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The morning started early, off to three church services this morning. We sang at all of them, sometimes sounding better then other times. “Pastor” Andy preached at two services and did a great job. I think some of us seriously considered holding signs that said “#1 Mom” in the back on the sanctuary to support him. People really responded to his message at the first service. It was nice to be able to understand the whole sermon for a change.

Peruvian church services can be very interesting. The two we went to were like shop front churches. The 3^rd service was a baptism service but the baptismal was a blow up kiddie pool (only in Peru). It was neat to see these people publicly declaring their commitment to Christ. We have had the opportunity to sing at multiple services, Dena usually plays her violin and someone gives a testimony. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what type on influence this actually has on the people, but we plod on any way.

Lunch with Pastor Antonio, his wife Romy, and other pastors and workers from the church at a “Chifa” or Chinese restaurant was wonderful. When people started panicking and running for the stairs at the start of an aftershock, we could see just how nervous people still are about quakes here. A bit of Peruvian shopping, conversation, and tract distribution followed and then off to a fiesta for Nathaniel’s (my little brother) 16^th birthday. The party was anything but boring.

Me: Do something exciting so I can have something to write about

Charlie proceeds to stand on a chair and pretend to dump a huge bag of M&M’s into his mouth and then Tim pretends to throw his cake at Nathaniel. I think they took my suggestion a bit too literally.

The night continues rather smoothly until Drew walks by and accidentally drops his cake on Red’s foot.

“That was my foot!”

“That was my pants”

“That was funny”

“Can we please stop saying ‘that was’?”

Michael Miller and his cast of fearless actors had us rolling with laughter at his skits about tanks and such. You’ll have to ask some random team member what “tankety, tankety” means.

We lulled into a more serious time when Pastor Salazar came in and told us about a Quechua woman for whom he had prayed that night. She had some hearing problems and pain. He prayed and, in Jesus name, she was healed! Praise God. He also shared part of his life testimony. We are so happy to have Pastor Salazar with us.

Speeches and charade-type games added much laughter and entertainment to the night. Laughter is good for the soul and I think we’ve all been medicated tonight. We closed by blessing Nathaniel and then off to bed. We get to sleep in tomorrow. “And there was much rejoicing.”

We’ve had a great time together. But more then just “having fun” I know that we all have been spiritually encouraged and challenged through this whole experience. Praise the Lord for the fellowship that He has given us.

Three more short days. I’m going to miss Peru.

Amanda

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 19th, 2007 at 12:22 am and is filed under Peru Trip 2007. 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.