Landslide season again!

A few days before Christmas, Dina and I set off for Chinchinya with A LOT of stuff.



We had:
 - 18 Samaritan's Purse shoebox gifts for the children
 - other miscellansous gifts
 - about 100 small paneton breads
 - my guitar
 - our rucksacks
 - teaching materials
 - 2 very large birthday cakes, with easily damaged cream icing! (ooh good, said the twins' mum, you'll be driving from Abancay, please pick up 2 cakes for me)



Halfway there we got a phone call from the village telling us there had been a lot of rain and the river was uncrossable - "hah" we thought, "maybe for a car, but we have a 4x4..."


It really was uncrossable... a lot of sinking sand to get stuck in, followed by large boulders to break the suspension over.  We didn't make the attempt.



Instead we found a convenient place to leave the car, unloaded all the stuff, and waylaid every child we found on their way home from school in the larger village down the hill!



We made a strange procession as we carried everything up the hill - but it was really great for getting to know them more, and helping them to overcome some of their nervousness of us!





In Chinchinya, Dina and I had a meeting with the church leaders to think back on 2018 and plan for 2019.  They said that said that my work with the filters, as well as giving visible improvements in water quality, has helped change attitudes towards the church. There has been a lot of opposition since a few of them became Christians and started the church, but now people are starting to see that the church wants to help the community. What an encouragement!








Next day, after an evening of Christmas (and birthday) celebrations, we were ready to walk back to the car and drive home.  I ended up taking about 14 passengers and 3 huge sacks of grain down to the next village!

Making the invisible visible

I’ve been thinking quite a lot recently about how, all too often, “seeing is believing”.


In my work as a water engineer and missionary in Peru, I’ve focused in the last few months on distributing and checking up on water filters which remove microscopic parasites from drinking water. A lot of the teaching I give is about showing how the filters work – difficult when everything is too tiny to see, and we can’t distinguish between clean and contaminated water with the naked eye.

Previously when I worked in Ecuador, I used an incubator to grow colonies of bacteria overnight so they were big enough to be seen – there was an immediate and dramatic result when the villagers saw the difference between river water and spring water – they straightaway changed where they got their water from.

Here I’m investigating basic digital microscopes to be able to show parasites on a computer screen. In the meantime I have made a 1000x magnified water droplet out of plastic sheeting, along with colourful model parasites (photo) and a fishing net to filter them out. It seems to be working with many people using the new water filters, but others still have the tendency to forget or not be convinced because they can’t see the contamination or the difference when it’s removed.

I think of my challenge as “how can I make the invisible visible?”.

This is often a problem in spiritual life as well. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Sometimes we try to explain to people the dangers of living without following God, but we are not believed. Sometimes we, even though we are convinced, forget God’s nature and promises because he’s out of our sight.

So the question is the same – how can we make the invisible visible?

Here are a few ways the invisible is made visible:

• Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15) and God made us “in his own image” (Gen 1:26). When we are God’s children, we are transformed into his likeness - our lives should demonstrate God’s character, and we should see him in others.
• Creation shows us clearly God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature (Ro 1:20). Do we notice?
• Moses “saw him who is invisible” (Heb 11:27). Sometimes God reveals himself in miraculous ways – we need to be ready to believe when he does. 

Are our eyes open?

How can we help others to see?

Great Father's Day moment

On my last trip to Mariscal Gamarra, I did many things.  Finally met up with my friend Sulma and talked to her about her difficulties living and working so far from home and without Christian friends nearby to encourage her.  Taught her preschool class about parasites in water and how to use the water filter.  Spoke in various churches about our need to place our trust in God.  Saw Peru lose their first game in the world cup after 36 years without qualifying.  Managed to eat a whole guinea pig. 

But the best moment was this - seeing all the men from the churches in this district with their hands raised in prayer on Fathers' Day:

More music lessons

This week we finished 2 months of music lessons at church.  2 years ago we ran them for the youth group, this time it was for anyone.

I taught keyboard and had between 3 and 9 students each week.  Others taught guitar, singing, and drums. 

Each week we also had half an hour of teaching about worship.

What is worship?

 Working as a team

Pin the crown on Jesus! (making sure our worship is focused on the right person)

...and what the Bible says about the who, why, what, where, when and how.

 
 For the final class we all joined together and here's the result!

 And for those who kept on til the final week...

Water Project in Mariscal Gamarra (not mine)!

The whole valley of Mariscal Gamarra (more than 20 villages) is receiving a government water & sanitation project.  This is great news!

Each householder gets an outhouse with running water for a shower, a flushing toilet, and a washbasin, with drainage and a septic tank. 

Landowners only get to participate in the project if they're living on the land.  So some have built shelters and are living in them in order to get their water supply.

Villagers are invited to work on the project - they get paid £12 a day for digging the trenches, unloading materials, and making concrete blocks.  At least this is the theory.  They have to complete a certain quota each day, and the government representative who assesses the work hasn't made his report yet, so 2 months into the project no-one's been paid yet.

It's also giving more work to Mateo, one of the first people I met here, who runs the forge and does vehicle repairs.

It's also harvest time, which is a busy season anyway.  With most of the men working full-time, the women are working in the fields but in the evenings and at the weekends the whole family goes up the mountain to harvest potatoes, or over to the other side of the valley to their cornfields.

I learned how to harvest dry corn (and was sent home with a sackful)

This all means there's not much time or inclination to go to meetings!  So while I want to complement the government's project with training, I need to be patient.  I've managed to give some training in the churches, and one pastor's family has bought a water filter.

Parasites attacking a person - with 2 "barriers" - teaching about MULTIPLE prevention methods

How the filter works

 The pastor's family in Cafiamarca - learning how to use their filter, and a checkup 2 weeks later.

 

How many uses are there for a sarong?

I'm collecting a rather long list, and keep adding new ideas.

So far I have used my sarong as:

• a scarf
• a skirt
• a towel
• a toilet door
• a basic water filter (demo only)
• a blanket
• a sun shield
• a bag for carrying corn
• an oven glove
• a lap tray to prevent hot plates burning my knees

Hopefully it will never be needed as a sling/bandage.

Other suggestions?

Training for the local government

I've been trying for a while to get more involved with the local government and pass on some of my training materials to them.
So I went for a meeting last week on Thursday to explain a bit of what I do a show some of my resources.  "Great" they said.  "Can you rewrite your lesson plans into our format, and in 2 new topics, train our staff on Monday and then help us to train 80 district water people on Tuesday?"
<Mild panic because I was due to be away all Friday and Saturday>
But very excited at this opportunity, I said yes.

After some scrambled work on Monday morning, the staff training was great, and the director really approved of my interactive methods.

Here's how Tuesday went.

The hall was pretty full

We separated into 6 groups, 4 of which were receiving my training.

The water cycle, and catchment management

Disease transmission routes

Handwashing

Safe storage of water

Then each group fed back to the whole room - this was a great way to get the local water reps to practise giving the training themselves!

The highlight was seeing the local water rep explaining the water cycle in Quechua, using a story from a book I had as a child, and finishing with "and God made all our natural resources!"  It was a wonderful moment.