Tarata Visit #1

Just another little post so say how yesterday’s visit to Tarata went.

Yesterday we (Chris from the past Misión Rescate Team accompanied me) left Tacna at 8am and travelled up the road to Tarata. It’s mostly tarmac except of where rivers have run across the road during the rainy season and damaged it a bit. The journey only took just over one and a half hours, a fraction of what the journey used to take when it was a dirt road. Tarata apparently is at an altitude of 3080m above sea level, but thankfully neither of us felt ill.

After a quick cup of tea we attended the service. It’s held in a small building beside the pastor’s house but was pretty full by half-way through the service. I had the privilege of preaching and I must say the children in particular were very attentive. After the service we had a brief photo session and then shortly after lunch, headed back down the road again in time to make the evening services in Tacna.
These are photos of the church congregation.

This is the pastor Orestes and his wife Berta who have served the Lord in this town and the surrounding villages for decades.

Please pray for them as they continue serving the Lord in difficult circumstances. They receive little encouragement but continue to faithfully witness in this town. Added to this there have been a few new independent evangelical groups starting works in the town and essentially destabilising their church. These groups tend to come up on Saturday and leave on Sunday and don’t offer a true pastoral support to their adherents, yet they claim to be the ‘central’ or first Baptist witness in the town.

Thanks again for your faithfulness in prayer,
Blessings,
Alistair.

Old & New

Hi. Classes continue well.
It seems the in my 1 Peter class on Monday nights I will probably have 17 students, and there are currently 9 students in my Saturday morning Practical Theology class; big enough to get a discussion going but not so large that I wouldn’t get to know the students. Anyway I’ll write more about this as the semester develops.

On Sunday night I had the pleasure of visiting a church in ‘Cono Norte’ or the northern end of Tacna, opposite obviously to ‘Cono Sur’ or southern point where the de Vida churches, seminary and radio station are. It’s a church my Dad worked with a lot during his time in Peru but is now independent from the mission and seemingly doing well. The pastor had invited me to speak at an anniversary service back in July but I wasn’t able to attend. Instead I promised a date in September; last Sunday night. It was good to meet up with people I hadn’t seen since I was a child and was frankly surprised that I was able to recollect quite a few faces. The fact is however, that these believers haven’t forgotten many of the missionaries and teams that have visited them in the past. A few members, knowing I was coming, brought along photos they treasured of our family.

This is one of me with a full head of blond hair.

I was encouraged to see how the church was progressing and developing. Their building is well finished now and they have power point, drums, electric guitars etc. In fact the worship was interesting given the blend of accordion and electric guitar, joined later by the drum kit when the drummer eventually showed up. Yet it did demonstrate their attempt to cater for all ages. They sang 3-4 hymns from the old ‘Cala’ hymn book (which I remember was old when I was young), a few from another hymn book, evidently more recent, and lastly a worship time of very new songs on the power point.

I must say that my overarching impression was that I was made very welcome and that they were genuinely encouraged and excited that I had taken the time to visit. As a result I have made arrangements to visit another Sunday night mid-October.

Well, in the spirit of visiting places of old anew, I plan God willing to go to Tarata on Sunday morning. This is a little town about 2 hours from Tacna (some say less now that the road is tarmac) up into the mountains. The mission established a work there many years ago but sadly not many missionaries have been able to visit recently. The last ones to visit, as far I’ve been told, were the first Misión Rescate team. Please pray for safety as I travel (I was nearly hit by a bus overtaking a car approaching a bend this morning as I travelled back from Ilo). Also pray as I preach, that the message I share would be an encouragement to those present.

The other event I attended was a basketball competition in which Rebecca Morrow was participating. I had heard so much about how amazing etc these were and I wasn't disappointed. Both her match and the last match were particularly exciting and had us on the edges, and off, our seats at the end. I thought I would post one picture in particular which I thought was quite humourus.

It looks distinctly as if 16 has been hit with the mid-match-munchies and decided to have a chew on 43's bicep with 32 looking on in disbelief. I might get on to this basketball thing yet!

Thanks again for all your support and encouragement.

God Bless.
Alistair.

Radios & Porridge

Hi, since the last post a few things have happened.

Firstly my second course got off the ground on Saturday morning. Only 3 of the 7 students turned up, the rest presumably attending the radio conference. This means this week’s class will be a bit of a refresher and then into the ‘meat’ of the course. The first topic I’m dealing with is death and grief. Part of the second lecture (if we get this far...which I doubt) is discussing the meaty subject of mortuary cannibalism. If you want to know more, sign up for the course!
This week’s 1 Peter lecture was postponed as it was the Radio station’s 2nd anniversary service. So it resumes next Monday night. God willing next week we will be dealing with 1 Peter 1:1-2 and discussing the assignments.

The other main event was the radio conference which took place between Thursday and Saturday. The speakers were Allen Graham and Fernando Arroyo from HCJB in Quito Ecuador. Allen does a lot of training for people involved in radio and was actually on his way back from a conference in Argentina.

There was an excellent attendance with visitors from Pucallpa in north Peru, Arequipa, Arica in Chile across the border and local people. The speakers had asked for 40-50 only so that the groups would be manageable for workshops and that is pretty much how many turned up.

More to the point was the way the attendees gelled together and took part eagerly in the different workshops and practical exercises. There were many radio stations represented from other cities but also people interested in getting involved in radio and students from local universities who are studying related subjects.

The schedule was packed and on the last day there was an end of conference meal and a walk round some of the sights in the centre of Tacna for those who had come from out of town. It was good for our own radio staff to get some practical training and advice from these speakers in their own environment.

On Sunday I attended ‘Palabra de Vida’ and went early to see the Sunday school. It was encouraging to see so many attending and their participation. At 8:30am they start by providing the children with a porridge and bread roll breakfast. The church is in a very impoverished area and the breakfast is truly beneficial to these children. Then from 9-10:00am they do their lessons (including an adult class who misses out on the breakfast and start at 9am). Then from 10:30 to around midday they have the morning service.

We were also able to make the most of the fact that an engineer from Pucallpa was attending the conference to allow him to check out some of the equipment. Don’t ask me exactly what it is he was able to do... but it sounded very technical, was apparently gravely important and involved me driving them (the engineer and Reuben our Radio director) up to the hill overlooking Tacna, where our radio mast is, at 6am on Monday morning before he got his flight.


Monday night was then the anniversary service which was great and very encouraging for the staff of the radio, who were exhausted after a very busy week.

These are the staff of the radio with John and Lourdes Brew dropping Allen Graham off at the airport on Tuesday morning.

Anyway I must go now but will write again soon.
God Bless,
Alistair

Classes and classes

Hi, just a little update.

The seminary has started and there seems to be a good number of students but some are still enrolling late so it’s too early to get an accurate count of how many students there are.

I have taught my first class on 1 Peter. It didn’t go too bad. It was the introduction which some people naturally find boring and a couple of tricky questions were asked but I managed to answer them satisfactorily. I admit it had me sweating though because it crossed my mind that maybe I was very mistaken, but after checking with another missionary after class I was relieved to find that I was neither ‘barking up the wrong tree’ nor lapsing into heresy (imagine doing that on your first lecture of the first week... I should at least give it a fortnight).

My second course, on practical theology, starts on Saturday. I’m looking forward to this as it will get the course ‘off the ground’ so to speak. Getting to meet the new students will also help me as I continue to refine and rearrange future lectures. In another sense I’m nervous but I’ve as much preparation done as I can so just wait and see how it goes on the day.

This week there has also been a conference here at the seminary hosted by the radio station which doesn’t finish until Saturday. I haven’t attended very much of it but have helped out in the background when needed. I’ll say no more now but wait and write about it in a future post.

To keep you updated on where I’ve been. Last Sunday morning I attended ‘Manantial de Vida’ and was asked on arrival to help inspect the Sunday school classes. It was an interesting experience. In the afternoon I travelled to Ite and preached at the evening service there. This Sunday morning I plan, God willing, to visit ‘Palabra de Vida’ and then perhaps ‘Luz de Vida’ in the evening. This will mean I will have visited each of the four Mission churches at least one time.

Anyway, I’ll go now and try to write again early next week. Thanks again to all of you for remembering me in prayer and for all your encouragements.
God Bless,
Alistair.