For Your Prayers
What? Where?
Ascension’s third trip to Pachacamac (near Lima)
and Cusco, Peru, to “Listen, Learn, and Love!”
Why?
“We are called to create opportunities for all people to
to become devoted followers of Christ!”
See 1 Chronicles 16:23-24; Psalm 67; Micah 6:8; Matt. 9:37-38;
28:19-20; John 4:35b; 13:34-35; Acts 1:8; Col. 4:2f.
How?
We “listen and learn” with our ELCA global mission model of “accompaniment.” That means that we work with our
partners in Christ, in Peru. As we “walk together” in faith, we listen and learn from each other as we share the love
of Christ together. Visit www.elca.org/globalmission and www.ilep.org (the Lutheran churches in Peru).
When? June 24 – July 7, 2012
Sunday, June 24: commissioning of the traveling team at the 8:00 a.m. service. At 9:00 a.m. we’ll leave for LAX on
our Ascension bus with driver Geoff Rolik!
Lan Airlines flight #601 departs LAX at 1:20pm from Tom Bradley International Terminal and arrives in Lima at
12:01am which is 10:01pm our time.
Monday, June 25:
At the Lima airport, our Peruvian friends and bus driver, José Garcia Diaz, meet us and take us to Hotel Senorial in
Mira Flores (Lima) which will be our “home” for the week. On our overview tour of the city, we’ll stop and visit the
ministry of Belen Lutheran Church. That evening we'll enjoy a wonderful dinner and meet our "new family" in Peru
at Sister Emilia's in San Miguel.
Tuesday, June 26 – Saturday, June 30:
Each morning, after breakfast, songs and prayers at 7:30 a.m., José will pick us up at 8:30 a.m.
Each day we’ll “listen and learn” in a variety of ways as we visit the Lutheran World Relief Peru headquarters, visit
Lutheran congregations, shop at the Bible bookstore, visit Lima’s Christian TV and radio station. At about noon
each day we’ll drive to Pachacamac to prepare, with leaders there, for our daily 2:30 p.m. Vacation Bible School for
about 150 children! The theme is Campeones de la Fe (Champions of Faith). Some in our group will also help
with construction projects.
On Saturday we'll participate in a special event which we have never done before. We will do a “mission within a
mission. With our ministry partners/friends in Pachacamac, we’ll travel three hours south to Pisco/Ica where the
community has been devastated by earthquakes. Together we’ll lead a one-day VBS based on the good news of
Jesus’ resurrection.
Each evening this week we'll find a fun place to eat with the leaders of the Pachacamac ministries.
When we arrive “home” mid-evening, it will be large group time or small group time or some prep work on VBS.
God bless our night's rest, after some very full days!
Sunday, July 1:
Today we will travel to Pachacamac for the last time to enjoy Sunday worship and a fiesta with our good friends in
P-Chac!
Late afternoon we will visit Filadelfia Lutheran Church in Lurín and worship with them at their 6:30 p.m. service. We
will meet Pastora Adita and the families of this congregation.
Monday, July 2:
8:25am – 10:40am– We fly from Lima to Cuzco on Lan Airlines Flight #2023. We arrive in Cuzco, ancient capital of
the Inca Empire and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. We then depart for the scenic and
sacred Urubamba Valley. As we drive through the Sacred Valley of the Incas we’ll see the largest collection of
Incan farming terraces scaling the mountainsides and continue on to visit the village of Ollantaytambo. Tonight we
stay at the Posada del Inca in Yucay, a 200-year old colonial-style mansion which was once a convent!
Tuesday, July 3:
This morning we will be driven to the Ollantaytambo train station for our Vista Dome train ride to Machu Picchu. In
less than two hours, our Vista Dome train will arrive at the village of Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu.
Then we will ride a bus up switchbacks to the dizzying heights of the ruins, and tour this fascinating Lost City of the
Incas with our local guide. Late afternoon we’ll depart for one more night in Yucay.
Wednesday, July 4 (Happy birthday, USA!):
Today begins with an 8:30am ride back to Cusco and then a half-day Cuzco City and Ruins Tour. We’ll “listen and
learn” on our tour of Colonial Cuzco including the Temple of the Sun, Cathedral, Plaza de Armas, and other
landmarks. We continue on to the ruins outside of Cuzco. We ascend into the hills surrounding the city to visit the
Incan ruins of Kenko, Pucapucara, Tambo Machay, and the great stone fortress of Sacsayhuaman.
Thursday, July 5:
9:00 – 11:00 - Visit with the wonderful ministry of Huch'uy Runa orphanage with Directora Clara Silva and the
children. This ministry is supported, in part, by our ELCA world hunger dollars! Your giving here has done some
amazing things for these children!
2:30 – 5:00 - Visit with the Lutheran ministry, Talitha Kum, and leader, Señora Julia Huaman. We'll visit their
building project, and participate in a Bible study (with translation). We may learn some Quechua words as well!
Then, we’ll meet and dine together in Cuzco square enjoying the evening lights of the square and the city.
Friday, July 6:
At 9:45am we fly from Cusco to Lima on Lan Airlines on Flight #2115, arriving at 11:10am and return to the Hotel
Senorial for the evening. Pastor Carlos and Maria are making plans for a fun evening fiesta for all of us!
Saturday, July 7:
We'll have the morning to pack before José takes us to the Lima airport at 10:30 a.m. Many of our new friends from
Pachacamac will meet us at the airport, as we share words of thanks and hugs of appreciation, “until we meet
again,” praying for God’s blessings for each of our ministries. We depart at 12:55pm on Lan Airlines Flight #2604
from Lima to LAX. We arrive into LAX at 7:35pm. Our Ascension bus and driver Geoff Rolik will bring us back to
Thousand Oaks, hoping to arrive back at Ascension by 10:00pm!
Saturday, July 14 (6:00pm) and Sunday, July 15 (9:00 and 10:30am)
We will attend all ALC services as a group to thank the congregation for your prayers and support of our trip, and to
share the stories of faith, hope and love in Christ, and Christ's mission in one part of the world, Peru!
Who?
You! The Home Team. All of Ascension Church and School are part of this ministry with your prayers,
love, donations and support. Thank you! For this ministry we team up with Angelica Lutheran Church in Los
Angeles, Pastor Carlos and Maria Paiva. Maria is part of our synod and churchwide staff. Special thanks to the
team of people who traveled in 2008 and 2010!
The Traveling Team includes Jenny Bowen, Joan Cressman (from Holy Trinity), Kayti Garretson, Brenda
and Chuck Heinrich, Julie and Pastor Steve Herder, Tommy, Cheryl, Grant, Lia and Bryce Kitahata, Christine
Nagel, Dr. Norm Nagel, Maria and Pastor Carlos Paiva and their granddaughter Sara, and Jillian Walke. We are
excited to be representing Ascension, Angelica and Holy Trinity on this trip.
The third part of the Mission Peru team is The Peru Team - all of our sisters and brothers in Christ in Peru
that we have been in partnership with since 1999. The leaders there include Sister Emilia and her daughters Doris
and Belen, grandson Pastor David, their whole family, and all the teachers of the school in Pachacamac. Other
Lutheran leaders that we’ll learn from: Pastora Adita Torres, Señora Julia Huaman, as well as Directora Clara Silva
at the Huch’uy Runa orphanage in Cusco. Pray for all ELCA leaders that will be in Peru. Pray especially for the
children at the school in Pachacamac and for those at the orphanage in Cusco.
Pray for our ELCA global mission of accompaniment in more than 90 countries, as well as our work with
our ELCA hunger program, Lutheran World Relief, the ELCA Malaria Campaign, and disaster response.
Thank you for your prayers each day
for all three parts of the Mission Peru team,
and for our ELCA global ministries!