Wedding fever at El Puente

This weekend we celebrated Mariela's wedding. Mariela is a member of El Puente and she married Secmarino the youth pastor of a local evangelical church in Cusco.

On Thurs we had a joint cell group meeting in our home for their joint noche de despedidia  ( farewell to single life) party.

On Fri Scott attended their legal wedding ceremony at the Municipalidad then in the evening we had a long wedding rehearsal at the IEP church where the wedding was to be held.

On Saturday Jess got ready to be a bridesmaid, Scott got ready to preach, Anjanette got ready to play in the El Puente band and poor old Sam got ready to sit through 8 hours of wedding ceremony.

We had a long but very happy day,  folk from El Puente sang, preached, prayed, got the flower girls and bridesmaids ready, one church member was the Master of Ceremonies in the afternoon and at the end of a very long day Pastor Scott was the chauffeur of the newly weds and also all the wedding presents. We all worked hard and enjoyed celebrating with Sec and Mariela, we pray that God will bless them in their new life together.

noche de despedida de solteros in our home

Legal ceremony with the registrar the day before the church wedding

 waiting for the bride to arrive...

Pastor Scott preaching

The food:  ( a bull was donated for the wedding breakfast!)

Bride, groom and the Williamsons all dressed up!

Brightening up the clinic walls

The walls in the Huambutio clinic are very bare and for some time now we have wanted to paint a mural or some bible verses on them. Anjanette's cousins did a great job today painting scripture and pictures on the walls in the waiting room and doctor's consulting room. The clinic now looks much more cheerful and welcoming. The verses they painted  are John 3 v 16  and Matthew 6 v 25-28 .

Great to be back at the Huambutio Clinic

Here are a few photos of Anjanette's morning at the Huambutio clinic today:

 We first met this gentleman a few months ago and diagnosed his diabetes. Since starting his treatment his condition has improved rapidly. He attends the clinic faithfully, always greets us like long lost friends  and is our favourite diabetic patient!

 Every week Anjanette does health checks on the local school children, here they are enjoying their anti parasite medication!

These 2 were fit and healthy but sadly one 18 year old girl today weighed 40 kg and told us that she only eats once a day at the school free breakfast club. Please join us in praying about the possibility of  purchasing and donating dried food to some of our most needy patients.

 Like many of our patients this baby has respiratory problems. It is now winter in Cusco and many folk are really suffering with the cold weather. Most houses are poorly built and are drafty , it is cold at night in the mountains, people do not have heaters ; they  just use extra clothes or blankets if they have them.

There is no space in the local nursery for these 2 lively three year olds,  so today as they enjoyed playing with our toys at the clinic we invited them to return every week. While they  play we could have a cup of tea and a chat with their mums. Parents and Toddler groups rarely exist in Peru since children are often at nursery 5 mornings a week from the age of 2!

Please join us in praying that the mums will come back regularly so that we can start a parent and toddler group , it would be a great service to the community as well as an opportunity to develop friendships and to teach health education to the parents.

Anjanette makes a flying visit home

 As we have previously stated, the things we miss most are our family and friends in the UK.

Sometimes it can be hard missing special occasions or family celebrations.

So it was a real treat for Anjanette to pop back to the UK to spend time with her parents for 2 weeks. At the same time she was thrilled to be in the UK to attend the wedding of some special friends and to also be with her Dad for Father's day (First time  celebrating Father's day with him for 5 years)

Scott, Jess and Sam did a great job looking after each other while she was away but we are all now much happier to be together in Cusco again.

(The photo below is of Anjanette with her sister Joanna and their mum and dad taken on Father's day)

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Multicultural evening in Peru.

We were surprised to hear that our Peruvian friends have never eaten Indian food so we held an Indian themed evening for our church cell group. We listened to Bollywood music , dressed up accordingly and Chef Scott provided an amazing feast of Indian food. On a more serious note we spoke to our cell group about William Carey the first missionary to serve with the Baptist Missionary Society who went to India from the UK over 200 years ago!

 Here are a few photos of the fun and frolicks!

What a great team

Left to right Claudia ( psychologist) Margarita (nurse) Karina (pharmacist) Carla (administrator) and Anjanette (doctor). This is the team of amazing ladies that Anjanette works with once a week at the Huambutio clinic. Patients walk in to the clinic for medical and psychological appointments. We have also started doing health checks and lessons in the local school.

We plan to expand the work to include more health education, home visits and some bible study groups. Please pray for us, the work is exciting and there are many opportunities, we need wisdom to know how best to serve the people of Huambutio and to establish a church here.

Puerto Maldonado

Here are a few photos of our recent jungle adventure.

 It was our first trip as a family, and it was so exciting for all 4 of us to see the amazing jungle flora and fauna together.

We spotted caimans,,sloths,  capaybaras, agoutis. monkeys, many tropical birds and a giant anteater.

We had a wonderful time and learnt  more about the beauty of God's creation.