On one of our many long bus rides, I read the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. What a ride! It had so many challenging concepts in it that made me think deeply about my life and the choices that I’ve made.
One of the concepts that it brought up was generosity. Francis talked about how extremely rich Americans are in relation to the rest of the world. Even those considered �”poor” by our standards are still quite wealthy in relation to others.
My teammates and I have been talking about our changed view on what a good life looks like. While we used to consider having a decent sized yard and a 2 story house the minimum, we’re now overjoyed when our house has more than one room. While we used to require hot water for the whole 20 minutes of our shower, we’re now content with a few buckets and, if we’re lucky, a hot pot to heat up some of our water.
This month, I’ve committed to not spending personal money (besides necessities like shampoo and soap). I decided that any money that would be spent on myself is going to be spent on others instead. That meant treating locals to dinner, buying extra gifts for my teammates, or buying cakes to celebrate local friends birthdays.
It was a really rewarding time, honestly. When I chose out of adventure day in Trujillo, I chose in to buying dinner and hanging out with the 2 people that live with us. When I chose out of buying snacks and meals for myself, I chose in to quality time with others that were staying back. I got to see so much quality time and love from the opportunities that I chose out of spending money.
While it would be great to be able to brag on myself, I learned the most through the generosity of others around me. I didn’t buy things for myself, so I appreciated every small gift from someone else tremendously more than I would have before. Grant, a former World Racer that lives in our compound, is a super generous man. He lives in Pacasmayo, but works a full time job via internet. He has taken our team out to dinner and churros quite a few times over the past month. Every time that we’ve insisted on paying, he has adamantly refused and let us know that he wants to treat us. I’ve seen my team’s generosity when they go out buying snacks for movie night and come back bearing sweet chocolate filled gifts. They’ve offered to buy me Starbucks as we sat in the mall waiting on WiFi. On top of that, we’ve had a very generous team budget this month that allows us to eat well AND have extra money for a couple Oreos and Princessa bars here and there. (Princessa bars are basically Reese’s and they’re basically heaven in Peru).
Being able to focus my finances solely on others has given me an increased awareness of the people around me. I’m constantly aware of who’s present, what their needs are, and what I can use to meet those needs.
This past month in Peru has been incredible. Full of growth, knowledge, hard conversations, and fun ministry. Our next month is alllll squaadddd montthhhh!! I’m so psyched to continue this ministry with the rest of our squad!!
Also::: our squad has had a route change!! During month 9, we’ll be in Nepal!! So after Peru, we head to India for 2 months, then go over to Nepal for our final month!!
