Ok, so I know I’ve been a little light on the blogging this month. That is partly due to our busy schedule in Trujillo and partly due to the fact that most of my electronics, including my computer, were stolen when our apartment was broken into a few weeks ago. But I’m back. Here is the monthly summary blog for Peru. We are in Lima right now learning about a few squad changes, and then we’ll be leaving for Nicaragua in the morning. I’m excited to go back and visit all the pieces of my heart that I’ve left in Central America over the past few years.
Here are the numbers
Number of places I made my bed and slept (including buses): 5
Number of Internet networks I connected to: 4
Number of meals I ate that included rice: 41
Number of Peruvians we kissed goodbye in our final day at the church: conservatively I would say 400, but it’s probably closer to 600
Number of hamsters living with us in our first apartment: at least 10
Number of times Brent did the “Adora al Senor tu Dios” dance (in and out of VBS): at least 30
Number of near-death taxi ride experiences: every time we went anywhere
Number of hospital visits I translated for my team members and their suspected parasites: 3
Number of times we ate at the McDonald’s in Trujillo: more than it’s probably safe for a World Race team to admit
Advice to Future Racers
If you go to Latin America it might be a good idea to go ahead and learn a couple praise songs in Spanish as a team. You will be asked to sing in churches a lot. Hillsong releases all their albums bilingually, so you could learn a couple of those in Spanish and the melody would already be one that’s familiar. Our favorites have become Hosanna, Mighty to Save, and From the Inside Out, with their Spanish translations.
If you come to Trujillo, be prepared to take taxis and micros (collective van/bus things) everywhere. Or walk. If you opt for the taxis, be ready for an interesting ride, and NEVER under any circumstances, attempt to drive there.
If you come to Trujillo, take advantage of the sweet archaeological sites around the area. Chan Chan, an old Chimu civilization’s ruins and the largest preserved adobe construction in the world, is pretty cool. Also, the Huaca de la Luna, a Moche temple, is worth visiting, and might actually be cooler than Chan Chan.
If you like the beach or surfing, you’re in luck. Make sure you spend at least a couple of your off days in Huanchaco.
Again, learn some children’s songs in Spanish because VBS seems to be a common World Race ministry assignment.
If your host mom tells you it’s ok to leave the key in the door while you’re gone to ministry, no matter how many times she insists that a break-in is physically impossible, DON’T LISTEN…take the key. Otherwise, like me, you may end up deserving of a starring role on the new show “World’s Dumbest Theft Victims.” Fail.
If you play the guitar and own a guitar, bring it on the World Race. Team worship is greatly enhanced by the ability to have music. If you don’t play the guitar, learn. If you play the guitar and don’t have one, start praying that God will provide one for the race, and learn some praise songs.
Ministry Summary
Our ministry this month was through Inca Link again. We worked with Inca Link in Ecuador as well. Team Kaleo was assigned to work with the Christian Missionary Alliance Church in Trujillo. We worked with three different churches and lived at one of them. With one church, we visited their cell groups on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, and attended their Sunday evening services. With one of their recent church plants in Miramar, we planted grass, painted a sign, helped with VBS for the kids, and got to know the neighbors to invite them to church. Right now the church building is only an unfinished basement, but the people in Miramar have great plans for their church and God is going to do some great things there. Finally, we helped Team P.O.P. with some construction in their church in Florencia de Mora. We painted walls, desks, chairs, a cross, a shelf, and the letters on the outside of the church. While the girls painted and washed windows, the guys mixed concrete, moved sand and rocks, and built a wall that eventually became three new classrooms behind the church for the children’s ministry. If you’re still reading this, you might be exhausted…it was, in fact, quite a busy month full of activity. Peru went by so fast, and I can’t believe we are already heading to Nicaragua in the morning!
Here are a few pictures…I’ll try to post more later when I have faster Internet.
Prayer Requests
As we move to Central America tomorrow, please keep our travel safety in your prayers. Also, please pray for our squad as we are in a time of huge transition. These two days in Lima were to announce the new squad leaders, raise up new team leaders, and reorganize the squad into new teams. Most teams have changed, including Kaleo, but I’ll save the details for a later blog. The most pressing prayer request is the support accounts of two of my squadmates, Char Matz and Lamar Anderson. They both need quite a bit more support to be able to continue with us, so if you are still interested in supporting the World Race, please visit either www.charmatz.theworldrace.org or www.lamaranderson.theworldrace.org
Thank you so much!!
