We have arrived and Peru and are LOVING it! Our past month in Ecuador was so good for us all by challenging us to grow closer to the Lord in the midst of trials and learning how to work together as a team. This month is brand new and we are so excited about how the Lord is already working within our team and in our ministry to draw us closer to Him and each other, and its only day 5!
- We were dropped off on the side of the road to find our ministry contact, luckily we did and arrived with no problems at all.
Found out that our host family is going to cook us all of our meals, do all of our dishes, and do all of our grocery shopping for us! This is definitely taking some time getting used to, but we feel so honored and loved by this family its incredible! (Oh and they have a dog, who we have all adopted and love.)
- Celebrated Cory’s birthday and had a delicious cake and an even better story of how the night went. So we finish eating a huge meal and remember that we have this giant cake waiting for us. So we get the cake out, put a candle on it, take lots of pictures, and sing happy birthday. Pretty normal right? Yes it was normal until the end of singing to Cory and then one of the ladies that cooks for us, who happens to be one of our ministry contacts, shoves Cory’s face into his cake!! Yes, this lady who is really little, very quiet, and just met us, shoves Cory’s face into his cake, IT WAS AWESOME! We all could not stop laughing at how hilarious and random it was for her to do that.
- Had a prayer meeting with some of the families from the church we are staying at for about 2 hours, it was amazing. The people of Peru have such hearts of prayer, and all of them have been filled with joy from the Lord. They are such an encouraging people in an encouraging city.
- Painted the railing in the stairwell from a dark green to a pretty blue. We had a lot of fun listening to music, talking with each other, laughing and eventually painting the railing.
- Invited families around Chepen to come to our church services on Sunday. We went out last night and one of the houses we stopped in had the sweetest, happiest woman I have ever met. She greeted us at the door with the biggest smile and quickly ushered us into her home. We talked with her for about an hour and before we left we asked if we could pray with her. After we finished praying for her, she looked up with tears in her eyes and could not stop thanking us for inviting her to church, praying for her, and talking with her about the little things.
- Set up a one day VBS for kids in a poor neighborhood. At our VBS we read two stories: Joshua and the wall of Jericho and Jonah and the whale. We acted out each story for the kids, and it was pretty awesome. The kids also colored a picture about each story, we played games and taught them new songs. It was such a good time and our VBS from Ecuador was so helpful in preparing us for this month of working with children.
It is only day 5 and we have already felt God’s love pouring out on us through our host family, through each other, through the church family, and even through the random people we have met on the street or invited to church. The rest of this month we are going to be working with children, painting the rest of the church, having prayer meetings, and evangelizing throughout the city. Peru has already stolen our hearts and we can’t wait to see what God has in store for the rest of our time here!
