Author: Pam

If there is one thing I have learned about Peru over the years, that would be it is a culture that loves celebration, and Sunday was most definitely a celebration, or three.  It was Father’s Day, and the celebration began even before church.  One of the things that touched me significantly 10 years ago when I was here was how the children at NLCH celebrate Father’s Day…BIG!  These children are orphans or abandoned, living together, in hopes of one day finding their forever family.  Maybe 30 minutes before church they all gather just outside the dorms with instruments cards and gifts, head up to the Kennedy’s apartment and serenade Mike Kennedy with songs, gifts, and a large group hug because of that role that he has taken in their lives, and the desire in him to keep NLCH alive.  When even a child with no father to call his own, can be joyous on Father’s day, not bitter over the fact that he has no father, but celebrating the people God has put in his life it makes you stop and think about how you respond in a multitude of scenarios.

After this first celebration we walked a street over to New Life Baptist Church in Cieneguilla with Pastor David.  We were told that several members of the church were gone that morning, travelling for Father’s Day, and yet before the children were dismissed for their classes and with our group sitting in the pews there were very few open seats available.

In the midst of a church service I am continually reminded of the task before me of learning the language.  While I have studied Spanish in the past, and have started working on it again, when I hear it spoken or sang it reminds me how far I have to go.  Learning Spanish I have my own speed at which I speak, and then there is the speed which everyone else speaks (much faster) and the fact that in Spanish during speaking and singing, to my ears, many of the words seem slurred together.  It’s overwhelming the task before me and at some moments I don’t even want to begin to imagine it, but I do know God is gracious, and He will help me to learn.

Back to the service.  It truly was a celebration of Father’s Day.  Our youth Pastor, Mark Simpson preached a message encouraging fathers, and everyone, to view our roles and live our lives in the perspective of the cross, allowing it to change our responses toward each other and our responsibilities to each other.  Maybe there was more to it, but that’s where my heart focused.  As Mike Kennedy stepped up to give the invitation that morning, there were 3 hands that went up for salvation, but again the scenario was very descriptive of the culture.  There was a man, but then a mother, and the third hand was her raising her 7-9 year old son’s hand.  While I wouldn’t actually say this young man knew what was going on, I am learning that in Peru it is very frequent parents might say, “you are this religion because I say you are,” or as young Christians parents might think they can make that decision for their entire family, and then tell the kids, “yes, of course you are saved.”

When Mike gave the people that raised their hands a chance to stand and then accept Christ as their Savior, the older gentleman did.  While the woman and her son did not, I watched her mouth moving the whole time.  Whether she was talking with her son or talking to God, I will never know, but I will continue to pray for her and CELEBRATE over this gentleman getting his eternity settled.

After the service the church continued to meet in a large celebration of Father’s Day.  2 Children’s classes sang songs, 1 did a skit which we didn’t totally understand but was hilarious anyway, and then a group of adults did a skit celebrating fathers.  Videos of children throughout the church and at the children’s home wishing their fathers a happy father’s day were shown and then the resident professional photographer with our group (we love you!) took pictures for each of the families that she will get down to them.

That afternoon we headed out to Pachacutec, a village about 1.5 hours away which was celebrating its 9^th anniversary.  At about 4:10 a group of 26-27 of us hit the market with tracts and tootsie rolls with 20 minutes to get out as many as we could.  The group scattered and as Jeff said, in the States, 1 in 50 people will take a tract but in Peru 1 in 50 will reject it.  20 minutes became closer to 45 as Josh Kennedy, the missionary’s son who just graduated high school, got the chance to share the gospel with someone at the market.  As we were getting ready to leave he and Mike were pulled over to talk with a woman who had just received a tract and was very curious.  Mike says it is the first time this has ever happened, but she found out we were on our way to church and wanted to get right on the bus with us and go!  So that’s where she and her daughter found themselves.

That night, the church at Pachacutec was celebrating not only their 9^th Anniversary, but also Father’s day.  Several members from our group got the chance to get up in the service and share a testimony.  Mine was not a testimony of salvation, but about how the church there, Calvary Baptist, is such a representation of God’s work in Peru.   10 years ago I was with a group in Pachacutec on the evening of Father’s Day as we interspersed through the market to pass out tracts in a very similar fashion to this Father’s Day.  10 years ago we stopped at a soccer field, interrupted their game and Mark began to preach with Mike interpreting.  We started with 10 gathered around, ended up with 50, 10 of whom had accepted Christ as their Savior.  On the bus that night, Mike expressed his desire to one day start a church there, and then said that one day I should come and work with them in Peru… My answer was “Not Yet.”

There were several skits and drawings and other activities to celebrate the 9^th anniversary and Father’s day, and then Mark Simpson was left to preach in the service while many of us took the kids back to do a program for the children.  One of the interns Julia presented her testimony, Larissa Fifer presented the gospel using picture cards we brought with us and then I did again using a demonstration with 3 colored ropes I had learned years ago at CoBeAc.  That night we were told at least 22 people got saved through the preaching, including the woman who had asked if she and her daughter could come on the bus to church with us.  PRAISE GOD.  Today was most definitely a day to celebrate all around.

The first day in Peru, June 18^th, was designated a “rest day.”  And in some ways, yes it was, but when I go back to try and list all we have accomplished, and take into account how sore I am there are other words I might use to describe it.  Sure, it wasn’t as busy as Sunday or Monday will be, but we didn’t lay around and recover from our adventurous trip.  Our day didn’t start until 10:30am that morning so we got to sleep in, but keep in mind, we went to bed at 4am.

Part of taking it easy this first morning was to spend time playing with the children at NLCH (New Life Children’s Home.)  One young lady with us was on the trip last year and had made friends with a young boy Pietro.  He spied her through the window during breakfast and lit up.  All day he stuck close to her side, and in the moments she was in town or working on ministry preparations, he walked around asking everyone where Rissa was.  I got to spend much of my morning singing and playing instruments with Abel, a 14 year old boy I met 10 years ago at the home, playing dodgeball with the entire group, and learning a game similar to pogs that the young kids play here.  A 7-8 year old boy named Adam took an hour and great, great patience teaching me to play with him.  They laughed as I was clumsy at the game at first, but the time was precious.

A good portion of the day was spent preparing for the ministries we will be involved with over the rest of the week.  Did you know that among 13 people we can come up with at least 5 different ways to make wordless book bracelets?  Everyone has learned, seen or heard it differently, so we settled on a way and have begun to construct hundreds of these that we will use in different venues of ministry.

A lot of time has also gone into writing out testimonies, both salvation testimonies and testimonies of how God has worked.  Toward the beginning of the trip, Amy mentioned to the group to utilize me as a help when learning how to present the gospel or a testimony to kids.   While working with people, teaching them how to teach children is a part of the ministry I will be taking up in Peru, I wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.  At first I was slightly nervous, but from the moment the first person handed me their written out testimony, asking for help with it, I was in my element.  It is such a joy, not only to work with children, but to teach others how to as well.  Among our group we have several who have never worked with children before, and a few who have never given their testimony before.  Teaching them how to express what God has done in them, that their story doesn’t have to be like every one else’s, and that God has given them their particular testimony for a reason is fulfilling.

To most people, ministry on a missions trip is sharing the gospel, or construction to help the missionaries but oftentimes ministry can look different.  In the midst of Paul’s travels and sharing the gospel, he spoke of Stephanas who had addicted himself to the ministry of the saints.  To spend 30 minutes with someone not sure if God can use their gut-wrenching story, and giving them confidence that it is God’s story and He can’t use it when no one knows about it – to me that’s ministry, and it is just as fulfilling as presenting the gospel to a group of 500 kids.  I won’t share this person’s story with them, but maybe they will!

Throughout the rest of the day we hiked, walked and drove to different markets, explored the ruins and then went to PlazaVea (Similar to Walmart.)  I don’t know what the rest of the group did there, but this was a chance for me to prepare for moving to Peru.  Amy, Chelene Kennedy (one of the missionaries I will be working with) and I went and priced out several items I will need, from toiletries to printers and a small bit of furniture (more to come), to see what needs to be brought from the States and what I can buy in Peru.  While I am so thrilled that Peru seems to carry most of the brands of items I use, the biggest blessing came when we hit the pharmacy.  There is one medication I take on a daily basis which is prescribed for me in the US.  My health insurance at my job covered it, but my new health insurance won’t cover it all, and the generic version will cost me approximately $50 a month.  Praise God we found the generic medication down here for approximately $2.50 a month and I do not need a prescription.  Please be praying as I try this generic medication out for a few months to see if it will work as well as what I have been obtaining in the States.

A lot happened today, and it doesn’t all seem like a big deal, but for a young woman moving to the mission field with a passion for teaching others to minister, today can only be described as joy.  If you are reading this, please continue to pray for our group as we will be headed into a full day of service for Sunday and then minister in schools and shanty towns, sharing the gospel throughout the rest of the week.

Good: completely sufficient, perfect for its design or use.

If you have heard me present my testimony sometime within say the last year and a half, you have heard a lot about that word, and so far, this trip to Peru seem to embody that word.  But, just like in life, you usually have to get towards the end of the story or at least out of the midst of the circumstances to really see how they can become good.

I am in Cieneguilla, Peru with a group of 12 other people from my church.  We left on Friday, June 17^th and found ourselves in the midst of an adventure right away.  What was normally a 2 hour drive to the airport became almost 4 hours due to an accident several hours earlier that day shutting down a stretch of the freeway.  Myself and one other traveler were on a 1:45 flight to Atlanta, while most of our group was on a 2:59 flight to Atlanta.  Well, we arrived at the airport at 1:40.  Needless to say we didn’t make our flight.

Amy, our youth pastor’s wife, had called the airport ahead when we realized we wouldn’t make it, and then somehow was able to find her way to the very front of a massively long check in line once we got to the airport.  Because she’d called they were able to move us to the same flight as the rest of our crew, and had one agent dedicate her time to checking our whole group in so no one else had to wait in the line either.  The last person made it to the gate in enough time for our group to be the very last in line to board.  They closed the doors 5 minutes after we were all on – then we proceeded to sit on the tarmac delayed for another 40 minutes.

We got to the airport in Atlanta in time for our entire group to go as fast as possible straight to our next gate (across the other side of the airport) and again, get in line as the last ones before they shut the gate, and then sit on the tarmac for another hour in delay.  It was a stressful day.  From breakfast until 7pm dinner on the plane, the only food was airplane pretzels and any snacks we had brought with us.  Brief periods of running to sitting and waiting, hoping the wait wouldn’t be too long.  But finally we made it to Lima, through customs, onto the bus, stopped for water and snacks at a gas station and then to New Life Children’s Home.  After unloading, we finally fell asleep in the dorms at 4am Lima time (5am EST).

Adventurous, crazy, stressful, exhausting, the trip was all of those, but it was also good.  Maybe no one else in my group will think so, but me, I look for that good.  I want to see how many different ways God can work in my life, and I love to search for them.  I wouldn’t say it is a game of hide and seek, but maybe more like a treasure hunt.

Pretty soon I will be on my own.  Yes, I’ll be working with others in Peru, but still, as a single woman on the mission field, much of my life will be on my own to accomplish things.  Travelling and running into problems around every curve and being able to do it with friends and people a bit more experienced with international travel than I am allowed me to learn.   I learned how to handle the prospect of missing a flight.   Watching some others, I learned a few things NOT to do in security.  Missing the first flight allowed me to be on a flight with the group.  On my first flight I got to sit next to a Delta maintenance dude (like that job title?) and he taught me a lot about some of the ins and outs, perks, and how to get information that most people don’t know.  I learned the fastest ways to make it from one end of an airport to another, and I began to learn how not to worry when it is a situation I cannot control.  It was good in several other ways, but those take much more explanation.

Our trip to the airport alone was chaotic, but even in the midst of the chaos, and a seemingly insignificant part of a missions trip, God can work, preparing us for the future, for 2 years from now, but also for tomorrow.