The month in Peru was a month full of traveling. Traveling with the purpose to live a life of ministry as a traveler every new day. So far in my blogs and on social media you could see a lot of pictures from the travels. In this blog I want to share with you the encounters I made with the local people while I intentionally seeked the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
(Be prepared to read a long blog post! I’m sure it is worth taking time to take heart for the little stories that matters a lot to the people’s life I met.)
Arequipa
Our team made friends with 3 lovely girls from the biggest church in South Peru. This encounter was a blessing for our team. Here’s the reason why: The month in Chile carried some external challenges with it. Because different things went wrong it was hard to make deep connections with the girls who lived there. At debrief, when our team heard stories from the other teams how the hosts had to cry by their goodbye we firstly realized that our experience with our host situation wasn’t the norm. To build good relationships with Ari, Sabrina and Alisson within three days in Arequipa and to encourage them on their journey with God was the blessing for our team to experience the beauty of what other teams so strongly experienced too.
Learning-Lesson: God blesses us unexpectedly!
One afternoon I decided to spent an hour and a half at the Plaza de Armas by myself. I bought some delicious ice cream and walked around. After some time of walking and listening prayer I decided to sit down on the stairs in front of the church. From there I enjoyed watching people walking by till I saw a bench at the Plaza with a woman sitting on it. I spontaneously decided to go there and sat next to a tourist. After she soon left I turned my head to the right and saw a Peruvian old woman sitting on another bench alone, bent a little over. I went to here and started a conversation in Spanish. Propably conversation isn’t the most appropriate word to describe our communication but I tried hard to speak some sentences and did a pretty good job in understanding what she was saying. We talked about Peru, her family and my travels. Suddenly a man with one leg came to sell candies. I asked him what his name is. After exchanging a smile I bought a candy from José and wished him a nice day. I talked a little bit longer to the woman and gave her the candy. She smiled and ate one. Before one friend of her came another woman on the bench left of us started talking to me. She made kind of a joke. Smiles were exchanged again. I left the place with peace in my heart. The kind of peace you feel when you did someone a favor, when you showed someone that you’re interested in them and that they’re worthy.
Learning-Lesson: Smile is the language everybody speaks! You don’t have to force Jesus every time out of your throat, just be human and gentle-hearted!
Cusco
Being there allowed to meet a lot of tourists. During breakfast at our hostel, during the Free Walking Tour or during the sightseeing our team met several people from all over the world. What is the easiest topic start talking about with travelers while traveling? Of course, traveling 😉 Why does our team travel? Mission. Jesus. Serving. Soon you are in midst of a conversation about faith. In case the person is interested in it you can start sharing what you believe.
Learning- Lesson: Don’t make it complicated when it can be easy!
Aguas Calientes
After Machu Picchu a teammate and I went exploring the streets of Aguas Calientes. We went in a souvenir store. An elderly woman, a man and two children were there. I had some candies from Switzerland with me. The thought to offer them these came into my head. Five seconds later everybody of them had a sweet candy in their mouth 🙂
Learning-Lesson: Do not only chase after the big miracles. A little gesture of attention might mean the same to someone!
During exploring the streets a man sitting alone on a bench with a guitar on his lap captured my sight. He seemed wearied. I couldn’t leave it at that and went to him. I asked him in Spanish if he could play the guitar. He explained that it was a 16-stringed guitar (I don’t remember the name of it). He played guitar for us and sang in Quechua (The Incan language). I enjoyed listening to it. I asked him a few more questions with the difficulty that both of us didn’t speak Spanish as mother tongue. Finally he wanted a tip. I gladly gave him some money. I knew in my heart that I didn’t care about his asking for money and that he needed it. We left him alone again. Hopefully with leaving a glimpse of joy in him. A glimpse of joy that somebody cares about his playing, his singing and his living.
Learning-Lesson: Again, a little gesture of attention of what somebody is doing or is needing spread the hope of Jesus as well!
At a local market I had the thought to buy flowers and to give them to a woman who was selling clothes at the market. I didn’t do it. I passed by the flowers and let the thought be a thought.
Learning-Lesson: Every good thought comes from God! I don’t know what would have been if I would have bought the flowers and gave it to the woman. But I possibly missed a great opportunity with not doing it. I want to remind myself everyday to be aware of that.
Lima
One afternoon I did a treasure-hunt. This means that you go out in little groups (2-5 persons) after praying where God wants you to lead. In the listening prayer God reveals you something specific i.e. a red door, left, a woman with curly gray hair. Then you start walking as a group seeking after the treasure. We met a man who owns a bar. He invited us to come in and offered us a Inka Cola (this is a typical Peruvian soft drink). We talked to him. We could pray for him for healing, for health and for his family. We settled another date where we could see him. God already knew that he would be our treasure and he for sure prepared his heart for that.
Learning-Lesson: God opens the heart of people, our job is to be obedient and to step out boldly!
I drove with Sarah to the bus terminal for finding out some good deals for the further travels through Ecuador. The taxi ride took 45 minutes. In the beginning we didn’t talk much with the driver. By the time he started to talk to us. He talked on and on. I could ask him questions and respond to him with my very limited Spanish skills. We talked about God. I could share with him how Jesus is my help and my “patron”. David, that’s his name, gave me a present at the end of the ride – an image of “patron San Judas Tadeo”. For paying he got out the car to give us a besito (the typical way in South America to greet someone) to say goodbye to us.
The day after Sarah and I went for a run in the early morning. A few meters away from our home I saw David drive by in the taxi. I waved to him and when he saw us he started smiling and waving back to us. Sarah and I weren’t sure if we should turn back or not. Thank God we did! He was waiting on the edge of the street. After a short conversation he gave us his number that we can call him again if we need his services. What a blessing it was to see him again in a 12 million people city! Sarah and I decided wo days later to go to the downtown with him as our taxi driver. We wrote him a letter and just enjoyed 45 more minutes of talking with him. God wasn’t finished at the first encounter. He made a way to meet him again for that we could invest once more in him.
Learning-Lesson: Life is ministry, ministry is life! Every ordinary step we take a day may lead to an unexpected godly encounter. God has no limitations how he can lead people to us!
Another time I drove a taxi the driver named Christian used only his hands to drive. I noticed it after three minutes of driving. My assumption was that his legs are paralyzed. He had a catheter too. I chatted only a little bit with him and arrived 15 minutes later at home. I didn’t talk to him about God. I didn’t pray for him. I was just a tourist who was in need of a taxi.
Learning-Lesson: It’s okay to just be….but nevertheless I reminded a teammate of me to hold me accountable to take the chance and to take the courage to start talking to someone even though he has an obviously disease – what often makes me a little hesitant.
One afternoon I had the feeling that I should go to Starbucks. I felt a little bad with the thought of going to Starbucks (Starbucks here means wifi…) because there was a session and outreach planned during this time. Nevertheless I decided to follow my gut feeling. After 20 minutes sitting at Starbucks, drinking a vanilla latte and laying down little word cards on the table for finding out my core values a man named Alberto started talking to me. I found out that he is from Venezuela (There are a lot of Venezuelan immigrants in Peru and there are still coming here about 1’000 persons per day because of the economic and political situation in Venezuela…what makes me feel sad.) He introduced his family to me who is still living in Venezuela. He shared with me what he is doing in Peru. I told him where I come from, what I’m doing here, shared with him my blog and wrote a letter to him handing out before heading back home. I gave him my number and we saw each other again for a coffee, my teammate Sarah joined us this time. It was just such a good time to chat with him and to get to know him better. So the three of us went to eat Anticuchos (that’s cow heart) the next day. He was so generous in enabling us to get to know the South American culture better. We saw him again with Patrick for saying goodbye to him. We spent the evening with drinking beer together and dancing Salsa in the living room. It was such a good time. Sarah and I gave him a bible as a gift. We hope that the got to know the love of God better by meeting us. We continue praying for him and for his family.
Learning-Lesson: It’s worthwhile to be obedient! Follow the little whisper of the Holy Spirit and don’t believe the lies (i.e. feeling bad doing that). God gave me the opportunity to build a relationship that made my heart feel a little sad to say goodbye to Peru.
Treasure-hunt number two and three led me to many more wonderful people: 1) A couple who believes in God and we could pray for the man’s leg quick recovery that was operated on. 2) A family who started their pastry shop business two days before we met them. We could encourage Gilda, the mum who was grieving over a specific situation and we were able to pray for her and spreading hope in her heart. 3) A couple who was sitting in a park, the woman was in a wheelchair. We lightened up her day with the words that God thinks she carries a lot of joy in her. 4) Johnny, a young man from Venezuela who started his little restaurant business recently. He spoke English – what was a prayer request to meet an English-speaking person. We prayed for him on the street. Two days later we went to eating lunch by him. His eyes couldn’t believe that we actually came. He had so much joy to serve us his food. He called his friend to see us. We prayed for both of them after an hour of chatting about their difficult life situation as a stranger in a foreign country with family at home.
Learning-Lesson: Being interruptible in your daily life and taking time to meet people and get to know their stories makes not only a difference in their life’s, it changes your own heart as well!
I hope you could live through these briefly described situations with me.
Be encouraged to live your life as an everyday ministry as well – it’s exciting!
I did only take two pictures from the people mentioned because I didn’t want the persons to feel as an photo object. Instead I share with you one picture from lunch at a Peruvian family’s house (my teammate Sarah has a brother-in-law from Peru) and another one from my Peruvian gourmet adventure here (Ceviche, exotic fruits, anticuchos, “cuy” = guinea pig)
