Don't worry, I'm still here. Just busy mingling with Peruvians and the such. A couple weeks ago was the Culto Unido (united church service) where I, along with Bethany and the youth from my church did a typical Peruvian dance. We had been practicing twice a weekend for a while until the week before the 'show' and then we practiced every night. It was really nice being able to actually make friends with these people rather than awkwardly try and make conversation after church. It was such a good experience culturally, and as I said, relationally. We plan on doing another typical dance at some point this 'winter' but I'm not sure if it will be the same dance or a new one. 
The Culto Unido was great. All of the Peruvian Mennonite churches got together to put on acts, dances, or songs as well as Merv Charles giving the sermon.
Merv works with EMM and came down for a jam packed 4 day trip to see how things were going with the church and with us missionary folk. You can see him, in the photo, giving the sermon as Pastor Ruben is translating into Quechua. Most of the church services are spoken in Quechua except for the largest church that is closest to the city of Cusco. If I haven't mentioned before, the pastor at my church preaches in Quechua and our friend Juana translates into Spanish for us (Bethany and I) although since Bethany's been studying Spanish for probably 10 years of her life, she's got it down pretty well and informally, has been learning quite a bit of Quechua in her free time. Besides the dancing, singing, acting, and preaching, the leadership of the Mennonite churches here in Peru changed. The president and treasurer had stepped down to start a new chapter in the history of the Peruvian Mennonite church and 4 pastors stepped up for the challenge. It was a big day and you can see in one of the pictures all of the people blessing/praying for the new leadership.
In the other picture, the 2 men up front were the pastors receiving plaques to show our gratitude to all that they've done to help the church grow. The four men in the back are the new leaders of the Mennonite church.
The Culto Unido was great. All of the Peruvian Mennonite churches got together to put on acts, dances, or songs as well as Merv Charles giving the sermon.
Merv works with EMM and came down for a jam packed 4 day trip to see how things were going with the church and with us missionary folk. You can see him, in the photo, giving the sermon as Pastor Ruben is translating into Quechua. Most of the church services are spoken in Quechua except for the largest church that is closest to the city of Cusco. If I haven't mentioned before, the pastor at my church preaches in Quechua and our friend Juana translates into Spanish for us (Bethany and I) although since Bethany's been studying Spanish for probably 10 years of her life, she's got it down pretty well and informally, has been learning quite a bit of Quechua in her free time. Besides the dancing, singing, acting, and preaching, the leadership of the Mennonite churches here in Peru changed. The president and treasurer had stepped down to start a new chapter in the history of the Peruvian Mennonite church and 4 pastors stepped up for the challenge. It was a big day and you can see in one of the pictures all of the people blessing/praying for the new leadership.
In the other picture, the 2 men up front were the pastors receiving plaques to show our gratitude to all that they've done to help the church grow. The four men in the back are the new leaders of the Mennonite church.
