Hey! Sorry this post has come to you a little late! Things have been busy this month in Guayaquil, Ecuador! We have been doing house visits and preaching all month.
But, I want to tell you about one of my favorite weeks in April! In April, we worked with a mega-church called Camino de Vida in Lima, Peru. God blessed this church with a huge, dedicated body that loves to serve their country and God’s people.
People ask them, “Why are you doing this?”
They respond with, “Serving other’s reflects God’s heart. Have you ever heard of Jesus?”
They have service projects going on almost every day of the week at their missions campus. They give out free wheelchairs through Free Wheelchair Mission, operate a free boutique of donated clothes, visit a special needs orphanage, prepare disaster relief packages, run a sewing ministry, and a kid’s camp. And these all happen each week!
For our first few weeks in Peru, we partnered with their normal missions operations. But one morning, our host Mikalya asked if we would want to join them in the jungle. And God led us to say yes. (Little did we know then, but this church does 30 of these domestic mission trips to the jungle each year!)
We were headed out to San Martin de Pangoa. Back in the 1980’s this region was a stronghold for terrorists, warlords, drug dealers, and commmunists. The government militarized the region and there has been a strong military presence at a base there ever since. They keep the rebels at bay, search for drug processing senders in the forest, and guard aid workers who come to the region.
The week we were there, a medical group in Lima arranged for a multi-day edical clinic for the people in the area. If you have ever seen those movies with combat medical tents, that’s what it looked like. But the tents were on the roads in the middle of town. There was a general tent, OB-GYN tents, dental tents, Lab-work tents- everything you could think of.
So, since there would be so many people coming out of the jungle to wait in line and recieve medical care, Camino de Vida hopped on this ministry opportunity. They got two semi-trucks and spent two days loading drinks, food, supplies, kids games, and even our kitchen oven into the trucks. Joyce Meyer and Church of the Highlands helped get this church to mobile food trailers (basically food trucks) to aid their outreach. So, we loaded those into the truck as well. After the trucks were loaded, they started the 12 hour drive into the jungle. We, however, got to fly.
In order to protect aid workers and people from the church, the military offers free flights out to the jungle. So, I got to fly on a Peruvian Military plane! My WR team, a team of 10 from Hawaii, and 70 volunteers from Camino de Vida packed onto the plane.
We spent our days giving free manicures and sharing the Gospel over nail polish and nail files. We cooked for 1000 people in the food trucks, all waiting to recieve their medical care. We fed the medical staff and soldiers. I actually disturbed a military marching band practice to give out some cakes that our ladies made! 🙂 Ha, when else can you say you did that? We ran kid’s games all day and did an afternoon kid’s show to entertain them while their parents were waiting.
These days were long, but full. Each day started no later than 5 AM and ended around 10:30 PM. But, to bring the love of God to people, I will spend and be spent.
I really love this church. I love the people there. It’s so great when you have a month where you feel like the peoople you work with are actually your friends- you talk and have relationship with them.
Also, fun fact, the President of Peru came out to the Jugle while we were there. I missed him because I was painting nails, but I saw the crowds.
