So, Ministry this month has been fun! It has brought me back to why I fell in love with ministry in the first place. I accepted Christ really young, I was 4, but the world got in my way and I walked away from the Lord until the day before my 18th birthday. The day I turned 18, I was a whole new person!
When I was in High School, I had a friend named Becky, she and her family loved me like I was apart of the family! They took me to church with them and invited me on mission trips to the coast with them. I realize now looking back, I was doing what I thought was the right thing to do. I loved painting the baptistry, hanging out with the girls that came to VBS, and in the evening hanging out with our friends from the youth group. Then, I was sitting on the hot rocky ground outside the compound of our ministry site of Savage Ministry in Trujillo, Peru, digging sand out of a water meter box not completely sure I was not going to dig a snake out at some point but, I was so present in the joy of the moment. I wanted it to be done well, I didn’t want to leave the job half done for the volunteer next month to dig out. But, as I thought back to my first mission trip, I didn’t have this joy, back then, and I made the choice to serve then because my friends were doing it and I for sure did not go beyond what I wanted to do.
Before I got to the place of digging sand out of the water meter, the group of us that were doing physical labor for the day, walked down the street to pick up old tires that were dumped on the side of the road. Picture it… 12 Gringos… stopping in the middle of the desert that people in habited with some full structured homes and some makeshift homes… their is trash swirling in the sandy hot wind… then those gringos run off with a bunch of random tires…laughing and singing!! Yep! thats ministry in Peru!! When we returned to our ministry site we dug ditches on either side of the driveway, placed the tires in the ditches standing up, then they were painted with various bright and bold colors to make a playful and welcoming path into the school for the kids!
Then another ministry day, I was helping teach English vocabulary to kids, with the free English classes provided in the ministry! We were teaching Left, Right and Straight! I felt like I was back at work jumping around trying to keep kids attention! Some seemed uninterested in this crazy gringo, when others wanted hugs before moving to the next station. It was so exciting to see the excitement and eagerness of a few of the kids to learn English. One boy was writing down each word on a journal and repeating the words over and over!
Each night, we have the great opportunity to join our ministry contact Joel and Maria Savage’s church. Pastora, is Maria’s mom and she is a fireball full of the Holy Spirit. She prayed and preached so intensely that at the start my squad mates were not sure what we were listening to. But half way through our time here one of our squad mates began interpreting for the pastor and her words came to life! That is when great growth began in our squad and we could understand the prayers she was praying over the members of her church and the lost people of Trujillo!
The Savage’s have showed us great love and encouragement during our time with them and we have grown to have such sweet friendships with them! In a few days as we leave Peru, we will be leaving sweet friends and sweet sisters in Christ!! Please pray for Savage Ministries and the Great work the Lord has given them to be apart of in Trujillo!!
