PoeKids Update

Take a moment and visit our kids blog. We've posted some pictures of the girls. Thanks for letting us be proud parents for a few minutes! Click here to visit the girls blog!

Christmas 2008!

Thanks to all of you that have been praying for our church planting ministry. We praise the Lord for the great turn-out on Sunday. We had lots of first time visitors. It was a blessing to interact with the parents of many of our regular attending kids. Best of all, a lot of people heard a clear presentation of the Gospel!

Hope you enjoy a few pictures from yesterday's service:

We praise the Lord for a full house!

"Navidad" spells "Christmas" in Spanish. The kids read a special acrostic about the meaning of Christmas.

Some of our regular kids waiting to sing outside the church.

Here our live nativity participants wait for their entrance.

These were the "early birds" anxiously awaiting the start of the program.

Little Cielo enjoyed the Christmas program!

Welcome to the Family

Last night John had the priviledge of leading this young man, Jared, to the Lord. Jared has been attending our church since the very beginning. He regularly attended our children's clubs and then moved up to the youth group when it was started. He had lots of questions last night and came ready to make a decision. We praise the Lord for working in the life of this young man. He left last night content and secure that he has a home in heaven. We continue to be blessed seeing God working in the lives of so many young people in Vina Alta.

Something Fishy...

This is just one of dozens of containers that made up the "World's Largest Ceviche."

In a recent post I described a variety of special honors that Peru is famous for. Today we can add another achievement to the list: The world's largest dish of Ceviche! Ceviche is perhaps the most popular dish in Peru. It is made up of fish or shellfish mixed with red onion, yellow chilli peppers all marinated in lemon juice. It is interesting to note that the fish is raw!

This past weekend a group of nearly 450 people gathered in a local stadium to prepare the dish. It weighed in at an incredible 6.8 tons! During the preparation a crowd of neighbors gathered and hundreds flooded in to eat all they wanted of the national dish.

Perhaps your curious and would like to sample this delicacy. Here is a simple recipe to try:

Ingredients:
1 Kilo (2.2 pounds) of founder or other white fish cut into small pieces
2 red onions, pealed and cut long
4 yellow chillies with seeds and veins removed
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon pepper
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Preparation:
Combine all the ingredients carefully. Leave the mixture to marinate for 30 minutes to 1 hour in the refrigerator. Mix once more before serving. (That's right it is uncooked...) Enjoy!

Maybe someday i'll take the time to tell you the story of the first time I ate Ceviche.