Hey Family, (Matt here)
Sorry for the cliff-hanger that was left on the last blog, but now here is the answer to all your unanswered questions 🙂
We were given a great opportunity heading in to our final month here in Peru, to stop in Cusco for a few days with our whole squad of 33 people. Cusco is the launching point for some of the most beautiful places in Peru such as the famous Macchu Pichu, Rainbow Mountain, Sacred Valley, and many other amazing views and landscapes. Macchu Pichu was a more than we wanted to spend and there was a great deal running for a trip to an alternate (new, and under visited) Rainbow Mountain area. So we chose to do that.
Cusco itself is very high elevation at 3,400m or about 10000ft (now just for a reference, we were in relatively high elevation in Bolivia for a whole month and our bodies had adjusted to higher elevations). When we arrived in Cusco everything was great and I felt nothing change in my body. The next day we went to Rainbow Mountain which peaks at about 5,100m or about 16,000ft. The whole hike I felt fine. The whole way down everything was so great! I actually got to spend some one-on-one time with our tour guide and he had a great encounter with the truth of Jesus and by the time we arrived at the bottom he looked at me and said, “I need to change my faith, I want and need Jesus.” We prayed together and he chose to surrender his life. What a great time sooooo ordained and used by the Spirit. His parents were devoted Christians but he said he was the black sheep, but God drew him home!! WOOOAAHHH.
We began our 3 hour drive back to our place of stay and still everything felt great in me. We were dropped off and I stepped out, hugged and prayed for our guide, and started to walk and the worst pain I have ever had in my head occurred. I spent the next 2 days lightheaded, dizzy, literally sleeping all day, with diarrhea. After studying the symptoms, I knew I had some altitude sickness and after talking with locals I knew I should be better in a day or two. When that day or two was up I was only mildly better I knew it was time to go to the doctor. Especially considering we had purchased our bus tickets for Lima (where we would meet with Pastor Brent and his team from the video we posted a few blogs ago) that was to leave in 2 days. When I arrived at the doctor, they knew something was not right so they admitted me and hooked me up to an IV and oxygen in my nose for a few hours until the scheduled CT Scan for me. The reason for a CT Scan is that when you have a more severe altitude sickness it can cause swelling in your brain and fluid to rest there. The CT scan revealed that I did have a mild form of HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema) which is a fancy way to say that my brain was swollen with a little fluid. So, I was admitted over night with oxygen and more IV fluid (somewhere along the line I also contracted a parasite that they treated heavily but that is whole different thing). The only real way to solve this level of altitude sickness is to get down to as low elevation as you can as soon as possible. That afternoon I was on a plane to Lima which is at sea level. We arrived a day earlier than the team we were to join so we checked in our place to stay a night early. It still took a day or two to return to myself, but let me tell you, the team and our time with them was EXACTLY what I needed. Praise God.
So where are we now? Well, we were scheduled to go to Ecuador and join our World Race team after Brent and his team left, but there was a problem. The doctors recommended I do not go back into high elevation for a while and, well, the capital of Ecuador, Quito, is one of the highest elevation Capitals in the world at about 10,000ft. With only 3 days until we were originally supposed to leave for Ecuador, we did not know what we were going to do or where we were going to stay here in Lima since we were not going to proceed to Ecuador. God opened the doors wide.
We are now staying with a family of a local church and serving them. We are working with their youth group and going to a local school putting on skits and doing songs to share Jesus with kids all the way from ages 3-14. Also we have joined right in with their worship team and have served by singing and playing as well. We have gone to the houses of the members and family of the members who are struggling to encourage them and pray for them, not to mention all all the preaching :). The family we are with is simply amazing and their kids are the best. The church is so friendly and welcomed us so graciously that you would have thought they were expecting us for months, not 2 days. When we leave here, we will give more info on all that happened, but for daily updates and great insight follow us on instagram @adventureisus16
All the good juicy details and videos are there!!!
In all this God is teaching me and solidifying in my heart what He has been revealing and teaching me the WHOLE time we have been in South America. In my favorite song of all time, “Your Love Never Fails” by Jesus Culture, one of the most amazing lyrics is, “You make all things work together for my good.” Referencing of course Romans 8:28. EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING is in Gods hands and He is good. All through the Bible people worshiped in hard times and I firmly believe they could do this only because they knew that God was good and even the hard times are testing and when you are being tested you know that God is working. We seem to only want to praise God when good things happen to us but what if we believed everything that happened to us was good??? This has been unlocked in my life to see and believe that EVERY situation is from God and is God working to show me His love and take me deeper with Him. When I am in a hospital bed He is good and He will work it out for my good. EVERYTHING is good because He is. Whatever situation you are in be encouraged by James 1:2-4 and Hebrews 12:7-11. Read these and let the God of everything strengthen you and bless you with a Holy and true perspective of Himself and draw you to deeper worship and the next level in His presence. Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow (and everything is a blessing).
