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Pastor Dana Nelson Provides us with good news via her
"June 2009 Newsletter"
June 2, 2009
Queridos amigos y amigas (My dear friends),
Saludos en el nombre de Jesucristo nuestro Señor departe de nuestros hermanos y hermanas de la Iglesia Luterana Evangélica Peruana (ILEP). I send you greetings in the name of Jesus Christ from our brothers and sisters of the Peruvian Evangelical Lutheran Church (ILEP).
This newsletter should have the month of May written at the top, and not June. Time flies. (In Spanish, time doesn’t fly, it runs – el tiempo corre.) At least I can say that very soon we will be seeing many of you face to face as we travel north to share our stories, images and experiences from Lima. Every two years, long-term ELCA missionaries return to the United States for two months to visit the congregations around the country who actively sponsor our work. So hopefully we will see you soon!
On Sunday we had a very lively, Spirit-filled worship service on the Day of Pentecost. The music was wonderful. We “prayed in tongues”. The Quechua, English and German native speakers in our congregation participated in prayers and scripture readings. We met little Alejandro for the first time in church who was born two weeks ago, and we baptized his four year old cousin Axel. In Peru a Holy Baptism often implies a big party, and we are still eating left-over cake. The worship service started 40 minutes late (oops!) partly because Lima had its first internationally recognized marathon that Sunday morning, which created quite a change in traffic patterns. Most of the members of Cristo Rey Lutheran come to church on city buses from all four corners of Lima.
Tom Ososki, my husband, is an architect & urban designer. Since we moved to Peru, he has been working hard as a wonderful stay-at-home dad, learning Spanish and managing our household. It is a long process to get his architecture license validated and recognized in Peru. But, step by step we are getting there. In the meantime Tom has been helping out with the designs of three ILEP churches. He drew some plans for a staircase at Filadelfia in Lurin, (one of the oldest Spanish-speaking Lutheran congregations in Peru, celebrating its 40th Anniversary.) He is heavily involved in the design of San Juan Camino de Esperanza, a church in the very poor district of San Juan de Luringancho. They hope to start construction soon. The congregation of San Juan serves about one hundred children each week in an after school program giving homework help, etc. Tom is also accompanying the congregation of Vida Nueva in Pamplona Alta as they plan to add an addition for Sunday school classrooms and a community room.
I am including a photos:
- of Tom at San Juan,
- of me and Pastor Andres at the congregation of Emaus in the district of Carabayllo in the far north of Lima, and
- of our Men’s Prayer Breakfast at Cristo Rey, the congregation I serve in the southern district of Surco.
I will sign off with words from verse 12 of 2nd John, because they apply so well to how I feel right now. “Although I have much [more] to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink; instead I hope to come to you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.”
God bless you. See you soon.
Love, Pastora Dana, Tom, Anthony and Tana
- Congregación Evangélica Luterana Cristo Rey
- Calle Conde de Nieva, 237
- Urb. La Virreyna, Surco
- Lima 33, Perú
Home phone PE +51 12717097 Call , Church phone PE +51 12780169 Call
Website www.ilep.org
BLOG -- by Pastor Benjamin Navarro
The now famous and informative "BLOG" of the talented Pastor Benjamin Navarro, highlights, this month, an event that takes place each year at Easter in Marquez Peru. Essentially, many of the church members spend all day and night Saturday at Luz Divina, singing and praying. Early Sunday morning (Easter) they take communion together and then climb a nearby hill that overlooks their town of Marquez. Here, on top of the hill, they continue to sing and pray. The communion and hill climbing takes place each year at about 5:00 am on Sunday morning. You can see these photos in the BLOG.
Benjamin is Pastor at Luz Divina in Marquez, Peru. This man has many many talents! He continues to be an Internet Artist. Stay tuned to his BLOG which highlights the Future Seeker children and other events at Luz Divina.
Explore the following link and you may find your sponsored child.
Information provided by:
John W. Warner -- Email = jwwarner28@comcast.net
Last Update: 03-Jun-2009