Its been over a month since i blogged so let me catch you up. Im now in Trujillo, Peru, which a costal town along the Pacific Coast. I am with my immediate team of 4 others. We are Team Free to Be. For those who are at home wondering, what does a day look life for them or if you are reading this as a future World Racer, I want to walk you through a typical day for us… oh wait, we are on the World Race. There is no such thing as “typical.” So lets begin.
Our ministry this month is a melting pot of opportunities. Monday through Friday, we are teachers for twenty 4 and 5 year old precious Peruvians. They steal our hearts at 8 am every morning when they arrive with backpacks and lunch boxes grinning ear to ear. We help the full time teachers in any way we can. I truly believe we as 22-25 year old adults learn more about life from them than we could ever teach them. School for the kiddos is each morning.
One of the joys of this month is the cooking. We cook a majority of our meals using an oven, stove, and toaster. I have learned that some of the best talks occur waiting for bread to toast or heating water for Top Ramen noodles. I have been blessed with 4 team mates who belong on Top Chef. Ok that might be a boost but they really do an incredible job. I prefer clean up duty and hand washing dishes. So after we eat our lunch, we begin an array of afternoon activities.
At 3 o clock, each of us begin teaching English classes to children, youth, and adults. It seems each day we have one or two more people show up for FREE english classes from “American English Professors.” We enjoy our title. I personally teach adults. It was a stretch coming up with lesson plans and possible homework for them to do after class. It has been such a blast getting to know my students and what they are passionate about. It is amazing how much of person’s story you can learn teaching basic english.
Promptly at 5, we jump in a taxi and go across town to begin a second wave of teaching English. This for the members of the El Yo Soy church we attend each week. As a team, we generally help Adults and youth alike in a one on one setting. We thoroughly enjoy the people we work along side. They are such a blessing.
At nights, the fun really begins. My team this month is responsible for all church service and youth group meetings. We have two separate churches we attend and teach at. We generally have back to back services. This has encouraged each of us in our spiritual walk in which we have been forced to study the Bible and research for the Sermons we must prepare each week. We will soon be traveling around Peru and speaking at schools, hospitals, and prisons. In addition to being full time pastors, we are also Oscar award caliber actors, aka we do funny and Christ centered skits for churches, AND we are qualified to be hosts of game shows as we prepare games each week for the kids at youth group.
Finally our day ends we our nightly Team Time. This is where we meet God as a team and talk about our highs and lows of the day. We challenge and encourage each other. We laugh, cry, and work through life’s struggles and joys. Why? Because we are family. We are are all adopted into this family in which we live and love together in a tightly knit community. Its not easy, in fact sometimes its really hard but we grow and we learn, because thats what brothers and sisters do. We each have gifts and talents and at the end of the day, we know we have the same Father who loves us deeply and as a result, we can love each other and bear with one another. We are Team Free to Be. This whole process starts again tomorrow at 7:30 am so we must grab get some sleep. Goodnight!
