Lauren in Peru: A Christmas Miracle

      Wow, this is one of the most miraculous things that I have ever been a part of. God is truly the God of miracles. On December 26th, we had gotten permission to go back into the Community (the orphanage) and do a Christmas event. I was a little nervous because we had not been there in a year because of a misunderstanding. Anyway, doing something for 800 kids is a huge task and especially when you do not have much help. Nancy was going on a mission trip to the jungle with some of our friends that day so that just left me and Nicchola and a few Peruvian neighbors. All of our other new believers for some reason could not help on that day.
     First of all I was super stressed out about making the gift bags. I had to cut 800 pieces of Christmas cakes, and put the other candies in 800 bags. I still couldn't figure out what I wanted to do there: a Christmas movie, do arts and crafts and just tell the Bible story, or act out the Bible story. My mom the night decided to pray that God would do something that only He could do because she did not want me to have to stay up all night and do the gift bags. I had not been able to do them ahead of time because we had so many other Christmas events. I decided I was just too tired to stay up all night. I would set my alarm for 5 AM and do the Christmas bags. It was going to be a stretch to finish in time but that was all I could physically do. To my horror, I woke up at 8:30. There was NO WAY I could finish by myself. I knocked on the neighbors doors that said would help me. My landlord, her granddaughter, her sister, her husband, her son, John, and Nicchola came over. In only 2 hours, We had cut 67 Christmas cakes into 800 slices and made 800 Christmas gift bags. That was a true miracle from God! 16 hours of work done in 2 hours! God really did the impossible. Then I was able to talk it out with John about what we should do at the orphanage. I just didn't have a peace about any of my plans so far. At the last minute we decided to do the Christmas story using costumes. It was such a blessing doing that. First of all the electricity went out the first 30 minutes that we were there so if we had brought a movie that would not have worked. After the drama, we did a craft.
      We had 4 rotations of kids. With the older kids, we made string bracelets, with the middle group we made button bracelets, with the little kids we made sticker nativity scenes, and with the youngest group we did nativity coloring sheets. It was such a BLESSING to get to see those kids again and to get to share the good news with new kids for the first time this year. The kids were so sweet and so well behaved. I could feel the Holy Spirit's presence in the room. I think I gave approx 600 hugs that day. It was beautiful. Also God provided for workers 2 our of adult neighrbors, 3 teenagers, and a 3 year old, plus Nicchola and I to do the event. The neighbors throroughly enjoyed it and had their eyes opened to the circumstances of kids in Peru. The kids absolutely LOVED the drama. It is so cool how God brings the ideas and everything together right before it is needed. All Glory to His Name.