A kick in the head!

We have now reached the end of our time in Tacna! Heading back to Ite and the cold showers in the next hour or so. These past few days we have been working alongside the church - Luz de Vida. We have mainly been involved in childrens work. In the mornings we were able to visit primary schools and give a 20 minute presentation during their break. We also went door to door giving out invitations to the Church, Sunday School and to the Childrens meetings we ran each afternoon in the parks. Good numbers of children attended these meetings. We also took part in the youth meeting on saturday night. We took the Sunday school (where a 6 year old boy asked "Why can Simon not speak very well?? To which Simon answered with a kick in the head...not really but he wanted to!) and we took part in the Sunday evening service.
When we get back to Ite we will be helping to get things ready for the anniversary service at the campsite this weekend. We will also be preparing for our next visit which will be to Puno on the 4th December. We also have to travel to Chile to get our passports stamped in the next 2 weeks - before we get thrown out of the country!

Simon´s thoughts confirmed - girls really can´t play football (it was Simon´s team though!!!)

Here in Tacna! We are staying at the Seminary and have the luxury of hot showers!!!!! We have been having a good time in Tacna working with one of the churches - Manantial de Vida. We did some door to door work, we had a few clubs for children in the parks, we helped at the youth meeting and took part in the Sunday services. On Friday we had the opportunity to visit a school. We spent an hour with a class of 13-17 year olds. We also had the opportunity to speak on the radio - El Sembrador (but I (Roberta) wouldn´t say anything!) We are having a well earned rest today and tomorrow. It is amazing the opportunities God has provided for us to talk about Jesus. This morning a few of us were sitting in the Plaza when a woman came and asked if we were Christians. We were able to spend 45 minutes or more talking about God and reading parts of the Bible. She told us she had become a Christian when she was younger but hadnt been to a church in years. She has suffered a lot during her life but was open to listen. Please pray that God would work in her life. From Wednesday until Sunday we will be working alongside one of the other churches here in Tacna - Luz de Vida.

Photos

A smashing time in Ilo!

We have had a good week here in Ilo. We have been encouraged by the numbers of children and young people attending their respective meetings. We realize that numbers aren´t everything but we have had the opportunity to share the gospel with many people. We were also doing some manual work. The guys helped make a floor and the girls smashed windows!
We received a warm welcome from the church in Ilo. They were grateful for our help and we were grateful for their kind hospitality.
We are heading back to the campsite this afternoon. Things have calmed down in Tacna. We hope to head there on Wednesday, though we aren´t sure for how long.
Please pray for

• safety as we travel
• continued progress with spanish
• that we would learn from this week and improve for the next time

Still havn´t thought of an interesting title!

We are currently in Ilo. We are staying in the church and have no running water! From now on we might appreciate cold showers a bit more! We have been invovled in door to door work and we have also been cleaning the church. Over the next week we will be helping at the midweek, youth, ladies and childrens meetings as well as the sunday services. We are here until Monday. We were due to go to Tacna next week but there has been some trouble in South Peru over the last few weeks. There have been strikes and a lot of violence. We are all fine but it has meant that the anniversary service has been postponed until the end of the month as people couldnt travel to Ite. Things in Ilo have settled down but Tacna is still particularly bad. Emergency rule has been imposed. We are unsure about whether we will be able to go there next week. Some of the team members are from Tacna and are concerned about their families. Please pray that this situation would be resolved soon.
Simon and Roberta