Month three on the race:
Police, a mugging, and a flood
They say it comes in threes, right?
You may have heard a little bit about my month in Peru so far, but what you may not know is just how crazy this month has been.
I decided it is time to sit down and tell you about it.
This journey of being interruptible began in the back of a cop car on the streets of a rather dangerous, and now completely flooded town, on Friday March 10th. My squad of 58 people and I had arrived in Tumbas, Peru the morning after 12 hours of travel by bus and a four hour wait at Peru immigration. The plan was to arrive in Tumas and immediately catch busses that would take our teams to their respective ministry sites (ours was another 20+ hour ride).
but no busses were leaving until the next day.
24 hours of being stranded.
No plans
No contacts in the city,
and
No place to go.
(picture taken from the sidewalk, facing the bus stop office)
With all of our belongings lining the sidewalks of a dangerous street and nowhere else to go, God showed up.
The bus stop owners asked us to move our bags inside their office for fear we would be robbed, and four hours later, they kicked us out…
then the cops showed up.
The cops waited with us until we found arrangements for the night, and even drove us there with everything we own.
To paint you a clear picture of just how much we own, we had to rent a dump truck the following day to drive our bags to the bus station.
The hostel owners even insisted on escorting us to the bus station by driving with hazards on as fifty gringos trailed behind them through the streets.
If that isn’t God’s provision, I don’t know what is.
THEN
two of my teammates had to stay behind because of more bus ticket problems, and we experienced delays on the bus ride due to flooded roads. I wish that was the extent of our flooding encounters, but it was only beginning.
Eventually, on Sunday March 11th we arrived at our host home in Lima, Peru.
(pictured above is our home for the month)
On Wednesday March 15th we were supposed to begin ministry, but instead received news that our ministry host had been mugged and was in the hospital. We prayer walked instead.
On Thursday March 16th we got an opportunity to help with flood relief and spent four hours on busses just to find out that they didn’t have the resources for us to begin yet, and they wanted us to return the following morning. When we returned home there was no running water due to the flooding.
On Friday, March 17th we were headed to help with the flood relief again when we received news that a bridge had collapsed, and there was no accessible road to reach the them.
In defeat we headed to the local shopping plaza to purchase drinking water, find running toilets LOL, and blog. Once there, we found a grocery store full of panicked people, rationed water (four bottles per family), and a college Pastor from Montana.
God showed up again.
The Pastor offered for us to take showers at the hotel he was staying at (praises!), and invited us to dinner with some local Peruvian people.
(pictured above is group during dinner)
During dinner, a woman accepted Christ.
On Saturday and Sunday March 18th and 19th we had ministry, but still no running water.
Sunday evening after ministry I left with some teammates for a quick 48-hour trip to Machu Picchu.
In order to get there we had to fly to Cusco, take a 2 hour taxi to Ollantaytambo, and then a 2 hour train into Aguas Calientes.
We nearly missed our flight, but didn’t.
We only needed a taxi driver, but God provided a brother in Christ named Armando.
(selfie featuring Aramando)
We arrived to Aguas Calientes around midnight and didn’t have a place to stay yet, but God gave us more than a room.
He gave us a room, with this view.
On the morning of Monday, March 15th we left our hostel at 5 a.m. to watch the sun rise at Machu Picchu, but instead we found bitter cold rain and fog.
It would have been easy to throw our suckers in the dirt but instead we chose joy, and decided to make the best of it.
(picture featuring our AWESOME rain ponchos)
Three hours later the rain stopped, and the fog lifted.
(picture of us at Machu Picchu)
Meanwhile, the fog was lifting back home as well.
I returned home last night to running water, and today we had ministry with Pastor Victor the man who was mugged and in the hospital.
What I am trying to say is that God is always faithful, even in uncertainty.
If you are going through a confusing or trying time in life I encourage you to invite God into that space, because He is a good Father. He always has a better plan. He always provides, and the more interruptible we are, the more we will see Him.
