Perú May Invest In Water & Wastewater Projects

From Sara Armstrong...  Thank you.

Resource: Perú This Week
By Randall Hackley for Bloomberg

Peru is aiming to improve access to potable water in cities including Lima and rural areas with about $5.2 billion of projects and investments over the 2010-2016 period, the state news agency Andina said.

Drinking water coverage in Peru’s cities was about 89 percent two years ago and the government aims to increase that to 92 percent by 2016 with infrastructure upgrades, the Housing Ministry said.

The government also hopes to improve wastewater treatment access with $521 million in projects during that period, Andina said in a statement.

The government estimates 1 million people in Lima, the country’s largest city and capital with 10 million residents, don’t have access to running water. The government said it hopes to boost potable water coverage in rural areas to 57 percent from 39 percent two years ago with the investments.

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Room In The Inn Returns In December

In one month, Room in the Inn begins. Room In The Inn is an overflow shelter for our homeless neighbors sponsored by the Urban Ministry Center and involves over 100 churches and colleges over the four month winter season. Sharon Church will is a host site every Friday night and will provide 204 beds over a 17 week period.

Needed are many volunteers to help with set-up, driving, food preparation, dinner serving, spending the night, breakfast preparation, and clean-up. If you are interested in helping, please call or e-mail David Beers, dbeers22@bellsouth.net, 704-552-2201, or contact the church office. Specific instructions will be sent to you before you commit.

Also needed are bingo prizes - socks, gloves, hats, fast-food gift cards, wallets, playing cards, men’s and women's deodorant, umbrellas, Tshirts, men's boxer underwear, handheld games, shaving kits, etc.  Items may be placed in the RITI box below the mail boxes in the choir room hallway.

Thank you for making this most worth-while ministry possible.

David Beers

Are Lesotho Hospitals Safe For Women Living With HIV?

Resource:  Informative News
By Keiso Mohloboli

MASERU- There is an assumption that hospitals are healing places where people living with HIV receive medical services in a safe facility, from trustworthy heath practitioners.

While this can be the case, there is no shortage of documentation regarding the struggle of women living with HIV to access basic care, support and treatment.

According to International Community of Women (ICW) living with HIV regional coordinator Promise Mthembu, there is lack of remedies and of justice.

“Talking to women who are members of ICW – Lesotho, I have learned that women living with HIV are often mistreated in hospital settings. I found out two cases where our members lost their wombs in hospitals without their consent,” said Mthembu.

Read more...

The Champion Of The Wari

Resource:  The Wall Street Journal
By Judith H. Dobrzynski

As Susan E. Bergh walked through the special exhibition galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Art one day last week, she was surrounded by wooden crates—some empty, some opened, some still locked. Inside were many of the objects with which she will reveal an ancient culture that is all but unknown to most Americans but is now recognized as the first great empire of the Andes.

Long before the Incas walked the peaks and valleys of Peru in the 15th and 16th centuries, Ms. Bergh's subject—the Wari—reigned over land stretching from the highlands of central Peru, centered near the present-day city of Ayacucho, to the Pacific coastal zones below. Her exhibit, "Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andes," is the first North American exhibition devoted to this people, who thrived from about 600 to 1000. "I want people to understand that civilization in the Andes way predates the Inca and that the Wari was a very complicated, sophisticated civilization," she says. "And I want people to see how beautiful and enchanting it is."

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Ghosts And Hauntings

Resource:  Got Questions

Question: "What does the Bible say about ghosts / hauntings?"

Answer:  Is there such a thing as ghosts? The answer to this question depends on what precisely is meant by the term “ghosts.” If the term means “spirit beings,” the answer is a qualified “yes.” If the term means “spirits of people who have died,” the answer is “no.” The Bible makes it abundantly clear that there are spirit beings, both good and evil. But the Bible negates the idea that the spirits of deceased human beings can remain on earth and “haunt” the living.

Hebrews 9:27 declares, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” That is what happens to a person’s soul-spirit after death—judgment. The result of this judgment is heaven for the believer (2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Philippians 1:23) and hell for the unbeliever (Matthew 25:46; Luke 16:22-24). There is no in-between. There is no possibility of remaining on earth in spirit form as a “ghost.” If there are such things as ghosts, according to the Bible, they absolutely cannot be the disembodied spirits of deceased human beings.

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Riot At Wholesale Market

Resource: The Sacramento Bee

By Gonzalo Ruiz Tovar

LIMA, Peru -- Two people were killed and close to 110 people, including 50 police officers, were injured in riots that caused damage worth millions of dollars in the Peruvian capital Lima, authorities said Friday.

The riots broke out late Thursday around the wholesale market La Parada, which was closed by the government of Lima Mayor Susana Villaran for not meeting security and hygiene requirements. The riots broke out as police placed fences around the market to prevent trucks from entering the site.

According to reports, police were overwhelmed by hundreds of rioters and police were attacked in some cases. National television broadcast footage of the beating of one police officer, who was seriously injured.

Rioters later were said to have moved to another market, looting shops as well as attacking passers-by.

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The other market that the rioters moved to was the Gamarra Gamarra Market...  Better known to all that visit Lima as the "Indian Market"!

What Is My Spiritual Gift?

Resource:  Got Questions

Question: "How do I identify my spiritual gift?"

Answer:  There is no magic formula or definitive test that can tell us exactly what our spiritual gifts are. The Holy Spirit distributes the gifts as He determines (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). A common problem for Christians is the temptation to get so caught up in our spiritual gift that we only seek to serve God in the area in which we feel we have been gifted. That is not how the spiritual gifts work. God calls us to obediently serve Him in all things. He will equip us with whatever gift or gifts we need to accomplish the task He has called us to.

Identifying our spiritual giftedness can be accomplished in various ways. Spiritual gift tests or inventories, while not to be fully relied upon, can definitely help us understand where our gifting might be. Confirmation from others also gives light to our spiritual giftedness. Other people who see us serving the Lord can often identify a spiritual gift in use that we might take for granted or not recognize. Prayer is also important. The one person who knows exactly how we are spiritually gifted is the gift-giver Himself—the Holy Spirit. We can ask God to show us how we are gifted in order to better use our spiritual gifts for His glory.

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Clinton To Boost Women's Entrepreneurship In Perú

LIMA — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Peru on Monday (October 15) to push for greater access for women to capital and know-how to start their own businesses and become a motor for economic growth.

Clinton was to meet with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala late Monday for talks, followed by a dinner at the presidential palace in the capital Lima.

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Western North Carolina Mission Group Returns

The 2012 Western North Carolina Mission crew consisted of:

• Don Presson
• Reese Presson
• Roz Walker
• Phyllis Acton
• David Spivey
• Stephanie Spivey
• Bob Moore
• Lisa Moore
• Ann Cannon
• Ray Cannon
• Mark Earnhardt
• John Harvey

We departed Charlotte on 10/4/2012 around 1:30 pm arriving at the Bryson City Presbyterian Church around 5:30 pm. We had dinner with Terry and Mark Hanna and some of their congregation at the church and discussed the projects for the trip. We had 6 projects lined up to work on. After dinner and discussion we traveled to the Sabbath House where we were staying during the trip. We worked on Friday and Saturday on the projects below. We had a cook out with the BCPC congregation on Saturday Night, which we enjoyed a great deal. On Sunday we packed up and left the Sabbath House around 9:15 am, headed into BC and had breakfast at the local grill. We attended church services at BCPC and took part in the World Communion Sunday. It was great. We had a fantastic trip and accomplished a lot. Our crew worked and played well together. We worked with Mark and 5 others from the BCPC. They were a great bunch to travel and work with. Hopefully we will have more participants next year.

The people we assisted and the projects we worked on:

Brenda & Junior Ledford, 70s, live in a well maintained single wide trailer with a front and rear deck. Front deck is high and has too many steps for them to navigate daily. Rear deck has 3 to 4 steps but is rotten and needs to be replaced. This deck is approximately 8' x 8' with a roof.
Work: We replaced the 7 ' X 8' deck, steps and roof, and prepared the deck for another group to build the ramp. We furnished 90% of the lumber for the ramp, but did not have time to complete it.

Louise Ward (We finished her roof and replaced her back deck last year. She heard we were coming back and asked if we could pressure wash her front deck (covered in slippery green algae) and build a roof over it.
Work: We Cloroxed and pressure washed the deck.

John & Janice Cole (we laid the tile floor in their kitchen last year) They still do not have a working kitchen. They need some clean up in the yard and some fire wood stacked like last year.
Work: We insulated and enclosed the kitchen walls with plywood, corrected some faulty plumbing, ran some wiring for electrical outlets, installed kitchen cabinets, counter tops and appliances. Some of our crew assisted John in yard work and stacking a load of fire wood.

BCPC - Several of the ladies also cleaned up the flower beds, mowed the lawn and painted the benches for the BCPC. It looked great Sunday morning....

Thanks,
Dave Spivey

Perú Doctors To Suspend Strike Over Pay

Resource:  BBC

Thousands of doctors in Peru have agreed to suspend a strike that has left many poor people without medical care for more than a month.

The leader of the doctors' union, Cesar Palomino, said they would return to work while they consider government proposals for a pay rise.

The doctors had complained that their pay was not increasing despite strong economic growth in Peru.

The strike caused huge backlogs in hospitals and clinics.

Read more...

Summary Of The Dallas II Mission Consultation

Dear colleagues,

The Dallas II global mission consultation, held October 5-7, 2012, brought together more than 200 grassroots and national mission leaders from across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), as well as ecumenical and global partners. Together, participants determined that Presbyterian mission work should be centered on the critical global issues of addressing the root causes of poverty, engaging in evangelism, and working for reconciliation, and refined core values and priorities for responding strategically to those issues with concrete, measurable, global initiatives.

Following the consultation, participants agreed to form continuing working groups (of which Presbyterian World Mission will be a part) to:

• Coordinate the next steps coming out of Dallas II;
• Communicate with participants of Dallas II and others who wanted to be at the consultation but couldn’t attend;
• Edit the key messages, suggested action plans, strategies, and statements into a “mission trail guide” for Presbyterians involved in mission.

World Mission has drafted a document that distills the specific mission strategies and priorities from Dallas II and combines them with our Regional Liaisons’ strategies representing the voices of global partners and mission co-workers. This document assigns each strategy to one or more of the three critical global issues. World Mission will present this document to the coordinating working group as it plans next steps.

I invite you to read this summary of what happened at Dallas II and share it with others.  Link  The collective energy and excitement coming out of Dallas II shows that God’s vibrant mission movement is already underway!

Grace and peace,

Hunter

Hunter Farrell

Director

Presbyterian World Mission

Perú Healthcare Feels Strain Of Doctor's Strike

Perú Hospital Managers Walkout

Resource:  BBC

About 90% of hospital managers in Peru have resigned in support of doctors on strike over pay, union officials say.

The head of Peru's medical federation, Cesar Palomino, told the BBC that more than 300 managers had quit in the capital Lima alone.

The walkout by 11,000 doctors, now in its fifth week, has caused huge backlogs in hospitals and clinics.

Doctors say that despite Peru's recent strong economic growth, their pay has not been increased in years.

Read more...

Western North Carolina Hospitals Lay Off Staff

Resource:  Asheville Citizen-Times
By Julie Ball

ASHEVILLE — Citing lower patient numbers, three Western North Carolina hospitals recently laid off more than 80 employees.

The hospitals in Haywood, Swain and Jackson counties are part of MedWest, which formed in 2010 when WestCare-affiliated Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva and Swain County Hospital in Bryson City became affiliated with Haywood Regional Medical Center. MedWest has a management agreement with Carolinas HealthCare System.

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Citibank To Take Over "Perú's Chernobyl"

Resource:  World War 4 Report

Mon, 10/15/2012 - Creditors of the troubled Doe Run Peru company voted to sell the controversial metal smelting complex at La Oroya, Junín region, to Citibank, Peru's Energy and Mines Ministry (MEM) announced Oct. 11. The New York financial giant will have responsibility for reorganizing the smelter's debts and environmental management plan, as well as those of another scandal-ridden project that will be transferred, the Cobriza gold and copper mine in neighboring Huancavelica region. After three years of being idled by government order over pollution concerns, the decrepit Oroya smelter, which has been dubbed "Peru's Chernobyl," resumed limited operations in July. The local dispute over the issue bitterly divided the local community, pitting campesinos who oppose the smelter against residents employed by Doe Run, who were laid off when the plant was ordered shut. 

Last year, Doe Run Peru was cited by MEM for resuming construction of a tailings containment area at Cobriza without approval. The mine is still officially halted pending an environmental impact review.

Rural Women In Perú Cope "Where Life Is Very Sad"

Resource:  Inter Press Service News Agency

LIMA - When the crops in her rural highlands community in southern Peru were covered with a thick layer of ice one night, Felícitas Quispe, 43, organised her neighbours to make an effort to keep people from starving to death.

It’s been two years since the 2010 freeze left her and dozens of families without corn, potatoes or beans to cover their needs, and without pasture to graze their animals in the rural town of Chare, more than 3,500 metres above sea level in the Andean department of Cuzco.

“There was no food, so the women went with the leaders of the community to the civil defence institute and the agriculture ministry. We got new seeds that are still producing our food today, and we continue to burn manure to produce smoke to protect the crops from freezing,” she told IPS.

Read more...

Keeping Malnutrition At Bay

Resource:  UNICEF

By Rafahela García Lapouble

LIMA, Peru, 9 January 2012 – In the Andean community of Rosaspata, in Vinchos District, a community health promoter has invited children, their parents and a health centre representative to the local community hall for the area’s biweekly nutrition surveillance programme.

Villagers here are eager to talk about the UNICEF- supported programme, which has helped reduce cases of malnutrition and anaemia among Rosaspata’s youngest children.

Full story...

Has The Bible Been Corrupted?

Resource:  Got Questions

Question:  "Has the Bible been corrupted, altered, edited, revised, or tampered with?"

Answer:  The books of the Old Testament were written from approximately 1400 B.C. to 400 B.C. The books of the New Testament were written from approximately A.D. 40 to A.D. 90. So, anywhere between 3400 to 1900 years have passed since a book of the Bible was written. In this time, the original manuscripts have been lost. They very likely no longer exist. Also during this time, the books of the Bible have been copied again and again. Copies of copies of copies have been made. In view of this, can we still trust the Bible?

Full story...

First Presbyterian Of Benton Harbor, Maine

Resource:  Mission Crossroads

Mission trip opportunity:  The ministry and heart of this church is meaningful, appropriate and creative.

If Its More Convenient...

Everyone also has an invitation from Rev. John Odom of Starmount Presbyterian Church in Greensboro to hear Hunter Farrell.  Hunter will be speaking at their location on Saturday, October 12, 10-11 AM for those who can’t make the Saturday evening or Sunday morning events at Alamance Church.

View Perú Mission Network in a larger map

Hunter Farrell To Visit Alamance Presbyterian Church

Dear Friends,

Hunter Farrell will be visiting Alamance Presbyterian Church next weekend. He will be speaking about the mission endeavors of our denomination (Presbyterian Church U.S.A.) and promoting the support of our mission co-workers who are changing lives around the world alongside of our mission partners. Events start on Saturday night (October 13th at 6:00 PM) at our new outdoor Pavilion where we will share some music, hear from Hunter, and where we will be raising funds for mission work in the Dominican Republic. We will have gumbo prepared by our master chef Charles Davis. ($15/adult) We would love for you to invite others to join us. Also, join us on Sunday morning (14th) at 8:45 AM for a mission breakfast and conversation followed by 10:00 AM worship that will be sure to transform the way you look at mission work. Worship will be followed by a lunch-meeting of church leaders and mission investors. Please send me an email if you plan to attend the lunch. (jacoballengoad@gmail.com)

On a personal note, I worked with Hunter in Perú as a part of an environmental advocacy campaign in La Oroya, Perú. The campaign resulted in epidemiological studies being conducted by the Saint Louis University and international media attention being brought to a human rights issue (lead poisoning of children) and ultimately the closing of a toxic smelter. Hunter, along with his Peruvian partners, was the driving force that shaped this ecumenical campaign that reached people throughout the world as an example of the church being a real presence on issues of injustice. Above all, Hunter is a humble leader. He will tell you, it was all about our Peruvian partners, and not about him. While that is certainly true, because our Peruvian partners were the primary stakeholders, Hunter was a driving force to help organize and energize people to fight for justice. He is a doctor in anthropology and an ordained minister, and he and his wife Ruth are parents to three lovely children who were adopted in Perú, Congo, and the United States. Hunter is fluent in 4 languages including French, English, Spanish, and Chaluba and he and his family have lived much more time abroad over the past thirty years than they have lived in the United States.

This won't be a mundane weekend. I posit that it will be a transformative weekend for all of us. Come join us, and get to know one of my favorite people in this world. It is also an excellent opportunity for those who are not a member of any faith community to come out and join us. Hunter is very approachable and speaks with respect and gentleness to people of all faiths.

Hunter's visit marks an important milestone for our church, as we celebrate our church's anniversary.

Alamance Presbyterian Church's Relay that will also will give some other activities that our church has going on in the month of October.  Map Link

Peace,
Jacob Goad

Clean Water For Rural African Schools

Resource:  Engineering News

Local nonprofit water solu-tions company Round- about Water Solutions (RWS) continues to request assistance with funding to bring clean drinking water to rural primary schools in Africa through the installation of the PlayPump water pumping system.

The first PlayPump systems were installed in 1996 and RWS notes that there are now over 1 800 PlayPumps installed in South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Swaziland and Zambia.

Full story...

Bethesda Presbyterian Church Supports The Backpack Project

Resource: Umbrella Initiatives

Bethesda Presbyterian Church has kindly decided to support the Backpack Project.

The Project is focused on providing academic reinforcement to children living in poverty prior to the start of their academic year and then providing backpacks and supplies to all the students who participate.

The Project has just completed a Pilot Phase in which over 150 students received backpacks in both Piura and Lima. The support of churches, local public schools, and dedicated volunteers made this project a success.

We are very thankful for the support of the church and look forward to working with BPC in this project and ensuring that interactions flow in both directions.

Full story...

Computer Software In Quechua Aims To Help Peruvian Students

Resource: Peru This Week
By Nick Rosen

Thousands of students in Peru will benefit from a program in which some of the world’s most popular computer software has been translated into, and taught in, the Quechua language.

Through Partners in Learning, the educational assistance program funded by Microsoft, the Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite were translated into Quechua. The program has also provided instruction for some 60,000 teachers throughout twelve regions of the country.

Full story...