Jayne & Rob Franklin’s Peruvian Adventure

Jayne and Rob are our Champions for the ‘Serving the Poor & Marginalized’ stream. They’re based in Sheffield in the UK.

We’ve been friends of Mark & Anna Burgess (TOM’s South American Guardians) for many years. In fact, Mark and Anna and their first son, Daniel, moved from the UK to Denmark in 2007 which is the same year that I (Jayne) moved from the UK to Denmark where I lived for several years. Prior to that Mark and Anna were part of the community I led along with Lucy Buckley. Keld asked us to visit Peru as the Champions of the Poor and Marginalized. We were keen to do this, and were meant to visit in March 2020, but the pandemic came and we had to postpone.

Like a lot of you we have also been inspired and encouraged by all that God was doing through Mark and Anna’s ministry, and particularly during the pandemic in relation to the foodbank that they began because of the financial hardship this was causing many families in their region.

Visiting Peru was most definitely an adventure for us; Rob had never visited a developing country before, and it had been twenty years for Jayne. We were out of practice and inexperienced BUT Mark and Anna took such care of us, and we were determined to go with the flow and see what happened!  

We spent precious time with them as a family – we love their boys! We enjoyed going on dog walks and watching the boys at their climbing wall lessons and going for runs with Mark (well sort of enjoying!!).  

We spent time at the church in Lima where Mark and Anna are in the process of handing over leadership to Roberth and Rossa who are also part of TOM; it is vibrant and  growing. We met many who had received from the foodbank and were now attending church. We visited Casa de Paz (their children’s ministries) in the shantytown and the one they recently started in Oikos, Lima. This is such an effective and invaluable resource to the local children and their families, not just in teaching them about Jesus but educationally too, opening eyes up to possible futures without poverty. The trip to their Oikos Jungle Church to visit led by Rafa and Saida, who are former students of Mark and Anna’s school of ministry was a highlight, such beautiful humble passionate leaders, and to then welcome them into TOM as they took their vows alongside Abi and Frank Escobar, and Erling and Maritz was wonderful. There was a lot of joy there for many reasons! 

It was precious to spend an extended period with TOM members in a different context. Mark and Anna have always been passionate about Jesus and SO wise – God spoke to us about the importance of covenant. Covenant with God and with our TOM family. We were both challenged about how we were welcoming Jesus into our lives and pursuing Him. On a practical level this has resulted in some new rhythms of prayer, and Rob and I doing Bible study together (Rob is definitely the more studious one!).

It was Mark and Anna’s challenge to us about family on mission which led us to gather some TOM members in Sheffield for brunch and prioritize a visit to Jenny and Gareth Irvine in Coventry and their food bank (such a fabulous team there!). 

Visiting Peru has certainly increased our expectation of what God can do as we have seen Him in action building thriving faith filled worshiping communities; as well as being  a timely reminder that we are family on mission – let's encourage one another!