This is the single.php page.

Here we are, Lima, Peru: Inca cola, electronics stores by the dozens, street vendors, salty breezes from the sea cooling the heat and humidity, dirty stray dogs…and a country in need of the Gospel. And thankfully open for that Gospel!

Still recovering from our late night arrival in Peru, we got up late this morning and at 10:00 we held a short Bible study on the roof. Short until Pastor Salazar showed up and held our attention as he explained the many problems plaguing his homeland: broken families, drugs, exploitation of young girls, unwed and teen mothers, orphans and fatherless children roaming the streets as beggars, some choosing to be beggars to avoid abusing homes, nominal Christianity, poverty and other things. He gave encouragement to all of us to invest in the lives of the young people, but he especially encouraged the young ladies to be an example of purity to the Peruvian young women. Afterwards, we had a time of prayer over Elizabeth, whose voice was gone. We then prayed for each other for a number of needs. Elizabeth joined in hose prayers, praise God! We should have prayed for protection from the sun, because by the end of the morning, (forgetting to put on sunscreen) we ended up looking like strawberries.

At about 1:30 we went to eat. On the way there our bus had to back up down a narrow street and hit another vehicle. Quite the shouting match ensued between the drivers! The whole thing was finally resolved.

We got back to the hotel where we divided kids’ program supplies. We then got on the bus and rode, and rode, and rode, through the beautiful, but dirty city, until we got to the school hosting the Children’s Institute. At first everything was hectic as we strove to set up the stations and locate translators. This kids’ program is different than most. It is more like a Vacation Bible School with several teams identified by bandanas moving from station to station, some doing crafts, others telling stories and giving lessons, and some doing games, but they all had the same theme. I was in the game station where we had a game of passing the tape behind your back around the circle, trying to beat the other circle. In the large group Elizabeth taught the first part of the armor of God song, Christie taught the verse and Daniel told the camel story. I personally think the camel did a very good job, he cried when the crowed made fun of his big ears, enjoyed showing off his hump (backpack), stuffed his chewed food back in his mouth, but when he did a camel spit on the crowd of children, I thought they would ride me out of town on a rail, like in Huckleberry Finn. (The camel’s name was Charlie.)

Wow, just think, the things we are doing now may have far reaching results. What we do here may be remembered far into the future. For example, on my last trip here six moths ago I was eating with a local believer who asked me what I had ordered. I replied “duck” and made a imitation of one to get the point across. Well, yesterday he walked up to me at the church and the first words from his words were “quack, quack.” See what I mean!

Today’s joke: Chuck Norris doesn’t jump start buses, guy members of Global Encounter’s teams do. When our bus wouldn’t start up after the evening CI, the guys all got behind and started pushing. And actually, the bus started running again!

Live from the airport where Kailyn is still trying to pick up luggage that didn’t make it Saturday. We’ve been here for at least an hour. I feel an over coming sense of writers blo…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Charlie, for the Team

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 12:39 am and is filed under Blog, Peru Trip 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.