PERU MISSONS TRIP

Saturday - May 10:

We had an early morning start as we were going to Jicamarca today. This is the place where David and Ceci have a Church and where Life Church has invested the First Fruit offering to finish their home - more about that later.

Our young, 16 year old interpreter, Angeli, met up with us this morning. She is on Spring Break all next week and we planned our trip around her Break. She is going to be a nice fit with us and I am thankful to have her. There is also a young man, who is 20, and he will be with us all next week as well. Marco, who has arranged our time here has done a good job. Of course, no trip is without glitches and we have to be flexible.

We were to have a 10:00 meeting with children that didn’t begin 11:30. There were 25 children from throughout the community. They went door to door inviting them. There facilities consist of a bamboo "pole barn." It is hard to describe what the area is like and although I had tried to prepare the kids for what it was like – it is impossible. It is in the mountains but all you can see are boulders and dirt. The only thing green that exists is something that has been planted and is watered. There isn’t much of that as all the water is trucked in. Very primitive existence and the kids said some of the homes were worse then the sheds we would have in our backyard.

The kids did a good job with the service and gave all the children a Beanie Baby. Gifts are always a hit.

Maria, Ceci’s sister had brought food for us to have for lunch. We sat inside the partially finished portion of David and Ceci’s house. There is no place to get away from the dust and grime but it was better then sitting outside.

After lunch, we made ourselves useful. Maria has started stacking some of the big rocks along the edge of the Church to provide a wall of sorts. She and some of the little children had started on one side and it was 18" - 24" high. We started on the other side and got the rocks stacked about 30" high. These are big rocks - some bigger then the size of a basketball. Before winter comes in a month - they hope to have bamboo to hang to provide a wind break. It was strenuous and dirty work. We had thought to work for an hour but everyone gave out after about 45 minutes but we did make progress.

My husband and I were scheduled to speak to couples. There were only 3 couples present but lots of women - probably 25 in all. We took about an hour and a half.

Zac and Marco hiked up the mountain to get pictures that David Hodges wanted. Brian had promised to do it - but my husband wouldn’t let him climb the mountain because of his bad knee. He was disappointed but it would have been ugly if he had a problem.

We were a very tired, dirty and hungry crew that climbed into the van for the ride back. Called back and found they weren’t fixing dinner for us so we stopped at Papa Johns. It made us late getting back and all the kids had to clean up for Church tonight but it couldn’t be helped. AND, Church was supposed to start 20 minutes ago and there is still nothing happening. ( : It is the Peruvian way!!

As a side note – all of our coffee drinkers are really blessed by Agustin’s willingness to fix us his special expresso or cappuccinos. They all think it is better then Starbuck’s and for sure, it is less expensive.

Zac’s desire for food that is Peruvian has been satisfied with two kinds of fruit. Chirimoya which is sometimes called custard fruit. It is a white smooth fruit with a mild flavor. The other is Granadilla. It is very distinct and looks like seed in mucous. It is some like fish eggs so I am told. Jessica said the mucous part they give to babies for bowels problems. You crack the outer shell (which resembles citrus) like you would an egg and twist the fruit to open it. Zac wasn’t so fond of this.
The kids have a service tonight for their Youth (ages 15-25). It’s been a good trip so far - keep praying for us.

Marilyn, Dr. D, Bethany, Brian, Lindsay, Mikaela and Zac