We decided on a church to join around the end of April after visiting 5 or 6 on Sundays. We found it through a long series of connections which, in a way, go back 17 years to the time Roland first came to Latin America!
Last autumn we went to our friend Celia’s retirement party in London. Celia worked in Peru for 20 years and it was through her we were first inspired to visit Peru in 1997. At the party we met Don Ford, who used to head up Latin Link, and through whom Roland was first inspired to come to Latin America in 1990. We told Don about our plans to come to Peru. A couple of months later, we received an email from Don because a friend of his in New Zealand is due to come to Cusco in July. He thought we would be interested as the conference is about Christian-run micro-enterprise projects. The organisation running the conference is based in the States but they have partners in many parts of the world and their Peruvian partner is working in Cusco. So we were excited that there might be something going on already in Cusco that we could join with or at least learn from. And we hoped there might be church connected with it we could join.
Roland managed to speak to the head of the organisation in the States before we came out here, and he was very positive about Roland’s possible involvement. He said there was a volunteer from America working in Cusco with the project who we should meet when we got here.
So, finally, after a few weeks of being here, we managed to get in touch with Devin, the volunteer working here, and find out more. It turns out that she goes to the church where the project originally started about 7 years ago. We have been going there for just over a month now and really like it. We get on well with the pastor, Americo, and his wife, Mary. They have lots of ideas and plans for the church which sound good. Sammy is pleased because the service is short! We were all finding the 2-3 hour services on other churches a bit much! Mary does a fun kids group for his age and there is space at the back for Benjamin to play. The morning meeting is quite small (it’s recently started with about 30 people) but the more established evening meeting has about 70.
Last autumn we went to our friend Celia’s retirement party in London. Celia worked in Peru for 20 years and it was through her we were first inspired to visit Peru in 1997. At the party we met Don Ford, who used to head up Latin Link, and through whom Roland was first inspired to come to Latin America in 1990. We told Don about our plans to come to Peru. A couple of months later, we received an email from Don because a friend of his in New Zealand is due to come to Cusco in July. He thought we would be interested as the conference is about Christian-run micro-enterprise projects. The organisation running the conference is based in the States but they have partners in many parts of the world and their Peruvian partner is working in Cusco. So we were excited that there might be something going on already in Cusco that we could join with or at least learn from. And we hoped there might be church connected with it we could join.
Roland managed to speak to the head of the organisation in the States before we came out here, and he was very positive about Roland’s possible involvement. He said there was a volunteer from America working in Cusco with the project who we should meet when we got here.
So, finally, after a few weeks of being here, we managed to get in touch with Devin, the volunteer working here, and find out more. It turns out that she goes to the church where the project originally started about 7 years ago. We have been going there for just over a month now and really like it. We get on well with the pastor, Americo, and his wife, Mary. They have lots of ideas and plans for the church which sound good. Sammy is pleased because the service is short! We were all finding the 2-3 hour services on other churches a bit much! Mary does a fun kids group for his age and there is space at the back for Benjamin to play. The morning meeting is quite small (it’s recently started with about 30 people) but the more established evening meeting has about 70.
Pictures of a family event arranged by the church in a poor area of town
The church is called Centro Familiar Cristiano and meets in a rented building on the outskirts of the centre of Cusco. We can walk to it in about 40 minutes. It’s quite near to an area we’re looking at living longer term, so that would be useful! The office of the micro-enterprise project is located there too. The church was planted by Americo and Mary from one in Lima 12 years ago.
They have another project associated with the church too – a project which owns a big house on a mountainside near here. The vision is for it to be a retreat centre with a feeding programme for children, plus perhaps a children’s home in the future. The church also does outreaches in several poor areas and have one church plant already started and another one planned.
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