March 2007 Great Co-Mission Newsletter

Here's our latest prayer newsletter. If you would like to see a readable version, click on the newsletter below and select "large" from the tab menu. Or click here and here to download.

Fun happenings with the girls

Abigail makes friends very easy, and for this reason, has gotten invited to many peruvian birthday parties by classmates and church friends. This past Saturday, her friend Patricio (also our neighbor) turned four. Peruvian birthday parties are a lot of fun, they put a lot time and effort into their parties. As you can see from the pictures Patricio had a "Thomas the Train Engine" birthday party, with clowns, face painting, puppets and of course a pinata. Every child got their own monogrammed train conductor hat too!

Let me tell you a few interesting differences about peruvian parties:
1) The first BIG difference is, if the invitation says "3:00pm", they really don't expect you to show up until around 4:15pm and the party would not start until 4:30pm, at the earliest. We learned this custom when we attended our first peruvian wedding last year. The wedding invitation said "1:00pm", but most guest didn't show up until 2:00pm and the bride didn't even show up until 3:00pm!
2) When you bring your birthday gift, they take it from you at the door and you never see it again. I guess they open it after the party when the guest have all gone.
3) They have a birthday cake, but you don't eat it at the party. After singing "Feliz Cumpleanos" toward the end of the party, they cut the cake up and put it in little "to go" boxes and give it to each guest as they leave the party.







Other happenings, last week our friend, Patti, had her 24th birthday. She has worked for us since we arrived in Trujillo and has been a great blessing to our family. We took her to eat at "Mar Picante" (Spicy Sea) for lunch. This resturant is known for one of north peru's most popular dishes, Ceviche, which is raw fish pickled or "cooked without heat" in lemon juice.





Also last week, we had Vacation Bible School at our Arevalo church plant. It was a big success in the neighborhood and attracted many visitors. Our girls enjoyed it as well. We had a lot of help from the short-term team here last week, college students from Texas A&M, Baylor University, and University of Tulsa. Many thanks go out to them for their hard week of work and for all the goodies brought down for the missionary families! WOW, I think we have enough Velveeta cheese, coffee, and chocalate chips for a year!

Music Development Update

Last week we held our first juries for our music scholarship students. Every quarter our students will be examined in front a panel of judges. We have piano, vocal, and guitar students. In the future we hope to boarden to violin, cello and other strings and possibly brass instruments. Our students were all evalutated so we can encourage those that are improving and challenge those who are lagging behind.

My right hand man, Daniel Ousley, recorded all of their performances so that we can compare their performance with future performances. It is our prayer that in six months, many of our students will begin to accompany the singing on the Lord's Day services.

Thanks to many of your financial contributions to our music scholarship program, four students are can take piano classes for two years. We still lack $2,500 for our scholarship program. Please ask God to raise up the sufficient funds so we can add more students to our program. If you are interested or know someone who is interested, please get in touch with me.

Here are some pictures from our juries:

Josue preforming for the judges
Go here to listen to Josue's performance.


Piano Students from the Witchansao Church

Piano Students from the Larco Church

Continued Spanish Classes

Learning Spanish is the most difficult thing I've tried to do. Though I have a very functional level of Spanish, my main job as a communicator demands a much higher level. That's why a month ago I began taking advance grammar classes from Anita Terry. She is a passionate grammatican who demands excellence, and she's exactly what I need right now.

Next week Sandi will start back with her Spanish tutor, Diana, as well. We've taken the advise of Wycliffe missionaries, who recommend that intermediate speakers devote a short time of intensive language acquisition throughout the year. As you pray for this process, please remember the following:

• that we can memorize three to five words a day
• that we would have both discipline and continued desire to learn
• that we would have patience with ourselves
  

Thank you so much for praying! We need it so desperately!