January, 2010

Happy new year everyone! I have decided to update our blog a bit more often this year! I just posted October's newsletter in January, oops!

We've been really busy in the past couple of months as our building project has taken off! The centre, which is 3 classrooms and bathrooms, has walls, a floor, and a roof, and our house has walls and a roof too. Martin has been learning how to be a general contractor in the Andes, something that is sometimes fun, and sometimes quite stressful. We had a group from Newfoundland come and visit us, they helped us put the floor in the centre. We had a lot of fun with them! Here are some pictures of how the centre looks now:

Sunday school has been growing the last few months as well. One Sunday we had 40 kids surprise us, and the day we had a Christmas party over 100 kids came! A team from Lima came to do the Christmas party in Huaricolca, and they did a wonderful job. While we're here in Canada we're hoping that the people we asked to continue Sunday school have been able to. We'll start again in February when we return to Tarma.

In March the children will go back to school, and this is when we are hoping to start our regular weekly program. Since school finishes at 1:00, we are planning to offer lunch and a homework club three times a week. We plan to gradually expand our program to include English classes, Arts and Crafts, Music, and maybe further in the future workshops like carpentry and computer skills.

We will be in Canada until January 27, then we'll spend a few days in Lima before we return to Tarma. We're hoping to be there on February 1. In February we hope to finish the centre, (it needs toilets, sinks, windows, and doors) and be living in our house (it needs a lot of work still).

We have had a wonderful time here in Canada, and we have enjoyed all the visiting we have been able to do. We are so thankful to God for those of you who have blessed us with money to be able to finish what we have started. Thank you for catching the vision God has given us, and for partnering with us. Thank you for your prayers, your interest, and your insightful questions. Remember that we are looking forward to being able to show you this work in person. Come visit us!

Love, Denise and Martin