| News and Happenings at Operación San Andrés - Collique, Lima, Peru |
October 2018 |
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Dear Friends of OSA,
The ministries of OSA have grown significantly during the past few months. Now, over 70 elementary school children participate in OSA's Educational Enrichment Program. The OSA church, Light of Hope, has added new members and continues to train leaders. This newsletter tells about these programs and about the recent mission trip from the USA to Collique, Peru. As always, we appreciate your continued interest in and support of Operación San Andrés.
Grace and peace,
Operación San Andrés (OSA)
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MISSION TRIP TO COLLIQUE THIS OCTOBER
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Earlier this month, a mission team from the USA arrived at the OSA mission site in Collique, Peru. This group of medical doctors, nurses, a pharmacist, and other medical staff came to serve the needy.
More than 800 people received medical care, medicines and free lab tests to assess their health issues. We also had the participation of a dentist, who helped several adults and children in the community improve their dental health.
A construction team served a family in Collique as they built a new house for them, which has significantly improved their living conditions. Mrs. Teresa, the owner of the house, tells us: "I never thought of having a beautiful and new place to live with my children and husband. We used to live in a very small room as we are a large family with three children. We did not have enough money to buy a new place but now my children have their own room."
Besides medical support and construction activities, there was also an important Bible School program running at OSA house with our children led by mission team volunteers. Our kids made crafts, learned to play recorders, sang songs, and learned about God's creation and His plan for their lives. It was a wonderful time of celebration and learning.
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EDUCATIONAL ENRICHMENT PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
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During the recent past months, we have had wonderful activities with the children enrolled in our Educational Enrichment Program. One of the activities they love the most is our birthday celebration time! We gathered and shared a delightful time with 15 of our children, who recently had their birthdays. We organized a party with games, singing, dancing, and a birthday cake.
"It was one of my best birthday celebrations as I was so happy to be with my friends and share a birthday cake with them. I liked fruit salad with chocolate as well." Daniel, age 7. "Thank you for all this celebration. I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with much fun. Although my parents did not celebrate my birthday with a party, as they had no money, I had this celebration at OSA, which filled me with much joy." Ariana, age 8.
Our children need to keep healthy and strong. Thus, we periodically run a blood test for all of them in order to monitor their hemoglobin levels. Our first-grade children participated in this activity for their first time. Even though they were a little bit afraid, they learned this was an important activity for their health. "I was afraid to see the needle, but the nurse told me to be quiet, breath, and I almost did not feel the shot" Jhandi, age 6. 
During this last mission trip, our children had the opportunity to present their special art projects to our visitors from the U.S. They enjoyed sharing with them all that they have learned during this time at OSA house. Some of children spoke about the Bible, others showed their drawings, and others made presentations about our regional culture in Peru. Our friends from the U.S. learned a little more about our country through our kids.
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"TALITA CUMI" PREVENTING FAMILY VIOLENCE IN COLLIQUE
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Our project to prevent violence against families trained 30 primary school teachers in a nearby school in Collique, Virgen de Guadalupe. They participated in a workshop called "I Love my Body, l Love my Life," through which they learned how to detect and prevent sexual abuse against their students.
This activity was organized in cooperation with the police and the Ministry of Education in Peru and had the intention to increase the capability of public-school teachers to identify cases of violence against children, especially sexual abuse. This training will indirectly affect more than 600 children that attend Virgen de Guadalupe school every day. Many of them are already struggling with multiple forms of violence in their own families.
Recent statistics report that ten children have been sexually abused in Peru during the first four months of this year, and this amount only represents the small percentage of cases that have been reported to the government.
78% of these children were abused by someone that they already know, which speaks about the lack of protection and vulnerability these children face in their own families and communities. Talita Cumi has been working hard with several strategic partners, such as police, government organizations, and other NGOs to create a protective network around the family and community to help us diminish this critical situation for our children.
Talita Cumi has trained more than 30 community leaders to raise awareness in their own communities about this severe issue affecting thousands of children on a daily basis. Our program has provided emotional, psychological, legal, and spiritual support to dozens of women and children that have been affected by this problem throughout the year.
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LIGHT OF HOPE CHURCH CONTINUES SPREADING THE GOSPEL IN COLLIQUE
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Our church, Light of Hope, has been growing in number of participants. Now we have 30 official members and about 30 other adults that periodically attend our weekly services. More than 40 Children also continue attending our Learning Club every Sunday morning as they love singing, dancing and learning more about Jesus and His plan for their lives. As a result of pastoral work, we now have about 21 adults and youth involved in a leadership training program to develop their skills to support a variety of church activities.
These leaders participated in a retreat two months ago to continue learning about how to better serve the Lord with their gifts and resources. Some of the retreat topics were: How to become committed leaders, leadership skills, sexuality and family relationships, how to serve the Lord with my gifts and talents. The main objective of the retreat was to help these youth and adults to discover the call of God for their lives and to continue serving at the church with the abilities God has given them.
"I learned much about relationships. I learned that the Bible says that we do not have to be yoked with unbelievers as this is not the will of God. We first have to have a closer relationship with God through his Word and to learn about His will for us. I also learned about sexual relationship before marriage, which is not God´s will as well. Sex in marriage is a wonderful gift God has given to us to give to our spouse," Sandi, age 20, children´s leader at church
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- Pray for the repair of the kitchen at OSA house. This work will cause us to discontinue the Educational Enrichment Program for several days.
- Pray for the upcoming time to evaluate accomplished goals for 2019 and planning time for next year.
- Pray for the outing to the circus with our children this October.
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Excited after reading this newsletter?
Please contact Ruth Campos for
additional information about future
OSA mission trips.
Please contact Ruth Campos for information
(+1) 713-464-8525 or [email protected]
Also contact Ruth for additional
information about
Operación San
Andrés and its mission in Peru
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We appreciate your prayer support which is so vital for the work of OSA in Collique. In addition, you can support our work financially by making tax exempt donations online through our PayPal account.
You can also support OSA by using Amazon Smile for your on-line shopping needs and choosing OSA as your designated non-profit. If you do this, Amazon will send a small percentage of every purchase to support the work of OSA. To get started, just click on this link:
smile.amazon.com
We encourage you to bookmark this link and use it each time you shop with Amazon.
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Operación San Andrés | 11918 Taylorcrest Rd.| HOUSTON, TX 77024
Phone (713) 464-8525| Fax (713) 464-2730
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Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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