Advertisement
Published: January 23rd 2008
Edit Blog Post
Inside the Church
Kind of like the inside of a big warehouse with seats laid out. This was taken at the end of the service. Hola todos amigos,
Today I´m covering Sunday 20 January. We stayed overnight in the hotel in Ica (Hotel Real) where Anna and I had the leaky loo.
On Sunday morning we were given the option of either attending Church with Marcos (one of the SU workers in the Ica region) or going sandboarding. As most of you will know, I did the sandboarding in Ica back in 2005 with Vicki and some of the CCS gang. Given that I´m an old hat at it (I didn´t manage once down a dune without falling over and resorted to coming down with my belly on the board) I decided to give it a miss - I really just didn´t want to show anyone up ;-)
Instead, Fiona, Albert, Ken and I went to Church with Marcos. Maria, a lovely lady who is President of SU in Peru also joined us. I asked Marco what kind of church it was and was told ´libra´which (I guess) means free Church. The service was fantastic. They had powerpoint with all the songs on it which meant that I could follow all the words in Spanish and sing along. They also had a praise
The Church Mission Statement
It means: This is a Church which aims to impact this City and transcend the Nations, by the imitation of Christ - excellently and with no compromise, for the glory of God and working intensly to extend His Kingdom.
I think I'm pretty much there with it - I'm sure you'll get the gist!! band - drums, guitar and some traditional Peruvian instruments. I was even able to follow some of the sermon with my limited Spanish.
The Church isn´t in a traditional building - more just in a big hall - kinda like a community hall, but boy was it packed!! The preacher was great. The Church has developed a vision/mission statement and the theme of the sermon linked the vision into the vision that each of us should have on our personal journey of faith. Like I said, I pretty much got the gist of it, but maybe not all of it. One thing that they did which I thought was lovely was that they played soft background music all the way through the pastor's sermon. It really was very effective.
After Church we got chatting to the pastor. Turns out that there are two of them, one slightly younger than the other. As we were chatting, I noticed a nmber of young folks headed into Church for the second service. I wandered back for a bit of a nosey and found the praise band really rocking it!! The youngsters were having a great time and (again) the Church was
The Praise Band
Hope you can see them. Difficult to get as the Church was so full!! They were great!! full to bursting!! The Church has more than one service per day - different types of services to meet the differing needs of the congregation. It was just amazing. I only wished I had my flute or sax with me and I´d have been up there with them!!!!
The afternoon was particularly special. We went to the official opening of the new Girasoles SU boys centre in Ica. A couple of years ago, Ken Jeffrey, a young minister from Cupar Angus Church was on the same trip as me. He was shown a plot of land in Ica which had been acquired by SU (via donation from a kind benefactor) and the group were told that all that was needed was the funds to build the home. Ken went back to his own Church and inspired the people there with his story. He published a diary (probably along the lines of this blog) and his congregation were moved too, when they read of his experiences. Within a year the Cupar Angus congregation raised 100,000 pounds sterling - the total funds required to build the house which will provide homes for 40 street boys in the Ica area. I asked
The Drummer
The guy sitting down on the drums. Was really hard to get a photo as there were people everywhere!! Ken how they had managed it, and he said quite simply that he went to Church with a fish supper and a bottle of wine. He suggested to the congregation that if they could give up the value of one of these luxuries each week, then the funds could be raised, and indeed they were!! Amazing?? A miracle?? I´ll leave that up to you to work out for yourselves.
The Ica Girasoles has been up and running since December, although the official opening was delayed to coincide with this trip. The home is gorgeous and is similar to the one I described at Kawai. There is space for camps, bungalows which can be rented out for income generation and also the space for the boys. What is even more amazing is that the land SU bought came with permission for a well which they turned into a pool. Can you imagine a swimming pool in one of the driest areas of Peru. It must be beyond the boys wildest dreams!!
The opening service was fantastic. The congregation of Cupar Angus were hooked up via an audio link so that they could hear the service too - after all,
The Service for the Youngsters
The Church was jam packed with young folks. It was just great!! they had made the Ica Girasoles possible. There were a number of talks and expressions of thanks, and Ken gave a very moving speech about how his and the congregation´s vision had become a reality. It was lovely. We then sang ´How Great Thou Art´in English and Spanish. Albert Bogle and Willie McPherson were involved in ´cutting the ribbon´and Ken unveiled a beautiful plaque. The centre was now officially opened!! The boys then did some choreography for us.
A number of them had some traditional Peruvian instruments - a jungle stick, a donkey´s jaw and some drums. The first boy came out and was acting the part of a dried up tree. This was the boy´s own views of their lives pre Girasoles, that their lives were like dried up trees, with no sustenance, love or hope. Then a number of other boys came out performing activities that demonstrated some of the things they had done to survive in the streets. One was selling sweets, another newspapers and the most moving just came out, lay down and curled into a ball. This was representative of the sexual acts they performed in return for money for food. The some of
Pool at the new Girasoles in Ica
This is just incredible in an area where there is hardly any water!! They boys just love it - like a dream come true!! the other boys came out and started to dress the dead tree in green leaves. This is representative of how their lives will change now that they are at Casa Girasoles. As they started to dress the tree in green leaves, some boys came out and took the boys selling things and performing sexual acts away - again representative that this aspect of their lives is over now that they are at Girasoles. Finally the tree was fully dressed in green, and a sunflower (Girasoles means sunflower in Spanish) placed around the tree´s head. Very symbollic!! What was most moving about it is that these boys have only been at the centre for less than two months and were capable of expressing their hopes for their future in such an incredible manner!! Again, I had to don my sunspecs fairly quickly. This is becoming fairly frequent on this trip!!
After the ceremony, we enjoyed a delicious lunch, and then headed back to Hotel Real for an evening to ourselves. Plenty of time for thought and reflection based on what we saw.
I´d also like to say that I think what Cupar Angus achieved to support Ken´s vision is
The Boys Dorms
This is where the boys sleep in the brand new dorms! absolutely incredible. If only all other Churches had such vision and aspiration!! You should be very proud of yourselves and also of Ken.
Now is the time for me to put some feelers out there. SU Peru are hoping to move into the Ayacucho area, perhaps a Girasoles centre there too, where there are many street kids. As you know, Ayacucho is very close to my heart as that is where Los Gorriones is based too. Wonder how many of you have been moved enough by what I´ve written to help provide financial support there?? Over to you.............
Anyway - that´s all for now, more later. It is Tuesday 22 as I write this. Can´t believe I´ll be back in the UK Saturday.
Good luck to all the G&L folks at home for the Priority Areas meeting tomorrow. Will be thinking of you all - know you´ll be just ´fantastico´as they say here.
Lesley x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 47; dbt: 0.058s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb