August 2019

Dear friends,

August is the start of “spring” and is the windiest month of the year.  So for kid’s club, we had kite day. We posted notices and invited the kids to come to the park one Saturday afternoon for several hours.  Afterward we gathered them together and shared the gospel story using colors and kites.  Then they all trooped to the church for hotdogs.

Tragedy has struck a local family.  Victor and Alimar Anchante and their family have recently started coming to church.  He is a security guard at a local business.  The 3^rd week in August a large 1 ton steel door fell on him injuring his back and feet.  Since it happened at work the business should pay for it but it has been reluctant to do so.  He finally had a back operation last week and foot operation on Saturday.  The doctors are telling him it will be at least 3 months before he can walk and longer to go back to work.  So now they are without income. Alimar needs to care for Victor and her kids so she can’t work either.  Please pray for them and this situation.

There has been some political unrest here this last month.  The president of Peru signed an agreement with Southern Copper Corp, a mining company, to open a new mine at Tia Maria in the Arequipa region. The local residents fear pollution and water loss and have been fighting this for over 10 years.  This has sparked protests at various times in Arequipa.  Last week Denver and I sat with Alimar during Victor’s back operation.  When we left the hospital that evening there were different demonstrations happening in various parts of the city.  The public bus driver tried to avoid them the best he could which meant taking narrow back streets, some of them we got hung up on the corners between the curbs, signs, and buildings because they were so narrow.  It took us almost 2 hours to get home.  Fortunately, for the most part, the demonstrations have not been violent.

It seems that God has closed the doors for us to return to the jungle, at least for the time being.  We have been amazed at how God has moved and is opening doors for us to serve here in Arequipa.  There are so many needs here also.  We have about 4 weeks of language school left and then we plan to engage more with ministries here.  Please continue to pray for us.  We will keep you posted on further developments.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Stan, Ruth and Denver