Our Mission on Hold

Dear friends and family,

This blog is the hardest to write.  At the same time it’s ok because we are excited and so grateful when we remember all that God has done thru our Peru mission.  

God has made a way for the Diospi Suyana media centre to reach 850,000 people in remote Peru daily with the gospel message via radio 24/7.

As you know we were home in Sydney on furlough in April 2019 with intent to return to Peru for nine months in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic this was not possible.  Chris continued with the Diospi Suyana satellite/radio work from Australia and undertook some irregular paid engineering contracting work in Sydney.

As time went on we had to accept that no return to Peru would be able to be organised in the near future. We prayed for God’s next step for us (and many of you did too) and God answered with full time employment for Chris in Canberra.

Thus we have made the decision to place our mission officially “on hold” until we can make further plans to return to Peru.

The funds that have been given to our mission are held in full with Pioneers awaiting our return trip. We are so ever grateful to those of you that have hung in with us to this time, and for those that have supported our mission in the past and for those that pray for us. Thank you!

This all means that with a ‘hold’ status on our mission, we will not be accepting anymore donations thru OARF or our family support account.

The Pioneers Australia team have written a letter they asked us to pass onto you all from them…

“We would like to extend to you a heartfelt thank you for all your prayers and financial support for the Welch family over the past almost five years, as they have ministered in Peru at Diospi Suyana with Pioneers (both on-site and while back in Australia). The family have made the difficult decision to remain in Australia and take up paid employment for this current season. Whilst Chris has been doing consulting work remotely over the past two year for Diospi Suyana to ensure their radio transmission sites continued to broadcast, this will reduce to a few hours a week at night and on the weekends.

Your continued care and prayers for them will be much appreciated as they adjust to their life in Canberra.

Financial Support: For those who have been financially supporting the Welch family, please note that support gifts should stop before the 1st March 2021.

• If we withdraw your payments through direct debit or credit card, we will automatically stop these on the 28th February 2021.
• If you arrange your own payments through your online banking or by cheque, you will need to stop your payments.

If you have any questions about your support, or if you are interested in supporting another Pioneers worker, you can contact our finance team at info@pioneers.org.au or Freecall 1800 78 78 89.

Yours in Christ,

Pioneers Finance team”

We are in Canberra now, our hearts filled with thankfulness for the blessings and love you have shown us, in obedience to God’s call for you to help with his work.

You can be assured that the Diospi Suyana Media Centre has 2 more FM transmission sites already underway and God willing Chris is very keen to help get them going!  We will stay in touch.

Grateful, Thankful, Blessed by and for you all.

Love, The Welch family

Our Satellite Network Frequency Change in Peru

Friday 29 Jan 2021

After arriving in Canberra in the week I had before starting work at Nova Systems, took to remotely managing a necessary satellite frequency retune for the Diospi Suyana radio network in Peru.  As there were no other satellite engineering expertise available.  It was a mandatory requirement of the satellite operator Intelsat to shuffle services up in our satellite band, as they make way for 5G in the Americas (the same thing is happening all over the world in all similar satellite bands in fact).

So after 3 midnight to dawn efforts, managing 3 teams of people on the ground in Peru (a combination of Diospi Suyana people and contractors) up to 800km apart by road, we successfully executed this for all 7 of our satellite sites.  This was a precarious feat to say the least, as if anything went wrong, the signal outage could be very lengthy and difficult to remediate without engineering hands on access to the right equipment.  But due to COVID-19 this trip for me was not an option.

So from the comfort of our new dwelling place at YWAM in Canberra, I was able to remotely log into the needed sites via a secure internet link.  This enabled me to directly make the necessary frequency changes to those sites including the main satellite uplink site at the Centro de Medios at the hospital in Curahuasi.  I gave instruction by email step by step instructions (in Spanish) and also WhatsApp messages and video real time, to the remote teams.

But clearly God was with us as it went without any serious problems and the Diospi Suyana radio network outage was minimal.

Here I am managing the satellite retune from my Canberra bedroom both via WhatsApp and email with the teams and directly via secure internet link into the Diospi Suyana equipment in Peru.

One of my colleagues in Peru – contractor Luis Condori, who was one of our remote site teams helping with the satellite retune.

The Centro de Medios main satellite uplink antenna at the hospital in Curahuasi.

Here is my latest Diospi Suyana FM radio coverage map in Peru, all 8 sites which includes the 2 new sites of Abancay and Sicuani that is soon to commence when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted to allow us to undertake the transmitter installations.

With the satellite frequency change complete – the next stage for Diospi Suyana radio now is the launch of the next 2 FM radio sites of Abancay and Sicuani.  Those sites are now constructed with the towers, buildings and 3m high secure walls completed.  We only await the installation of the FM transmission equipment.  However COVID-19 in Peru has worsened in these regions and there is a Government curfew in place that prevents any work.  This includes the electrical authority, Electro Sur, from making the power connection to these sites with the poles, wires (up to 800 metres) and transformers.

Diospi Suyana Abancay FM site with 30m tower ready for power and FM transmission equipment.

It is hoped that in the next month (April), this curfew will be lifted to enable the final works to be completed. I have arranged the FM transmission and satellite equipment is to be installed by an engineering contractor from Lima who I have given my design documentation packs to having worked with him when I was in Peru and I trust (Luis Condori).  As presented previously, I have also had all this FM and satellite transmission equipment prepared (pre-built and wired in the factory including the equipment rack) and delivered to Diospi Suyana hospital, to make the installation as simple and as easy as possible.

So when completed, the Diospi Suyana radio coverage will then exceed 1 million people (24 x 7 x 365) per our original prophecy some 25 years ago.  How amazing that will be! (I believe there will be up to 1 million very grateful people in Peru J).

Thank you for those who have contributed to this good work and supported us in so many ways to make it possible!

Chris

Our Move to Canberra

One hot summer’s day we arrive in Canberra (Saturday 23 January 2021)

To our dear Supporters,

We had our best move ever!  After a perfectly executed logistical exercise involving a hire truck and 3 trips to to/from Canberra, we finally made our move to Canberra with all the family on Saturday 23 January.  We were helped by good friends (thank you – you know who you are!) at each end with packing, loading / unloading and for one trip, even a driver.  

Another hire-truck load destined for Canberra.

Our driver Willie Strauss and Sam take our 3rd and last hire truck load to Canberra.

Isaac and old Canberra friend Stuart McMaster helping pack our storage shelves in our Queanbeyan unit.

Sorting the last of our household things to go.

YWAM Canberra.

We were not able to secure a rental house in the competitive January real estate market but in answer to prayer, friends of ours pointed us to the Canberra YWAM base.  We have been able to move in to our own demountable little house on their grounds. We are blessed to be able to stay here as long as we need to. We have now settled in here with our household things in storage at nearby Queanbeyan.  We are enjoying the community living experience and it has been wonderful to maintain a mission connection in YWAM.

And so we are writing to you now a month later - after one new job for me, a new school (Y11) for Isaac, a new Uni for Sam, a work weekend away to Jindabyne, a bike crash for Sam with a visit to the hospital L, meeting new friends, looking for a new church, finding our way around a new city… and I guess if we thought about it enough, the list would go on infinitum.

Thank you for your love and support,

Chris Sandi & our clan