So we had to leave for the airport at 4 am to fly to Arequipa. From there we had to take a super bumpy bus ride for 6 hours to arrive to our destination city. This was the same bus ride that I had taken a year and half earlier and had accidentally thrown up all over myself. I brought medicine this time! This whole trip brought back so many memories for me because we were visiting the same places that I had visited on the 2nd week of my time in Peru on the walking tour with the kids in the Community a year and a half before. That was such a hard/ amazing week for me a year and a half ago because I barely knew any Spanish, I didn’t know any of the people I was on the trip with, and we were walking literally all over Peru. I literally had culture shock on SO many levels. This time it was so cool to go on the same trip to the same place and see what God has done in my life in the past year and a half. It was no big deal going to the bus station this last month and buying our bus tickets for ourselves. Last year the Peruvian bus station seemed like something that I could not even think about beginning to understand. I couldn’t understand last year at the time how the volunteers knew how to get a taxi, speak Spanish, and just live life here. After living here a few months, I realized there are just things that you have to learn along the way. More than that though, God just has pulled me through and taught me things about how to live here that were not possible for me to do/ learn on my own. I am so grateful for the things that God has taken me through over this past year and a half.
We finally arrived at our destination; our good friend that we came to visit, came and met us at the bus station. We gave him all the surprises that we had brought for him, Bibles, English materials, and Christian resources. He was very content. He quickly left us at a hostel because he had to go teach a class at his job. When he left, Nancy and I took about a 2 hour nap. He came back and we went out to eat at a local restaurant. It was a great meal just to catch up with our friend and him to share with us his heart and what has been going on his life. Then another one of our friends happened to be in the same restaurant and we were able to meet up with him and catch up with him as well. After that we went back to our hostel and all watched a Louie Giglio video together. We all learned a lot!
The next day, our friend came over to meet us, and we had a gourmet Mountain breakfast to go. Nancy and I had gone out to get breakfast and gotten it to go. They packed everything including the coffee in plastic baggies. I love how Peru works! Honestly, I had a bad attitude about going out and getting breakfast with Nancy. I just wanted to stay in the room and be lazy. God always seems to work greater in the midst of my bad attitude and laziness. (In my weakness He is made strong) He laid someone on my heart as we passed by them to tell them about Jesus, but I did not take the opportunity. I knew I had to go back, so after we got our breakfast; I went back and told this woman about Jesus and the other vendedores (salesmen) at their little kiosks about Jesus. We talked with them and set up a time to come back at 2 in the afternoon to teach them a Bible study and bring bracelets that explain the good news of Jesus. We ate a great breakfast with our good friend and then had a great prayer time with him. Our whole point on going down on this trip was to encourage our good friend who accepted Christ last October and to help him start a house church. He really enjoyed the prayer time. He said he had never had a prayer time like that before. Sometimes I forget the reality of the world we live in here. Most people come from a background of knowing a few memorized recited prayers and do not know anything about just praying from their heart. Before we knew it was 2:00 and time to go back to where we had been earlier that morning.
We went to the plaza where the ladies were that morning and the original lady that asked for us to come back and do the Bible study was not there. We met with the women and children that were there though. We got to play the famous hand game with the children in the plaza. We used the proclaimer (a radio Bible) to listen to the story of the crucifixion and resurrection in their native language Quechua. As we were listening more and more people started to come over. As people started to leave and lose interest, we decided to start giving out the bracelets to them and sharing the good news of Jesus with them. A ton of people came by! We were probably there for about 3 hours. It was so neat to have our friend translate things from Spanish or English to Quechua for us. He knows all three of those languages! It was so incredible to watch him share the good news of Jesus with those in his home town.
One lady came by and talked to me. She was SO interested in the gospel. We got to have an extensive conversation about Jesus and salvation. She was an older woman, and her daughter was in the hospital in another town about to have an operation. She was very concerned about her. We were able to pray together for her daughter to be healed. Please pray for her salvation as she is very open to the gospel. Many people asked where we went to church because they wanted to come and we told them that we were just visiting. Please pray that our friend will have the courage to start this Bible study soon and that he will know exactly what location to start it in. While we were there in the plaza giving out bracelets there was a girl named Veronica that asked me if we could go to her house. I honestly did not really want to go, she kept annoying me to go to her house when we were busy talking to other people, but it turned out to be the biggest blessing of the whole trip for me.
We finally got to her after a long time of her waiting for us to get done in the plaza. When we got to her house what we found was a one room shack filled literally with junk with a blue tarp roof where there is a second room where they sleep. The roof could easily cave in at any moment. This is a family of a single mom with 10 kids. 7 of these kids live with her and her granddaughter; the other 3 live at an orphanage down the road. Their conditions were really heart breaking, but this family was so joyful. They did not wallow around in their circumstances but took the time to spend time with us in a small Bible study. We sang Christian songs together, shared the good news of Jesus, and just got to know each other for about an hour. It was such a precious time of singing because the family is so big that we could have competitions between the boys and girls with how loud they could sing, and we got to see a huge family enter into a time of praising Jesus together.
I fell in love with one of the little kids named Cesar. He is five years old and he completely captured my heart. I would love to adopt him. Nancy and I decided to walk the studying kids to school. They go to school only for 3 hours a day from 6 pm to 9 pm. They have to walk a long way to school by themselves in the dark. It is incredible what kids here go through on a daily basis on their own. On our way out to walking them to school, I told Cesar that it was dark and I was scared and that he needed to protect me. He responded, “I will protect you; I am your soldier.” Okay, that statement made my heart melt even more.
His sister began to tell us how they did not have any school supplies. We were already late to school, but it did not seem to be of any importance to the family that they were late. We stopped by at a market and got them some new school supplies. Then I looked and saw that they had 2 old back packs. One was super old, and I just wanted to personally get Cesar something that he could be proud of. We stopped by the back pack store at one of the markets, and Cesar got to get a new Spider Man back pack. His sister also got a new back pack as well. It was such a precious moment for me to see them get something that they never thought they would have probably in all of their lives. A 5 dollar back pack is so simple especially to someone like me who is not at all in need, but I am reminded that a five dollar back pack is not possible for people like Cesar’s family ever. Most of the time I become numb to the reality of the poverty that I live in here in Peru, but it is so real. I need to be always aware of the people around me that are so badly suffering. I need to look at situations through Christ’s eyes and not my own. We left them to finish walking to school on their own in order to meet our friend to go with him to be “guests” in his English class.
It was so much fun getting to see our 2 good friend’s English institute that they started on their own. We did a question and answer session with them, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the students in his class. Then we went out to eat and had so much fun with our two good friends just talking and catching up.
The next day was another day full of adventure. Our two friends met us and we went to the nursing home in the town. Nancy had talked with an elderly guy the day before that had invited us to go the nursing home, so we did! It was incredible, there are about 45 people that come every Monday through Friday 8 am to 12 pm. There is not money for them to stay there, but they do eat breakfast and lunch, get Spanish lessons, and grow their own crops there to have something to eat. It was so crazy for me to see such elderly people still out working in the fields. Each and every one of them that is there in some way helps with the crops so that they can have food to eat. They were so gracious and so happy for us to be there. They loved the bracelets that explain the good news of Jesus! The coolest part was our dear friend translated the entire good news of Jesus from Spanish to Quechua and read the Bible verse out of a Quechuan Bible. It was so neat to see a new believer share God’s word and story. He is incredible with people, and the elderly people there just loved him. His grandma is one of the residents. As soon as we got done with that, we rushed to meet our friends’ English class to go on a field trip to 3 Canyones.
This is actually my favorite scenic spot in all of Peru. I saw it a year and a half ago on the walking trip, and I never thought that I would have the opportunity to go back. Three Canyones is exactly how it sounds, Three huge canyons. It is a beautiful, awesome, breath taking creation of God. It was a humbling and amazing experience for me to get to be back there a year and a half later. Last year I remember just worshipping God for who he was because he made these huge mountains all around me, and God reminded me last year of how he was big enough to get me through that very difficult time of being in Peru all alone. This year, I just reflected on all God had brought me through in this past year and a half, and once again the beauty of his creation. I went off by myself and just got some time to walk along the river, sit in the middle of a small water fall, and read a little bit of the Psalms.
Later as we moved to the next sight in tres canyons, I decided to take some time by myself again to read the Psalms. Before I knew it, this hilarious mountain lady was coming over to talk to me. She asked me if she could have my necklace, I really did not want to give it to her, but I at the same time couldn’t say no to her. She also asked for my English Bible. I explained that since she didn’t know English that it would not be of any use for her. She spoke a few words of Spanish but mainly Quechua. I think she understood Spanish though. Anyway, she just got up and basically started teaching me how to dance. This lady was so spontaneous and a little crazy, but I definitely am glad to have gotten to spend time with her.
After 3 Canyones, our two friends , Nancy, and I all went out to eat together for the last time. Then our friend that we came to visit came over and we went over house church curriculum with him. Please pray for him that he will have the courage to start his own Bible study because the people where he lives are hungry, yet he is still a little scared to start a Bible study for the people.
The next morning, our friend came over and we hung out a little bit and then he had to go to work. We then went and visited another friend of ours that lives in the area. She took us out to her “campo” (livestock field). It was incredible. The men in her family were making mud bricks to build another house, her mom was cooking over a fire, and they had livestock right behind where they lived. She was so precious and put together a little picnic with freshly grown potatoes and homemade cheese. We had a really good time getting to hang out with her and one of her friends.
It was so interesting because one her friends listens to all these English singing Christian artists even down to Michael W. Smith. If you know me, I was flipping out!! He is the first Peruvian I have ever met that knows who Michael W. Smith is. I was so excited. We are hopefully going to be in communication with him through email. We don’t know if he is a Christian, but please pray that God will draw his heart to himself if he is not a Christian already.
We were able to do so much stuff in the those 3 days. We got to see so many people that we knew, people that I did not write about that we have known since last year. God reminded me even though we cannot see everyone that we used to know last year, that he still provides opportunities for us to be reunited with people when we least expect it. Please be in prayer for this young Christian man and his mountain town that he will be the one that God uses to reach the whole town for Christ!
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