Best Wishes from South America

By the time you are reading this I will be half a world away, either in Chile visiting my friends Leonardo and Claudia (my language teachers when they were at Loughborough University) or back up in Huancayo, Peru.

I want to thank you all for your prayerful, loving support of my work with the Peru Children’s Trust, as well as your friendship over the last four years. I will be praying for you all, as together you/we seek the the Lord’s will for His church here in Quorn. I take this opportunity of wishing you all a blessed Christmas and New Year, with all that it will bring for us.

I leave for Lima on 10th December, then up by bus to Piopata, Huancayo, where I will meet up again with my friends and spiritual family, it will be wonderful to be back in my other home, yet at the same time sad to leave my family here, but God knows.

Initially, once I have acclimatized to the altitude, I will be very busy passing on the clothes to Marta and Luz - the family support workers, spending the money that the Lord has provided through His family in the East Midlands, buying equipment not only for the Dorcas room, but for the training centre, all this during my first ten days. Also we will be busy preparing for the four Christmas parties held over two days for approximately 200-250 children, with a present given to every child, as well as food for each group, games, singing and lots of FUN!! Then we will celebrate Christmas as a family. Manual has a large extended family so this could mean up to 60 folk visiting during the 3 day Christmas period.

I start teaching on 27th December, with a group of girls in the mornings, a break for lunch, then a group of mothers in the afternoon to teach the basics of dressmaking, as well as using a flush loo, running water and electricity (for some of them for the first time in their lives!) At the moment I am unsure what we will be making, but the skill and knowledge will I trust lead to a more hopeful future for a few of the Lord’s family.

During February we will be taking about 100 children away for a holiday Bible club week, which promises to be a super time, but exhausting, yet at the same time is spiritually rewarding as these youngsters will learn more of a God who not only loves and cares for them, but sent His Son that they might live. After all of this I return to the UK on the 11th March 2005, I hope for a bit of rest!

God bless, Jill

Back to This Magazine's Index