Hola from Peru!

Hey guys, how’s life?? Did you have a good Easter? Didn’t see a single chocolate egg here (and no mention of giant bunny rabbits either). Actually, the Easter traditions here are... very different... Each village takes its “dead Jesus” idol (which is usually displayed in the Catholic church) and they parade it around the town on the Friday, remembering his death. But there’s no fiestas on the Sunday to celebrate his resurrection…. Like, THE most important part of Easter!

Hey go to http://www.sim.org/ to see that the Cotahuasi canyon does actually exist! It’s the mission website, and there’s a feature article about the work here in my very own village. Click on the “Deep Need in Cotahuasi” image, top left corner. The girl in the photo is my roommate (a few years back, when they first met her in one of the villages). It’s a good read J

I have finally made friends - and I can actually understand enough to have real conversations YAY! I went to visit this one friend I've made, Carmen. I've started helping teach her mum how to read (she had a pretty rough childhood, and being the girl child was never given the opportunity to learn to read). She took me on this big long walk to her family's farm. She took me around the whole thing, all the fields, stopping so I could taste like every fruit you could imagine. One of the yummiest fruits I've eaten here is called "tuna", which is the fruit that grows on a cactus. and it is SOOO yummy. Except I bit into one she gave me... and it had a cactus needle in it ..! The needle was about an inch long, and it pierced into my tongue and got stuck! Arrrggh! I'd only ever heard of that happening to one other woman, and she went to the hospital here in Cotahuasi, and they said "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do" and sent her away! Fortunately I managed to pull it out, no damage done Whew! So I can now say I got my tongue pierced in Peru haha

I'm finally finding my place in ministry, and loving doing kids work. We go out to these tiny rural villages each week, round up all the kids and then do a programme with them for a couple hours - songs, teach them from the Bible, crafts, games, and just generally hangin with the crazy cats. I'm now in charge of running the kids ministry... which has been a huge challenge trying to run it in Spanish. It's made me really have to rely on God - and, as always, He comes through every time The hard thing now is that I'm leaving this town in less than 2 weeks, just when I'm really starting to get settled. Will be hard to say goodbye (I don't think goodbye's ever get easier, and I've done my fair share of them!)... but at the same time I'm looking forward to moving on to Abancay, where I'll be until August.

To my prayer supporters, I'd really appreciate your prayers as I prepare to leave here and move on to a new place (April 22). It'll be unsettling leaving here and trying to find my feet again in a new place... and it involves a 13 hour drive at high altitude to get there!

Keep in touch, and may you (yes, YOU) be blessed mightily by our awesome God!!

love, Lynda xoxoxo