Our time in the desert of Chincha Peru is drawing to a slow end. With two weeks left, a small group of us went to the mountains of Peru to see what green grass and trees look like once again. We traveled 3 hours to Lima, then boarded a bus to Haurez, Peru…about an 8 hour bus ride through the night. Then boarded a combi for another 45 minutes to an hour and a taxi for 20 minutes to make our final destination of Musho, Peru…a small village in the mountains…and oh it was AMAZING. I didn’t realize how sick and tired of the desert I was until I saw life in the way of trees and grass. It reminded me of the importance of the garden / plaza we have worked on in Los Jardines.
While there, we met some guys from the jungle who were there on a 30 day discipleship program. We also met Ryan and Nichole who are missionaries in the small town of Utupampa. It was very encouraging to be on that trip, and learn how other people live in Peru. Everyone in the mountains were very nice and accomidating to us. We went to their church services and were overly welcomed. We got to hear the jungle guys sing a song about coming from the jungle to the mountains to serve Jesus and learn what it means to suffer for Jesus. Many of these guys had left their village for the first time. We got to see the top of Mt. Huascaran Sunday morning…unfortunately I don’t have pictures of that, but the picture would have been worth a billion dollars. We saw the mountain base, and then a cloud, and then the snow-capped top of the mountain. It reminded me of life, and how we sometimes need to make it through the clouds of life to see the true beauty of the situations we are in. I know that the cloud of desert sand I’ve been living in has been difficult, and this trip was refreshing.
We leave Chincha, Peru on February 11th and go to Lima, Peru for a few days to regather ourselves and rest for a few days. Then it is off to the Amazon Jungle in Peru for the month of February. Then we’ll be off to Bolivia in March, and off to (probably) Africa in April…our exact route is yet to be determined…but I’m sure that the adventure will not end! Lots of travel in the near future will require lots of prayer…along with our time in the Jungle. It doesn’t sound like we’ll have much of any internet connection while there, so I’ll try to actually post something more before leaving!
Be sure to see the pictures I’ve added in the Peru 2 album as well as the new album of the Peru Mountains at www.markstratmann.com
