G'day all!

Welcome to the online account of Mike & Kerry's up-coming (Aug/Sept. 2010) trip to Peru. Here you can follow our latest entries 'on the road'... whenever we can gain access to the internet for updates, of course.

Not that we're expecting that to be much of a problem; one surprising thing during my last trip to Peru (Feb. 2008) was to discover that the country is very well wired. I mean, even in the rusty & dusty jungle township of Pucallpa the broadband was so good it would make Stephen Conroy blush.

So, if you're interested in following what we're up to, take a peek every couple of days or so — and if the technological and gastronomical dimensions of life are behaving themselves, we should have new stuff posted up with photos... and maybe even the occasional video or two.

The Background

For years (decades, actually) since becoming a Christian, Mike has been wondering about whether one day ministry in South America might be a goer.

Then finally, in Feb.2008, the opportunity came up to visit Peru. So for three weeks I finally got to go where I'd been thinking about for so long.

With my somewhat ordinary Spanish it was a wonder that no diplomatic incidents were triggered (a close call was one very embarrassing moment with a waitress, ahem) but in the end we made it out intact — and with some real insights into the opportunities for the Gospel in this amazing and needy country.

So I came back home not only with a suitcase full of goodies for the three girls and Kerry at home — but also a brain buzzing with ideas for possible future ministry! But I'm not the kind of man who's about to tow his screaming missus and kids around the world to exotic places; so hence this trip, to take Kerry along to meet some of the people I met, and ponder through the opportunties that may (or may not) lie in the future for us. We will see!

The Plan

Basically, it's a three week trip; we depart Perth on August 21st (at 00:05 on Saturday, groan), and arrive back home in WA's capital on September 11th. (You can tell we're not that superstitious.)

For the first week in Peru, we're basically kicking around with our SIM missionary mates Bruce & Marsha, and staying with Simon & Veronica. Our time will include checking out the main interdenominational seminary in Peru, where Bruce does a lot of his work... and maybe also a trip north up the coast to the town of Trujillo, where Bruce also does a fair bit of TEE work.

Week 2 will see us travelling to Cuzco, and spending a few days checking out the ancient Inca capital, as well as a mandatory visit to the 'lost city' of Machu Picchu. It's only about 50kms 'as the crow flies' from Cuzco, but it takes 4 hours by train. That's the Andes for you.

Week 3 we will stay with our friends the Shaws, also with SIM, who are involved in all sorts of ministries in the 40-odd villages of the Cotahuasi Canyon — the deepest canyon in the world.

"Ah yes," we hear you ask, "So what's happening to your three girls while you're away?" Well our good church friends Ben & Carol will be living at our place, looking after their not-so-little charges... dropping them off to school, feeding them, etc. Pretty huge when you think about it — so if you could remember to pray for Ben & Carol as much as for us, that would be excellent!

Diary Entries:

Sun. 1st August, 2010

Well, Kerry and I have been planning this trip for a fair while, and now we've got less than three weeks to departure, eek. Still, we've had the most important stuff taken care of for a while; passports, tickets, innoculations, tee-ing things up with contacts in Peru, taking orders for the usual tubes of Vegemite, Tim-Tams, etc. from starved ex-pat Australians.

Although the best bit of shopping for Mike so far, has been hunting around for Toyota 4WD parts for our friends the Shaws in Cotahuasi. (Don't worry, we don't plan on carrying any differentials or cylinder heads as hand-luggage.)

Thurs. 5th August, 2010

It's struck me once again what an amazing tool the internet can be. As already mentioned (see post from 1st Aug., below), our friends in Cotahuasi, Brad & Gina Shaw, needed some parts for their Toyota Landcruiser, which they were unable to get hold of in Peru. So Brad emails me the VIN number of the 'cruiser, I saunter off down to our local Toyota dealer in Melville, spend a bit of time with a very helpful David at the parts counter, browsing microfiche diagrams online at ToyoDIY.com ... then I email the links of the relevant pages to Brad... who looks them over, emails the part numbers of what he needs back to us... David puts the order through to Melbourne... and it's all here in 2 days, with plenty of time to pop it all in the suitcase before we head off on the 21st. Howzatt?!!

You do have to sit back and pinch yourself, don't you, about what a different world it is with email and the internet. 15 years ago when Kerry and I were first thinking about missionary work, the fastest form of communication with folks in South America was by FAX. We had to write or type out the letter, drive down to the local fax service joint, and they would bung it through the slow-rolling document feed for us. Then a few days later, an often squiffy fax would return, usually with a margin of the text chopped off. Deciphering it was all part of the fun, luckily.

Mon. 16th August, 2010

It goes by different names in different parts of the world. On the subcontinent, it's 'Delhi Belly'. In the southwest of WA, it's 'Tunney Tummy'. And in South America, it's known as 'Montezuma's Revenge'.

The odd thing about the last-mentioned is that it always seems to strike me immediately before I leave for Peru. So back in Feb.2008, as the LAN Chile Airbus was rising into the blue across the Pacific, Señor Fischer was having the time of his life in the cramped cubicle trying to decide which end to point at the porcelain. (True travel always presents these dilemmas.)

This time around, it was early yesterday morning that I found myself running for the bathroom. The next 24 hours were spent scraping the lower limits of gastro-intestinal seismology, and dealing with a migraine that seemed impervious to anything I threw at it. Thankfully the worst is now past and I feel ready for anything!!

Finally, an appropriate quote from one of my favourite flicks, The Madness of King George. The bumbling court physicians and their 'remedies' are priceless:

My dear Pepys, the persistent excellence of the stool has been one of this disease's most tedious features. When will you get it into your head, one can produce a copious, regular, and exquisitely-turned evacuation every day and still be a stranger to reason?

Thurs. 19th August, 2010

Last night we faced the daunting task of packing all 'the stuff' into our suitcases, backpacks, etc. I had already muttered something to Kerry along the lines of "we may have to make some hard decisions". But amazingly, everything seemed to fit in nicely and neatly... which only makes me suspicious: what have we forgotten? Naturally the answer to that question will probably only spring into our minds halfway across the Pacific Ocean.

It was nice today to get a few phone calls from friends wishing us well for the trip; and there have been some encouraging cards arrive in the mail too. Cheers for that folks — but I hope it's not because all my quips about us being kidnapped by the Sendero Luminoso chaps have been taken a little too seriously?! Relax, Peru is like most other '2nd-world' countries that a tourist might visit; just keep your eyes moderately peeled and don't do silly things like flashing around wallets full of cash. Or as some other wag put it, "be alert but not alarmed". (Hang on, that was the journo Steve Libemann and he was talking about 'straya. Which means maybe we've become Paul Keating's dreaded banana republic after all?)

I would like to say that we will be thinking of you all as you queue up at the polling booths on Saturday (we've already done our postal vote thingy), heh heh — but of course you know we will instead be pestering the stewardesses for extra bags of peanuts.

Tomorrow I have the final day of the (so far) excellent pastors' conference at Trinity Theological College, and then it's home to get things organised and head out to the airport in the evening, for departure at 00:05am on Saturday morning. Next blog entry should be from Peru, God willing — stay tuned!

Saturday 21st August, 2010

Well we've made it to Santiago, Chile. The view of the Andes mountains as we flew in was breathtaking; endless snow-covered peaks and volcanos jutting into the stratosphere. Currently we are ensconced in the LAN Chile airlines 'VIP' lounge, for our 10-hour wait for tonight's 4-hour flight north to Lima. The price for the lounge has gone up LOTS since I was last here, but it's still worth it, esp. as I have my good lady in tow who does appreciate life's little luxuries! We didn't have too much sleep on the plane, but that's to be expected.

I'm uploading this post via a wireless network in the lounge; how I love technology, esp. when it works. Photo below of the Fischer clan just before we farewelled Ben & Carol & our girls at Perth airport. We've had a lovely email from Erin already — thanks Erin!

Tuesday 24th August, 2010

If salvation could be had through ornamentation and craftsmanship, then the Roman Catholics of Peru would be home and hosed. We spent today visiting the old monastery here in Lima, founded in the 16th Century, as well as the catacomb underneath. The carved stonework, the gilded chapel panels, the carved wooden reliefs depicting the lives of umpteen saints and monks through the centuries, the huge detailed paintings... it is all simply mind-boggling stuff. So from the perspective of art and workmanship it is amazingly rich — yet at the same time, there's the sober realisation that it was all driven by the poisonous human desire to impress God and earn his approval. So that made it difficult to enjoy fully, if that makes sense.

Here's the interior of the main cathedral, just off the Plaza de Armas in central Lima. It's a bit dingy in the photo, but we weren't allowed to use the flash on the camera — not that it would really have helped anyway. Simply huge, with many side alcoves filled with towering and ornate altars. Francisco Pizzaro's remains were rediscovered here not that long ago, would you believe. (Makes me wonder what else we might discover in our very own church 'loft' at Melville Baptist.)

Sunday 29th August, 2010

There are probably few sadder ends for a civilization, than to be reduced to a tourist attraction. Come to think of it, that's what all the past civilizations of the world have been reduced to; and the Inca empire is no exception.

You can see some photos below of some of the old Inca sites around Cusco, which we visited yesterday. The massive stonework, fitting together with mind-boggling precision, was clearly intended to last forever; yet the Inca empire (one in a long succession of cultures which came and went) lasted only a few hundred years before the Spanish arrived and took control. But this is the way the kingdoms of this world fare, isn't it. As per the main message of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament: kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall, but only the Kingdom of God will last forever.

The final photo shows a colonial Spanish church built on top of the older Inca foundations.

Monday 30th August, 2010

The 'Indiana Jones' series of flicks are a bit of a fantasy, right? Well, not quite... the fact is that Harrison Ford's character was modelled on Hiram Bingham, an American professor who, in 1911, re-discovered the 'lost city' of Machu Picchu after reading clues left in some old Spanish chronicles.

When Bingham finally got there, the site had been covered by dense jungle for centuries — the city probably having been abandoned at the time of the Spanish conquest in the 16th Century. If only he could see it today; the grotty tourist township of Aguas Calientes has sprung up way down by the river, and a tireless procession of buses ferries the thousands of tourists up to the site of the ruins.

But once you get past the milling maelstrom of tourists (of which you are a part, admittedly), you walk into what has been called, rightly, one of the 'Wonders of the World'.

The stonework is legendary; you literally can't get a piece of paper between many of the huge blocks of granite! The location is breathtaking; nestled on a saddle between towering granite peaks, with the Urubamba River (later to become the Amazon) winding past way below. And as a Westerner, you soon realise that you have no categories in which to put the strange architecture and features that you see. Because here we have the remnants of a pagan religion and worldview that are utterly unlike anything ever produced or found in Europe, or the rest of the world.

So our reaction to this place — one of the most spectacular locations on earth — was tempered by realising that this was where the Incas offered up human sacrifices. If only they had understood that such a sacrifice was to be provided by God, and not men. So as with all human instincts regarding the way to God, it was wide of the mark: "... at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." (Rom. 5:6)

Sunday 5th September, 2010

The last week has been a whirlwind of travel! At the moment we're in the Andean town of Cotahuasi, at the floor of the deepest canyon in the world — at least, that's what the Lonely Planet guide tells us.

Let me tell you, it's deep : over 3.5 kilometres vertically from the rim to the floor. On our first night here, Brad took me up to the radio antenna they've installed up on the canyon's rim, so that they can broadcast Christian discipleship & evangelistic programs to the more than 40 villages in the canyon. We took along about 100 litres of diesel fuel, to refuel the generators which power the broadcasting system. After 30-45 minutes of winding dirt road up to the rim of the canyon (only look over the edge if you're game), we started refuelling the generators. While we were doing all this, the temperature dropped below zero, and then the snow started falling. Great fun, I reckon: getting the nice smell of diesel on your fingers while mucking around in sub-zero conditions! In the meantime, Kerry had wisely elected to go and help out with some of the local childrens' ministry, which was right up her alley.

The next day we met four of the local Christian men Brad has been training in ministry (Faustino, Alberto, Jesus, and Santiago), and packed and prepared for a visit to the more remote village of Petcce, further up the canyon. Petcce is basically untouched by the Gospel; the village is dominated by nominal Catholicism mixed with the local Andean animism. Brad had visited Petcce many years ago, but recently he heard that a new road had been made to the village.

So we loaded up Brad & Gina's Toyota Landcruiser 'troop carrier', and it took us a few hours of crawling along some of the most breathtaking and scary roads I have ever seen. It was kind of sobering to think that at just about any time you were only a few feet from certain death. I thought it was a hoot, but of course Kerry thought differently. To her credit she endured it all very well.

We finally got to Petcce in the afternoon, only to find that the newly-installed road went above the village, instead of to it. That meant we had to carry all the equipment down to the village. For your average Andean villager, this presents no problem. But for your average Australian, exerting oneself at about 3,600 metres is... well, exhausting. As it turned out I did the short but steep trek between the village plaza and the 4WD about 3 times on the Friday afternoon, and twice on the Saturday. Ten paces and I would have to stop, gasping for air.

It was on the final climb back to the Toyota, that I had just about had it. One of the local brothers, Faustino, came to my rescue. He grabbed the large, heavy trunk that myself and one of the other brothers had been struggling with, hoiked it up onto his shoulders, and sprang up the trail and was out of sight in no time. I honestly don't think I've ever met a stronger or fitter man! I just sat there stunned on the side of the trail, still gasping for air...

Anyway, we had an excellent time in Petcce. Santiago preached the Good News to the gathered crowd in the small and dirty plaza. If he'd been in Australia he would have been ignored or heckled; but in Petcce he received a polite and interested audience. This was followed by a screening of the 'Jesus' film (script taken directly from the Gospel of Luke), dubbed with the local Quechua language. The dropping temperature didn't seem to bother people; they sat for hours soaking it in.

The next morning it was time for Kerry, Janelle (Brad & Gina's daughter) and her sister-in-law Rachel to share the Good News with the children of the village. They sang some songs with the crowd of noisy and enthusiastic children, and then taught them an outline of the Gospel using coloured beads (yellow, black, red, white, green) made into bracelets. This was a great hit with the kids! Then the four local brothers went around the village door-to-door, and were very encouraged by the open and welcome attitude of all the people they met and talked with. So folks, please remember the village of Petcce in your prayers; it seems that the time for harvest is here.

This morning I preached from Colossians 2 in the local church here in Cotahuasi, with Brad translating (the poor man had to struggle with a few 'Australian-isms', but he did very well if you ask me). Later today we will be sharing and preaching in a couple of churches in other villages here in the canyon. Then tomorrow we're back on the bus to Arequipa (much to Kerry's alarm we have scored front row seats... ie. a condor's eye view straight over the cliffs as we wind through the Andes), and then we fly back to Lima for a couple of nights... and then, at last, the long haul home to Perth! Now then, time for a few photos...

Saturday 11th September, 2010

The trip back from Cotahuasi to Arequipa turned out to be a fitting way to finish our Andean experience: as I mentioned below, we scored seat numbers #1 and #2 in the bus! In the end Kerry managed to accept this terrifying state of affairs. It was sort of reassuring to see that the bus driver had about 1.5 litres of Inca Kola tucked under his arm. This is the Peruvian national softdrink (if there can be such a thing): more caffeine than Coke, more sugar than Coke, and almost luminescent yellow. In fact I have taken to referring to it as "radioactive llama's pee". In any case, it did the trick for our driver and he didn't miss a beat, perfectly executing 3-point turns on the tighter hairpin bends, and swinging the lumbering bus around the rest of the bends with precision.

After staying another night with Bob & Noel Rich (missionaries in Peru for over 40 years) in Arequipa, we flew back to Lima for our last couple of nights in Peru. Then we said goodbye to Simon & Veroncia, and the Blackbells as well — and it was off to the airport only to find that our flight south to Santiago had been delayed by "maintenance issues". Well, that wasn't a problem, we thought, as we had about 6 hours between connecting flights anyway: time to kill. But of course it did become a problem as there were yet more "maintenance issues", and then yet more... until by the time we got to Santiago we literally walked off one plane and straight onto the next!

So finally... after another barrage of aeroplane meals and endless security checks, luggage scans, and flashing our passports to every second person in uniform... I have to say, it was *great* to step out at the Perth end at long last, and be greeted by three overjoyed girls and the heroic Ben & Carol!

Well then, what have we learned after our 3 week jaunt? The dust has yet to setttle, but already at this point we think we could indeed fit into a number of ministry opportunities in Peru. Some of the main issues to be worked out, however, would be the schooling of our girls, other family needs here in Australia, and so on. Your prayers that we might have wisdom and a Gospel-centered focus in working all these things out, would be much appreciated.

Time for a few final photos of the streets of Lima: