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Chincha, Peru sometimes feels like a lifetime away, though on this day 1 year ago, I was 4 weeks into our time there. The people there had lost everything in a devastating 8.0 earthquake 6 months before we arrived. They were living in make-shift houses constructed of tarps and bamboo. The children had flee bites all over their ankles, were sick from the unsanitary conditions, and sensed the deep pain and anxiety of their parents.
They had nowhere to go.
They became a people without an identity. It seemed the government was ignoring them. And hope was grim.
Our squad came to breathe some life into that place. To hold the children. To laugh with the grandparents. To sit with the moms and dads. Hear their stories. Visit the remains of their homes. Cry with them. And upon any opportunity, pray for them.
I believe that before we even arrived on the scene, Jesus was there, alive and well among them. But I don’t believe that many of them knew it. We didn’t necessarily come to bring Christ to them, but to help them recognize that Christ was already among them… to help them to know that God has been there all along, in the midst of their pain, frustration and anguish, feeling it all deeply– just as they are. The people of Chincha desperately needed to know that while He undoubtedly is in control and all powerful, still God ached over the things that happened to them. They needed to know that He’s near, and always has been. And that He wasn’t about to leave now.
You should’ve seen the smiles on their faces once they heard….
