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

A problem with Apple devices and our blog email

Monday 21 December 2020

To our dear Apple users,

It has just come to our attention that our last blog email was cut off half way but only on Apple devices (PC’s and Android worked fine).  It was our video link half way into the email which seemed to have caused the problem for Apple.

In any case, if you did not see the video link or our family photo at the end, you missed half of our blog and you can read it all by clicking here.

(http://welchesinperu.blogspot.com/2020/12/christmas-2020-update.html)

For all our Apple readers - sorry for the inconvenience! 😕

Christmas 2020 Update

 Thursday 17 December 2020

Dear family and friends,

Thank you for your patience.  It has been a long time since our last blog update. Thank you for standing by us as we worked out what the unexpected 2020 COVID-19 world meant for us.  This has been a year where we have made plans and changed plans.  We have practiced patience as best we could, maintained hope always and waited for God to make our path clear.

2020

As you know we were preparing to return to Peru in March over the Easter weekend. But as COVID-19 began to spread and international travel stopped, we were thankful that we were left standing with the airplane ticket quote in our hand, unpaid.  At this time we had already packed up half our house into boxes and put them into storage.  We had packed some of our suitcases (Sandi was determined to not be a last minute packer this time around ☺), had shopped in advance for things to take, bought presents for people and set Sam up to stay in Australia.  We were even planning farewells and had said goodbye personally to interstate friends. 

Instead, we stayed in Australia and Chris continued to work for Diospi Suyana from our study. The 14 hour time difference meant many late nights and early morning phone calls, messages and emails.  Chris was able to fix radio transmission sites remotely as he slowly guided Diospi media staff through repairs.  The staff had often travelled many long hours to transmission sites and were awaiting his instructions to restore radio coverage.  He was thankful for good internet coverage and was helped by being able to use the DeepL Translator app for many accurate communications.  Using Google Earth he could help identify the two new FM radio transmission tower sites needed, one for Abancay and the other Sicuani.  Using terrestrial radio coverage prediction software working with SonSet Solutions in the USA, he was able to choose the best locations and tower heights.  Using AutoCAD he designed the new sites, towers and equipment layouts.

Chris’ Diospi FM site layout drawing for Sicuani used for construction (AutoCAD work example)

5 December 2020 work continues on the new Diospi FM site overlooking Sicuani

Chris also worked with the transmitter manufacturer in Italy, DB Broadcast, to design and pre-install the new custom racks to integrate with the satellite and telemetry equipment.  This next generation solution will save a lot of time on site and deliver a superior result.  As the new site constructions progressed, Doris Manco – Manager of Diospi Media Centre, sent photos of the works being done and Chris could identify any problems and have them fixed.   

Two new custom FM transmitter racks on the DB Broadcast factory floor in Italy, designed by Chris for Abancay and Sicuani. Diospi satellite and telemetry equipment (from other suppliers) fills the upper gaps seen in these racks.

As 2020 progressed, we made multiple plans to return to Peru.  As each plan didn’t come to pass we simply made a new one!  We have packed some of our suitcases and then unpacked 4 times!   We received an exemption from the Australian Department of Home Affairs to travel to Peru anytime based on our humanitarian aid agenda, but COVID-19 was a major health concern for our church and in November we were told we were unable to return until a vaccine was available.  In accepting this new turn of events we decided to sell some of the belongings we had left in Peru in our missionary friend’s house, to save them some space.  We were able to bless some local families with our bedding.

Some Curahuasi families we were able to give some of our bedding to

Despite offloading most of our Peru household things, we still have a lot of personal belongings left and now stored at the house of our German missionary friends Jens and Damaris Hassfeld

We have enjoyed many aspects of being in Australia.  We have had Sam at home here with us.  We are thankful to be here for Sam’s first year of university, and here for visits from Jake in his final Bachelor of Psychology year.   We are thankful for the 2 TAFE courses Isaac was able to complete in his unexpected ‘gap’ year.  Sarah completed year 9, Georgia year 6, Solomon year 4, and Jess year 1. Solomon was able to join cubs and play cricket with the Mount Colah Mustangs.  We have enjoyed eating lots of Weet-Bix and meat pies.  The kids continued Spanish lessons.  We didn’t unpack our boxes or get them out of storage as we always had a hope that we would be going soon, so our living has been simple.  God has always provided what we needed.  We are thankful for the contracting work Chris was able to obtain.  And we are thankful for JobKeeper and even a Service NSW small business grant which helped Chris buy a small car and tools for contracting.  We are thankful to God for a house across the road to move into when rent in our original house became too expensive in July. We are thankful for the gifts from family, friends and LifeSource and Hinton Baptist churches that have helped keep us going financially. 

We have kept in close contact with Curahuasi and Diospi Suyana.  Peru has been in probably the world’s strictest lockdown since March, and has only recently relaxed the quarantine measures.  Peru has had the 5th highest number of corona virus cases in the world with nearly 1 million cases recorded, and many more unrecorded as people avoided hospitals or clinics.  Life in Peru is very social and informal and many live day to day. So despite severe lockdown rules, social distancing was difficult for many to do. Poorer people live in overcrowded housing.  The government provided small financial relief packages, but only 38% of Peruvians have a bank account, so funds had to be personally collected which meant many long, slow bank queues.  Food is often purchased daily at open air markets as 40% of Peruvians do not have a refrigerator.  Hospitals have struggled with resources to treat patients.  A friend told us that in Cusco patients were asked to bring their own sleeping mattresses with them to hospital. 

Snuggled in the mountains, Curahuasi has had over 700 cases of COVID-19 as of 1 November, but as few as 20 deaths. This low account is thought to be due to the Andes remoteness and the high altitude air.  Still the national lockdown restrictions have applied just the same in Curahuasi.  It has been a tough year there.  For many, many months children under 14 years of age have been unable to leave the house, then it was relaxed to only 1 hour a day outside. School has been cancelled for the year.  The Diospi Suyana mission has been a blessing in Curahuasi.  The hospital was the major COVID-19 hospital in our region, and Diospi often shared its resources such as oxygen with government hospitals in other towns.  The Diospi Suyana College was able to provide school work daily from a van in the marketplace.  Diospi missionaries helped feed local families.  And our Diospi FM radio was ever present with the Gospel combined with quarantine and health information for some 800,000+ people. 

1 November 2020, Diospi Suyana hospital commissions a supplemental oxygen plant to increase capacity to 700 litres/minute to cater for COVID-19 patients.

Video of Peru COVID-19 truck in Curahuasi, blowing disinfectant into the streets during lockdown (click on picture to open video)

 2021

Given the unknown time frame of a return to Peru, we realised Chris needed to find more consistent employment.  We see it as the next stage of God establishing us so that we can continue to serve Diospi in Peru.  We praise God for a new full time job working in communications engineering management for Nova Systems in Canberra.  He starts work on 1 February 2021 and we plan to move to Canberra as soon as we are able to rent a house in the New Year. This is a big change for our family, but we are all excited about the new opportunities that Canberra will offer us.  But sad to leave so many good friends in Sydney.

In January the two new Diospi transmission sites at Abancay and Sicuani are planned for completion.  This moment is the accumulation of much work by the team in Peru with acquisition and construction and culminates a year of the engineering preparation work by Chris.  Chris will be working (again from our study) with local engineers to oversee the project, including the installation and commissioning of the transmitters.  We expect this to involve many nights of phone calls, WhatsApp text and video messages, plus day time administration.  It will be a challenge for sure, along with moving house to another city, but well worth the effort as the two new sites will cover an additional 260,000 people with the Diospi Christian FM radio program.   Chris will also be involved with an essential satellite frequency change for Diospi with Intelsat in the USA as they make way for 5G mobile in the Americas.  This will involve all 7 legacy Diospi Suyana 2.4m satellite antennas in Peru plus the two new FM sites.  January will be a huge month for us logistically! 

Google Earth map showing computer predicted coverage (by SonSet Solutions) of our Diospi existing 6 FM sites plus 2 new FM sites of Abancay and Sicuani

Thank You

We want to sincerely thank you for encouraging and praying for our family this year.  Thank you to those that continue to financially support our mission.  As previously indicated, Pioneers have been holding the funds sent this year in anticipation and in preparation for Chris’ return to Peru that now is planned for the end of 2021.  There will be much to do when he returns to Curahuasi!  Further to this we have very recently been given permission by Pioneers to be given a monthly allowance from these funds to support Chris in his ongoing work for Diospi in the coming couple of months from Australia. This will help us with our living expenses.  Incidentally Chris’ new full time employer in 2021, Nova Systems, has indicated support for him to return to Peru to continue this good work, possibly ongoing annually, as part of their staff wellbeing program which includes some financial support.  This for us was another confirmation of the right move to Canberra.

We want to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Christmas season with your family and friends.  And for a fruitful 2021 as we move into a new year of opportunity.

Our family together again for Chris' birthday in September 2020

FELIZ NAVIDAD! (Merry Christmas!), with our love,

Sandi and Chris

Our Altered Plans Amidst COVID-19

Friday 27 March 2020

It’s no surprise to anyone on planet Earth right now that we are all wrestling with the effects of the dreaded COVID-19 virus.  And how it has so rapidly reshaped society as we know it in such a surprisingly short period of time.  

Needless to say we are still in Sydney and like most, bunkering down to weather out this storm.  And seeing what is unfolding in Peru, we are glad to be here in Australia.  Furthermore the new FM transmitter equipment for Peru is grounded at the factory in Italy as it was not ready before the national lockdown.  It will be delayed a number of months at least.  We now see the wisdom of God with our delayed departure due to the delay in obtaining our budget (currently sitting at 84%).

We pray that you, our special family and friends, are navigating through this challenging time unscathed.

On the home front, our family continue to school at home – no real change there for us.  But good to see the rest of the world are now catching up with the trend! J

However my contracting work has dried up as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The reasons vary depending upon my clients, from total travel bans for overseas and even interstate, to an absence of 4G/5G telecommunication equipment from China (the one source for all this equipment), to a general hibernation of business activity except for essential service restoration, the result is the same for contractors like me.  Nothing on the table today.  For the first time in my life I will need to look to the Government to help fund us in the coming months.

But God is bigger, and only He knows exactly how all these things will pan out.  So for now we wait patiently to see where this detour takes us.  We don’t have any fixtures on our calendar at the moment.  But note also I have continued to work for Diospi Suyana from my home office in Sydney with ongoing planning and now preparations for shipping with the seemingly endless Customs administration requirements of Peru.

And for those amazing family and friends that have continued to faithfully support us, those funds are saved with Pioneers Australia awaiting our inevitable return to Peru when we have a green light to go. 

Take care at this difficult time,

Chris (and family)

Streaming Diospi Radio and Update on Abancay FM

Friday 14 February 2020

Diospi Suyana radio can now be streamed direct to your device via clicking on the below button;

And here is the link text   http://alterna7.com/diospi/

A note on streaming in Peru – most Quechua people cannot afford this option as they don’t have access to a PC or smart phone, and even if they did, they have limited if any access to internet as they simply cannot afford that option.  Moreover a significant percentage of Quechuas cannot read due to lack of education!  Which is why FM radio is such a vital lifeblood in reaching this impoverished people, as most people do have access to an FM radio.  And radio is a most popular medium in Peru given the culture which emphasises verbal communication.

Also note the civil work has just yesterday commenced with the next 1 of 2 FM transmission sites - Abancay.  The two sites, Abancay and Sicuani, when completed will reach an additional 200,000 people making the total reach of Diospi Suyana FM radio 1 MILLION!

I have been working hard the past months to design the new sites with drawings and specifications.  And also procure the equipment through Diospi Suyana from international manufacturers in USA, Canada, Italy and Australia.  All the equipment has now been ordered and will be sent to Diospi Suyana in Germany for container # 71 which leaves at the end of March.  It will arrive in Curahuasi at the end of May.

If we have electricity connected from the Peru supply authority, Electro Sur we should be on air in Abancay with FM in June this year (4 months from now).  Sicuani awaits finalisation of the land purchase.

Regards,

Chris

Digging the foundations for the Abancay FM compound.

Our Approaching Return to Peru

Sunday 26 January 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

We pray that your new year has started well and that you are all set for the adventures God has for you this year.  And of course, Happy Australia Day today!

For us our return to Peru is coming quickly. We are making preparations to be back in Curahuasi for the start of school on 1^st of March.  We have been back in Australia for 9 months and we must say that furlough has been both as good we expected and a tad more tough than we expected J. We have enjoyed the fellowship, lifestyle, attending church and the food, but we did discover that we left pieces of our heart in Curahuasi.  Still to be honest it was hard to decide to return to Diospi Suyana.  Packing up house, this time leaving 2 children behind in Australia and tackling Spanish again was daunting.

For me a phone call with a friend helped change my thinking from focusing on what was easier for me, to what God wanted us to do.  I had said to her that, “I don’t know if all this hardness is worth it?”  She responded simply with, “What is a soul worth?”  It wasn’t the sympathy I wanted but it was the question I needed to address in my soul. 

The Quechua people may not hear the Gospel any other way than via the Diospi Suyana radio, they are important to God, and so are to us.

So we found our peace to return for 7 months, to install 2 new radio transmission sites and complete the unfinished telemetry system so that the staff at Diospi can monitor the far reaching sites from Curahuasi.  Chris has continued to work for Diospi most days from Sydney.

We have received some of our funds already and are needing to raise a further $35,000 before we can return.  To go by the end of February means we actually need to raise this amount in the next week (yes it’s crazy faith time at our house!)

Can we ask you to consider supporting our second term in Curahuasi, Peru at the Diospi Suyana mission?

If you are a LifeSource Church member, please contact the office by phone 02 9417 7377 or email admin@lifesource.org.au

If you are not a LifeSource member, please contact Pioneers Australia via;

• free call 1800 78 78 89 or
• the secure web portal https://pioneers.org.au/give/donate/ (and remember to indicate in the box that you are supporting Welches in Peru! J).

Thank you for your prayers and your consideration to partner with us.

Love,

Sandi

Welch Family together for Christmas 2019

Our Family Update and Plans to Return to the Mission Field

Our Family Update…

Since our last post, I have continued seeking out contract work in broadcast transmission (trading as Welcomm Australia).  But the reality is that the Australian broadcast landscape has significantly changed in the past three years whilst we have been away.  This is attributed largely to internet streaming media, such as Netflix, Stan, YouTube and tomorrow Disney arrives to compete too.  So finding work has proven to be a challenge for me as it seems all the key broadcast players are in some form of economic rationalisation and cutting back.  I have managed to secure a handful of short projects in this time, and we are getting by with some ongoing support from our faithful family and friends.

During this time I have also been working for Diospi Suyana part time, helping sort out maintenance issues, planning the two new FM transmission sites including site selection using Google Earth 3D, engineering design work, equipment selection etc.  An Australian based telemetry solution provider Maximation, has kindly provided me with free training days at their Central Coast headquarters to develop the software needed to complete the telemetry system of Diospi Suyana.  In addition, my former employer TX Australia have gratefully donated some now redundant broadcast equipment we can make good use of in Peru.

As for our family, we have been well for the most part.  Jake (20) is still living on the Gold Coast studying psychology at Southern Cross Uni.  He has just had to move house as the owners sold his apartment. We look forward to spending time with Jake at Christmas when we get together and go to Perth to spend it with Sandi’s family in the West.

Sam (18) has been progressing with his cycling aspirations with Northern Sydney Cycle Club Junior Development Squad.  He generally gets a place in B Grade amongst his “Dog Squad” teammates. So he plans to move to A Grade soon where he again must rise up the ranks, albeit much tougher this time.  He is also doing a TAFE Certificate 4 in physiotherapy to be an assistant, in the hope to get into Macquarie Uni next year studying physiotherapy.

Isaac (16) has tried his hand at archery and enjoyed that.  He and Sarah (14) have been studying at home with Australian Christian College Year 10 and Year 8 respectively.  Georgia (11) and Solomon (8) have been enjoying Cubs, cycling with juniors at Northern Sydney Cycle Club as we home-school them with Year 5 and Year 3 respectively.  Georgia also has taken on ballet and loves this to bits as she practices with her class for a Christmas concert in December.

Then there is Jessica (6) and Stacey (3), who we also home-school and fit in around the other members of family.  Oh and we have Georgia, Solomon and Jessica in swimming lessons at Hornsby, as when we got back from the Peruvian Andes, they did not know how to swim!

Sandi has been managing our family as she does so amazingly whilst catching up with our family and friends.  She maintains a delightful attitude about life as she glues our family with her love and sound direction which she will attribute to her parents bringing her up and her relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we all as a family continue to undertake a weekly Spanish lesson whilst here in Sydney, to try and at least maintain, and improve on this base.

My mum has had a setback with another bout of breast cancer and a mastectomy in September.  But the one triple dose of chemotherapy has terrible side effects and so they have ceased that option. She is continuing the other HER2 treatment for a year, and we await, hope and pray that she recovers.  And we are grateful that we are “home” to be close to family during this time.

We visited the Australia Reptile Park to re-familiarise our “Aussie kids” with our native wildlife.

Our Return to the Field…

So what about our mission to Peru I hear you ask! J  We have firmed up plans to return later in February 2020.  However this time we plan to return for just over 6 months, as we have an ongoing need to be with our family in Australia.  Especially as our older kids study at University and need us.

I also believe this is all I need to hands-on complete the number of outstanding tasks with our Diospi Suyana broadcast network, such as complete the satellite telemetry system, complete a bunch of loose ends with the original installations, and effect some needed repairs.  And also plan for the next 2 new FM transmission sites that will cover an additional 200,000 people, and in so doing reach our original target of 1,000,000 souls reached, 24 x 7 x 365.  We are excited to represent LifeSource Church with such a mission, through Pioneers Australia.

In the future, I envisage I could return to Peru solo for short term fly-in, fly-out installation trips e.g. 2 weeks duration (doable without the family and economical).  With all the long term ground work by then well established, this is entirely viable.  And as already mentioned, I would always try to continue my support of Diospi Suyana from my office in Australia as much as my time and resources allow.

We presented this proposal to our Ps John Iuliano and Helen Rogers and met with them on 12 November, which was amazingly supportive.  They had incredible news that with two support donations, we had 2/3 of our needed funding!

So we need to raise the balance in our budget to return.  If you know of anyone or organisation who would like to partner with our work, then please be in touch (chrisandiw@gmail.com).  We believe our work is so easy to justify with Diospi Suyana doing the “heavy lifting” with regards to our projects such as;

·         the programme creation from a charismatic evangelistic team of producers in an established studio base in Curahuasi (see below photo)

·         FM licence acquisition (often expensive)

·         site acquisition (not a trivial process)

·         site civil construction (to my plans)

·         FM transmitter equipment funding (to my direction)

·         tower funding including installation

·         satellite equipment

·         funding of electricity connections (poles, wires, transformers)

·         payment of ongoing electricity bills 

And the list goes on….  But they can’t make it happen without a broadcast engineer to design, select equipment, install and commission it.  And I maintain that I am called to return to continue our LifeSource prophecy that I received back in 1998.

 

The Diospi Suyana Centro de Medios production team (as at 24 Jul 2019)

 Thank you again to our amazing supporters helping us to achieve these goals.

With fondest love from us Welches on our way back to Peru! J

Chris