New Wheels

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Last month we were blessed to be given a car!

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In November, we were contacted by the director of personnel from Latin America Mission asking if we would be interested in having a car. Another missionary family in Lima was leaving LAM and going to another mission group. They had a car that had to be returned to LAM and instead of looking to sell it, they offered to let us have it for free – all we had to pay for was the title change, which was just under 200 soles (about $75). For the past few years, Billy and I have relied on buses, taxis or our own two feet to get around the city of Lima. Neither of us saw a pressing need for us to have a car but knew that some day we would have to get one. Continue reading…

A Trip to the States

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I can’t believe it’s already been a month since we returned from our last-minute trip to the US in November/December. Unfortunately we had some complicated technical issues with our website which delayed this post and resulted in rebuilding the website and creating a new design. If you’re reading this entry through an RSS reader or our email delivery, check out the new design at 12degreessouth.com. I promise we had this entry written earlier, we just couldn’t log in to post it… and we promise to be better at updating more often 🙂

Billy and I weren’t planning on being in the US at the end of last year since we’re still waiting for his Peruvian citizenship papers to come through. Unfortunately Scripture Union Peru is facing a large financial deficit for 2014 so we were asked to organize a trip to try to raise support for the organization and its ministries. Within a week of having the trip approved, we purchased tickets and were on our way to New York.

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Merry Christmas!

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As Kate and I take some time to reflect and give thanks to God on this Christmas Day for sending His Son as a perfect example and sacrifice for us, we also wanted to take some time to thank all of you and share a little bit about what God has been doing through our program for the deaf this Christmas season.

Last week the kids in our deaf program came together, and decided that they wanted to teach other Peruvians how to “sing” Silent Night in sign language. Together with a number of other volunteers they all came together in one of the busiest parks in Lima, and did just that. It was wonderful to see how passersby gathered around to learn the signs and to learn about the deaf community. It was a blessing for us and the rest of the SU staff to give the kids this opportunity to come along side them and show them that they do have a voice that is worth hearing and to continue to share God’s love with them.

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Changed Plans & Unexpected Opportunities – Part 2

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This is a continuation of the first post, Changed Plans & Unexpected Opportunities – Part 1

Also thanks to Billy’s delayed naturalization to become a Peruvian citizen (missed that story?), we were able to travel to Kimo and Ica with a small group from Scotland and England for two weeks.

In the 12 years that I have volunteered/worked with Scripture Union, I have only been to Kimo four times. I can’t tell you how many times I have been to Kusi or Puerto Alegria, but I’ve only been to Kimo four times – in 2001, 2008, 2011 and this trip. Billy has been many, many times through trips with Ward Church and then while working here, but for some reason it just wasn’t on my itinerary very often.

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Changed Plans & Unexpected Opportunities – Part 1

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If there is one thing we have learned over the past few months, it would be that is hard to make plans while working with the Peruvian government.

Over the past few months, you might have heard us mention that we are planning a long trip to the US to do some fundraising for Scripture Union and that said trip was supposed to take place this fall. Obviously, plans have changed.

Billy is in the long process of applying for Peruvian citizenship and then will hold nationalities in both the US and Peru. There are many reasons why he wants to become a Peruvian citizen, but the biggest being not having to deal with the complications and restrictions that come with having residency cards (ie – Green cards as in the US) Technically, we are here under the category of “Religious, non-Catholic” and with that come different rules and regulations. Yes, there are 2 types of residency categories for religious groups – Catholic and everybody else.

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