Hey everyone! Here is a big update to the Curimana blog.
First of I want to tell you the exciting news that we have almost reached our goal of 12 members, praise God! Work has been difficult this year, with many complications. In the early months of this year we were consistently hampered by the rain. I’m not talking about drizzle or sprinkles; I’m talking about full-out rain storms. The problem wasn’t that we would get a little wet or that people wouldn’t come to services…the problem was that roads and bridges were washed out and our contacts homes were underwater! On more than one occasion we were forced to leave our vehicle and cross the flooded streams carrying our bags over our heads. In spite of this, we tried to go to Curimana and hold services every week (and God enabled us to succeed). After those early months the weather has improved significantly. We have been able to do our visits and hold services without too much trouble.
What is it like working and living in Curimana? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is “developing”. No roads are paved, most people have wells or the city provides water at certain hours of the day. The people are for the most part really nice. Curimana is a town based almost entirely on the lumber and fishing industries. The people are not well educated (If you know your letters and numbers you’re doing pretty well). In Curimana there are various independent churches; each church having no more than, at maximum, 20 members. Working in this environment can be a little frustrating because many of the churches are competing for members and there is rampant infighting, name calling and outright lies about each other. We just keeping doing the best we while maintaining our good Christian poise. Daniel and I share a bed (under a mosquito net thankfully) of boards with a blanket placed on top for padding. The mosquitoes aren’t so bad, it’s the gnats and flies that will drive you crazy (even make you cry for home). The food is good (if you put the rice to one sideJ). The majority of the food is rice and some form of chicken (roasted, broasted, fried, baked, stewed, steamed etc.). The water isn’t good for drinking so we buy bottled water ( a bottle of water costs about 33 cents, pop too). Life is a challenge, but I consider this experience as a blessing.
Recent news:
In the middle of august we had quite a large fire in Curimana which took out about three blocks of the town. Let me tell the story. We were doing our visits, just like any other day, when we hear the shrill shouts of a little girl “fire…oh wow! Look at the fire!” Looking toward the city center (we were in a neighborhood that is about 7 blocks from the city center and more raised) we see black smoke billowing out of the sector where we have our room. Looking at each other, we take off running to hopefully save our belongings. When we arrive, the house in front of ours is completely consumed in flames and the smoke is blowing right into our house. Several other houses on the same block were already gone, as they had stored gas in their houses. As our house wasn’t on fire yet, we kicked in the door and yanked our suitcases out and retreated to a safer distance. We went looking for buckets but when we found them there was no water (from 12-5:30 the city doesn’t provide water, and the official in charge had lost the key to water storage). So there we were, watching this fire jump from house to house, block to block with no water. In the meantime we ran from house to house helping people take out their belongings. Thanks be to God that just when our house was about to catch on fire, the wind died down and the water arrived. Once the water arrived we spent the next several hours helping carry buckets of water to cool of the some thirty houses that burned down. It was a miracle that our house wasn’t burned to the ground. The four houses in front of our house burned down and also a building two houses to the left. We are so happy that the brother who lets us use a room in his house didn’t lose everything. We believe that God blessed him for his hospitality. In the following weeks we have helped in what we could, donating our clothes to those who escaped just with what they were wearing. Thankfully no one was physically hurt and we always pray that God will use this to open the eyes of the people.
In happier news, we will be celebrating our first anniversary as the Church of the Nazarene in Curimana this 8th and 9th of October. We are bringing an evangelist from Lima and a Nazarene band from Tocache and we hope to have two days of preaching and great Christian music. While this is a great challenge to organize (being a church of 12 members) we are being blessed with experience and see how God works through his people of all races and nationalities to bring answers to prayers (THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED IN PRAYER AND FINANCIALLY!!!!!!! God has worked through you to make all of this possible)
Prayer Requests
· 1.For the people who have lost: businesses, homes, only livelihoods in the fire
· 2. For the Anniversary: that God would bless that time, that the weather would be good, that many many lives would be transformed by the gospel, that people would not be affected for just one night but that they would keep growing in their faith.
· 3. For a designated leader in Curimana: That God would find someone capable and willing to pastor a new church with very little income.
iiiii P.s I will add Photos later tonight if possible
