Our whole squad is together in Lima, Peru for Miracle Week. We have had sessions, times for processing, times for outreach, worship, and fun. A few nights ago Emily Ann and I went to the mall and dinner. We lost track of time and realized we should start heading back to where we were staying. At this point it was 8:15pm. Emily Ann’s phone had died and my phone had 6% battery (1st flag- make sure your phone is charged). We went outside of the restaurant and flagged down a tuk tuk. If you don’t know what a tuk tuk is, you should google it. They are cute little cars that fill the streets of Peru. Our driver didn’t speak english. But we showed him where we were staying on our maps. As he was driving down the lit streets of Lima, Peru my phone died. A few minutes later, our driver dropped us off at a street corner next to buildings and a park. We had no clue where we were or how to get back home. There was a lady closing up her small hair salon for the night. We went into her salon in need of help.
Sweet Emily Ann kept saying, “hello, we are lost and our phones are dead.” The lady looked at us and laughed. She did not understand English. We used all the Spanish we knew along with charades to tell her our phones were dead and we didn’t have as charger (2nd flag- always have a phone charger on you). She pulled out her Samsung phone charger, but we had iPhones… Most people in South America use Samsung, so we sat down with her and just laughed. We pondered different options of what we should do to find our way home. Around that time, her husband showed up at the salon. He probably thought to himself, “who are these random girls from The United States at my hair salon with my wife at 9:00pm?” We said to them it is okay, we will just walk and try to find our way home. They said, “No, you do not need to walk home alone in the dark.” Then we thought about Facebook. She pulled out her computer and Emily Ann logged into Facebook on their computer. We Facebook called our friends that were back at the house. We got one of our squad mates on the phone to translate for them where we were staying. After an hour and a half this sweet couple said, “We will drive you home.” We got in the car, and they drove us back to where we were staying. We got to our street and told them we were good to get out here. He stopped and turned the car off and walked us to our door. He told us, “We will stay with you until we see you have made it back with your team.” How sweet.
This was a fun roller coaster story, but seriously the Lord was my protector. He crossed my path with a sweet Peruvian couple that took Emily Ann and me in when we really needed help. Not in every circumstance would a couple invite two lost girls into their shop around 9 pm when they are closing down. Not in every circumstance would they have a heart of gold to help us get back to our house. The Lord has been showing me that He speaks to me through other people. In this instance, I feel the Lord was using complete strangers to show me how He uses the Body of Christ to help out scattered people.
After further conversation with the couple, they are believers and have a beautiful relationship with the Lord. Emily Ann and I had no clue where the hair salon was located because we found it in the dark. A few days later, we ventured the streets of San Miguel Lima to find this beautiful place. They were so happy to see us when we returned. We were so happy to see them too. We greeted each other with huge hugs and smiles.
We got to go back the next day to get our hair washed and fixed up. It was such a beautiful time for fellowship and getting to know more about each other. As I am finishing up this blog, Emily Ann and I just returned from taking our sweet forever friends flowers and a card.
Blessings,
Catie Collins
P.S. Our team just traveled on a bus for 40 hours and we just arrived in Quito, Ecuador.
