Laura-Lee Lovering
Life, the Universe and Everything
January 2023
www.bmsworldmission.org/llovering
Happy New Year! Our embattled Peruvian President,
Dina Boluarte has announced the official name of the
year: 'Year of unity, peace and development'. For those
of you who have seen any news coverage of the current
political situation in the country, you'll appreciate that she
could be described as an optimistic woman. Thankfully,
the current troubles haven't troubled me much at all here
in Piura but your prayers for the resolution of this
seemingly intractable situation causing chaos in
Southern Peru and Lima and the 50 families mourning
deaths of protestors since December, are gratefully
received.
Over the last couple of months I have continued to work
on embedding myself more into the Piura Baptist
Association, visiting a few more churches and attending
a few more Association meetings. I had the pleasure of
taking the bus out to the coast to visit Paita Baptist
Church, a couple of weeks ago. Paita is a large town but
it boasts a colossal port, the 2nd largest in the country
after Callao in Lima. More to the point, being right on the
sea it is the recipient of cool sea breezes, which are in
high demand at the moment (today's top temperature
was 36oC).
My plans to run a church leaders' workshop on creation
stewardship on the 18th February are coming along with
the support of the Association Social Action Director, Pr.
Renxon, who has been very keen to adopt me into his
Social Action team. As I now work to promote the event
amongst the churches, coordinating everything by
WhatsApp with my co-speaker, Esther, in Ecuador,
please pray that things remain calm enough in our
region for the benefit of all, but also so that Esther and
her husband, Pr. Marco, will feel confident to come here
from Ecuador. The Peruvian Baptist Assembly should
have taken place here in Piura last week, but it was
cancelled at relatively short notice due to the current
instability affecting those trying to travel up from the
south. Whilst it has been assigned a new date in
February, many are still sceptical that things will be
better by then.
One benefit of the Assembly being postponed at the last
minute is that my BMS colleagues who had already
booked their flights decided to come up to Piura anyway
and we were able to enjoy some impromptu team
building activities. We can now confirm that it takes 5
BMS mission workers to light a BBQ! My colleagues also
surprised me with a large chocolate birthday cake and
my first 'Happy Birthday' of the season. A combination of
surprise and anticipated, official and unofficial birthday
celebratory events occurred throughout the weekend,
culminating in a meal out with some ladies from church
to the only restaurant in the city where they have curry
on the menu, of the Thai variety and quite delicious. So I
turned 42 this year, which is a pleasing age for a science
fiction fan!
