Back to the Jungle

Hello dear friends and family,

No we are not in the jungle, we are in a city called Huancavelica, we shall give some details about this beautiful city in future posts. In the next few posts we will be going back in time and relating a few experiences that we have seen and heard since being in Peru and serving where the need is greater, ones that we have not had the opportunity to mention in early posts, sorry if we accidentally repeat.

Hope you enjoy these catch up posts with with some little hints of what we are up to right now :)

Lets go back to La Banda de Shilcayo, Tarapoto, Peru around 2014.

Experience:
On day a publisher was preaching doing some return visits and found a nice older lady at a return visit but wasn't the same person as last time. The publisher did a simple presentation based on the Watchtower of the month and the lady listened and then mentioned she was going through a hard time with serious health problems, and was worried as she is a grandma that supports some of her older children and grandchildren as they are not doing well economically.
As conversation continued the lady insinuated that she wanted to study the bible quite a few times, and then she just outright asked to study the bible.
A bible study was started and she continued to make progress spiritually.
We just never know where the kingdom message will have fruit.

Keep posted for more short experiences,
Josh and Sarah Rado


Here is a photo of the beautiful jungle of Tarapoto, Peru:

Back Online

Hello dear friends and family,

It has been nearly around 2 years since our last blog post. Very sorry about this.
We hope you have been able to see some of our activity on Instagram.

We are pleased to let you know that we will be posting more regularly over the next few months. We will be writing up some beautiful experiences that we have witnessed or heard about while we have been in Peru. As always we love to hear your beautiful experiences as well.

Keep posted,

Love Josh and Sarah

Hi all our dear friends and family,

We must apologise another long wait between posts. We have included some more photos this time :)

So here is a little update, we have been in Cuzco for around 5 months now enjoying the construction work at the RTO for the Quechua language of Cuzco area. This has been a huge blessing.
The translation work being done here in Peru is absolutely crazy. To give an idea, there are over 40 different native languages in Peru alone, not including the different dialects, and the Society is at the fore front of this translation work. They are preaching in around 20 languages and translating literature in around 8 languages in the Peru Branch territory, these include all or in part, the "Become Jehovah's Friend" series, Watchtower&Awake, Tracts, Kingdom Ministry, brochures, books, new releases, and all the videos we see at the conventions. That is a lot of work that many, many dear brothers are working hard, either from home or translation offices, which by the way are not in Bethel type buildings, majority are working out of rented buildings, apartments or homes. In fact the Cusco RTO is only one of three RTO's (Remote Translation Offices) being built at this moment, and before these there where none. So we feel its a huge privilege to be able to help these dear brothers in a small way.

While we have been here in Cuzco we have been visited by family and friends from Australia which has been a huge encouragement to us, the short time we had with them we will never forget, thank you for coming, and hope to see you soon :)

Anyways here are some photos of what we have been up to, we promise there will be more photos coming soon, and thank you all for your loving support, as always we would love to hear for you all.

Picture 1: We have the privilege of visiting the reed islands in Puno on lake Titicaca, we had this opportunity because we missed our circuit assembly in Tarapoto because we went to the construction so the Branch arranged for us to go to Puno to have the Assembly which was a huge blessing

Picture 2: Enjoying our time on the lake :)

Picture 3: This is where the construction was at when we arrived in Cusco, it was at demolition stage for the old Kingdom Halls they had on the property, all to make room for the RTO

Picture 4: the 2 Kingdom Halls are now GONE to make way for the Residency building, as you can see in the picture the Office Building is up to the second story

Picture 5: Foundations for the Residency Building, it has been designed so that the building can be expanded to 4 stories if needed, and thats why the foundations are so deep

Picture 6: Columns made from rio and concrete starting from foundation to roof hight

Picture 7: Sarah doing some concreting

Picture 8: this little guy kicked me out of my seat hehehe

Picture 9: Sarah compacting the dirt in preparation for the concrete floor

Memorial - Tarapoto to Cuzco - Construction

Hello of dear Friends,
So a lot has happened in the last few months.
We went to a Congregation a few hours away for the memorial, we also where privileged to be invited to the Zone Visit in Lima, and when we got back to Tarapoto we got invited to the Construction of an RTO (Remote Translation Office) in Cuzco and had 2 weeks to sell all our things and move to Cuzco.

So we have been in the construction work for a month now and we are loving it. It is hard work and we are still getting used to the routine of starting breakfast at 7am and working till 5pm - 5 days a week - and ministry on Saturday and Sunday.
Sarah has been trained in cutting steel, laying bricks and today she did spray painting, she has been doing such a great job. Jehovah has helped us so very much. Even though we get tired, just some how we find the energy to keep working and keep our joy.

So before this whole construction thingy, we where in Tarapoto. The Memorial was beautiful, we got invited to another congregation for the Memorial which was in town called Saposoa, amazing place in the jungle, so beautiful and such a beautiful congregation. They had to divide the congregation in 2 for the Memorial, having to sessions one at 6:30 and the other at 8:00.
It was a bit of a shame because we were not able to make it to our congregations Memorial but we found out that a few of our studies where able to make it which was great news.

We also had the privilege of traveling to Lima for the Zone Visit which was an amazing experience, there was over 6,000 in attendance and all the pioneers where invited from lima and missionaries from around the country as well as special pioneers and Need Greater, save to say the crowd was buzzing. Amazing to see so many putting Jehovah first in there lives.

So then came the move, Sarah and I where in a bit of situation, we where not sure what to do, we had applied to learn "Shawi" through the Language school, which is a native language in the amazon jungle, there are about 20,000 people that speak the language and just one group that attends the huge area. Well we waited for about 2 months, we had been accepted to do the school but there was not enough people for it, there was only 5 people able to do it but they needed at least 20 to do the school. So we where eager to do more but were not sure where to go, then we had the idea of supporting a group about 1 hour away. We prayed to Jehovah for guidance.... and then we got a call from Bethel to go the Construction to CUZCO.... we where shocked but so excited, Sarah was so happy because she absolutely loves Cuzco.
So we had 2 weeks to get to Cuzco, we thought we had simplified our life when we made the move to Peru, but now we are down to 1 suitcase for Sarah and 1 suitcase for Josh, hahahaha, but we feel we have far more, in so many other ways.
We where very sad to leave our little home, and our congregation La Banda de Shilcayo as well as our studies, but Jehovah made everything work out so smoothly. So many things just worked and fell into place.

Well theres a little update on all thats been happening, Sarah and I would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to all our friends and family for all your support, we wouldn't be able to be here without you all. We would love to hear how you are all going, please comment or send us an email.

Well here are a few photos love you all:

Our dear landlords from La Banda - they left for their assignment 2 weeks before us to Iquitos as special pioneers for Sign Language

Memorial in Saposoa

Spot the Peruvian...... hahahaha - foreigners invade

Our dear Brother Orlando giving a great no.3 talk - he has been blind from birth, has such great love for Jehovah

Sarah absolutely loving it -

Visitors - Witnessing - Group/Cong

Hi all,

Apologises for taking so long to update our blog.
We hope you all are well, we miss you all very much. We thank you all for you lovely comments and loving support.

Here are some photos, we will post more soon, hopefully a bit quicker next time, hehehe

 New friends that passed through 'Tarapoto' - they are serving in 'Pacasmayo' which is a city on the Coast of Peru, they have been serving in Peru for 9 years now with 2 girls, one 14 and the other 18. As you can see in the picture they are loving live serving where the need is greater as a family :D

 Sneaky shot of Sarah and Rachy arriving at the field service group.

 Ralph and I in the ministry - was nice to go out witno with another Aussie, this couple are a great encouragement for both Sarah and I

 Sorry for the bad photo - This sister was visiting us to help out our congregation for a couple of weeks. We got chatting and found out that she found the truth in Cuzco, and funny enough one of my Aunties helped her come into the truth, and that Aunty came into the truth through my Grandma that got sent from Gilead from Australia to Cuzco, and now this sister is serving where the need is greater.

 The above and below photo was taken of a group/congregation called "Tabalosos" it is about 1 hour away, this is their Kingdom hall, it is actually a sisters home that she has opened up to the group/congregation, this sister now lives next door in a much smaller room with family. Such a self sacrificing spirit and a huge spirit of hospitality.

Now why do i keep saying group/congregation??? Well because when we took this photo a couple of weeks ago it was only a group that was growing very fast, they had around 25 publishers but there was an attendance of 70 to the meeting when we visited.
They only moved into this new kingdom hall within the last year, and when they first moved in, the first two rows of seats where empty. Now they are standing out the door.
An elder just got sent to help the group with his family and with that it was announced as a new congregation. But with an attendance of 70 at the meetings and only 2 ministerial servants, and 1 elder, there is a huge need in this buzzing new congregation.

To finish up, here is Sarah at our new found spot to chill out when we need a moment to relax :)

Thank you all for your loving support, we will post some new photos as soon as possible.

Big hug,
Joshua & Sarah Rado

PiOnEERS with SMILES & hUMbLE HEaRTs to bE fOUNd

g'Day Maties, nuestros amigos, dear friends,

Hope you are doing well, thank you all for your beautiful emails and comments, it is very encouraging to us.
So it's been almost 2 months since we have gotten back from visiting the land down under (Australia). Heres a bit of an update of want has been happening in "La Banda de Shilcayo" - Peruvian Jungle.

Rachel (Sarah's sister) has been doing an amazing job getting through the challenges of the mighty JUNGLE hahaha, Jehovah has blessed her with 11 studies in her first couple of months. When you see people thrusting for the truth here, the challenges are nothing. Seeing her trust in Jehovah has boosted our zeal.

The SMILING PIONEERS :D

We also enjoyed our Pioneer Meeting with the elders with a total of 22 regular pioneers in attendance. It is beautiful to have so many pioneers, it's a shame we don't get to spend much time with each other in the ministry - why?? because we all have so many studies we don't have much time left to go with others to there studies hahahaha - but we make arrangements to enjoy each others company as much as possible :)

Let us tell you all about one of the new students of the bible, Jimmy. I had mentioned him in the last blog post, he is the one at the top of a mountain hahaha. Well happily we have found a bit of an easier way of getting to his house, still involves a bit of a climb but its better than the alternative. Well we have been regularly studying with Jimmy every week on Sunday mornings, and in the process his wife and daughter have joined in and have showed a lot of interest in the study, following along in there own copy of the brochure.
Now some of you might be wondering about the two young boys that where studying and came to a few meetings, Perdo and Ricardo, well now one of our younger pioneers around 15 years of age is studying with both of them, one on Wednesday mornings and the other Friday mornings, and they continue to progress. Interesting there was another young boy that lives in there neighbourhood named Diego, he is the granddaughter of a sister in our congregation but his mum and dad are not witnesses, well Diego is 8 years old and had heard about Perdo and Ricardo studying and wanted a study of his own, so one day he decided to go visit his Grandma and go to the meeting with her, he enjoyed the meeting and he told his Grandma that he wanted to study the bible with a brother, so after the meeting they approached me and asked if I would be willing to study with him, well of course I said YES hehehe, we have now been studying for a few weeks every Thursday and Friday morning and he his loving it, his father is also showing interest and encouraging Diego to continue to study and prepare for the study.

Children wanting to see the literature and videos

The witnessing stand has also been drawing humble hearted ones out, one day this lady with her two sons approached Sarah and asked for the Watchtower and Awake but also wanted the 'Good News" brochure and Bible Teach book, Sarah was about to offer her a free home bible study when she asked Sarah if she could visit her to study the bible, hahaha, and before Sarah could ask for the address the lady was writing it down, as well as her phone number and said to just call and she will be there. Well we have been studying with her for a few weeks and she has been loving the things she has been learning and has expressed a keen interest in coming to the meetings.

On a bit of a side note, Sarah and I have been here for over a year know and have been studying with quite a few different ones on a regular bases, but we had been feeling that they didn't understand us and where just being polite, so we where expecting to come back from our trip and find that we had lost some studies, but that was not the case, all our studies from before our trip where so happy we where back and during the study they would mention all the things they had learned from previous studies, that has been a very very big encouragement to us, as we thought we weren't  being understood but with Jehovah's help these humble ones have soaked up bible truths and it's a privilege that Jehovah has given us the opportunity to see their progress in their own personal relationship with him.

Well we will leave it there for now, we have so many more beautiful experiences but we will leave it there until next time. Hear are some photos :D

We send our warm love to you all :)
Joshua and Sarah Rado

weIgHt lOse - and SeTTeLing

Hello our dear friends :)
We are starting to get back into things again, we forgot how hot it gets here, but its good for me so I can lose all that weight I put on back in Australia, to much GALAKTOMPOUREKO made by Mumma Raymond (Sarah's Mum) and homemade CINNAMON ROLLS by Jen (my sister). Worth every plate hehehe

We are just amazed about the territory, so much interest. Sarah has smashed into it starting new studies left, right and centre hahaha.
I found a new study... but I had to find it at the highest and steepest part of the territory of course, but this young man, who's name is Jimmy, is such a humble and just loves to learn more about the bible. His eyes just lit up when he learnt from the bible that God's name is Jehovah and not Jesus.
Anyways, would love to tell you all many more beautiful experiences but time just gets away. So we have attached some photos to tell the stories for us.

We miss you all our dear friends and family. We thank you all for your loving support and look forward to hearing from you all.

Warm Christian Love,
Joshua and Sarah Rado



We helped Rachel's (Sarah's sister) housemate move... so this is house moving in the jungle with motorcar's hahaha

Witnessing stand at the entrance of the market. Aways have an amazing experience when we do the stand. Nearly everyday the stand is running there is at least one bible study started.

Saturday morning group under the tree.

YEah thats SAFE.....

Our new C.O and his wife. Amazing couple and very encouraging to us. Had the privilege of having them other for pancakes and fruit salad after the Tuesday night meeting.

Our pioneer meeting with the C.O. there a haPPy bunch :D

The sisters... both loving the BEST LIFE EVER :D

So this is where I found Jimmy... see those little people all the way down there??? yep thats where we had to walk up from hahaha - AVENTURA (adventure)