Campaign and more

From Monday, April 23, until Friday, April 27, there was a group from Texas in Collique for the spring campaign. This time there was a medical team and a construction team. Kees coordinated the construction part of the campaign and Elizabett served as an interpreter for one of the doctors in the moments she wasn’t teaching, because the children in our after school program had their normal schedule.

Blanca, OSA’s program director, asked a Peruvian to be available before and during the week to help me with the purchases of materials and the transportation of these to the construction sites. She specifically planned him to help me out with my Spanish. Finally, I did it all by myself, due to the documentation of former campaigns, which helped a lot. Last year, I asked the one who trained me if it was possible to make deals and order materials prior to the campaign, but his experience was that this doesn’t work in Peru. Well, I gave it a try and it worked for me. Tuesday before the campaign I ordered the wood, which I wanted ready to pick up on Friday morning at 10 am; it was because of the line at the bank, that I wasn’t on time, but they already called OSA that they were waiting for the tall Dutch guy. So when I arrived, we only had to load the truck.

During the campaign, I walked many times up and down the roads of the community to check on the teams. In this way, I have more interaction with the people and got to know new people. I always try to listen and examine the needs. I was able to guide several of them to one of the doctors and from others I got name and address so we can visit them.

The construction team finished two bedrooms, a small house, a water tank completely installed, roof repair, and replaced half of the roof of a house. In this second campaign for me, I learned again and we hope to improve the process with the next one.

Kees with the resident at one of the construction sites.

As I wrote, Elizabett taught her normal classes and hours during the week, but in the time she normally uses to prepare her classes and to visit families in the community she served as an interpreter.  She had lots of funny moments with the doctor, who was Indian, and a Russian nurse. It was her first real experience translating for a doctor and she just didn’t know most of the medical terms he used. So after a couple of patients they start talking something what I will call simple English. It made it easier for all, also the patients.

Elizabett with Maria instructing a patient.

For more photos and stories, visit OSA’s Facebook page.

Elizabett’s mother.

Elizabett’s mother is doing much better since the surgery, almost a month ago. Last weekend, we spent in Collique, after all the weekends of April with her. We thank you all for your prayers!

God is good!

“All the time!” is possibly what you think… We can tell you that we never doubted about God’s knowledge of our needs and His provision during difficult times. He provided the finances we needed to pay the hospital bills!

Prayer

Since our first weeks in Collique, we acknowledge that Satan is not too happy with our work here. He uses different arrows to stop us from doing what we are doing. Sometimes he has been successful, for a while, as we experienced sickness, but we are victorious and conquerors, because of Jesus. We have victory over all principalities, powers and dominion because of the work of the cross!

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 15:57 (NIV)

But we would really appreciate it if you pray for us regularly! And we want you to know that we pray for you as well.

What a week

That’s what counts for last week. The first days of that week were like every other week, but Wednesday was the day that completely changed our schedule. At the end of our weekly team meeting our phone rang. Elizabett went to our apartment to answer it and when I came in, she told me that we needed to leave as soon as possible, because her mother called that she needed an acute surgery. The doctor was almost hundred percent sure that her appendix needed to be removed.

We quickly ate our lunch and told the taxi driver to race to Miraflores. When we arrived there, Elizabett’s mother just had an ultrasound and blood test. Finally, the ultrasound didn’t show any bad signs, but the blood test had a different outcome. In the evening of that same day she had surgery. During the surgery the doctor also found a hernia, which he removed for the same prize.

Friday, she left the hospital and today she is doing much better. Praise the Lord! The doctor told Elizabett that if her mother had come a day or so later it could have been pretty bad.

We also thank God in the way He already miraculously provided part of the finances to pay these unforeseen bills. We trust our faithful God that He will continue to provide in our needs.

This week is another week, but also in the category of ‘what a week,’ because this week OSA is preparing for next week’s Medical Campaign. This time the group includes 10 persons for construction. That’s what is keeping me busy this week and the following. We have planned three projects that needed cement floors. For this I buy the materials and arrange the workers. Tomorrow, I go to pick up the wood which I reserved last Tuesday.

I am sure that next week is one in the category ‘what a week’ as well. During the campaign we come in contact with way more people than during a normal day, each person with his/her one history and situations. We pray that God brings people that really have needs and that we might be sensitive to these.

Our first summer in Collique

The people here have been talking about it since we live here. And as the months went by it came closer and closer. Three weeks in The Netherlands didn’t help in preparation, because when we came back we had a twenty degree Celsius gap to overcome. And now, almost at the end of it, I can say that they didn’t say too much… summer in Collique.

What’s a summer in Collique like? Sun and dust! Well, almost every day sun. If you want to look for the sun at noon, turn your head ninety degrees backwards and you’ll look it in the face. Did I say dust? Well, let me first mention the breeze that blows between the mountain ridges in between which Collique lies. It takes a fairly nice breeze from the Pacific—which we can see out of our window this time of the year—all the way up to the fourth zone of Collique, where we live and work. BUT this breeze is not plain air, no it seems to collect dust from the first, second, and third zone before it blows through our mosquito screens. Every day a swipe of my finger on the dining table shows me the evidence. Anyway, we are here to serve God, the Creator of the sun and the dust. The other day I read 1 Thes. 5:18. That’s what I do, thanking God for the breeze and don’t bother too much about the sun and dust.

While we were missing air conditioning in the first weeks of the summer, these last weeks, our bodies seem to adjust to the circumstances.

Well, enough about the summer in Collique. What’s been going on under Collique’s sun?

Since January 9, OSA is running it’s after school program. This year, we have a group of second graders and a group of first and second grade middle school students. While the schools in Peru still had their summer break, the children were eager to come. The children are not all going to the same school; some have classes in the morning and others in the afternoon. For this reason, the group of middle school students is split in half. Since February 13, we have nine in the morning and eleven in the afternoon. This year, Elizabett is teaching Bible and Microsoft Office to the group of middle school students.

The first weeks it was hard to get all the laptops up and running. Since we have two sessions, I created user accounts for the students on the best eleven laptops we have and hope they will last the whole year.

This year, Elizabett and I are also in charge of the monthly Bible study for the mothers of the oldest group of students. Every Thursday, the social worker gives workshops about health, nutrition, lifestyle, etc. One the first Thursday of the month we do the Bible study. This year, the children and mothers all study the book of John. Every week, the mothers have the possibility to write their name on a list if they would like a study in their home. So far every week, we visited an OSA family and some weeks two. We are filled with joy now we realize the hunger there is for God’s Word. Several of the mothers requested these studies more frequently. At the moment, we are planning on a bi-weekly study at OSA. Please, pray with us that we may take the best decision.

At the end of January and the end of February we took the middle school students on a trip. The first trip took us to the Inca Kola company, and two museums in downtown Lima. The second trip took us to two museums in Callao. For photos of the first trip click here, and click here for photos of the second trip.

Another activity I want to mention is the VBS in the second week of February. It was all decided and prepared at the last moment, but God blessed it abundantly. Each day we had over forty children from the community. The theme was “Build your life.” The last day of the VBS we as team thanked God for even building our lives as we worked together, sharing the good news of Jesus with these children. It was such a joy to walk through the community the days after the VBS and hear children calling my name. Some came to me for a hug. Click here for photos of the VBS.

This is just a little bit of what happened during our first summer in Collique, where the Son shines his light in the darkest corners of hearts. Witnessing these moments make me forget the hot sun and dust; a cool breeze is what I feel…

Photos

Yesterday it was exactly six months ago we started working for Operación San Andrés in Collique. These six months flew by faster than the last semester at Baptist University of the Américas. We thank God for the opportunity to serve Him here and we are grateful for the many moments that we could open His Word to share with the people of Collique. The people are really hungry for the Word of God.

On our invitation for our graduation in May last year, we wrote: “Another Ebenezer…” That’s how we can call February 15^th too. As we look back, we see that God has been faithful, ad as we look ahead, we trust in His faithfulness. God said to Jacob in Genesis 28:15, “I am with you and I will watch over you wherever you go” We know that He is with us when we visit people in the community and we see Him at work.

We know that our friends have been waiting for photos of the place where we live and work. Sorry that you had to wait for six months. Recently, we uploaded four albums to our blog. You can find links to the albums on this page, http://heartforperu.wordpress.com/photos/. You can also get to the albums via the top menu of our blog.

If you have questions, you can reach us at HeartForPeru@gmail.com or via the form on http://heartforperu.wordpress.com/contact/

New Year, Great Expectations

The year is already half a month on its way, but we still want to wish all our readers, family, friends, and supporters a blessed 2012!!! We hope you are also excited to see what God has in store for this year.

We received the New Year in the Netherlands, where we spent the Christmas holidays with my family and friends. This time, we were there for a special reason, the celebration of my parents’ 40^th wedding anniversary. We thank God for this milestone. We realized that in today’s society it’s not a common celebration anymore.

The three weeks we were in Holland we spent mostly relaxing and resting from our first four months of work in Collique. Especially the first days, we recognized that our minds and bodies were rather exhausted.

This time, the temperatures didn’t get below freezing points and we didn’t see snow like last year. Some days were more like fall, with rain and wind. We look back on three weeks of quality time with our family and we shared some about our work with our brothers and sisters in the church in Wijngaarden.

My niece and nephew wearing their new Peruvian chullo

On Thursday night, January 5^th, we arrived back in Lima. From 45°F in Holland to 85°F in Lima was quite a step, which our bodies couldn’t take in one day. They say it’s warmer than normal this time of the year. Now, 10 days later, our bodies seem to be used to the warmth and with a nice breeze it’s bearable. It was good to meet the team members, children, mothers and their family members again.

Now, it’s summer on this side of the equator and the children have summer break until March. A school year in Peru begins in March and ends in December; however, OSA started its classes last Monday. The children are excited to come and learn and were happy to meet us again.

Last Monday, we were on the bus from my mother-in-law to Collique. I was reading a book in which I read the following quote of Edmund Burke:

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”

It made me think. Looking out of the window, I see uncountable faces passing by—not mentioning the houses that hold many families. On this trip of about 20 miles there are many communities like Collique. Many people that need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For a moment I dream of reaching them all, by myself. Reaching a city with a population of more than 8 million. I think I won’t even start it. That’s why I didn’t want to make the mistake of doing nothing. The work in Collique among about 40 children and their families seems of no impact, seems to be little, but one day these 40 children can reach other 40 and these can reach other 40… (40x40x40x…) I believe in the great plans God has for Operación San Andrés and the people of Collique, that’s why I am here, that’s why we are here!

Then I looked out of the window again. A sign on top of a mountain caught my eye. “Con Cristo todo es posible” (“With Jesus everything is possible”). With a smile on my face I continued, x40x40x40x…

“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”” (Matthew 19:26) That’s why we expect the unexpected, also in 2012!