28th September 2008
Met by Lanty and Janina in Chiclayo after our 12 hour bus ride on our sofa-bed seats (enough leg room for me!) with Cruz del Sur. We were taken out to where we would stay the week, in the coastal town of Pimentel, where Lanty's cousin had an apartment that turned out to be on the beachfront, overlooking the ocean. Very nice!

26th September 2008
Spoke to the mayor's man (see entry on 25th August 2008) about available land for our proposed church / community centre and we were taken out in a council car with him to see the site that we're most interested in. Turns out, contrary to previous information that we'd received, that the owners (a sports club) are willing to sell up and, more interestingly, that the council would like to use some of the land to erect a water tower. Could mean that some mutually satisfactory arrangement could be found and the water tower would be a great landmark for explaining to others where the centre is located!

24th September 2008
Another difficult Pastoral Team meeting today. Turns out that Cesar had decided to overrule the one thing we'd managed to agree on as a team in a previous meeting - leaves us wondering what the point of us being 'pastors' is at all!

23rd September 2008
Lovely day of with our friends David and Naomi (and not to forget little Jessica) from Lima down to visit us. David, who helps lead a church in the capital, came down armed with lots of resources that we might be able to use for our role on the Pastoral Team. It was great to have the chance to show them around and let them see for themselves what we're up to, then speak at length to them about the situation we find ourselves in. They are great encouragers!

21st September 2008
Had a long and frank conversation with Lanty, our architect, this evening. He has changed the rules of the housing project once again - now we need 5 of brick or 5 of adobe to start, which is a tall order and one that we're not able to fulfil while he won't give us the information we need to be able to help the families decide whether they want brick of adobe. Because I don't have the necessary language, I am quite direct in Spanish, but Rachel and Margaret (who's been visiting for the anniversary) were both impressed at the way I handled the conversation, which is encouraging! We still need, however, to go up to Chiclayo and meet with Lanty and his team face-to-face to iron a few things out.

20th September 2008
The day of our church's 1st anniversary. The morning was entirely geared around the cakes (which Rachel had made) and then the shambles began. No-one was at the church for the 12 o'clock start. When people did start coming, no-one knew what was going on. Even as members of the pastoral team, we hadn't been advised of any changes. After lunch there was a big event in the street which was again poorly attended, poorly organised and far too ambitious for a church of our size. Turns out too that our church debt has got bigger as a result. Ho humm!

14th September 2008
A very humbling morning. After breakfast, shortly before leaving the community and returning to Chincha, I was approached by the pastor of one of the small outlying village churches. With a bit of help from others, I was led to understand that his church had been built with money from Europe and 3 months ago he received a prophetic word to say that someone from Europe would come and that that person would have a very significant global ministry. Being the first gringo to arrive in the town and being an European, they decided that that person must be me and gave me an offering that they had been collecting in their community to support the ministry. I didn't look at the time, but it later turns out that it was 600 soles (over £100) which is a staggering amount from such a community who live off the land and know no luxuries. Very humbling and we want to be sure that we use the money for something significant in view of the sacrifice it must have been to give it to me.

13th September 2008
Quite a day. Started very early with Cesar singing at 6am, but got better. Had the opportunity to do some ministry training with our team and then, later in the morning, I was obliged to be a flag carrier for the grand parade of the town's one evangelical church's anniversary celebrations which culminated in the central plaza, where I had to give my first sermon in Spanish with no too many minutes notice! They also asked me to read something in English. Apparently, they like the sound so much that I was asked at the evening meeting to sing something for them and even though I warned them that they might not like the sound of English so much after they had heard me sing! I got an encore though!!

12th September 2008
Am on a ministry trip to Aurahua, 8 hours away in the mountains, with Cesar, Yolanda and some of the youth from our church. I'm quite the local celebrity since I am the first ever gringo (white foreigner) to have arrived at this small Andean town and I'm not hard to spot given that I'm about 2 feet taller than anyone else!

10th September 2008
Got hailed from down the street today by some random families. Turns out they had spied us at the council offices speaking about Techo Propio and they were hoping that we could give them some advice! Turns out they have already signed up with a company to get their Techo Propio house, but that they have heard nothing at all from the company for over 5 months. Understandably, there is a good deal of anger and resentment, so we've promised to look into it as much as we able and get back to them. Nice to be recognised in the community as knowing a thing or two and potentially being helpful though!

9th September 2008
2 chance meetings today. Firstly, with Pastor Cesar's family who were just about to hand their documents into Techo Propio and didn't know about our scheme! Secondly, with a lawyer who we bumped into on the street and is happy to take on our case against the internet company for free - hurrah!

8th September 2008
Went to town to try and complain about the internet and it proved to be just as slow in their shop as in our house. They are, however, unwilling to accept it back without us paying a substantial penalty, which we are understandable reluctant to do when it is their fault - they advertised equipment that just doesn't work as it should anywhere outside of Lima!
Peruvian paperwork is incredible. It's called 'tramite' in Spanish and it is no accident that it comes very close to 'trauma' in the dictionary! We accompanied one of our housing project families to the Techo Propio today and discovered that she has to get divorced before she can get the grant she needs to rebuild her house! She's separated from her husband, but all the necessary paperwork to do this requires travel, time and money.

6th September 2008
Have finally picked up the necessary equipment to get internet in our house. It's taken many visits to the shop and much paperwork, but we seem to have got there in the end, even if it appears to be very slow.

2nd September 2008
Another day of cultural difference. We had a Pastoral Team meeting today and it was clear that we come at things from completely different directions. We currently have a debt as a church and Rachel and I were advocating restraint with regards to expenditure for the forthcoming anniversary celebrations only to be told that we were not living by faith. The Pastoral Team certainly isn't functioning as it should, not least because Cesar feels rather defensive now that we've been asked to be pastors alongside him.

31st August 2008
Still being baffled by the culture. We were invited to a frejolada (a charity meal of rice and beans) which was arranged by someone in the church to help pay for her medical expenses (she had her arm badly broken in a robbery). These events are common ways to raise money for such things, but this was our first experience of being invited. We expected to have a nice social time with people from church, but when we arrived, we found that we were practically the only visitors and that everyone else has their rice and beans delivered to them in their houses. Seems very impersonal to me.

30th August 2008
Had a big evangelistic campain at the church today (the climax to a week of evangelism) that was poorly attended by church and community alike. I'm not altogether surprised, since to my ears, it was far too loud, but that is the Peruvian way of doing things! The focus is entirely on being impressive rather than on building relationships with people, which is much more of my cup of tea. Maybe the fact that few came is a bit of divine intervention to keep from extending ourselves even further.
We've really struggled this week to see how evangelism is done. I went door-to-door with Pastor Cesar so that I could observe what happens and it really is difficult to see what lasting value there is in chatting to someone for a couple of minutes about God and then inviting them to pray 'the prayer' that is their ticket to heaven. Of course they say 'yes'! Whether they want to come to church is another matter entirely and one that seems to be marginal in this culture. The mentality in our church is that these people have become Christians and it up to the Holy Spirit to lead them to come to church or to develop in their Christian life. It seem that it is the fact that they have become another statistic that is rejoiced over and this doesn't sit comfortably with me.

29th August 2008
Told, despite being on the Pastoral Team, that we are starting a new church/glorified homegroup in a neighbourhood about 30 minutes away from the church. Looks like teamwork is not well understood! It's quite a major commitment that I'm not sure I'd be happy to support given the state of our church at the moment. Both Rachel and I would be happier working with the people we've got in the church at the moment rather than trying to extend ourselves further when we lack the resources to do so.

25th August 2008
At the mayor's invitation yesterday, we went to visit him and enquire about land for the community / church centre that we're looking to build and he's going to put his man on to it for us. Hopefully, with that kind of backing something should come up soon, but we're not holding our breath...

24th August 2008
This has to go down as one of the most surreal days of my life. We returned to Fundo Colorado in the afternoon and were immediately whisked into a house where all the V.I.P.s had just finished lunch and then we were shown around the community fair before being asked up on to the stage to say a few words. We were ever invitied to speak before the local mayor, which was all very embarrasing!

23rd August 2008
Went out to Fundo Colorado, a semi-rural community close to Chincha to support Rachel in her nutrition workshop. We were there to be part of the 8th anniversary of the community and it was clear that they are a well organised bunch who are committed to working together. Would be great to import some of that into our context! They were very friendly and we've been invited back to more of the festivities tomorrow

22nd August 2008
Had a meeting with Pepe, Cesar and others at which Pepe announced that Cesar would no longer pastor the church by himself, but would be part of a pastoral team that included Rachel and I! This isn't something we asked for, but if it helps the church move forward and mature then that can only be a good thing and for our social action projects too.

21st August 2008
Took part in late night discussions with Pastor Pepe, President of the Baptist Convention of Peru, and people from our church over the subject of ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit. There is a lot of disquiet in some quarters about the physical manifestations of the Spirit at work during ministry times in churches. It was good to have a forum to discuss the matter and be honest about our feelings, because we don't want to put a lid on what the Holy Spirit is doing with the church, but at the same time don't want to get carried away with any hype.

19th August 2008
Said goodbye to Simon at the airport tonight. I hope he doesn't feel like it's been a wasted trip over, seeing as he didn't get to be involved in our housing project to the extent that we initially thought he might. Still, if nothing else, I think it would have been helpful to see that social architecture in a developing world context can be quite a slow process! Simon left on the same flight that the Williamsons, a family we trained with in Birmingham, arrived on to begin their time in Peru. It was great to see them and to feel that we'll have some more people around who can understand where we're living and what we're up against, though they'll be in a completely different context seeing as they'll be doing their language training in Arequipa.

16th August 2008
Chatted with the pastor today and he would like Rachel to run the recent nutrition workshop (see entry of 11th August) with a rural community close to Chincha as part of their anniversary celebrations. Although the notice is short (it's next week!), she's agreed to do it and, actually, it will be good to use the opportunity to prepare materials, practise delivering the material and generally preparing her and us as a church to be able run a nutrition based project in the future which is something that we're both interested in doing, particularly since Rachel has informally studied nutrition in some detail.

15th August 2008
Anniversary of the earthquake and a regional strike day in protest at the amount of money that seems to have gone missing from international donations. I don't know any figures, but progress on the ground certainly seems to be slow.
On an entirely different note, I had a good evening, with my first proper exercise since coming to Chincha. Through a local taxi driver, it looks like i've managed to get involved in a local football group that plays twice a week. While conversation with the lads was fairly limited this time round, it was so great (and necessary) to be able to do some sport and I hope to make this a regular fixture in my diary from now on.

14th August 2008
Found some new land today that might be suitable for the community / church centre project. On the map we have of one of the zones we are working in, I happened to notice that there is land that is designated as 'Comunal', 'Education' and 'Recreation', but in reality is there has ever been (even before the earthquake) has been a community hall on a small portion of the land which is apparently hardly ever used. The community hall, though requiring repairs, is plenty big enough for the church to meet in for the time being. Perhaps, a deal could be struck with the council so that we build and provide the community with the services it should have on paper in exchange for the land. We wait to see...

11th August 2008
Got back to Chincha late last night and immediately we've been thurst back into the thick of things. We had organised a community workshop with a visiting specialist in nutrition and had a fine time of it running around getting everything ready to host it. In itself it went of well, with perhaps 20 people attending, but I have to say that it was disappointing not to have more support for running the event from other people in the church. Both Rachel and I are feeling like we're running things on our own at the moment, but it seems as if the church would need to mature somewhat before we have people who are interested in getting involved and supporting what we're trying to do.

7th August 2008
Headed for some much needed time out, away from the frustrations, at Huacachina. Great for dune walking, sandsurfing and generally just chilling out

3rd August 2008
We went with Simon and Rachel to have lunch at the restaurant of the local celebrity chef, Mama Ine. We'd just tucked into the food when a film crew turned up to shoot footage to remember the earthquake of last year. If anyone is in Lima on the night of the 15th August and happens to be on the right channel, then they might just see Rachel trying her hand (surely that should be feet) at the local Afro-Peruano dancing and a brief interview with me about my lack of rhythm!!

30th July 2008
Heard today that the land we were interested in for building a community centre is either unavailable or comes without land deeds, which puts us back to having just one current option - 5,000m2 for roughly £15,000 which is too big and far too expensive. The search continues...

27th July 2008
Once again the goalposts move. Heard today that the prototype stage for our project, for which we've found 2 families to work with, requires at least 5 families (in effect, there is no prototype stage at all) so we have a fair bit of work to do to find suitable families and quickly so that we can begin sooner rather than later. This is frustrating, but might well be another purposeful delay to allow the church time to mature and get on board with the project.

23rd July 2008
The positive effects of the break disappeared in no time this morning. We had a debriefing session about our survey and quickly discovered that no-one wants to or can help with them. The youth team are being pressured by those above them to do other things and it is not that clear that anyone else has really caught the vision for using the surveys to not only find out the information we need for the housing project, but also information about community needs in general and also simply an opportunity to meet people in the community. We decided to pull the plug on it and Rachel and I will just have to do it in our own time over the next few months, which is frustrating and disappointing on the face of it. It could be, however, that it is the right thing. If the housing project is to be holistic (as we hope), it is perhaps for the best that the church has more time to develop itself and come to own the project and become willing participants in it.
Had an interesting afternoon though. We had been put in contact with Food for the Hungry International (FHI), who have been doing a project using reinforced adobe in an area of Chincha very near to us. We went to see it and had a fascinating experience seeing a different design and building process in action. One of the real strengths of their design is the way in which it can easily be adapted and added to in the future, which is important when the people we work with may well get their government disaster housing grant after we have built them their house. We also found out that the focus of their project is really to train people in the skills rather than build houses, so we may well be able to use some of their trained people to work in our project. Nice joined-up work!

22nd July 2008
Actually managed to have a nice relaxing time. Had lunch in one of the hotels and then spent the rest of the afternoon there with a book in one hand and a coffee in the other. It was only a short break, but we left Pisco feeling much better for it and ready to face Chincha again. For a while, however, we weren't sure that Chincha wanted us back. The protestors there had burnt out a bus and blocked the main highway so that we couldn't get back for a while, but we eventually made it!

21st July 2008
A day off, so we went to Pisco, 30 minutes away, just to get out of Chincha and forget about work for a day. It was hard to forget about it though as Pisco looks even more devastated that Chincha. It seems that it was possibly more developed than Chincha before the earthquake and had sealed roads in the centre. These either all came up or had to come up to fix the sewage and water systems so there is still rubble everywhere. That being said, there are still tourists enjoying themselves (it is a base for visiting the Paracas National Park and some nearby islands). With the provincial strike happening in Chincha tomorrow (see entry on 17th July), we decided that we might as well stay the night and managed to find one hotel that had a room free.

20th July 2008
Went to the beach this morning! We went to a place where a river flows out into the sea and 5 people from the church got baptised in the river. Rachel and I had the privilege of being 'padrinos' (godparents) for one of the teenage girls.

18th July 2008
The training session didn't quite go as planned. We'd only got half way through the first session when we had a call to say that one of the ladies in the church had been attacked by a neighbour and could the men come! We did!! The local police apparently weren't available to come and help, so it was quite a wait for someone to turn up. The local community had been in the middle of preparing a community lunch, so we took on the task of peeling mountains of potatoes while they waited patiently for the police to come and do practically nothing apart from hand out a bill for their time to the victim of the attack! Didn't think that our training session of social action would include a practical element! We eventually finished the potatoes, stayed for the lunch and finished the training in double-quick time, before going round with some of the pairs to see that they had understood correctly. It seems that they had mainly got it, but every household we go to has it's individual quirks that don't quite fit the survey form. We might need to revise it again...

17th July 2008
Always nice to receive encouragement, especially when you're feeling a little down in the mouth. How timely then, to receive not one but two parcels today full of goodies from the UK. So nice to know that people back home are thinking of us and can understand that occasionally one needs one's home comforts. Thanks for the liquorice (which is completely impossible to buy here)!!
Sadly, we heard today that the young girl who went missing (see entry on 25th June) was turned up in a ditch. Posters are now appearing calling for a provincial strike because the police have done nothing to investigate the crime.
Had a late night preparing material in Spanish for the training session we are running tomorrow on our survey. We have Cesar, Jorge and a team of 4 Peruvian youth volunteers to teach.

16th July 2008
Saw some other agricultural land that is thought to be for sale that is very near the church community, smaller and hopefully cheaper... Would be ideal if we could get it, so everybody get busy praying! One of the church members knows the owner and will speak to her when she can, but she is in Lima at the moment...
Church meeting was difficult again tonight and, in general, we are feeling discouraged by the difficulties we are having in feeling comfortable with the church and with the bamboozling technical aspects of the Peruvian bureaucracy system that we need to get on top of if we are to successfully run the housing project.

14th July 2008
Went to look at land for the church/community centre project today. Found a housing plot and an half for sale, but really doesn't give us much of an advantage over what we have already. With housing land so difficult to come by, a much more realistic and attractive offer is nearby agricultural land. It lacks services (water, sewage etc;) but it is easier to buy, much cheaper and comes in much bigger plots. We saw an area of 5,000m2 that is for sale at about £3 per m2. We'd need a financial miracle to buy this plot, but it does underline the potential that such a plot would have. If only we could get something cheaper, smaller and a bit closer to the current church community...

13th July 2008
I'm struggling somewhat with church life here. It not so much the fact that I can only pick up the gist of what is going on because of my fledgling Spanish, but more the fact that I am struggling with the theology of it all. It is very much focussed on sin (the subject of every sermon we've had in Chincha so far!) and being obedient to God's rules and the rules of the church/pastor. Ironically for a church that has its historical roots with the Anabaptist movement, it feels like it needs something of a Reformation, to break out of rule based religion and into grace-filled relationship.

12th July 2008
Had my first attempted robbery experience today in the Chincha market. It's quite an experience the market. Tiny twisty alleyways with stalls on both size set out in a vast maze-like form that is usually rammed with people. Some of it we daren't try and find by ourselves for fear of never being able to get out again!! Anyway, we were in a part we know quite well, where we often get vegetables and I was pushed hard in the back. As I turned round to see what was happening, I felt a hand enter my pocket and my wallet leaving it. I reacted in time to stuff my wallet back into my pocket. It was a bit of an heart in mouth moment and I was a bit shaken for a while afterwards

9th July 2008
National strike today (not sure what it's all about), so Simon and I had to travel to Lima yesterday for the dentists tomorrow. We went into the centre of the city in the afternoon and, despite police blocks everywhere, managed to find a way into the main square. It was quite surreal and actually quite attractive to see it devoid of traffic, shouts of 'Taxi! Taxi!', hooting horns and hoards of people.

7th July 2008
Went to investigate the land behind the current church building (a house). There are a few options for it. One is that the whole land (280m2) is used for a church building, but this will not really allow space for the vision of the church as a centre of social development to be fulfilled. The ideal is to have sufficient space to allow differing community groups to use the church building and also to have space to support small-scale development projects (eg; income generation schemes). This, however, depends on getting land at the right price, at the right time and in the right place! If this were to happen, then the current site could be used as a housing plot (for what would be a prototype for the housing project and our house while we are here). We need other people to make decisions about this, but one thing is sure - the land certainly needs clearing and cleaning!

5th July 2008
Went with the architect to a adobe making site (basically a farmer digging up his field to make bricks) about 20 minutes drive away. Unfortunately, we have to bring in adobe bricks because the local earth is too salty to use. He seemed generally happy about the quality of the bricks on offer, but costs and transport need to be discussed. Spent some of the afternoon revising the housing project survey until we had a power cut.

4th July 2008
A team meeting this morning together with our architect from Chiclayo (a city in the north of Peru) and his team. He emphasised that what we're doing with the housing project is not simply a matter of building houses for people, but that we are going to contribute in other ways too. For example, better housing means less health issues, which in turn means more time and energy can be devoted to generating income and getting better education. As a church project, it also has a spiritual dimension, giving the church an opportunity to rub shoulders with the community and build relationships with people outside the church. While the meeting helped, in general though it has to be said that the church is very ill-prepared for the project. There is currently little obvious interest in social action, despite the architect speaking on the subject to the church in the evening.

2nd July 2008
After a day in Lima yesterday, got up at 3:15am to get my brother Simon from the airport. As an architectural student, he's here to help us out for a few weeks with our housing project and our church/community building project if we manage to find land and finances for that in time for him still to be in Peru.