Jesús el Nazareno Church, Lima, Peru
First the good news! In Jesús el Nazareno Church, in a poorer area in South Lima where Penny is Lay Rector, we have now had 6 months uninterrupted in-person services, and people now seem to have it back in their routine, which is encouraging. It is a tiny congregation, and in 2019 we asked prayer that there be 7 men; earlier in March we achieved this for the first time at a “normal” service, which was thrilling. Still plenty of room for growth though.
We have also taken advantage of a lack of activities for children during the summer holidays. For several weeks Penny had classes for children now starting 3rd grade but whose basic literacy skills are “inadequate” following 2 complete years without classroom education and with (in some cases) no online education or parental help either. (What do you say to a mother who – months ago – said “Well, there will be lots of children like him; the teacher will get them reading in no time”?) Now that school is supposedly starting again, sadly, for the THIRD YEAR RUNNING, this hasn´t quite happened in many schools. A Civil Defence inspection at the end of February resulted in an “unfit for use” ruling on some of the classrooms in the El Nazareno school; supposedly the online alternative will start on Monday 21st BUT this hasn´t worked for most families for 2 years (when almost all schools have been permanently closed) so optimism is not high. We have been able to give exercise books to children in the Church and the communal kitchens, which is a help for them.
For those who HAVE gone back, the usual “What did you do in the holidays?” question has become “What did you learn during covid?” Quite gratifying to learn that after months of our Saturday meetings, with parents present too, “Doing crafts at Church” figured as an answer here; “Learning to follow Jesus” would of course have been even MORE exciting….. Some of the crafts have been done recently – we held a 5 week twice-a-week Bible holiday club; a new experience to find children queuing an hour beforehand! (Even when, by the third week, it was clear that actually they didn´t really NEED to queue). Amongst new children are two from Venezuela. Before arriving in Lima, the family resided briefly in Brazil; travel from one country to another is not uncommon for the hundreds of thousands of “displaced” Venezuelans currently living in Peru. (Note: use of masks is obligatory; it´s an ongoing battle to get them to have them actually in the correct position on the face!)
Sadly, the state of education is not the only crisis here. The economy is still struggling, resulting in a continuing need for help provided by the communal kitchens. Unfortunately, the monthly government/municipal help for communal kitchens, which ceased last Oct, was given in February but appears to have disappeared again in March. Thankfully, between help received by the Diocese from the Anglican communion fund, and help from a discretional fund we have, the 2 communal kitchens we are involved with have continued to function. In fact, one is the biggest communal kitchen in the district – they currently provide about 150 lunches, cooked in a kitchen measuring about 3m x 2m and covered with a tin roof which is HOT in the summer! (vegetables are prepared on a table outside).
One factor influencing the economy is political instability. President Castillo, who took office last July, and who has already changed the Cabinet 3 times, faces an impeachment debate in Congress at the end of March.
In the Cathedral, Juan Carlos is Rector of the Spanish-speaking congregation, and also Dean. However, he now has another challenge – The Rector of the English-speaking congregation has left, and since there is not exactly an over-abundance of English-speaking clergy in the Anglican Church, Juan Carlos is presiding the communion in these services too. This makes Sundays even busier – they are 3 very different congregations.
Thank you for your support. You at St John´s are part of all that is happening here!