I mentioned that I have been feeling very unaffected and I think that goes back to where God broke my heart (see my biography). It sounds so weird to say, but, I almost feel like I have seen worse; worse poverty, worse family dynamics, worse standards of living, worse hopelessness. And while I know that the point is not to compare the places that I am seeing or have seen, I think that I thought that I would be more affected.
(Working hard in the Amazon jungle is a family affair. This baby had the cutest comb-over!)
It is frankly astounding how similar the third world poor are. To think that the third world poor, who make up so much of this world, are the same is kind of a weird thought. But, regardless of whether this is true or not, one thing I have been learning is that even the rich of this world, if they don´t have Jesus, are poor. The same is true of the poor who don´t have Jesus, only they aren´t trying to buy heaven on earth.
(Waiting for church to start)
Before leaving for the World Race I was living in Aspen, CO. Seeing that it is possible for those who are amazingly rich to be heartbreakingly poor is clearly evidenced there in some of the wealthy. I have witnessed that to worship millions is to sell your soul. Much can be done through a person who worships God and has been blessed with millions. THe same is true for a group of 27 poor 20-32 year olds and one amazing mom who is 20-something at heart (see Terri Cash´s blog) who don´t have any income. ¨No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve both God and money.¨Jesus´words in Matthew 6:24.
(Celebratiñg Valentine´s Day in Lima)
These thoughts may seem entirely tangential to the two first blogs in this series, but this is what I have been thinking about in the silence you have been hearing from me between the sillier stories I have been sharing. Thanks for sitcking it out with me!
Now I want to share some highlights from our God-Did List:
-In Chincha, our first stop, we put on an event where we watched the Passion of Christ the movie in one of the main plazas and as a result 12 people invited Jesus into their hearts! Then next Sunday they all came to the church we were staying with and were paired up with an existing member of the church to help guide them as they learn about Christ. It was so cool to see a plan of immediate discipleship.
-We saw four men on our team cast out a demon in the name of Jesus!
-In Nauta, the jungle, the day after our youth rally another 12 people came to Christ! I think that 7 or 8 of them were the youth who had been attending the bible study some people from our team were putting on for them.
I invite you to read the other blogs too as people on my squad are being broken and changed into new and different people by the Lord.
I pray you see His blessings today as they are entirely too abundant not to praise Him for.
Much love to you! I miss you all!
(The hanging things you can see are nests of this really cool bird that lives in the jungle. It has bright yellow on it´s wings that you can only see while it is in flight.)
