From Yesenia Montes!

Hi my dear friends!

I write this little letter to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, is already a bit late, but I could not write before because I was traveling with my family during this time, we will spend incredible!

We were visiting my grandparents and enjoyed it very much!

At Christmas we went to visit my grandparents, they live in a small community Huayllay an hour north of Huanta, very cold and snows although there was much fog, so it was a white Christmas! Cook chicken, sang, prayed and walked around the farms of my grandparents, it was fun!

In the new year, we went to my paternal grandfather, who lives alone in a small community Ccaranacc geographically located in the department of Huancavelica, but is two hours west of Huanta, but cars do not come to the same community had to walk 8 miles to get there, but it was great fun, from there you can see the beautiful valley and the mountains Huanta! It's very nice! These days we had our first meeting of the Montes family cousins, we went almost all the grandchildren of my grandfather and prepare a special meeting of reflection and communion between us. We barbecue, a typical Peruvian food is prepared in special moments and hope the New Year with lights and campfire songs and everything! It was very nice!

You see, I really enjoyed this time, and I learned and understood many things that were on my mind, I realized that to achieve our goals we can not stop one bit, we can slow down when we get tired, but never stop to reach the goal, and I'd like to share this with you, to encourage them to do that this year, not detain us achieve our dreams, maybe we can slow down when we get tired, but we do not stop until our goals, we appreciate much to pray for me and my dreams and encourage me when they think I am tired.

Thank you for your friendship and brotherhood!
I'm really happy to know friends who are like brothers ... to feel your love, your presence, your support makes me understand how great is the love of Christ for us, thank you very much for that!
I hope this new year is a great blessing to you and their families.
Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

With much love and appreciation,

Yesenia Montes Ñaupa
Int. Psicología - UNMSM
Cel: 945234204
Huanta, Ayacucho

Happy New Year From Samuel

Dear brothers in Christ.

Please receive my greetings.  I hope with the coming year that we will do well under the grace of our Creator.  I just want to tell you some very important actions that have taken place.

At the end of the year, we had the renewal of the Huanta Presbytery Board.  Thanks be to God that a decision for the new Board for 2012 - 2013 was decided after much discussion from the leaders;

• President - Ps. Orlando Bell
• Vice President - Ps. Huicho Gaspar
• Secretary - Ps. Samuel Montes
• Treasurer - Pb. Bellido Moses (father of Orlando)

After the election, we immediately had a meeting and agreed on the following key things:

1. To strengthen our task of training for church leaders through the Presbyterian Bible College as a strategy to reinforce peace and deal with the uncertainty of our young people today.  (beginning with the preparations for the monthly cycle February).
2. Developing a strategic plan as a priority to guide Presbytery IEPRP institutionally - Huanta.
3. Rekindle a relationship that is intended to increase again the Presbyterian Churches of the Andes in partnership with Radio Amauta, other Presbyteries, Synods and PCUSA friends.  (many people need the Word of God).
4. Reinforce the twinning or union with friends, PCUSA churches, PCA and GZB.  It is our hope to further strengthen the ministry of Christ in the midst of a society that suffers a crisis of values.  Work with the faith in Christ by following his example and by being open and honest.

We have completed a year and started a new one as a family together.  We spent Christmas in the mountains with the parents of my wife.  They are in good health so far.  For the new year, we had planned to visit my father with all of his grandchildren.  He lives 80km from Huanta in the region of Huancavelica.  With all of the grandchildren, it was a very happy time to be with him on Saturday, December 31 and Sunday, January 1, 2012.  We had many activities with the children.  Their grandfather told stories, we sang, we prayed, burnt dolls before the new year and had barbecue for lunch.

With much appreciation.

Ps. Samuel Montes

What Lima Has To Offer

One of my favorite “best of” categories, the Biggest Surprise award goes to the destination that surpassed expectations or defied preconceived notions. And in 2011, Lima, Peru certainly fit the bill.

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Greetings From Samuel Montes

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,


Receive my warm greetings and greetings from my wife and children in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to know that thanks to God, we spent the year of 2011 without any major problems. We are confident of the love of Christ and we thank you for your caring and your support from the very first day we met.


I thank God that he has given me the privilege of visiting and interacting with many of my fellow believers and nonbelievers. I have been trying to guide them, encourage them spiritually and find material support for their families and churches. As a result of this, the Cristo Rey Church in Huanta finds itself wanting to work independently as zoned by geographic location. I hope it that all of this will prove for the glory of God. I am supporting the process with monthly outreach visits which fills me with great joy. I see the work we have done with and for them (pews, pulpits, shelves, pastoral bibles, and sleeping bags). All are a testimony of love that remain from your visit.


Brothers and Sisters in Christ, my whole family wishes that this Christmas will be days of peace and love in the family. We renew our commitment to Him. We pray that 2012 will be full of blessings and achievable commitments.


God bless you and a BIG HUG FOR EVERYONE.


Samuel Montes

Roberta Tello Update

Sara and Rusty met with Yesenia Montes earlier today and received an update on Roberta Tello. Roberta’s left leg was amputated earlier this week. Yesenia reports that Roberta is in good spirits despite the trauma that she has experienced over the past couple of weeks. After a few more days in the hospital’s intensive care unit and additional recovery time, Roberta will begin physical therapy. Sara and Rusty hope to schedule a time to visit Roberta this weekend, but visiting hours for intensive care patients are very limited.

Radio Amauta held a fundraiser for Roberta two weeks ago and raised S./5,000 (approximately US$1,800) for Roberta’s medical expenses.

Please continue to keep our dear sister in your thoughts and prayers. As I hear more news, I will pass it along.

Yesenia sends hugs to all!

Randy

Prayer Request

Please Pray for Roberta Tello

It is with great sadness that I tell you that Roberta Tello, a member of Cristo Rey Church in Huanta, has a cancerous tumor under her left knee. Her health is deteriorating. She has limited resources for medical care.

Participants on the 2009 and 2011 mission trips to Huanta will remember Roberta for the delicious lunches she prepared each day for the students and faculty of the Bible Institute and for mission trip participants.

Samuel Montes writes: “We pray to the Lord for the health of our sister Roberta Tello, a woman with a long history in the church and at Radio Amauta. She is like our mother and has a tremendous amount of faith in the Lord and in us. We are praying for a miracle from God.”

Please keep Roberta, her family and all of our brothers and sisters in the Presbytery of Huanta in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Randy

Whitening Peruvian Andes

Perú’s Country Brand

Perú has moved up three places in the world ranking of ‘Country Brands’, rising from 47th to 44th position and placing it in the top five countries in Latin America according to the new Country Brand Index report (CBI).

The ranking, by the Country Brand Index (CBI), is based on awareness, familiarity, preference, consideration, advocacy and active decisions to visit or interact with a place.

Perú also remains in the top five countries worldwide in the category of ‘Cultural Heritage’ and was the only Latin American country to make it into the top twenty countries in this category.

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Perú’s Travel Treasures

If you want to see something truly indescribable, go to Machu Picchu in Perú. One of the seven wonders of the world, Machu Picchu is an Incan city that remained unknown to the Spanish conquistadors and to outsiders in general until it was "discovered" (I use this term loosely because the local people knew of its existence) by Yale professor Hiram Bingham in 1911.

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Slow Justice For Perú's Disappeared

Twenty years after the worst period of Peru's civil war between security forces and Maoist guerrillas, the cases of those "disappeared" in the conflict still haunt the country.

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Bead Ministry

The Sharon Presbyterian Church Amani Bead Ministry will be selling one-of-a-kind jewelry after worship on Sunday, November 13 and 20. Proceeds go to provide care for orphaned babies at New Life Homes in Kenya. Using beads made by women in Kenya, ladies of Sharon Church create beautiful jewelry to help support this ministry.

Prayers Answered

Good morning, friends!

We've just returned to the hotel after my hospital adventure. Everything seems to have gone very well - just a bit groggy from the anesthesia and a bit of a sore throat. The clunker is that Dr. Tsuji says I have to keep 7 days of silence! (Somehow I seem to have missed that detail! :-)

So Mary is my telepathic interpreter in the meantime.

Thank you for your prayers! I am honored and blessed to be so loved and so well accompanied...

Under the mercy,

Dennis

Dennis A. Smith
dennis.smith@pcusa.org
PCUSA Enlace Regional, Brasil y Cono Sur, Misión Mundial
PCUSA Regional Liaison, Brazil and Southern Cone, World Mission
PCUSA Representante Regional, Brasil e Cone Sul, Missão Mundial

Sucre 2855, 3o
1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
telephone: +54-11-4787-0436
fax: +54-11-4787-0335
mobile: +54-911-3704-2500
www.pcusa.org/worldmission

2012 Perú Mission Scheduled

The 2012 Adult Mission Trip to Huanta, Perú is scheduled to take place from Friday, August 3 through Monday, August 13, 2012. Sara Armstrong and Rusty Edmondson will travel to Huanta on Sunday, November 13, 2011, and plan to meet with the leaders of the Presbytery of Huanta to begin planning for our 2012 trip.

Sara and Rusty will be in Huanta accompanying a mission team from the San Gabriel Presbytery in Southern California. The team will be installing water purification systems at the Cristo Rey and Maynay churches in Huanta.

I have learned that the leaders of the Presbytery have voted to create two additional presbyteries with ten or eleven churches comprising each of the three presbyteries. I am not sure what impact (if any) this change will have on future mission trips. As I hear more about this change I will pass it along.

Randy

“The real act of discovery is not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.”
-Marcel Proust

Prayer Request

Friends:

On Tuesday, I will have surgery to relieve symptoms of spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological condition that has affected my voice for the last 30 years. For more than 20 years I have received quarterly injections of botulinum toxin directly into the muscles that activate the vocal chords; these injections dramatically improved my ability to speak. In the last 12 months, however, I have received 4 of these treatments and none of them have provided relief for more than a week or two.

Not having a reliable voice has made my first year in my new position as PCUSA World Mission Regional Liaison for Brazil and the Southern Cone frustrating, to say the least. But colleagues have been patient and understanding; I've become a whiz at participating in on-line meetings using the chat function!

My physician here in Argentina, Dr. María Viti, put me in contact with Dr. Domingos Hiroshi Tsuji in São Paulo, Brazil. Dr. Tsuji is a world-renowned expert on the human voice; he has developed a new procedure that provides the same relief as the botulinum injections, but permanently. After looking at my clinical history, he and Dr. Viti determined that I am a good candidate for the surgery. The procedure is not invasive and I only expect to be in the hospital one night. I should be able to speak right away, although I expect to be hoarse for a week or two.

Mary and I fly to São Paulo early Monday morning; I check in to Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital at noon on Tuesday. The procedure is scheduled for 4 in the afternoon on Tuesday. We plan to return to Buenos Aires on Friday afternoon.

Our thanks to colleagues at the PCUSA offices in Louisville for working with the insurance company to get the necessary approval to cover the expense of this new procedure.

Thank you for your prayers!

I hope to be speaking with you soon...

Under the Mercy,
Dennis

Dennis A. Smith
dennis.smith@pcusa.org
PCUSA Regional Liaison, Brazil and Southern Cone, World Mission