Month 3: Peru! So last month it was just my team of 7 (woohoo Team Starfish!) and we were in Huanuco, Peru working with a church called Huanuco Centro. Our contact was a man named Pastor Jose and he was full of so much energy and ideas. He is so passionate about what he does and he helped to make us excited about what we were doing. Right when we got there he shared with us John 9:4 which says
“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
He explained to us that in the US many doors have been shut on us for being able to share the gospel with others freely. An example is the separation of church and state where we can’t include God in public schools. Whereas in Peru there is much more freedom. He said “The doors are still open here to share the gospel anywhere. Use these chances and opportunities. You can do here what you can’t in your country. You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. People close a lot of doors but when God provides an open door, use that door.” I hadn’t really thought about this but it is very true and it sparked me to really want to use this opportunity. Pastor Jose also said that he didn’t want us doing manual labor or things that others could help with but instead he wanted us to be a voice since we were Americans and people would listen to us here. So he had tons of ideas for us which was awesome.
Our first project was to help out with a peace march. The city had a lot of corruption within their government where one leader ended up killing his best friend in a power struggle. Thus we helped paint big banners that had phrases on them such as “Amistate con Dios” which is reconcile/befriend God. We then joined hundreds of others marching around the city chanting pleas for peace and holding up our signs until we reached the main plaza. Here there was music, talks, prayers, and our team even sang two songs up on stage for everyone in our spanglish.
For most of the time we spent in Peru we were helping to teach English in one of the public schools. This was a very different experience for me but I loved it! The kids loved having us and they were so much fun. I got to practice a lot of my spanish which was good. We taught parts of the body, common phrases, family, colors, numbers, etc and tried to come up with fun games and songs to help.
We also got to help with door to door ministry in a little town called Tomaiquichua inviting others to come to church and handing out pamphlets that talked about the gospel and specific areas of need.
Pastor Jose’s son Joel was so creative and had ideas for us to perform skits along to songs for the church/youth group. One song was called “Move” and his idea was that one person plays with sin (which is a chair) and gets stuck, so others try to help yet keep getting stuck as well. Only Jesus can free them. The other was called “Puppets” where we were being controlled as puppets by greed, vanity, and anger and only Jesus could free us from the strings connecting us to the puppeteers. They actually turned out very well.
My favorite ministry during the month is when we got to visit the women’s prison. It was a very touching and emotional moment for all of us to be able to connect with and love on the women in the prison. I was able to share my testimony of God’s goodness of healing me of my allergies, and a few others of us shared testimonies as well. We then started singing Amazing Grace and many of the ladies started crying, and so did we. It was beautiful, and we embraced all of them in hugs and told them we loved them at the end.
One of my favorite parts of our time in Peru is that we lived right across from a wonderful family who became our Peruvian family and loved on us and welcomed us in. They constantly invited us for meals and coffee breaks and played music for us. It felt like a home. They are literally the nicest family I’ve ever met and they had the most well-behaved children who were so sweet. They have taken in so many other kids from families in need of support as well. Their son Jonathan was the most polite boy I’ve ever met and he was so sweet and fun. I got to hang out with him and the pastor’s son playing basketball and other games. Even though they didn’t speak english we were able to use our spanish and they also spoke so much through their actions towards us. At the end we had a huge thanksgiving celebration at their house where we cooked all day long. It turned out so good and they loved getting to try the american dishes and it was such a beautiful
celebration. It was a great Thanksgiving!
Everyone was so welcoming here and this was the first month where we built so many relationships. It was hard to leave. I have so many good memories from our time in Peru.
