We have been in Trujillo, Peru for about three weeks now. Trujillo is found on the Northern Coast of Peru – a beach city. Although South America is experiencing winter (which means the Southern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun – right, McKinley students? 😉 ), we are happy to announce that it is MUCH warmer here than it was in Uyuni, Bolivia. Instead of wearing every layer of clothing at the same time and spending extended hours in our sleeping bags, we are living it up in temperatures ranging from 50-70 degrees. Perfection. Not to mention, we are just a few miles from the ocean. Mmmm…..
There are pelicans everywhere! This one kept trying to bite me…
It is an “all squad month” which means that all 45 of us are staying in the same place – eating together, living together, serving together. It’s an adjustment to go from a group of 12 (our team, Rak Chazak, and Fearless Laughter) to having all 7 teams together at the same time. As you can imagine, there are challenges when this many people are put together in a confined area, but after a few days, the chores and responsibilities were split up and things have been moving smoothly. Plus, Chris and I are staying in our tent this month, on the roof of one of the buildings in our compound. It’s become our little getaway! It’s rewarding to know that we will get at least one full month of use out of our tent!
The first couple days of July were spent as “debrief” which meant that our Squad Mentor and Coaches from Adventures in Missions met up with us in Peru and had some things planned for us. Each team met with the leadership to debrief how the month went – to explore our challenges and celebrations and to see where else we could grow. Our team has been such a gift!
After debrief, we spent the week running Vacation Bible School for the local children. We had over 100 neighborhood kids show up each day! Our team was in charge of coming up with crafts for each lesson. I enjoyed this much more than I anticipated! We prayed each day over the activities, asking God to use these small tokens as reminders of God’s love for each child and their family members.
Jonah and the whale craft – photo credit: Kaysea Campbell
The following week, manual labor was on the agenda. We are staying at a school/church. We were able to do some beautification projects, painting, cleaning, etc. It’s such a gift to be able to see the fruits of our labor!
Painting the school building
In addition to VBS and manual labor, we’ve joined two church bodies. Chris preached one night to the youth, sharing on the Heavenly Father’s love (through the parable of the prodigal son). What a joy to listen to how God speaks through Chris! I also had the opportunity to preach – God placed a verse on my heart for the occasion (more on this in another blog).
Shaving cream + chocolate cereal = Youth group games!
Preaching at El Yo Soy (The I Am)
This week, our team is in charge of planning meals, grocery shopping, and cooking for our whole squad of 45 people. It’s been fun to be in the kitchen and serving our squad in this way.
It’s hard to believe that we only have a week left in Peru before heading to Ecuador. We don’t yet know what our ministry will look like, but are looking forward to whatever God has in store for us there.
