The past month in Peru was crazy and flew by. Things were changing all the time, but one thing that remained a constant was our dirty, sandy feet. I wish I would have taken a picture. We had a nightly ritual of going to the bathroom to wash…it made me understand a little bit more what it meant when Jesus washed His disciple´s feet.
I thought I’d give you some snippets of what went on in Peru. I´d like to do a ¨Day in the Life¨ but, things were different almost every day. I can start though with where we lived. Here’s a shot Annie took outside our home:
Interpreters
We had interpreters this month and they were AMAZING. 1. It was nice that I wasn´t one of the main translators this month 2. They were so much fun and fit right in. The first picture from left to right is Rober, Jorje, Dana, and Mary. The second one is me, Amalia (an interpreter), and Meagan. They were all very special to me. Mary just became a believer about two months ago and it was exciting to hear about her encounters with God. Amalia is a pastors wife and offered me lots of counsel. Some of those days when I was struggling with anxiety she let me stay at her house. She has such a free spirit, I love her!
Schools
We were invited to go speak in schools. They asked us to share about our faith…so we did!
My Girls
Right off the bat in Peru I met some awesome ladies! I met them early in the month at their dance practice one Sunday afternoon. I later got to spend time with them before church services, at small groups, playing at our outdoor services we held, etc. It was great! In the picture below is Fiorella, me (yeah, I know that’s a bad pic…I´m not a fan of taking tons of pictures to get a good one), Stephanie and Laura. COOL NEWS: One service I was sitting with Fiorella and Stephanie and I thought I´d ask them if they had ever asked Jesus to be a part of their lives. They said no, but that they wanted a relationship with Him! I got to pray with them and then Amalia came over to explain a little bit more about the kingdom. Yay Jesus! It was exciting to think of the years they have ahead of them and how Jesus is going to love on them and use them to love others.
The Markets
We went into the markets often to meet people, invite them to church, and even sometimes give public testimonies of what God’s done in our lives. Here´s one of me telling an emotional testimony of Jesus entering into a messy situation in my life.
Our Host Family
My team and I got to stay with this awesome family from the church. It was a packed house, but we had so much fun together. Here´s our ¨dad¨Juan making Flan (that rhymes!). It was really cool hearing his story of how God changed his life.
The Food
We ate well in Peru. Most of our meals were cooked for us by awesome women in the church. In this next pic we are eating Ceviche and Calamare with a family. Ceviche is raw fish with lemon or lime juice, tomatoes and onions. It was great, I really liked it. We also ate good things like Anticucho (cow heart…really good, for real) and pollo a la brasa (like rotisserie chicken usually served with french fries).
Jovanna and Elizabeth
These are two sisters I met at the church. Both of them are great, but I got a bit closer to Jovanna (the one on the left) during our time there. She would come regularly with us to do ministry or hang out. We were able to communicate pretty well with my limited Spanish. She really has a sweet heart and wants to follow the Lord. I love her and will miss her a bunch!
The Church
We worked in Lomo de Corvina, a squatter village, the whole month and at the end were able to build them a church! There are two cell groups that have been meeting and haven’t had a place to meet. Now they do! This was an answer to prayer for them. I got to help fill those sandbags you’ll see in the first picture.
So that’s some basic insight into this month. We worked hard, we got dirty, and it was great!
