Never Forget 2009!

I'll never forget year 2009!

A new culture came to our world. A new family shared our lives. A new church life took our breath away.....

SY & I really came to appreciate again more of Peruvian culture - a different culture from we are from. We Chinese are more reserved, colder and more peace-loving. We came to the warm, affectionate and competitive (when there is something to be won, the people's eyes literally open) part of the world. Now we feel adjusted, in fact, we've started to fall in love with it.

Tis year we also opened up our lives to many church members. We visited them in their homes, besides inviting them to ours. We know their lifestyle, their livelihood, their daily routines..much more. Indeed, very refereshing to be able to experience first-hand what our new families are going through in their daily living.

The church life is fun, warm and relaxed. People like to hang out with each other more, people enjoy talking nonsense (haha...even the serious ones) more, people enjoy hugging each other out of more real and heartwarming affections. This has really opened our eyes as to how God's love and affection flows among the congreation.....it's breathtaking when unlikely people love each other...:)

We've really enjoyed ourselves. Our lives have been enriched by this one whole year of unique experiences. God has stretched our abilities to relate and lead across the congregation, from kids, youths, adults, parents and older folks. In this one year, never did we imagine that out of the 'sacrifices' and 'cries' we made, the Lord turned our lives to become more beautifully painted in our hearts, with richer colours and more animated life graphics:)

Lord, thank you for giving us more than we gave you! We'll try next year to outgive you, let's see!

RRR Trip in Northern Peru

Christmas is a low season for outreach and Peruvians are high on spending time with their family during Christmas.

So, 3 of us grabbed the opportunity to go for a RRR (rest, relax and reflect) getaway trip to a very beautiful northern city -- Trujillo. The 10-hour bus ride almost killed us! Nonetheless, the moment we stepped into the land of Trujillo.... our eyes were.....opened!!

Trujillo is an important historical city due to the city's proximity to many huacas (sacred places) where the Moche and Chimu civilizations were founded. We visited many huacas including the Chimu's mud ruins in Chan Chan, the world's largest city built out of adobe, and Huaca del Sol y Huaca de la Luna built by Moche Civilisations. We were so fascinated about the history of Moche and Chimu! (especially Miss Yeo)

We also went to see Marinera ( National Dance of Peru) y Caballos de Pasos (Horse Dance) show, where TK had a good time pretending to be a Peruvian Horseman.

On the second day, we took a day tour to Chiclayo, we visited the Bruning museum where the remains of the "Lord of Sipan" is being kept. It was another yet amazing eye-opener because of the amount of archaelogical works involved behind the discovery. In the museum, the tour guide explained to us how archaelogists spent years to dig the huacas with great care, how they drew (not took photos) to precisely depict the imaginary position of remains (broken bones, shells, body accesories) when it was in its original form. We also visited the pyramid in tucume where the remains of dead bodies and ceramics were found. At the site, we could tell even pictorially how the different burials were arranged sequentially. As many archaelogical works are still ongoing in the region and more new historical sites being discovered.

It was indeed a fruitful and blessed trip, all the way to the end! At the end of the trip, our bus was upgraded to "suite" bus due to bus delays. Zzzzzz.....God gave us a sweet sweet journey home. PTL! After the whole trip, We were so tired that we slept another whole day on Christmas Eve...haha..!! Gracias to such RRR as this, hooray to the great cultural heritage of Peru...so rich and interesting:)

Someone's turning 36... Oh no!

Oscar's birthday coming up on the 16th of October. We celebrated for him 3 days earlier. We treated him with Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice, Maracuya juice and a lucuma cake. We just understand him too well about how he can feel heaven, not just with the Holy Spirit, BUT with earthly meat AS WELL. He is spiritual but is still very much fondly attached to what the stomach desires...... No photos on the Hainanese Chicken rice anyway.....we finished it too fast and too furious..:)

One-day Lima Tour

We went for one-day Lima tour on a goverment-declared holiday. Our Actspeditions volunteer Koh Yun, who arrived here one week ago, was with us in this tour. Ever since we came to Lima, we never took a time to tour around the city centre of Lima, although it's just half an hour away. Through this tour, only then we got to know that Lima was declared a historical site in 1991. We got to understand all the historical accounts of the different structures and church buildings.

Without fail, we pampered ourselves with a good Chinese buffet.

Team Chile's Visit

Teck Keong's Birthday

My Husband has been telling others how blessed he was during his birthday. Let's see.......

1st blessing point: 5 "Senoras" (women) cooked for him! Here are the 5 powerful women from Hope Lima!

2nd blessing point: Nancy ( one of our church members) chose not to travel and celebrated her birthday together with Teck Keong.

3rd blessing point: He found a wonderful new family in Lima, beyond Malaysia and Singapore, without having to marry a new wife..:)

Dia Mama Photos

Dia mama is a very important celebration in Peru. The malls are filled with promotion for mother's day gifts, all the schools have a special Friday celebration with mamas. It was a great time of celebration with many first time...we've seen a "line-up" of 18 mamas....the youths sang oldies for their mamas, even the dads put up a skit for their wives...:)

Everybody! AND

One of my beloved 'sons'!

Smiling Seal

We didn't get "upclose and personal" with the seals at Paracas, so didn't see their faces. Just happened to chance upon a photo of a cute smiling seal.

Good Friday Getaway at Paracas

Beautiful sunset at Paracas Beach

(Left) KS with pelicans; (Right) Before setting off for Ballestas Island.

(Left) Before shipwreck; (after) After shipwreck (boat breakdown) the second time.

Seals, gulls, vultures, etc


Bird shit collection point and breathtaking arch.

The Candelabro Nazca Lines, wow!