What have I been doing in Peru?

Hello everyone!!

Month three is done and over with. How crazy is it that I am walking into my fourth month away from home? Time seems to go by fast when you are having fun. As I get ready to leave Peru and fly into Africa I see the true beauty that has come out of this month. This month has seemed to me to be the shortest month ever but I did and learned so much! 

The first week we got to Lima we got to work with an incredible little church there. The pastors name was Victor, his wife’s name Corola and his daughters name was Cristina. They were so kind to us and even made us traditional Peruvian ceviche! While we worked with them we got to create little candy bags to hand out at the park for kids to spread awareness of the church. We then went to the park the following day to hand them out. It was so much fun to get to chat with little kiddos and parents about the church. The kids were of course so excited about the candy. The goal was to plant seeds in the community. We wanted to show people how much God loves them simply by handing out a bag of candy and asking them to come to church.

My team and I also got to lead worship at the church which was so much fun and we even did it in Spanish! I was pretty impressed with us. I know God had his hand on us the whole time it was so special. After we led worship we ran upstairs with the kids at the church and got to help them make Christmas cards for their parents. These kids were dedicated. They worked so hard on these cards they looked so beautiful. I was in awe of the love I saw put into these cards. After service was over this sweet older lady named Marta came up to me and handed me a gift. I had met this beautiful woman one time. I was so touched. It was a drawing she made of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. She wrote, in Spanish of course, “never forget Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas.” And more of course but that was the most important to me. I think it is easy to get lost in the season with gifts and traditions. The start of December I asked God to remind me Christmas is is more then all of those things and that those things are just a bonus and he did. He always delivers.  Anyway, it was such a joy getting to work with this church! They welcomed us with open arms and were so kind to us. 

The second week in Lima for five days straight we took from anywhere between an hour to an hour and a half bus ride to Ventanilla and we climbed up a giant sand mountain to get to a small village. We got to work with another church there. The Pastor who runs this church is named Roberto and his wife’s name is Lis. Both of them have incredible passion and love for this community. God has brought them out of the comfort of Iquitos where they built a life and took them to this village. Pastor Roberto said “When God puts a calling on your life you cannot ignore it”. God kept calling him and he finally left everything he knew to run this little church in this village. 

One thing we got to do was help build a kitchen onto the church. We had to level out the sand first which included shoveling sand into buckets and creating an assembly line up to the top of the mountain and dumping out the buckets. We got the walls secured in the sand floors and all i could think about is how is this sustainable and God quickly reminds me that it’s what they have. This is what their lives look like. I was humbled by this community. I sat down and thought about how much of a blessing these four walls were with no solid foundation. I then sit here as I type this and God reminds me that He is their solid foundation. He will keep up those four walls with all his strength because this community is faithful. He keeps up all of their walls every single sand storm. He is always faithful. 

This community is in poverty and yet my heart is so full as I watch people with so little care so much about one another.  I say that because this kitchen isn’t being built for just another place to cook meals. The kitchen was being built so that Pastor Roberto could feed the kids of the community. Many of the kids do not go to school because their Mother cannot afford it. Many of the communities fathers have fled from their families so the mothers have to go to work all day and leave their kids home alone with nothing to eat. All ages from new born to sixteen years old. Pastor Robertos heart is to give the kids lunch and a safe place to be in community while their parents are gone. This mans heart is like nothing I have ever seen before. Not only did he have this great idea to build a kitchen for the kids but he also had a great idea to run kids Christmas programs. We got to go to another village and run a program which was so cool. All of the kids from Pastor Roberto’s church came with us to help and they put on a dance show for the other kids. These kids put their heart and soul into dancing and the music is all about Jesus! We then got to give out presents to each kid for Christmas and they all got to dance with the other kids. I found it so cool how God brought those two communities together to be family. I did not want to leave that day after the program. 

I made so many friends including Darlyne and Estrellita. Darlyne and her sister ran up to me at the end of the program and asked for me to take photos of them. Luckily their mom invited us over for dinner the next day so i got to see them again! Estrellita is so loving she hugged me the whole time and did not want to let me to leave. She spoke some English to me and she was proud. I will miss these little girls so much. I know this community will leave a mark on my heart forever. They are so special to me and it is so evident that God is doing something there. He is working through these people that carry so much joy, love and peace. 

We got to have 2 more kids programs in Pastor Roberto’s church. The kids of his community are so loving and sweet. They all hugged on us and loved us all so well. We got to watch them dance again which of course their whole hearts went into these dances. They are just so good it’s unbelievable! We then got to give out Christmas presents to each kid and see their face light up as they heard their name being called. All week I could not get over the joy these families had despite their circumstances. They did not let their circumstances steal away their joy which is what i loved most about this ministry week. None of the kids cared about playing in the sand and being dirty. They were always outside and always enjoying themselves and always so loving. 

Diego was one boy who especially loved well. Every time he saw you he wanted to jump into your arms and never let go of you. Flor was one of the older girls and she was incredible. She is sixteen years old and you can just tell how much she loves the community. She puts her all into helping with the kids programs. Overall working with this ministry has opened my eyes to more then I could’ve imagined. I am so happy I got to be a small part of what Pastor Roberto is doing there and does with great joy. 

That right there wraps up my ministry here in Peru! We got the opportunity to travel to Machu Picchu for Christmas which was so cool and a moment to remember. I was of course very sad to miss Christmas this year but it will make next year all the more sweeter! I am very excited to switch continents and see what God has for us in Africa.

Thanks for reading!