As many of y’all may know, my team and I recently made a goal to fundraise $2,000 in order to carry out a Clean Water Campaign in the mountain town of Cajamarca, Peru. Because of the generosity of all of our team’s supporters, we were able to make this trip possible! We spent four days in this beautiful town sharing Jesus, supplying forty families with water filters, playing soccer with the youth from a local church, and helping with another children’s program. It was so nice to be in the mountains as we were greeted with rain and temperatures that were cold enough to wear a sweater at night (much different than our dry and HOT beloved Trujillo).
We had two separate sessions in different areas to give out the water filters. Each session we were given the chance to share a brief version of the story of Jesus, pray with those who wanted to commit their lives to Him, and give a demonstration on how to work the water filters. About twenty people committed their lives to Christ over the two sessions! It was important to show them how to use the filters because if they are taken care of and cleaned periodically, they will provide clean drinking water for 10 years! It was so fun to see the responses of the families when we turned muddy water from the streets into beautiful clean drinking water.
Being able to provide these families with clean drinking water was truly incredible, but there was something bigger that also impacted me. Throughout our few days in Cajamarca, whenever we met with the local church (Gracia Iglesia Cristian), it would be in a different location. We hopped around from a tiny garage that was about 12 feet by 20 feet, to an alleyway near a public soccer field, and then to the back of an urgent care center for church on Sunday. This Church has been in the process of finding a constant place of worship after losing their previous building and has recently been blessed with the opportunity to build a new Church and school. When learning this I was immediately reminded of my Church back home.
After losing our Church property a few years ago we began searching for a new place to call “home”. We worshipped in countless gymnasiums and auditoriums from week to week. We did not know when or how the Lord would provide for us, but we knew He would. The same is true for this small Church in Cajamarca. They remained faithful in the hardest of times when they didn’t have a place to call “home” and even when they could barely fill five seats in the back of an urgent care center. They continued to worship and pursue the Lord when circumstances were hard for them just as they did when things were going great.
I personally am guilty of doing the opposite of what this Church did. When things don’t seem to be going well for me it is easy for me to forget about the God that I serve and it is easy to stray from Him. Things may change in my life, but the Lord never changes. No matter how I feel I must always remember to trust in the Lord and pursue Him because something good will come out of every situation.
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will act”
~Psalm 37:3-5
