About our (many) Vaccinations…

July 2015 to February 2016
Yellow fever, Rabies, Typhoid, TB, Hep A & B…
The kids have been amazing!  We have a plan of attack – they choose to count down the days until the appointment.  Then they are ready – as they sit, arm exposed, waiting  - Sandi gives the littlies lolly snakes or lollipops (in the mouth works best) and they amaze the Dr’s with their compliance – and even more with their sincere thankyou’s afterwards!

It has been funny to watch the definition of a great day change – Solomon now proclaims a great day to be any day he doesn’t need to have a needle!

I think I deserve a lollipop for managing the spreadsheet of ‘who has had what when’. ☺

Blessings, Sandi

Vaccination Surprise

14 July 2015
We were surprised to learn how many vaccinations we needed to have to live in Curahuasi. At last count there were 9 needles that we had to have. The first appointment turned out to be very eventful! We discovered that I was pregnant! So baby number 8 is on its way! Very exciting!!!

What did I say last post about trusting God with his plan?  Now I really have to!

Blessings, Sandi

The Learning Curve Begins…

July 2015
We have never travelled this road before.  Chris and Jake have been to Cambodia on short term mission trips, but I am a definite novice! ☺  I must confess to spending a month being concerned about buying new warm jackets for the whole family at the July stocktake sales idea!  It made sense to me – high altitude/ snow topped mountains…

But then I had my understanding moment…… I realised after too much wasted time that I had no idea!!!  We are going to a very poor area, where other missionary families describe kids begging outside their window as they eat dinner, and I am worried about new jackets!  Even more – a Dr already working at the hospital emailed to say NOT to bring warm jackets!    So we returned most of them (yes – to be honest not all).  But lesson starting to be learnt - my organising put me in control but this whole journey is showing us that God needs to be in control and is doing this good work, not us.  I need to ask him what needs to be done….


Blessings, Sandi

Confirmations with Radio and School…

27 May 2015

Chris then had lunch with friend and CEO of Hope FM 103.2 in Sydney – a TXA client and fellow Christian.  Chris shared about the Peru chapter opening up for us.  He was so excited and said his station hadn’t supported anything outside of Australia before but he wanted to support Chris with the Diospi Suyana hospital radio project.  Amazingly with the offer of studio equipment and technical support in Peru.   We were so aware of the anointing of God’s hand upon Diospi Suyana.   This was beginning to be like the stories in Klaus’ book for us!

Klaus phoned again to chat and ended with “it looks like you’re the next family to come to Diospi Suyana!”   He indicated at the time that we were to be needed in January 2016. 

So we took the big step of withdrawing Jake from Pacific Hills Christian School (year 10), so he could be at home to learn Spanish and help pack and adjust to distance Ed study.

4 June 2015

We had another amazing appointment – this time with the school principal Dr Edwin Boyce.  We were expecting this to be a goodbye meeting.  However Dr Boyce opened our conversation by saying he was aware of our mission to Peru and it was the best thing we could do as a family and offered to have us present our story at staff devotions.  Furthermore he loved Peru as he had visited there before himself and would put it in his notes to come and visit us next year!

He so encouraged us when he said as we left that this was just the start of our journey together.  God’s anointing on Diospi Suyana continues for us. 

Blessings, Chris

Confirmations…

May 2015 – Chris had been concerned about the mountainous terrain in the Andes and specifically about driving our family around safely.  For the most part there are dangerous cliffs at the road’s edge with hairpin bends at every turn and without the Australian standard of safety railings we were used to!  The Diospi Suyana hospital has received many a patient from buses and other vehicles going over the edge and many deaths are included.

That weekend he went to a church conference night where random bible verse were given out to all entering the centre.  His was Psalm 121:1... 

I lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip — he who watches over you will not slumber;

We felt like we were ready to commit to this adventure.  Chris and I emailed Klaus together and told him we were still here and interested, and asked what should we do next.  We included the above testimony of Ps 121.  Klaus phoned the next morning to say who wrote the email, we said we had written it together, he said, “It looks like I need to come and meet you then, I will come in October 2015 to Australia”.

Blessings, Sandi

Do we really want to go?

Later in April 2015… Dr John indicated that an initial commitment of three years was needed to complete the proposed transmission project. This was longer than we had thought - but made sense in hindsight as we needed time to learn a new language and culturally adjust to then be useful!  The engineering scope to build a network was big too, and it is hard to know how long it would take. 

It was a searching time – life here suddenly looked different.  God put choices in front of us and we had to choose to trust in the unknown or rest here in short term certainty. 

Chris had unexpected changes at work at his management level.  Were things looking better?  Should we stay now?

We began to complain about our living arrangements (which were a squeeze for us) and were unexpectedly offered a plan to “have” a house!  With all the space we could ever want!  But Peru didn’t fit into the timeframe if we wanted it.  Should we take it?

We believe now God had given us a choice i.e. he was testing us.  We didn’t even have to discuss it though, our hearts said “no”. God had placed Peru in our hearts and we could see how quickly that dream had become bigger than our old dreams.   Soon after without conveying this to anyone else, the offer for the bigger house was withdrawn!

Blessings, Sandi

Now it was time to introduce the concept of moving to Peru with the kids!!

April 2015 – Chris started by reading to the kids as a bedtime story the biography of Klaus Dieter John from the YWAM publication Christian Heroes: Then & Now series. There are 43 books in this series, and I think 40 of them are about missionaries who have long passed on. We have read half of them, and the concept of this faith filled man still being alive was not lost on the kids.

They enjoyed the book and somewhere along the way we introduced the idea that maybe we could go to Peru and help! Keeping it an idea that they could chew over worked well. It helped Chris and I too, as we digested what it would really mean.

It was amazing to see how the older kids all picked out a different Peruvian feature that excited them about moving there. Jake loves an adventure and wants to hike in the Andes and can’t wait to learn Spanish and experience a different culture.

Sam, our keen cyclist, realised the potential of high altitude living some 2.65km above sea level with the training potential of the even higher mountain highways.

Isaac loved the idea of helping Dad with the technical aspects of the project. Then Sarah heard about the perfect Peruvian horses that walk the Inca trails, and Georgia wants to help the poor kids at the afternoon kids clubs the hospital holds each weekday...

It took our breath away to realise how God was sending us to a place that would hold something special for each of the kids. Interests aside, they were all taken by the idea of Peru - to help the poor, to share God’s love and to help Dad with the project.

Blessings, Sandi

The YWAM book which initially inspired us