Mission Meanderings

I now have the official invitation! Bishop Bill is such a blessing. I can’t wait to get there and to have learned enough Spanish to really communicate. Patience!!!

I have added a link for donations – don’t be bashful.

Blessings – Ian

I am now in the process of prayerfully asking those folk whom God indicates to me if they will become part of our support team. Thus far four have accepted the invitation. I am also working on an initial newsletter, which will announce to all our friends, family and colleagues what God has called us to do in Peru.

Here are pictures in two of the shanty towns.

On the left we are in Cerro Cajamarca and I am singing with Fr. Benjamin Salas and his wife Livia, joined by Doris on the left. We do this to attract the community and tell them we are “open for worship” later we (Fr. Mike Chapman and I) prayed for many. Mike did the praying and I asked God for knowledge – I needed it as I had no clue about what they were saying. It amazed the folk that God would tell me, I would tell Mike and he would confirm it with the prayee. Talk about GLORY! We were all blown away by God’s presence and power to heal.

In the second picture we are in another shantytown above Lima. This young girl came out to visit with us. In her home behind her there live three families. There is no running water. Sister Edith comes every week to minister to these families in a “church” – a couple of rooms loaned to us by a local Christian family for worship and teaching.

What a joy it is to be involved with these wonderful folk and the dedicated clergy and lay ministers. I cannot wait to learn enough Spanish to go in without an interpreter. I can’t wait for God’s provision that will enable us to go. Am I impatient? HUGELY!

The picture on the left is of a Peruvian woman making her way to our meeting, drawn by the music.

In the background is the city of Lima shrouded in its traditional mist. Underfoot is the desert terrain upon which these communities are built.

These ladies in ten days cleared a site for the new church, terraced it with rocks. A day later they were able to get “title” to the tiny piece of hillside which is now the “Church.” Fr. Benjamin wrote me this week that they have been blessed by the bishop and hope to build a structure in October.

When Fr. Mike and I first went to the property we were asked to bless the cornerstone rock. e did so with holy water. That rock is continually wet to this day! Is this a sign or what?

More later

I am visiting the early church of Cerro Cajamarca in Lima. Fr. Benjamin and I were singing so as to attract a crowd. Ten days later we did the same thing on the property that the women had cleared up the hillside. Yesterday Fr. B wrote me to say that in October they will start to build with teh Bishop’s blessings. God is really Good!

Having just returned from two months of sabbatical it is exciting to have determined where God wants to use us after retirement.  Polly and I have been invited to return to Peru to assist Bishop Bill Godfrey in training clergy and seminarians.  We will be based in Lima Peru and we will be sent under the covering of SAMS-USA (South American Missionary Society).