I really want to share what God has been doing this month. We have had an incredible first week in Arequipa, Peru. We met with various church, helped a Young Life leader have their first introduction to a state ran school, had pizza and worship with an American missionary, and sung to a group of adults with disabilities. It was amazing and God showed up in some really awesome ways. However our time in Arequipa came to an end and we needed to move onto our next city, Puno.
Puno is a 6-hour bus ride from Arequipa right on Lake Titicaca. Being on the race we work with a pretty tight budget. We live off of $4 a day for food and $5 for lodging per person. It’s tight, but it’s doable. As we were researching places to stay we couldn’t find anything in budget. As a team we decided that we would wait, we all felt at peace and were okay with the decision to wait.
Next morning comes and we are off to Puno. As I was praying on the way there I had to continually surrender a place to sleep to him. I had to stop myself from playing out scenarios of late night wondering. As I was talking to God and asking who do I look for, I felt like the Lord was telling me to look for a man in a blue baseball cap. Okay. Next question how do I lead my team through this, how to I guide my team through this experience without them becoming discouraged. I knew that my team would be looking to me for the next step. The Lord said, “pray”.
So we get off the bus in Puno mid afternoon. Unfortunately two of my teammates are not feeling well and I was concerned about finding lodging quickly. We gather our things and we pray. I then challenged my team and said if they had any doubt this was the time to surrender them. We took a moment and then entered the terminal.
A man came up to us to ask us about touring the islands. I said no and told him we needed a place to stay. I just figured I would start asking people if they knew of places we could stay in our budget. I told him we only have 100 soles (34 USD) for 7 people. He said no and tried to sell an upgrade to us. We said that anything more was not possible for us and started to walk away. He quickly said that he had two rooms one with 5 beds and another with 3 and we could have the two for 100 soles, but we would have to share a bathroom. Ha! Still cracks me up that sharing a bathroom would be a problem. Anyways, we asked if we could check out the rooms. So three of us when to make sure they were in a safe place, had locks, and were decently clean. The man walked us upstairs of the hotel and there we found a patio overlooking the city, beds for everyone, and wifi. All of it in budget! I asked the other girls if they had any reservations at all and they said no. So the Lord had blessed us all with beds and a hot shower.
The best part of the story! The man was wearing a blue baseball cap, that I only noticed was blue when he stepped out into the light!
Please continue to pray for my team and me this month as we continue to look for new contacts in Puno and Cusco.
Much love,
MZ
