Happy Fathers' day

We had a great fathers' day celebration with cooked breakfast, lunch out in Scott's favourite restaurant and a special fathers day themed church service, despite the kids being sad that they were off school last week due to strikes so did not collect his cards and gifts on time. Scott also received phone calls of greetings from folk who considered him their "spiritual father!" which was a nice surprise too.How fortunate we are to celebrate the goodness of our earthly and our heavenly father to us.

Please pray for Pastor Pepe

Pastor Pepe is the president of the Peruvian Baptist convention and a friend of ours. This week he discovered that he has stomach cancer. Today he is having an operation to remove the cancer please join us in praying for him and his family at this time.

Days off and disruption!

Last year a friend said to me that in June the schools rarely have a full 5 day week how true that was!

Thurs June 3rd : Corpus Cristi public holiday
Tues 8th : strike in Cusco
Weds 9th: day off school for teacher parents conferences
Thurs 17th : strike in Cusco
Fri 18th : strike in Cusco
Thurs 24th: public holiday for Inti Raymi day of Cusco .

so with all this disruption and days off school unfortunately Ausangate school are asking Jessica to come in for classes on Saturdays, something we are not too keen to comply with!!

Standing in for the catholic priest!

Our good friend Gina celebrated the inauguration of Casa de Nono today . A residential home for the elderly in Cusco, this is quite a novel idea since most Peruvian families live together and care for the older folk in their family, however there are instances in cities like Cusco where family members live far away and old people who can afford to pay may like to stay in a residential home.
Today the inaugural ceremony was at 10.00 , Gina is always at least 2 hours late for everything and so when it was explained to the catholic priest who was booked for the inaugural mass that it would actually be starting a few hours late he was unable to officiate. So we received a frantic phone call from Gina asking Pastor Scott to take the ceremony. Well we didn't do a "mass" but we did a small thanksgiving service followed by some traditional dancing, speeches and smashing a champagne bottle with a hammer!

World Cup fever

You'll not be surprised to hear that we have world cup fever in Cusco too. Jess and Sam are enjoying collecting stickers for their world cup and we are looking forward to watching the England/ USA game with our american missionary friends !

Guests of Honour

Here in the photo we are standing with Juan Carlos and his family. Juan Carlos graduated from medical school today today; he had to do a presentation about his thesis and there and then the board decide whether or not he has passed. Well fortunately he passed he was awarded his certificate and we were invited to join his immediate family and a few friends at the graduation party in a local restaurant. During the speeches we were introduced as friends of the family. How amazing to think that five months ago we had never even met this family and unfortunate circumstances brought us together. Juan Carlos and his sister live in Cusco but his parents Maria and Eddy live in Yucay they have been living in tents since the flooding in January and we have got to know them well. They invited us to celebrate this important event with them acknowledging the help we have given to their family and to their community and they will help us coordinate the distribution of maize seed project in the coming months too. Eddy said he wanted to thank us since we have kept our word and been faithful in supporting them when others had let them down, it was very humbling to hear this and we often feel so frustrated with the situation in Yucay wishing we could do more. When Maria phoned us to invite us to the graduation celebration we had no idea what to expect , well it turned out to be a very small select gathering and such a joy and honour!

Enjoying the public holiday.

No school today since it is a public holiday in Peru (Corpus Christi) . We went for a lovely walk and a picnic and even played baseball (!) with two other missionary families. How wonderful that God has given us like minded friends with whom we can relax and enjoy spending our leisure time !