16 September 2017
From Wednesday 13 to Friday 15 September, we had both the
privilege and honour to host our amazing senior Lifesource pastor John Iuliano
accompanied by our equally amazing friends Rod McGibbon and Ronny Marin from
our home church in Chatswood, Sydney.
What a wonderful time of rejuvenation and encouragement it was for the
whole family.
My son Solomon (6) and I drove to Cusco on the Wednesday to
greet them at the airport, grab a bite of lunch and enjoy the time chatting for
the 2 ½ hour journey to Curahuasi (it was so good to “speak normally” again J). And where would a Perú road trip be without a
typical Panamericana highway both direction closure for maintenance – this one
at our iconic Apurimac River Bridge, about 30 minutes away from our home in Curahuasi.
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| Solomon standing in front of our Apurimac River bridge whilst we waited for it to be reopened for traffic. |
We arrived home to dinner being cooked by our neighbour who
is Peruvian chef. He cooked Pachamanca (from
Quechua pacha "earth", manka "pot") which is a traditional
Peruvian dish based on baking with the aid of hot stones. The meat is normally lamb, mutton, pork,
chicken or guinea pig, marinated in spices. We had mutton and chicken in ours. Other Andean produce, such as potato, green
lima beans, sweet potato, occasionally cassava or yuca, and humitas (sweet
treat) as well as ears of corn, tamale and chili, is normally included in the
baking.
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| BBQ Peruvian style “on the rocks” with the fire made beneath – here our chef cooks the Pachamanca meat. |
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| We watch on as our Chef prepares our Pachamanca for dinner in our casa la hacienda back yard. |
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| The Pachamanca cooked bananas and a selection of normal and sweet potatoes from local produce. |
As evening came, we were blessed by what we called an “early
Christmas” of Aussie goodies for the whole family. Such as, but not limited to; Weet-Bix and
Vegemite (I never thought I would miss this so much!), Aussie lollies (which
tasted like real lollies should), Anzac biscuits, Tim Tams, Minties, Nurofen
for Children, Dimetapp, some clothes from my mum & dad including PJs and shoes
that fitted us (adult sizes in Perú don’t fit us as they are way too small). For Sam there was cycling gear from his club
in Sydney, NSCC. And odd things like a
toilet bag as mine broke and they are simply not available in Perú.
Specifically for me there was some hardware including
kitchen drawer runners from my brother that actually work properly and not bind
up like the local ones do! For Sandi
there was also special cooking ingredients that were simply not available in
Perú.
And for the kids - there were new Schleich animal toys for Sarah,
Georgia, Solomon and Jessica (they play with these for hours). Oh and Frisbees and handballs for the kids to
play with the locals. Our kids have
introduced handball into the school and it has transformed the place in recess
and eliminated the troubles they used to have with the Peruvian kids. It has taken off so much we needed more
balls! All stuff unavailable in
Perú! Thank you so much to Ps John, Rod
and Ronny for loading up your bags so much with all this stuff! And to Rod & Kirstie McGibbon whose house
was the main collection point for us.
Thursday morning started with the Diospi hospital’s 8:30 to
9:00am chapel service, including a meet and greet with the Diospi Suyana senior
pastor Mariano Perez. And then followed
by a tour of Diospi Suyana hospital and media centre – see some photos taken.
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| Our Lifesource team visit of the Diospi Suyana hospital – here at the front entrance. |
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| The hospital foyer where the patients watch the “Jesus” movie (in their local language) and Diospi Suyana TV whilst waiting for their medical appointments. |
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| Ps John, Rod and Ronny in front of the Diospi Suyana 4x4 Unimog ambulance. |
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| Ps John delivering his message on leadership at our Morada de Dios church with Ronny doing an amazing job at interpreting with meaning. |
The evening ended with an old fashioned supper of hot
chocolate after church at our house and bed.
Friday was back to the Diospi hospital chapel service, but
this time for Ps John to deliver the 20 minute gospel message, again with Ronny
interpreting into Spanish. Then a call
for salvation by Ps John whereby all but 100% of the Quechua patients of the 200
or more packed into the chapel that day immediately raised their hands and
stood up! It was hard not to be a bit emotional
about such a response – these people are hungry for change and a better
life.
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| The Diospi Suyana morning chapel service typically full with Quechua Indians and a handful of hospital staff before their day shift begins. |
After this we returned to the Centro de Medios for radio and
TV interviews with Ps John and Ronny to interpret although by this time Ps John
found his Italian legs and due to the similarities between Spanish and Italian,
was able to understand much of what was spoken.
Ps John spoke on his passion for missions and his amazing life testimony
of faith in seeing this resourced showing how it’s God’s heart to go into all
the world and share the Gospel.
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| Ps John and Ronny in the Diospi Suyana radio studio interviewed by Jesús Hurtado. |
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| Similarly Ps John and Ronny being interviewed, but here for Diospi Suyana TV. Click below for a short example video. |
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| Our Lifesource team meets the Diospi Suyana Centro de Medios manager, Doris Manco. |
Of interest the production manager Jesús Hurtado was the interviewer for both the radio and TV. Ps John later noted to me that there were no people named Jesús in European Catholic countries, even Italy. But he was surprised to see people named Jesús is common in Perú – including written on walls and billboards for advertising goods and services by someone of that name. Conversely I noted the name Mary is revered and sacred only for Catholic worship in Perú. Hence one native to Perú is never named Mary, for the same reason we don’t see the name Jesús used to name people in the west as it is revered only for our savour Christ of course.
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| Time for one last photo in Curahuasi with our family and our Lifesource team taken in our front yard with the 100 year old adobe kitchen backdrop. |
We had our last lunch in the
hospital cafeteria and home to pack bags and return to Cusco. This trip was with the whole Welch family as
we made a weekend of it to shop as we about once a month or so – predominantly
for food items that we can’t get in Curahuasi.
After arriving in Cusco, we had a farewell bite to eat at Jack’s Café in
Cusco – the only Australian eatery there!
It was a lovely finish to such a blessed visit. We even met Ronny’s mum again who so happened
to arrive there.
We are so grateful to all of Lifesource
Church for their generous support of us enabling us to be here to help the
Quechua people of the Andes with the message of hope and life in Jesus Christ. And for such an encouraging visit by Ps John,
Rod and Ronny.
So blessed!
Chris
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