The Chauffeur, the Chef and the Shipping Containers

Since I last wrote, I've added 'wedding chauffeur' to my list of skills, attended an eco-stove cooking class with an international chef, and escaped to the beach and the hills.

In reverse order, I had a delightful time away from the city for a week in April, with friends that came over from Nauta. This is now the second year of holidaying together at a tiny fishing village, El Ñuro, in a quaint little guesthouse constructed of renovated shipping containers, right on the beach, about 20mins walk (along the beach) from the village itself. The friends are mission workers with a different organization but we often collaborated in Nauta when our ministriy areas overlapped, so we have lots of good stories to laugh about. We also enjoyed daily swims in the sea, BBQ-ing fresh seafood purchased from the local market and a surprising trip into the hills to find some waterfalls. We all needed some time to switch-off from work and experience something different - the beauty of the sea, the sandy beaches, the forested hills and clear green water of the waterfall pools (full of little fish who gave my feet a free exfoliation treatment), helped us clear our heads and praise God for his glory.

Then came the international chef eco-cooking class. That was a busy weekend in April, the weekend of the church anniversary at Nuevo Eleuterio-km980. It was decided that we would 'inaugurate' the Model Eco-Stove in the community centre on the Friday, with the President from the Regional Baptist Association and a small meal cooked by the church ladies using the eco-stove. When we arrived there were already lots of people gathered, including a Peruvian chef from Argentina. Following some (reasonably) brief words from myself, then the Association President, the chef donned her hat and proceeded to teach us all how to make egg fried rice with chicken!

The important thing for me was to see the enthusiasm with which the women all wanted to practice on the stove and of course, that the stove itself was holding up and performing as it should be. Several women who don't attend the church asked if they could be included in the project and since then I've had the difficult task of sitting down with the leaders to finalise the shortlist of 24 beneficiaries. Even though this project will be funded by a one-off grant from BMS' Eco Challenge Fund, my prayer is that our boldness in requesting additional material support from the local authority will be rewarded and we will be able to stretch the grant to benefit a few more families. This same prayer also applies to the second part of the eco-stove project in the village of Chapaira, led by Ps Harmitaño and his family, which I visited a few days ago to finalise the project program. They are due to construct their Model Eco-Stove next week when we will also start collecting beneficiary baseline data.

And then last weekend, I thoroughly cleaned the car before taking it to be adorned with some flower bouquets and spent Saturday afternoon/evening as wedding driver to a young couple from church. It has been tempting since then to continue driving around with the flowers on the car as I noticed that other road users tended to slow down and even give way to me. I put this down to Piurans being hopeless romantics at heart. I also had the honour of being Madrina de la Biblia during the wedding ceremony, another first for me. After all the vows have been said there are two symbolic presentations to the couple. First, a Bible is presented, accompanied by words to the effect of 'remember to use this manual in your new life together' - this was my bit. Second, a double-looped piece of ornamental cord is draped over the shoulders of the bride and groom, whilst the Padrinos del Lazo share some words about the couple now being united. Everything turned out very well and the couple seemed happy and exhausted when I finally dropped them home a bit after midnight.

Several other projects continue to tick along and your prayers continue to be appreciated:

- Teaching Creation Stewardship at the Piura Baptist Seminary every Monday until mid-July, with a total of 12 students across the two seminary locations;

- Connecting with the local authorities in Castilla and 26 de Octubre to advance the church-based Civil Defence Committees for disaster preparedness and relief;

- Developing the Creation Care Program at the International Baptist Theological Study Centre in The Netherlands, including a webinar in June and the 10-week course starting in October.

I think those are the highlights for now. My prayer is that in all these projects and activities, we are all (including me) learning and practicing what it means to be salt and light in the world as Jesus' disciples, not conforming to the world around us or trying to withdraw from it, but endeavouring to transform it where it touches us by showing that there is another Way.

As always, thank you for your prayers and support.

Love Laura x