Peru Update: Guinea Pigs and Tambourines...

Hey there!!

I pray that you´re well, and walking in God´s awesome blessings. Ive heard about the crud weather y´all have been having - sorry to hear it!!

Well, after being exiled to Bolivia for 24 hours because of an expired visa, I am now safe and happily back in Peru. Just to give you an idea of what life´s like, here´s some highlights...
... eating guinea pig, which included bringing them home LIVE from the market, then watching my family kill, skin and cook them!
... at the most modern shop we have here, the supermarket (the only place I know that has eftpos), they didn´t have the right change to give me, so gave me a 10cent lolly instead
... I regularly play the tambourine in church hehe, at a church where they play the same 3 chords on the guitar, no matter what the tune is!

Funny huh

Yesterday I spent most of the day in the hospital, cos my neighbour was having an operation. It really struck me how much of a privilege it is to be here as a missionary. I got to know a lot of the nurses and doctors during the day, and every one of them now knows Im a Christian - it just comes up with the ´why are you here?´ question. And that can often lead into more conversations. I got to read the Bible to my friend who was panicking about her operation, and 2 of the nurses told me they want to come check out a church on sunday. It´s just so awesome, and I pray that I can make the most of these opportunities.

I´m still going to the community church down the road. Every week the pastor tells the church how thankful he is that I´m here in their church. They´re a very small, forgotten church in the outskirts of the city, with people who come originally from out in the villages. The other night they talked about tithes and offerings, and it was fascinating - If you have 10 rows of corn, one belongs to the Lord, and the practicalities of bringing your offering of a pig to the church! When I first started going, there were about 7 or 8 people in each service, but it´s been growing. Now we get around 15 or 16, and has been over 20 people a couple of times. Its really encouraging. And this one girl I´ve been praying for for weeks repented in front of the church and gave her life back over to God last week. It was so touching - no moving sermon, no music, not even an altar call. She just came up to the front of the church and repented.

My main ministry is English teaching. This means that I get to go to people´s homes and teach there, which is an awesome opportunity to get to know them. One woman has recently decided to become ´evangelical´ , which is very hard in such a Catholic society, and it´s great to be able to talk to her.

Thankyou for the encouragements I get, it means a lot to hear from home. Its hard sometimes being the sole kiwi, surrounded by people who know nothing of rugby, think I come from Europe, and stare at me for being white! :)

Prayer and Praise:
- Praise for good health
- Praise for the cool house I´m living in (house sitting for an American missionary family)
- Pray for wisdom to know how to reach people in the community
- Pray that my Spanish will keep getting better, so I can actually make sense when I´m talking to people about important stuff!!

Bless you all,

love, Lynda
PS Have booked my flight, and I´m back in NZ on Sunday Aug 26