Newsletter September 2023

The September newsletter was written in Switzerland, which is
quite special. This motivates me to start just with this topic.

Home Time

Our two-year-old Mael and I arrived in Switzerland at the begin-
ning of August. The airlines require pregnant women to fly no la-
ter than their seventh month of pregnancy. I’m so glad that I have
been able to make good use of the time so far, even before Carlos
arrived in Switzerland shortly before the Estacion Esperanza
event (10th of September) – and even more so since then: lots of
meetings with people who support us from home (Switzerland),
whether through messages of affection and prayer, or financially.
It is important to us to get to know as many donors as possible
personally, to know their names not only through their donations
to our ministry.

There were also many private highlights that I was able to enjoy:
My sister Linda had her wedding, I met my ten-month-old niece,
my father celebrated his 70th birthday, etc. A very special surprise
in these weeks was the development of Mael. We are discovering
many things about him, of which he had no idea until now. Swit-
zerland seems to us, with all its opportunities for leisure activi-
ties, like an enormous paradise for children.

Much of it is free and without much effort:
Playgrounds outside
and inside, mothers-child center with free
counseling for parents, community centers,
swimming opportunities, farms, rivers, fo-
rests, mountains, farms where Mael can touch
cows and horses and rabbits etc. When I am
with friends and their children or with my sis-
ter Linda and her little daughter, I have to be
careful not to get too carried away. There are
hardly any opportunities like that in Peru.
Some of the team have small children, but
they spend their days off differently than I do.
In addition, in Peru – unfortunately – it is
more important than here that I am and re-
main their supervisor. Since we have been in
Switzerland, Mael often sleeps in his own
room, he is now without diapers, accepts care
from other people, etc. He is also making
tremendous progress with Swiss German.

Our three girls in Peru are doing well. We are
in regular contact with them. Nancy, the ol-
dest, is now 21 years old. She takes care of
the two sisters helping them become as inde-
pendent as possible and taking on personal
responsibilities. She says, “When I was six ye-
ars old, I sometimes had to take care of An-
gie, who was less than one year old, for days
because our biological mother disappeared. It
can’t be that Angie, now 15, is too comforta-
ble to prepare breakfast for herself and Flor
before school.” It is helpful that they can al-
ways have lunch at our project house and that
there are people we trust there.

ARTIKEL JUNGFRAUZEITUNG

KIRCHEWIGARTEN

We will inform you soon enough about the SRF broadcasting times for EsEs and our family. The first broadcast of the SRF program “Familien Sache” will be on 5.1.2024.

Construction project

I, Carlos, stayed in Lima as reported. Before
leaving, I gave a power of attorney to our co-
worker Rodolfo (project deputy) as well as to
the vice representative of the association EsEs
Peru. We started with the elaborate paper-
work for the application to get the permission
to run a kindergarten and later a school. Now
these two people are also authorized to sign.
Before I left, I had another meeting with the
mayor of Mi Peru district. After all that has
happened (see last two newsletters) he knows
that we completely renounce corruption and
therefore he cannot find any financial advan-
tages with us. But since he is enthusiastic
about the idea of the kindergarten/school
with low prices for people in the slums, he
told me the following: “If you come back to
Lima in November and you still haven’t recei-
ved the approval from the school department,
I will introduce you to the appropriate diretor.
So you don’t have to worry about the
permit, although the whole thing usually co-
mes with a lot of obstacles and challenges.”
We can only marvel. As recently as May, we
had received a construction stop from the po-
litical municipality, had no way to meet the
mayor personally, and saw no way to conti-
nue building. But once more, God opened clo-
sed doors and surprised us in a way that we
can only give thanks.
Here’s link to the new video about the con-
struction.

The next steps involve the purchase and in-
stallation of windows, doors, flooring, play-
ground, etc. The chances actually look good
that we can start with three kindergarten
classes (3, 4 and 5 year olds) in March 2024
when the new school year begins. But we
know we cannot make it all happen ourselves,
but look trustingly to God to see how every-
thing develops. Our wishes and ideas are ne-
ver the last word in wisdom! In the meanti-
me, we pray and trust God.

Team leadership

Making team meetings constructive has pro-
ven to be a challenge. Every Sunday after-
noon, the team meeting is taking place and a
protocol is written. The temperament of the
Latin Americans means that it is always very
lively. Many of them have an enormous need
to communicate and accordingly the meetings
drag on. Our two new Swiss team members
(Tahani and Nicola), who will probably be
with us for two years, have good ideas for so-
lutions. They will try to implement them du-
ring our absence. We are very excited to see
what will be different when we return in mid-
November. Not surprisingly, problems some-
times arise in our team as well, which can lead to discord.
Estación Esperanza is any-
thing but pure harmony. Recognizing such si-
tuations early enough and dealing with them
in a good way is a great challenge. We are
glad when we are given the necessary strate-
gy and sufficient empathy.

Our baby-boy is born

This part should not have been part of the
September newsletter. But since God gave us
our son earlier then expected, we could not
send on the newsletter. We are full of joy to
tell you, that our second boy was born on the
3nd of October. Everything went well and he
and being attended to in a Swiss hospital is a
privilege because the quality of the hospital is
excellent. So, we are happy to present you
our Swiss-Peruvian son Yosias Mateo.He and
also his mother, me, are healthy and recover-
ing well.