PUNO

We had a fantastic weekend in Puno last weekend. It was just what our team needed to renew, revive and excite us. The church in Puno has only been there since 2008. Pastor Herman and his family arrived and began by doing a week long VBS with their four kids, and any other kids that would come.  After the VBS they began visiting the children's families. Today, the church has about 50 regular attenders.  The church rents a large room in an apartment building.  The youth meet Saturday evenings, the kids Sunday mornings and the adults Sunday nights.  Most people have to work everyday, so Sunday night services work best for the adults. Pray that by the end of our time in Puno this church will have it's own building!    

Kids church

We stayed with the pastor and his family and our team stayed at a nearby hotel.  Pastor Herman and his wife Diana have four kids, an 11 year old by, 9 year old twin boys and a 5 year old daughter.  They cooked for us all weekend, and were fantastic hosts.  Pray for them!  They have been working so hard and have endured so much since their arrival in Puno.

We also had some time to explore the city and be tourists.  One of the main attractions here are the floating islands.  The Uros are a group of people who build and live on islands made of reeds.  It was fascinating!  

One of the islands

Ella and Thomas had a great time!

We also explored the city a bit.  We scoped out a place to get dessert and coffee, and also found several pizzerias!  The town is build on a hillside, so most of the streets are really steep.  That will take some getting used to-especially with the altitude.  No one get really sick, a few of us had headaches, but nothing more.  Chad and I did notice that we were winded just from singing in church!  The weather was nice.  Warm in the day, cool in the evening.  It is the end of winter, so I guess we will see how cold it really gets next year.    

This is the center-very tourist friendly!

This is what most of the streets look like.

Thomas and Ella picked out new hats.  $5 for both!

Lake Titicaca!  What an adventure.

We will be moving into our apartment at the beginning of next week!  We are really looking forward to it.  Thank you for you prayers.  As I said earlier, the weekend was a great time for us.  Chad and I are being increasingly challenged as we try to lead, now that we have more responsibility, more people on our team and two cultures to work with.  Pray that we will have wisdom and discernment, and that we will be pro-active and give our team the best leadership possible.  We love these people and look forward to seeing what God will do in their lives.

Back row- Pastor Herman, Nelson, Micah, Garren, Trevor, Kristen
Middle row- Jeremias, Joel, Francisca, Sixto
Bottom row- Us, Roy

If you would like to see more pictures of our Puno weekend, click here.