where Scott used to be the youth pastor. She is volunteering in Bolivia and needed to leave Bolivia to renew her visa, the bus journey to Cusco would have been short and straight forward were in not for the fact that the Bolivian/Peru border is shut, so she wins the prize for the longest journey that anyone has ever taken to visit us, 2.5 days by bus. Today we organised her flight back to Bolivia which will be much quicker! Sam and Jess love spending time with her , she is great at playing games and reading with them and a joy to host.Jess and Sam particularly like watching one of their favourite Peruvian TV programmes with her, it is called Olivia the pig!

Scott attended the Cusco Culto de Gracias service when the Cusco evangelical churches pray for the Cusco dignitaries and the police. Scott loved being back preaching at El Puente after a few weeks off and was delighted that new folk attended this week too! Scott has also joined the Cusco tennis club and is enjoying doing some physical exercise .Tomorrow he will fly to Arequipa, firstly via Lima to see if he can track down our missing suitcase, then to collect James and Julia and take them to Arequipa. In Arequipa he will help James and Julia settle into language school and their new home ,he will also attend some meetings about Anjanette's paperwork, please keep praying, it seems we are making good progress......

Tears of joy

2011-06-10T16:37:00.006-05:00

I have often had patients in my consulting room crying because they are sad or frustrated or depressed but today was the first time a patient cried tears of joy and thanks for the help we gave her. Today I met Justina, I have been seeing her great grandson in the clinic and so the family decided to bring their grandmother for some help too. Justina is 83 she is paralysed down her left side after a stroke 2 years ago, she also has very severe osteoarthritis for which she takes no medication. She walks very unsteadily with a crutch, today I thought a walking frame would be much better for her weak left side and also the arthritis. Amazingly when we checked our store room we had a few folding walking frames and were able to give her one as well as some painkillers, when she tried it out she wouldn't stop crying, then later on she wouldn't stop talking to all the other patients really enjoying the chance to be out of the house and to socialise, what a joy to work in La Fuente and to be able to explain to her that we are a christian clinic and that the frame is a gift from God to her!

New President

2011-06-06T08:07:00.003-05:00

Left wing Ollanta Humala was elected the new Peruvian president yesterday by a very narrow margin , he made promises of democracy and tackling poverty during his campaign but there is great concern about his past political record . Please join us in praying that Peru will indeed be democratic and that he will rule fairly and wisely.

BMS Latin America retreat

2011-06-05T10:52:00.003-05:00

After almost 4 years of being with BMS World Mission it was wonderful for us to have the opportunity to finally meet those who live in Brazil. BMS has a long history of working in Brazil for 5o years , we enjoyed getting to know some of the missionaries who have served there for many many years. In contrast Peru is a new country to our organisation ( BMS has been there 5 years so far) and so it was interesting to exchange stories, ideas ,dreams and aspirations with folk who have much more experience than we do.

Jess and Sam loved playing with the other children and young people and it was a joy to finally see James and Julia Henley in Latin America. James and Julia are both baptist ministers and they flew out to join us at the retreat before flying to Peru.

It was great that the whole Peru team flew back to Lima together ; Gill, Harland and their daughters (who work in Iquitos) Margaret (Lima) the Ropers (Cusco), Williamsons (Cusco) and the Henleys (soon to go to Arequipa to learn spanish) .

How exciting to see the Peru team is growing, please do pray for God's blessing,protection,strength and guidance for the whole Latin America team.

Beautiful Brazil

2011-06-03T19:29:00.005-05:00

Here are a few photos of some of the plants and flowers we saw in Brazil, it was really breathtaking! The theme of the childrens' work during the retreat was creation care. Everywhere we looked we were reminded of what an amazing creator God we serve!

Caldas Novas

2011-05-27T18:46:00.005-05:00

Jess posing by the pool!

Sam posing by the pool

family photo in the pool the day Sam learned to swim!

lots of fun at the pirate ship kids pool,

Didn't manage to discover the elegant way to get in or out of these huge rings!

sleeping at the airport waiting to board our plane at 0100!

Well after an incredibly long journey we arrived in Caldas Novas. We had a few days holiday before the Latin America BMS retreat . We loved the tropical weather in Brazil and spent our 4 days holiday in and out of the various swimming pools available. Caldas Novas is a spa town built around thermal pools with numerous swimming pools and water parks .Coming from cold Cusco what a treat to lie in the warm water and soak up the sun and even more so for the children to have so many opportunities to swim.
Samuel and Jessica proved themselves far more adventurous than their mother whizzing down the flumes and slides! We are particularly delighted that Samuel became really confident with his swimming and is very proud of himself!
What an amazing opportunity to visit a new country and to relax and unwind .

Off to Brasilia

2011-05-24T21:20:00.004-05:00

We are off to Brasilia, first for a few days holiday then we have our BMS Latin America retreat,for the joint Peru and Brazil team. Please pray for safety in travel and that we will be physically and spiritually refreshed. ( A 0100 flight in the middle of the night with 4 children doesn't really sound too refreshing right now!) We would also ask you to join us in upholding the country Peru in prayer. 5th June is the date of the presidential elections, please pray for peaceful fair elections and for God's will to be done in electing the new leader for Peru. Report of our trip to Brasilia to follow......

Star gazing

2011-05-22T11:58:00.003-05:00

This weekend we visited the Cusco Planetarium. From our garden in Cusco the stars in the sky are incredibly bright, but nothing compared to the stars in the campo. When we went out into the countryside just on the outskirts of Cusco to the Planetarium the stars were amazing. The experts took a long time explaining to us about the stars , planets and galaxies. We were then shown a number of the things we had learned about in the talk when we went outside with the naked eye, but the most exciting part was looking through the telescope at the stars . The big big treat was seeing the planet saturn with its characteristic rings, very clearly through the telescope!!!!

We were reminded of these verses in Psalm 8

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
O Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Piano time

2011-05-18T19:28:00.003-05:00

Jessica:

Anjanette started teaching Jessica and her friend Ella piano lessons 10 weeks ago when we returned to Cusco. They are making excellent progress and really enjoying their joint classes even if they are sometimes quite mischievous together!

Not wanting to be left out Samuel started learning his first few notes this week too! Enjoy these videos of their piano progress.

Jessica plays and sings "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen."
Anjanette and boy wonder play a duet called "Marching."

Sam:

Celebrating May birthdays

2011-05-15T22:07:00.007-05:00

Scott went quad biking with some friends for his birthday celebration.

Anjanette Jess and Sam at her birthday tea.

And of course, the cake in the face:
Firstly we pray for Pastor Scott and thank God for him!

Next we sing to him ( he looks a little nervous since he knows what's coming next.....)

Finally we push his face in the cake!

Well the week of birthday celebrations is here. Thankyou for all of the birthday greetings we have recieved! So this is the week of celebrating and eating lots of cake . This is how El Puente Iglesia celebrates with their beloved Pastor

Huchuy Qosqo 2 day trek

2011-05-14T08:30:00.006-05:00

Jess enjoying splashing in the river

fabulous scenery

The Huchuy Qosqo ruins

Anjanette feeling as if she has conquered the world! (that was before the long gruelling walk down!)

breathtaking mountain views

Scott very happy to soak his feet in hot water at the campsite after 8 hours of walking!

Scott at the campsite

walking through the canyon

Sam on horseback!

at the first mountain pass

This week Jess and Sam have had a week off school and so we decided to attempt a 20 k trek which included an overnight camping adventure. We set off from Tambomachay just outside Cusco city and we walked for 8 hours on day 1 ( 14k) It was great fun but hard work walking up mountains at 4000 feet . It was very hot in the day (Anjanette got heat stroke on day 2) and cold at night , (there was frost on our tents when we woke up in the morning!! )Remarkably the kids did not complain at all, they did occasionally take turns riding a horse to give their legs a little rest. We went with 2 other families and a guide, our good friend Robyn owns the SAS travel company and we went with her family, the SAS guides and cooks. Never has camping been so luxurious the horses carried the luggage, tents and food and when we finally arrived at the campsite the tents were set up and our hot dinner was ready for us! The views of the mountains as we trekked were absolutely breathtaking. The trek is called the Huchuy Qosqo trek since that is the name of some inca ruins that we visited along the way before we descended 1200k zigzagging down the mountain to where lunch and the SAS van was waiting in Lamay to drive us back to Cusco. So we are feeling victorious that we completed the adventure, astounded that the kids did so well, and very grateful for running water flushing toilets and comfy beds now that we are back at home!

Feliz Dia de Mama

2011-05-09T08:13:00.008-05:00

Mothers' day in Peru is a big big deal! The shops go crazy selling mothers' day merchandise, most schools will put on an extravagant mothers' day concert as well as taking lots of time to make cards and presents. This is interesting since Peruvians do not send birthday cards or Christmas cards. People give presents and greetings to their friends who are mothers to celebrate this important occasion too!

This was the first mothers' day that the Williamsons celebrated at El Puente, the previous 2 years we were travelling since the mothers' day weekend marks the start of Jess and Sam's mid term week off school .

To mark this important cultural event we had a mothers' day celebration in church, the kids sang to the mothers and recited a poem, we then gave all the children (whatever their age) in church the opportunity to publicly thank their mothers, we prayed for mothers and thanked God for them and then in true El Puente style we had a special mothers' day cake! The children in church had made keyrings for the church mums and they were also presented with little boxes of choclolates !

We tried to be sensitive to the fact that mothers' day can be a hard day for some people who don't have a mother and we spoke of the importance of family, church family and the fact that we are adopted as God's children. We especially think of little Roxana in our church who lives with her grandmother and encouraged her to give the special gifts to say a big thankyou to her grandmother who cares for her.

Frustrations working within the Peruvian Health System

2011-04-28T14:17:00.007-05:00

I would like to tell you about 3 patients who came to the clinic one morning this week and the frustrations I sometimes experience working within the Peruvian medical system.

Saturnina is a 73 year old quechua lady from the countryside who does not speak spanish. She presented with a 3 year history of a skin lesion,abdominal pain and profound weight loss (she weighed 40kilos!) I am almost positive she has an aggressive skin cancer. Since she has no health insurance I gave her a referral letter to see a dermatologist at the government hospital. She is very poor but will have to find money for the consult and a skin biopsy, if she has cancer there will be no oncology treatment available to her in Cusco.She will have to queue up at 0500 in the morning hoping for an appointment with the dermatologist, it will be frightening for her since she does not speak spanish and is not used to hospitals.I pray that she will be treated with dignity and that people will take time to explain things properly to her.

Pelagio is 57 and has chronic lung disease requiring an operation to remove part of his lung. He has an insurance policy which will cover his operation however, he needs to pay for the anaesthetist, for 2 pints of blood ,( or find someone to donate them for him) his travel, food and board in Lima for the operation. I have been trying to make contact with a church in the Peruvian baptist convention to find someone who can help him in Lima (his family refuse to help him) and maybe visit him in hospital, we are working on it but it has been difficult to find someone willing to get involved.
It was good to invite him to join with the staff at our Friday morning prayer meeting so we could pray with him , for his medical, practical and spiritual needs.

Jesus is a 6 year old boy who has severe mental and physical disabilities, he is incontinent, he can not speak or walk, we were assessing him to try and make a diagnosis to pass on to a special needs school we hope will accept him , a charity that our friend has set up, this would be a huge support to the whole family. (His mum is currently in hospital having her leg amputated).

Three patients that all made me think how different things would be for them if they lived in a country where there was a national health service!
Wasn't it Mother Teresa who said she imagined seeing Jesus in each person she cared for? Well we try and do that at La Fuente clinic but to remind us further we even sometimes have patients called Jesus!

Everything looks so green!

2011-04-26T20:48:00.005-05:00

Here are a couple of photos taken when we visited Moray in the sacred valley with the team a few weeks ago . After months and months of rain the green mountains are absolutely stunning. As rainy season ends Anjanette has started watering the plants in the garden again and soon all the lush green around us will turn dry and yellow and brown. However for now we are enjoying the combination of hot sun and green vegetation! We are blessed to live in such an amazing beautiful place!

Happy Easter

2011-04-23T14:20:00.004-05:00

We have no spring flowers,spring lambs or Easter bunnies in Cusco in April however the church calendar prompts us to reflect on Jesus' death and resurrection this Easter time. Unfortunately the evangelical church do little to celebrate Easter, often taking the attitude that as a resurrection people every Sunday is a resurrection celebration and whilst we understand this we still enjoy setting aside a special time of year to remember the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross to allow us to have a relationship with God.

It has been a joy to listen to Jessica read the Easter story to us from her new bible and to talk with Jess and Sam about why God sent Jesus to die on the cross for us. Jessica decided that chocolate Easter crosses would be more suitable than chocolate Easter eggs, maybe next year she can make some for us!

Speaking of making things we are delighted that chef Scott tried his hand at a recipe for high altitude hot cross buns, a taste of home how wonderful! And as for the chocolate eggs , well the Bristol team and a few thoughtful others have sent us a huge amount of eggs so no need to worry that we are missing out!

Tomorrow our church service will be focused on the theme of Christ's resurrection and we will be having a special celebration meal with our church family after the service. Happy Easter! may you know the power of the resurrection in your lives at this special time.

Thankyou Bristol team.

2011-04-19T09:43:00.007-05:00

Thankyou for praying for us we have had the most amazing time together!

Not long after we got back to Peru we helped the Ropers settle into their new home and it seemed as if soon after the Ropers moved out of our house we were preparing for the next big event preparing the timetable for the arrival of our visitors!

We had no idea how hosting a large group of non spanish speakers would really work out but it has been amazing. Steve the principal of Bristol Baptist college previously worked as a missionary in Peru in Cajamarca, so having him leading the team was wonderful, he preached at a number of meetings and was a very helpful translator. We really appreciated his wisdom and insight into mission as we reflected on what God was showing us and teaching us.

The team were really willing to get stuck into whatever was asked of them, public speaking and praying, painting, gardening,cooking,serving ,playing music, organising kids games or classroom lessons, even doing action songs in quechua when we did our hospital visiting.

So as well as having had a lot of fun,making some terrific friends and enjoying a lot of laughter and some tears they have really left behind some treasure for us.

As a result of the community events we held , we now have some new people attending our church, please do pray for these new folk and wisdom for us as we get to know them and disciple them.
The team was a huge blessing to La Fuente clinic and also to the hospital. They helped us take the lessons at the school in Huambutio, helping us to build up stronger relationships in the community.

So thankyou Bristol team, you have blessed us more than you can imagine. A HUGE thankyou to those who looked after their families back in the UK who made it possible for them to come!

Please pray for them as they go back to the UK and try and process what God has taught them . We know that they will all be terrific pastors and it is our prayer that this time in Peru will make them keen to engage their churches in mission at home and overseas.

Celebration Cuy

2011-04-18T15:07:00.005-05:00

Our friend Maria from Yucay breeds guinea pigs, Peruvians only eat guinea pigs when they have special celebrations since they are such a delicacy , well Maria very generously cooked some and brought them for the Bristol team to try after our church service. What a service it was! many new people whom we had contact with the previous week came along and it was great to have a full packed church, many were challenged by the message that Steve Finimore(principal from Bristol Baptist college) preached and came forward for prayer ministry so a wonderful time was had by all, and the cuy tasted good too!

Hospital Visiting

2011-04-14T16:37:00.006-05:00

A good friend of ours Robyn has set up a project visiting children in the burns unit and the orthopaedic ward in the government hospital. There are no teachers, play specialists or occupational therapists to work with the children and support their families and so Robyn and her team of volunteers take games and activities and work with them. We have been privileged to join Robyn this week and today Anjanette enjoyed chatting with the patients and relatives, many of whom have no visitors and no support. Some of the Bristol team played games with the children and one performed some magic tricks too! We had fun singing songs to them, they also sang to us and even taught us a song in quechua, hopefully we brought a little joy to their hospital stay, a bunch of gringos singing action songs should have caused some entertainment if nothing else!
We were also able to pray with the patients for God's help and strength in some very distressing situations. We thank God for Robyn and her team and the amazing work they do bringing hope and God's love to the scared and the lonely.

Poem for Robyn, by Ian O

Hard iron eyes lie on hard iron beds
The pain, too much to bare, has left faces drained of emotion.
Grubby whitewashed walls are unable to convey
That love and healing go hand in hand

Who knows these people?
Unknown faces in an unknown land
With foreign customs and a foreign tongue
Who can know their pain?
The torment of a broken body
Left abandoned in an obscure town.

Brokenness lies hidden.
Hidden beneath blankets and a wire frame
Hidden inside a concrete hospital
Hidden behind metal gates
Hidden in a world so far from home
No one need see, no one need know

Yet your eyes see it all
Your soft kind eyes running with heaven’s tears
Eyes that saw the suffering of your son
See suffering still

And yet there are some whose spirits are moved by yours
Who dare to expose what is hidden
Who dare to bring colour, toys and hope
Who dare to bring life and prayer and faith
And see vacant eyes returned to life
And health and joy and laughter.

Lord, melt my heart
That I might see those iron eyes
Now receive the gift of sight from you

Teaching in the school in Huambutio

2011-04-14T16:14:00.002-05:00

Along with our plans to start the clinic in Huambutio we plan to work in the community there by taking lessons in the school and running other activities, so today was a great opportunity to take some english, geography and PE classes in the school . The teachers were happy to have a break from teaching and the kids were very happy to spend some time away from their books hanging out with the gringos! The welcome we received was terrific and we all really enjoyed our morning there.

Dancing in the street

2011-04-12T16:20:00.003-05:00

It is not unusual in Cusco to be in the town centre and then quite unexpectedly to be surrounded by cultural dancing and festivities. This is exactly what happened to us in the plaza de armas today , it was a special treat for our visitors and as always a feast of colour of sound!

Peru politics

2011-04-11T17:43:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the first round of Peru's presidential elections. No candidate won by 50% hence on June 5th there will be a run off between the 2 candidates with the most votes. Many folk are very disappointed with the results, on June 5th the choices will be

Keiko Fujimori, age 35,she supports existing free-market policies, but is shunned by many Peruvians because her father, former president Alberto Fujimori, is in prison for corruption and human rights crimes stemming from his crackdown on guerrillas in the 1990s.

Ollanta Humala, a former army officer who led a short-lived military revolt in 2000,he has softened his anti-capitalist tone since narrowly losing the 2006 election.

please join us in praying for the country of Peru , thankyou.

Yucay

2011-04-10T14:31:00.001-05:00

Ian, one of our visitors from Bristol wrote this poem about his trip to Yucay.

There’s a twisted concrete doorway in the village of Yucay
beneath majestic mountains and a clear blue blazing sky.
It stands a forlorn monument that testifies the day
when the river flooded over and washed the house away.

Nature hides the story of the horror that was there
now flowers and the fruit trees shade the terror and despair.
Imagine everything you have, your house, its memories
collapsed into a pile of mud, nothing but debris.

But the house is only part of it, it’s your livelihood as well
the crops and your whole future have been swallowed up in hell.
Left impoverished and desolate, the numbness and defeat
as the hopes and dreams are lost its seems in the mud beneath your feet.

So why now the smiling faces and the hospitality?
The welcome of bright flowers where the kitchen used to be.
Could it be that hope has come to this corner of the earth
and the message of the gospel has been a catalyst of birth?
That an understanding of true love, faith and community
that the pearl of greatest price is here, that the Kingdom now they see?

We, partakers in this kingdom work, give God thanks today
and as bearers of the gospel we give our Saviour praise
Greed and hate and selfishness, we want all this to die
and the cross brings restoration to the doorways of Yucay.

Kids event in the local sports court

2011-04-09T12:24:00.004-05:00

Today Amanda and Neil organised a kids games event at the local concrete community sports area. We hired the sports court then had to pay more money for the man across the road to let us run a cable across road (cars literally drove over it!) so we could use our speakers and play music for the event! The children enjoyed facepainting, played football, did parachute games, made juggling balls out of rice and balloons, ran relay races, played with hoops, diablos and spinning tops. It was great to reconnect with some of the children in the community that we have got to know over the years, the kids had great fun and we invited them to church and explained that soon we will be starting up some kids clubs there. However for us the most exciting part of the day was the great conversations we had with people. The fact that we ran this event and had loud music playing meant people were stopping and asking questions, Anjanette had a long conversation with a lady from the campo who was selling flowers, she told her how hard it is for her to survive and provide for her family selling a few things since she is a single mother to 4 children.
Anjanette bought a bunch of flowers from her ( 6 gladioli for 25 pence!)and then was able to pray with her asking God to help her provide for all her needs. We also had some great conversations with people in the community who showed interest in coming to El Puente. It was great to have so many helpers from the Bristol team to make today such a fun event and to cause so many people to stop and chat with us, here are a few photos.....

Bristol team at La Fuente

2011-04-08T18:12:00.005-05:00

Today the Bristol team had a practical day,they worked really hard at La Fuente clinic, they did battle with the overgrown back garden, varnished the chairs in the patients' waiting area, painted a stunning mural and put loads of vitamins that they donated to the clinic into dispensing bags.

La Fuente is a really special place to us and it was wonderful to have our friends join us firstly for our weekly prayer meeting and then to serve the community there today. While all this busy activity was going on Anjanette had her busiest morning ever seeing patients. Jess and Sam even joined in after school and helped to paint the mural which was a special treat for them.

We have been blessed to host many different visitors these last few years we have lived in Peru , however hosting theological students is an exciting new experience for us!

Every night we have been priveleged to join in their reflection time at the end of the day when they share about what God has been teaching them that day, things that have particularly struck them and then bible verses which further explore those themes.

We love living in Cusco and it is fascinating to hear other peoples' reflections about our great city of Cusco!

The Bristol team have arrived

2011-04-03T19:07:00.002-05:00

The team has arrived with all their luggage and they have survived their first day in Cusco they received a warm welcome from our church this afternoon.

They are writing their own blog about their experiences in Cusco these next few weeks
click here if you would like to follow their blog

Timetable for the Bristol team

2011-04-01T17:01:00.007-05:00

Well we are getting ready to host a team of ministers in training from Bristol Baptist college ( 12 visitors in total) . Scott has been really busy with the logistics of their timetable arranging hotels, meals, visits, trips, translators and special events, Anjanette will be taking groups of 2 visitors at a time to the clinic/home visits . For those prayer warriors among you do pray for the time that they spend in Cusco that it will be a life changing experience for them and also that they will be a great blessing to the Peruvians that they meet.Please pray for strength and energy for the Cusco missionaries during their visit.

Sun April 3 arrive in Cusco , El Puente church service

Mon April 4 basic spanish lesson ,orientation and overview of the trip

Tues April 5 basic spanish lesson , visit central Cusco

Weds April 6 Cusco Pastors meeting / La Fuente clinic, pm sightseeing

Thur April 7 home visits at La Fuente clinic

Fri April 8 ladies manual work at La Fuente clinic, men manual work in Yucay

Sat April 9 young peoples' games/football game

Sun April 10 Sunday worship in Williamsons' home, day of Peruvian presidential elections no public meetings allowed

Mon April 11 visit Machu Pichu

Tues April 12 La Fuente ,childrens' burns unit,evening visit to seminary

Weds April 13 pastors meeting/La fuente, burns unit,evening seminary

Thurs April 14 La fuente/english classes in school in Huambutio, pm burns unit

Fri April 15 La fuente/Huambutio,pm burns unit evening outreach event El Puente

Sat April 16 all day trip sightseeing sacred valley

Sun April 17 am preaching in different churches, pm El puente

Mon April 18 free day in Cusco

Tues April 19 leave Cusco

Medical Licence Application (by Anjanette)

2011-03-24T14:31:00.004-05:00

Well for the last 2 years that I have been working at La Fuente clinic here in Cusco other doctors have signed my charts for me ( a bit like being a medical student) since I do not have my licence to practice medicine in Peru. We didn't understand the whole application procedure until we met other British and American doctors here in Peru so actually last year when Scott went back to the UK for his sister's wedding he spent some time in the Peruvian embassy getting some of my documents legalised and stamped and translated .

So here we are a year later applying to the university of Arequipa for my "titulo" we were told that I would have to work in a hospital in Peru before passing this first stage of the process, I am not keen on that option partly because we are so busy with our work here in Cusco but also because I have been working in the general practice setting in the community in the UK and in Peru for the last 10 years so my acute hospital medicine is quite rusty!

This week Scott went back to the University in Arequipa where a friend of ours arranged a helpful meeting between him and the head of the university and they are now agreeing that I have sufficient post graduate qualifications that proof of my working here in Peru (under supervision) these last 2 years in the clinic should prevent me needing to work in a Peruvian hospital. So today we sent 80 case notes by courier and further documents to Arequipa. All we can do now is wait and pray that I will be granted my license. ( At least this initial part of the process) We are not prepared to pay a bribe, nor is my spanish good enough to pass a medical exam ( a bit like medical finals!) so we have to trust that if it is God 's will for us to open a clinic in Huambutio to serve the community there that he will open the doors, thankyou for praying, please keep praying with us , we will keep you posted.

Harvesting the Maize in Yucay

2011-03-19T17:43:00.004-05:00

Those of you who read our blog regularly and support our work will remember that back in August 2010 we distributed maize seed to the families who lost their crops in the floods in Yucay. Well what a joy to return to Yucay today and visit the community there, we saw the wonderful harvest and celebrated with our friends there and even enjoyed a taste of the choclo! They greeted us warmly and commented on how much weight we put on in England (sometimes we miss the British sensitivity!!)we had a wonderful reunion.

The farmers are rebuilding their lives and their homes too! Our prayer is that one day soon we will see the beginnings of a new church plant in Yucay , seeing lives transformed spiritually as well as physically. Please pray for James and Julia who are preparing to move to Peru soon, after a period of language training they hope to work with the community and to church plant in Yucay.We thank God for this wonderful harvest, we don't really know too much about farming and agriculture but it certainly warmed our hearts to see the maize in the fields in Yucay today !

Maria's funeral

2011-03-17T12:47:00.004-05:00

Scott preaching

The coffin in the back of the pick up truck

The Despedida (saying goodbye)

Scott and Mercedes reading scripture at the graveside

cementing the coffin into the wall

Yesterday Maria passed away. She was Mercedes' grandmother, Mercedes is one of our teenagers at church and like her grandmother she is originally from the community in Huambutio. Our ladies' bible study group had been praying for her since she had thyroid cancer and in her last days could hardly breathe. (There is no hospice or palliative care available in Cusco) The funeral was held the following day firstly in the family home. Then the coffin was placed in the wall in the cementary in Huambutio. Today (23 hrs after she died) Scott conducted the service in Huambutio.

What a difference to funerals we have attended in England:

-We started late.
-We kissed everyone present at the funeral to greet them whether we knew them or not.
-Dogs and people wandered in and out of the service in the house.
-We sat precariously in the house on very wobbly long benches.Scott decided it was best not to sit down!
-The coffin was transported in the back of a pick up truck.
-We felt the hot sun burn us as we stood and watched the coffin being cemented into the wall in the family plot.
-The graveyard was surrounded by impressive green mountains, there were beautiful wild flowers with humming birds flying around!

And yet there were many similarities , people grieved, people gave thanks for Maria's life, members of the community joined family members and friends in celebrating her life and God's words of comfort were preached and prayed ! So in some ways it wasn't so different after all.

Feliz Cumpleanos Jessica

2011-03-13T19:20:00.006-05:00

Today for Jessica's 8th birthday we have been thinking about things beginning with P

Party, Pass the Parcel ( a game we have taught our Norwegian, Canadian, American, German and Peruvian friends), Parilla (spanish word for barbeque, always a must when the Williamsons have friends over to celebrate birthdays in Cusco, and the sun shone all day!) Pinata, we bought a cheap cardboard one from the market for £1.25 and stapled it together and filled it with sweets, and Pastor our theme for the church service , straight after the party was "El Senor es mi Pastor" (The Lord is my shepherd) And so you really get a flavour of what life is like in the Williamson household Poor old Pastor Scott ended the day with a Plunger in his hand as the loo was blocked !!

We had a great time celebrating Jessica Ruby's 8th birthday. We are very blessed to have lovely friends here in Cusco to celebrate with. We hope you enjoy these Photos of the celebrations...

Getting ourselves organised

2011-03-12T17:10:00.004-06:00

We have been back in Peru for 11 days , in some ways it feels so natural to be back that it feels as if we never left, although the shortness of breath and the headaches we are experiencing remind us that we are reaclimatising to the altitude.

The new mid term family moved out of our house yesterday to a flat just round the corner even closer to our church than we live. It is a great location as they hope to host the Sunday school in their home during the service , this means that the childrens' work will be far more interesting than having a quiet story and colouring in the little cubby hole that they currently do during the sermon!

So today we have unpacked our travel bags and sorted out all of the bedrooms and tidied the house in preparation for Jessica's 8th birthday party tomorrow.Birthday parties are a big deal here! Peruvians normally hire a venue and a childrens' entertainer and invite the whole class, expecting most siblings to come too, quite how they organise party bags is a mystery to me since the invitations go out the day before the party and nobody ever replies, so we will be having a party in our home with a few friends from school and church, our friends have got used to the "odd " way us gringos celebrate childrens' birthday parties and we are even confident that they know us well enough to turn up at the invited time! We are so grateful that God has given Jessica some lovely friends and we are also great friends with their parents, some of whom also attend our church, our prayer is to make equally good friends this year with Sam's school friends.

Today Scott took Jess and Sam to El Molino market, the large market in Cusco where you can buy just about anything you need and we bought them new bikes. They are both so tall (head and shoulders above most of their Peruvian classmates)and have outgrown the bikes that they learnt to ride on.They are very excited about their new bikes, the challenge now will be finding a flat safe place for them to ride them! Today's other challenge will be putting the pinata together ready for the birthday celebration!

New Friends

2011-03-06T12:32:00.004-06:00

The Roper family (Neil Amanda Daniel and Sophia) are the new BMS missionaries who have come to work with us ,we are very grateful that all 4 kids are getting on so well, this is especially important since they are staying in our house at the moment. Jessica is enjoying babysitting and playing with 2 year old Sophia, whilst Samuel and Daniel (age 4) are also having great fun together making up games enjoying running around together. A few days ago we had a brainstorming session sharing our aspirations for the youth and childrens' ministry in our church, we are very excited about the opportunities we will have now that we have a "team" working together here. These next few weeks we will help them move house, to an apartment round the corner from the church and Anjanette (ably assisted by Jessica) will spend some time looking after the children in the afternoons while Neil and Amanda are at language school. So far we feel very blessed that we are all getting on so well together, please pray that we will work well as a team and be a strength and a support to each other. Please pray for the Roper family that they will soon be confident speaking spanish.

We are back in Cusco

2011-03-01T18:22:00.002-06:00

We made it back to Cusco!
All 4 of us and our 8 suitcases made it from London to Cusco in one piece the journey was long but fortunately there were no delays . We visited the beach in Miami, we had breakfast at Lima airport with our colleague Margaret and we were delighted to see some of our church family and a few of our missionary friends waiting at Cusco airport to collect us. The sky was blue the sun was shining but in true Cusco style there was a hailstorm in the afternoon.
We managed to squeeze in a quick meeting with Jess and Sam's new teachers, we put the car battery back in, started preparing for the new school year tomorrow and even made a start on the unpacking. We are taking medication called diamox to help us adjust to the high altitude here, unfortunately the side effects are that your fingers and feet tingle and burn alot , but hopefully we won't feel the effects of the high altitude so acutely (the headaches, tiredness and shortness of breath).
So we are here and although it feels a little odd to be here it is good to be back , the kids are delighted to be back in their own home again with their toys and their summer clothes which they put on straight away.We have all forgotten some of our spanish and are a little concerned about how they will get on at school , we hope and pray that they will have a great start to their new school year.

10 hr stop over in Miami

2011-03-01T17:58:00.004-06:00

Our journey from London,England to Cusco,Peru was long! The airline informed us in advance of a change in our flight times and so we knew we had a 10 hr stop over in Miami.
So what do you do when you have a 10 hr stop over in Miami? Well the Williamsons decided to go to the beach!
We didn't exactly have the coolest beach wear (just our travel clothes) but it was fun to feel the sand in between our toes and to enjoy the hot sun and to gaze at the beautiful sea!

Trip to Madrid

2011-02-16T06:37:00.005-06:00

We are so grateful to have loving grandparents who look after Jess and Sam, Scott's parents had Jess and Sam for a few days allowing us to grab an easy jet bargain and fly to Madrid and practice our Peruvian spanish, people could understand us most of the time!
How exciting to see spring blossoms and sit in an outdoor cafe after the cold snow in Scotland the week before! We enjoyed the spanish food, architecture, museums and art galleries and had a lovely break. Now we are gearing up to go back to Cusco saying our final goodbyes, clearing our stuff out of Anjanette's parents garage and organising our packing . Feb 28th is the BMS World Mission day of prayer, please pray for the work BMS is involved in all over the world and please remember us in prayer as we start our long journey back to Cusco then too! We will arrive in Cusco on March 1st , then Jess and Sam have their first day of the new school year on March the 2nd !

Scottish snow in February

2011-02-08T11:25:00.002-06:00

We have spent the last few days in a hotel in Pitlochry,Perthshire. It was lovely to spend a few days away as a family and the scenery was spectacular since it snowed while we were there! Sometimes we feel that as missionaries our children miss out on normal activities and life experiences that most children in the UK have (and we know that their lives are also enriched by other experiences that UK children would never be exposed to!) One such experience is learning to swim,the swimming facilities in Cusco are not very good so we hoped that during our few days away that Samuel's swimming skills would improve if we spent some time in the hotel pool . Samuel loved the water and for the first time ever he became much more confident managing to take a few strokes unaided which we are delighted about and will be working on in the next few weeks.

photos of our Scotland trip

2011-02-04T11:50:00.003-06:00

dressing up in Victorian outfits with Nanny

dressing up with the bagpipes!

photographed with our new friend the Piper

Jess, Sam and their Great Granny

Visiting the Discovery ship in Dundee

Jessica writes about the aquarium

2011-01-31T06:06:00.005-06:00

Scotland:
In Scotland we went to Nanny and Grandad's house. The next day we went to an aquarium, we saw a shark her name was Tiana. Tiana was the biggest fish in the aquarium.I met a bearded dragon called Fin,he had lots of spikes but they were very soft. Me and Sam held him but he ran from Sam's hand , he was yellow.

Bonnie Scotland

2011-01-30T15:04:00.003-06:00

Here we are north of the border, it is good to be back in Scotland.
We are having precious family time staying with Scott's parents and this weekend we enjoyed our last link church visit. Our only link church in Scotland is Cupar Baptist church and what a treat they had in store for us! This weekend we were invited to their Scottish evening, we feasted on haggis, stovies, scottish trifle and tablet. We listened to scottish music and poetry and we also had an opportunity to share about our work in Cusco. Cupar have been fantastic at keeping in touch with us and supporting us and it was wonderful to spend time together again.It will be impossible to forget Cupar since they presented Jess and sam with a battery operated bag pipes toy!!
We have enjoyed our link visits immensely, we have spent 12 weekends visiting 20 different churches and now that we have completed our busy tour of our the UK churches we look forward to some much needed rest and relaxation.