So it has only been four or five days here on the field, and God has been doing some major things and has been showing up in big ways. Where to even start describing these things, I don’t know. I guess I will start by telling you a bit about the area and the people…
Chincha is the city we are staying in, which is in the southern coastal region of Peru. It is about two hours from Lima and it is one of the areas that was devastated by the earthquake on August 15th of last year. The quake was an 8.3 and lasted for 3 minutes. That’s huge. When you drive through the city, there are just piles of rubble everywhere in the streets. There are some areas within the city and surrounding areas that were hit harder than others, but the people everywhere have connections to that day whether or not they were actually there.
We have been working in a community that is comprised of all misplaced people from the quake and they are all from the same town called Tambo de Mora. We visited the site that this town was in and it was just awful, almost numbing. Much like the areas hit hardest by Katrina. Except the difference here is that unlike the States, where the government (eventually) stepped in and progress is starting to be made (sort of), the people here are getting absolutely no assistance from their government. The government has actually been withholding funds that have been donated by outside organizations from other countries. Somewhere in the ballpark of $10 million actually, and when talking to the people who should be receiving this relief, they say that they have not seen a dime of it.
So, we have been spending time in this misplaced community of people and have started to build some relationships with different families. It has been amazing to hear their stories and to hear their hearts and hurts. They have been through an absolutely horrible experience and they just want to share with anyone who will listen. They have stories to be heard and they have needs to be met.
But… aside from all the facts and social injustice pleas… It has been interesting how God has been working these past few days on my heart for these people as well. Typically I am a person whose heart breaks immediately at the sight of poverty. But in this instance it didn’t hit me right away. I think I was a bit desensitized by it all at first actually because of having seen extreme poverty before in other countries and by seeing it all over the media. I think that for the first day or two also, I was still wrapped up in myself and the realization that I am gone for the year. My heart was a bit hardened I am ashamed to say. But yesterday and today, God has really been breaking my heart and opening my eyes again to the fact that these aren’t just more numbers of oppressed and impoverished people, these people are real, they have real stories, real pains, real tears, and real fears. They have faces and names, and they have not always been living in shanties with no running water. They had nice middle class homes. They had businesses and land. They had enough food and running water. Now, without help, they have no opportunity to get back on their feet and rebuild their homes. They are told that the land they own is unstable and so they are not allowed to go back, yet they are not compensated whatsoever. I don’t know, there is so much, and we are just a small group of twenty-somethings, but God is big, He is powerful, He can move mountains, He can comfort these people, He can provide for them in ways we cant imagine, and we are just here as Jesus to them, as His hands and feet, and to love them unconditionally as He does.
So, that is our mission. To love them, to pray for them, to heal them, to listen to them, and to give them hope of a future. God is leading and my daily prayer is that I will have the boldness and faith to step out and follow in obedience.
