With less than a week left before I set off to Georgia for our launch date, I’m really going to buckle down and read up on the last three months of our route.
Next April (Month 9), my team and I will be in Peru!
I’m really really really excited about Peru. As I said in the Bolivia blog, I’m not super familiar with cultures and the way of life in South America, but it’s somewhere that I have always wanted to go and spend a good amount of time.
Peru really excites me. Being one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, from the rainforest, beaches and mountains to even coastal deserts, Peru has incredible places to explore like Machu Picchu (obviously) and the Huagapo Cave. Even with this intense exploration lifestyle the atmosphere in Peru is really laid back and casual.
There are multiple indigenous groups in Peru that originated from ancient civilizations which create a diverse population of people. Sadly, there is a lot of government corruption happening which is leaving the people poor, and without good opportunity for economic development.
I was reading about some of the work that other racers have been doing in Peru and I’ve found a lot of similar concepts. It seems the people there just want to be loved; they want to be seen and heard. It was stories like Deborah, who was in Peru in 2014 and seemed to be just going through the motions of ministry that stuck out to me.
Deborah and her team were called to help a group of women prepare food for three hundred people. In the midst of the kitchen work and language/cultural barriers, Deborah was just going through the motions; she was available, helpful and kind. It wasn’t until one evening when her host, Miguel asked her team to pray for a woman Sylvia, whom they had been working in the kitchen with that month when things changed. He explained that Sylvia’s husband was out of the picture and she was left alone to raise her twins.
“Sylvia barely got a word out before sobs escaped her mouth like water breaking out from a dam. She managed to communicate that she’s all alone in raising her twins. Alone and unprepared and scared.”
Sylvia was no longer just an intimidating and shy woman that stood next to Deborah working day in and day out. She was this beautiful woman, human, starving for strength from others, starving for strength from God. This woman immediately became a friend, a sister to Deborah, a woman that Deborah wanted to love and serve well.
These are the stories that make me smile. These are the stories that make me remember, this isn’t about you, Juliana. This next year is about serving and loving others well. It is about abandoning my own selfish needs and adopting a servant’s heart. There are so many ‘Sylvia’s’ in the world. There are so many women, children, sons and daughters who are thirsty for something greater. We have such a unique opportunity this year to go to places where other’s won’t, to work and stand beside people who are typically unseen or feel unloved. We get to see them. We get to hear them. We get to love them.
“We love because he first loved us.” Right?
My prayer for Peru is that I am still on fire, that I still have an open and willing heart to serve. This year is going to be tough, I don’t doubt that, but I hope I never forget the mission, that this isn’t about me. I want to enter Peru alive, willing to do whatever it is God calls me to, and be totally fearless in it.
