Friends it’s official we have arrived at our destination of Chincha after a 13 hour day of “racing” and traveling. Already there are so many details to share with you about our race today, but most will have to wait until tomorrow and my brain is functioning more thoroughly. But for now one story of the day:
At the end of our race today the ladies of my team ended up in a cab set up for us by one of our leaders. From the beginning it was different than the other 10 we had had previously during the day, a little more fast past and lots of weaving. He asked us again where we were going and we told him and he agreed and dropped us off at a church. We went up to the locked gates of a church, whose worship facility is currently a large yellow circus tent, and asked to be let in and 4 beautiful senoras came out to greet us with hugs and kisses. Then the pastor of the church led us into what we assume to be her office. She set out four white plastic chairs, like most of us have in our backyards( you know the ones that if you lean too far back the back of the chair bends backward and you end up on the ground- yeah those). All of the ladies came into the room and they were very sweet and welcoming. After conversing about the other 3 cars being lost we soon realized we were the only World Racers there and maybe WE were actually the ones who were lost…hmmmm… Oh and I forgot to mention all the time we are trying to communicate in Spanish, which none of of speak. After about thirty minutes and some funny conversations and big laughs(can you hear me laughing?), at our inability to communicate verbally we figured we were at the wrong church. Luckily Angie remembered the name of the church we are staying at and the ladies knew which church it was. So the ladies looked it up in the phone book and called the pastor to come get us, explaining to us through the use of role playing that if they let us go on our own we would be mugged. Not long after a friendly Peruvian man, his wife and two girls arrived to walk us back to where the other World Racers were.
I am amazed at the open arms of the 4 senoras. What an amazing example of the body of Christ these ladies are. They brought us in no questions asked and helped to get us back home. Yeah there was some confusion and at one point they were trying to explain that there are goats at the church where we are staying and it finally clicked that they were saying goat and so I baaaaed at them to show that I finally understood. Confusion comes with our humaness, but the love that these women showed us was that of Christ’s love. Open arms welcoming us no matter what our plan or agenda may be.
I am so thankful for the safety these ladies provided for us tonight. I pray that you will be the open arms of Christ’s love for everyone who comes into your life bubble. Ask God to teach you to love with His heart, I promise you will be amazed at his capacity for love.
