¡NOVEDADES! / NEWS!

A letter from Rusty Edmondson and Sara Armstrong, serving in Peru

December 2017

It is a delight for us to announce that we are working in a new partnership with lots of possibilities! Leaders of the PC(USA) recently signed a partnership agreement with the Red Uniendo Manos-Peru/ the Peruvian Joining Hands Network. The eight Peruvian member organizations in the Network are committed to work for justice, equality and fair trade: issues that are also important to Presbyterians. This new program for short term mission under the auspices of the Red Uniendo Manos-Peru (RUM) is called PERUSA to emphasize the importance of joint work between like-minded people in PERU and the USA.

We are glad that our work is now housed in the office of the RUM in the Magdalena district of Lima. We enjoy the camaraderie of the other staff members. Another joy is that this program and all its appurtenances (files, promotional materials, documents and tools) are housed in an office outside our home, and much more importantly, under the auspices of a Peruvian coordinator.

We would like to introduce the new coordinator of PERUSA: Miriam Laura Quiñones. She was born in Lima of parents who came from Huancavelica, and she grew up around family members who speak Quechua. She is married with three children between the ages of 13 and 18. She is a member of San Pablo Presbyterian Church, where she plays the acoustic guitar in the praise band along with her children. More than anything else, she likes playing the guitar, singing and traveling.

When you ask her how she became involved in this ministry, she laughs and starts to talk about her upbringing. “During my childhood, my mother was always working with missionaries, and I helped her. That was the start of my desire to learn English.” She studied English for three years in the language school of the Universidad Catolica. She worked as an English teacher for a while in a private school then married and dedicated herself to her family and the care of her children. She worked in the family printing business over the years, but always wanted to use her gift for English.

She goes on to say, “My husband Alfredo and I have always wanted to be involved in receiving short-term mission teams.” When we met Miriam and Alfredo nine years ago, they expressed interest in the work and they helped us with a team in Lima. But the children were too small to be able to travel extensively. It still awes me that I remembered her desire to serve when we began to help the RUM search for a coordinator all these years later.

Miriam started working as the coordinator of the PERUSA program at the Red Uniendo Manos- PERÚ in May 2017. She says, “During the first three months, we were traveling constantly with the other coordinators, Sara Armstrong, Rusty Edmondson, Jed Koball and Jenny Valles. This is something I really like to do. It was a training time, getting to know many people and places in my own country. I like doing what I do, and I realize every day what wonderful things God does in my life. Now my children are older, I can travel and dedicate myself to doing what I like confidently. Above all, I feel that I serve the Lord and He put me in this position to serve Him.”

Miriam Laura with Sara and Freddie outside the Santa Teresa Church. A youth team from the US will help to build a new church here in 2018.

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Some of you may wonder about our other partners. It was clearly written into our new agreement with the RUM that our work with the Iglesia Evangelica Peruana (IEP) would continue parallel with our new teams and that the planning for them would be with the help of the PERUSA team. Rusty and I will attend the National Assembly of the IEP in January in the coastal city of Chiclayo. In past years, we have traveled into the snowy/rainy Sierra, encountering landslides and other challenges to January travel, so we are delighted to be staying on the sunny summery coast this year. Our IEP partners have been in prayer for our church throughout the hurricane season and they continue to ask how their friends in the US are doing.

Your prayers and financial support have sustained this mission program for the past nine years. As we transition to our new work under the auspices of the Red Uniendo Manos-Peru, we thank you for continuing this support. All of us at the RUM are grateful for your accompaniment as we establish the foundations and define the structure of this new program. Thank you!

Bendiciones de Sara y Rusty