Short Term Mission Report: July 25

Dear Friends in Christ,
Peace be with you.

In place of my usual weekly prayer and praise report, I am passing along a daily mission report. Keep praying for us Mudges, and all that needs to happen over the next few weeks, and please keep praying for the team as they start to move into the second and final week of the trip. I especially ask your prayers for Debbie Gerlach who was a bit under the weather today, and is recovering.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me a messages about the mission reports and the photos, and thank you to Torre Bissell and Jeanne Gizara who have been willing to pass along daily reports. Thank you for praying for us. I pray for you every day. It makes a difference.

This is today´s report from the Albany mission trip to Lima, Peru:
Again, there were two parts of the day, today, for the mission team:

1) There was a healing service during the 11 am Holy Eucharist at La Ascension in the Surco District of Lima during the prayers of the people, led by Bishop Bill Love. Four prayer teams from the group were set up in the different corners around the room. One team was joined by Judith Godfrey (beloved spouse of Bp. Bill Godfrey) and by Linda Chapman (beloved spouse of Fr. Mike Chapman).

Fr. Mike presided at the Holy Eucharist. Bishop Bill preached (and it was translated by a team member into Spanish). The Diocese of Albany team led the congregation in two of the worship songs. I have included two pictures, one of the Albany team during the service (two team members are playing percussion instruments), and another during a photo session after the service.

After the service, the congregation of La Ascension gave us a very nice thank-you lunch at the parish, as an example of the famous Peruvian hospitality that we have been experiencing, and in gratitude for all that had been accomplished at the mission. The parish hopes that this is the beginning of a continuing relationship between the Diocese of Albany and the parish of La Ascension.

At the end of the lunch, Amelia Brown gave an excellent visual presentation in Spanish to everyone, about the Diocese of Albany. About 3:30 pm, the get-together concluded with a spectacular cultural song by the congregation, led by Fr. Alberto Valdivia, the priest in charge of the congregation and an excellent guitarist. Fr. Alberto stands between Bp. Bill and Fr. Mike in one of the photos.

2) In the evening after about a 45 minute drive, we enjoyed a different kind of Holy Eucharist, at the anniversary celebration of the mission of Jesus El Salvador in the District of Villa El Salvador, a mission at which Julie and I had been serving earlier this year. The service lasted from 6 pm to 8:30 pm.

Several of the people at this service were people that the team had been meeting during the week. That reunion was great, especially for the team members who had painted the mural at La Ascension with Marco Gomez, the artist; Marco was a leader at the service at Jesus El Salvador, and he lives at Jesus el Salvador.

And it was very nice service for just about everyone, and there were photos afterwards. Fr. Julio Montoya, the Vicar General of the Diocese, was both the celebrant and the preacher, and he gave an excellent sermon on prayer that was translated by Raul Calvo into English (one of the team members). Our bus driver and his family joined us for the service; he particularly liked the worship band.

Tomorrow is another interesting day.

God bless you.
In Christ,
Shaw+, and on behalf of Julie+ and Lydia