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:)