This past week we have gone to the market to sell Bibles and children stories, however we ended up doing so much more. We prayed for people each time we went who were limping or needed healing. We ended up seeing many miracles and healings. Me and Ana prayed for a lady and she was so touched she started crying, which caused Ana and I to start crying and it was so beautiful. I got to use my broken Spanish to attempt to sell books and have conversations with people, even though we barely knew what each other were saying. We both exchanged smiles and laughs and it is amazing to get to meet different beautiful people in Peru. Also, on the third day of going to the market we got to pray for over 20 people for different pains in there body. Some of them were healed on the spot, while others had their pain reduced and we are continuing to pray for healing over them.
I got to guide a llama on the first day because it was used to carry the things we were selling and to bring a bigger crowd. I guided it for a while, until the guide took it back, later I found out it was about to spit on me haha. My team and I were dressed up in traditional Quechua clothes, which the locals really appreciate because the language and culture is sometimes looked down upon by locals. It means a lot to them when foreigners take the time to learn songs in their language and dress up in their clothes. We also got to go to the plaza and sing worship music in English, Spanish, and Quechua to everyone that was there. A lot of people appreciated it, stopped to watch, and we got to pray over people for various things.
We also stopped by some hot springs on the way back from one of the markets and got to spend some team time together. This is just a fun video I took of my team leader and my teammate while we were sitting in the trunk of the truck.
We have had the opportunity to go to many different churches while we have been here. The services are normally in small buildings and a very small congregation. However, the people are so on fire for God and lively that the services are normally hours long and include worship with whatever materials they have available. Me and Ana had the opportunity to go to a Quechua village with two people from our ministry that was about 12 hours roundtrip from where we were staying. We left our house we are staying in last Friday at about 6a.m. and got to the village around 12p.m. We immediately went to the service that was going on that lasted to about 1:30p.m. After that they served the whole village lunch and then had another service after from 2-6p.m. Then, they served the whole village dinner and we had service from 7:30p.m.-12:30a.m. I am not going to lie to you, Ana and I were both exhausted and then we found out we had to wake up at 3:30a.m. to catch the bus back home. We were hosted graciously by one of the band members at the church and got to sleep at like 1:30a.m. We slept pretty well for 2 hours and we all woke up looking rough and exhausted. The bus ride back was pretty scary because it was really foggy and we were driving on a small two way rode with no guardrails on a cliff a majority of the way. We all prayed together at the start of the bus ride around 3:45a.m. and then did the best we could to sleep on the bus. It was super cold and super bumpy, so our efforts did not go very well haha. Me and Ana looked back on the trip after we got back and had some sleep to learn from it. It was an amazing experience and extremely humbling for us. The two people from the ministry that went with us knew it was going to be hard, but wanted us to experience the things we need to sacrifice to reach unreached people. It was mentally and physically draining and pretty ironic because my last blog post was about living radical and attending church services for over 6 hours long etc. God works in some pretty funny ways and really showed Ana and I the challenges and sacrifices missionaries make all the time!
