Art Competition

Recently at San Lucas the secondary kids had an art competition. Susana from Sagrada Familia is shown here starting her picture. Shown here is another work Susana did for the Christmas card competition at her home. Today Susana turned 15. Wow! Time flies. While she has show interest in sewing, she has lately been talking about nursing, too.

One of our goals is to prepare the teens for 3 different types of employment so that they can earn a living when they get out of Casa Hogar Sagrada Familia. Of course, transitioning them to independence won't happen overnight! Pray for God's guidance on us in managing that area of their lives.

Missionaries

We were blessed to have a bit of time with the St. Philip's team as they passed through on their way to Cabanaconde to work on the church there. A great group of folks, they have tenaciously returned for 3 or 4 years now to bring a new perspective of Christianity to this village on the mountain's edge.

While in Arequipa they were caught by the Censo and spend an extra day in the hotel waiting to leave town! Then on their return to town their plane flight out was cancelled. Troopers every one, they rolled with the punches and Vicki was able to get them to the Casa Sagrada Familia during their extra hours in town. FLEXIBILITY is a very important term for mission teams!

Censo

We had a WONDERFUL day! About two weeks ago Peru decided it didn´t like the last census three years ago and said we would have a new census the following Sunday. What they did was actually shut down the COUNTRY. National curfew. No one to leave their home, no businesses nor shopes open, and census workers went door to door. We felt sorry for all the day laborers and small shop owners who simply lost a day of work. We, however, had a very quiet day (we had church Saturday night instead of Sunday.) Sat in the yard-no cars and trucks whizzing around our corner. No pedestrians. The weather was nice. We watched the hummingbirds buzz by. Listened to our parrot squawk as the parakeets chattered and our wild doves filled the yard. We have one dove nesting just at eye height in plum tree. Quite nice. Next, we had lunch of huevos rancheros, cottage fries, bacon and tortillas. A short nap in the afternoon followed by my sawing off a couple of branches to put in the bird cages. After that a bit of computer work. We are making notebooks to take on the Holy Land trip All that done, we had small steaks and baked potatoes followed by some fancy desserts we had in the fridge from a bakery. Very nice, peaceful day. After dinner we watched a movie on the Tudor reign in English history. Thank you Lord, we really appreciated this day.

New Voices

Thanks to Vicki's encouragement, we have added two new voices to the choir. This is a great addition and one we really need. We know that at some time in the future Nestor will need to do more lay minister service and he will be less and less available to help with the music. Thank you, Lord!

FRIENDS

One of our objectives here in Arequipa is to support and raise up the local clergy. Juan Carlos was priested six months after we arrived, and María has now been in the diaconate almost 7 months. It has been a blessing for us to be sounding boards for them as they experience the highs and lows one encounters in the first years of ministry. Tremendously supportive, they have been our mainstay in the unexpected challenges we, too, have found! Indeed, friends in Christ are treasures that neither moth nor rust can destroy.