Our month in Peru was successful, though a bit quieter than the previous month in Bolivia. We were stationed in Tambo de Mora with an American couple, Robert and Becky, who had moved there to serve after the big earthquake in 2007. The church is two stories with a flat, open rooftop – some of our teammates slept on the floor of the top story; the rest of us set up our hammocks or tents on the roof. It was nice being at sea level in a warm, dry climate. We were able to sleep outside without any threat of rain. There was some pretty dense fog that often settled on us, though, and that made for chilly evenings (though not nearly as chilly as Uyuni, Bolivia).
Most of our work for the month revolved around kids ministry. We had Kids’ Day twice per week (Thursdays and Fridays) with family movie nights on Saturdays. Robert had made a large screen, which he would hang up outside the church, and then we would set up chairs in the street. The traffic wasn’t an issue, as the church was on a small side street that didn’t see much traffic.
For the Kids’ Day events: We started with games and jump-rope outside, then music/dancing inside (the kids LOVED “Super Heroe” and “Tanto, Tanto,” followed by story time (Becky had an illustrated book of Bible stories), sing-a-longs (we sang Spanish-Christian versions of “Ten Little Indians” and “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt”), and finally we ended with coloring and artwork (always tied into the Bible story we’d read that day).
For movie night: We watched “Finding Nemo” (which we tied into the concept of God the Father going to great lengths to pursue us, never giving up, just as Marlin does with Nemo), “Facing the Giants” (Christian film about a football team that decides to make the game more about God than winning, and the results that come from that – my new fave film, by the way!), “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” (this was for the Saturday preceding Easter, since Aslan’s resurrection represents the Resurrection of Christ).
Other ministry activities included: Ladies’ Night (where we painted nails and braided hair, all while talking about Jesus to the women and teen girls of the community); painting the church (it had been a red-on-white color scheme, and Robert and Becky changed it to warmer, more welcoming colors of sherbert with Tennessee-Vol-orange trim), leading church services (I was part of the worship team, and I also gave the message our first Sunday there), VBS (Vacation Bible School – a week-long pre-Easter event, all about Jesus’s birth and childhood, His ministry and miracles, His love of children, and the crucifixion and resurrection), and a little bit of discipleship training (we learned about the “Butterfly” program for women, and my teammate Abbey did some Bible studies with a local woman who had just received the Lord after one of our church services).
We also coordinated a big Easter potluck for several people in the community, which was very interesting because the concept of a potluck was totally foreign to the people there. They didn’t quite understand how it worked, even after we explained the details, and many people didn’t end up bringing any food; others did, but they brought very, very little – maybe enough to share between two or three people (there were 25+ people in attendance). Despite that, the potluck turned out to be a success. We had plenty of food that we had prepared ourselves (potato salad, two types of pastas, among many other traditional American dishes), and while all the adults were eating, Jenny took the kiddos upstairs to the kitchen and showed them how to make resurrection rolls – those are cinnamon rolls with a marshmallow in the center, for those who might not know. The marshmallow represents Jesus, and the cinnamon roll is the tomb where He’s buried. When the cinnamon roll bakes, the marshmallow melts.”Uh-oh!” Jenny would say. “Where did Jesus go? He’s not in the tomb…because He’s been resurrected!” 🙂 Brilliant, I tell you. Simply brilliant.
At the end of the month, Robert and Becky drove us to Lima for our second World Race debrief. For those of you who don’t know, my team has changed. At debrief, it was announced that our team leader Kate was raised up to Squad Leader. Karen Hall replaced her, and Kayla Schmidt and I ended up on her team. We now have Katie Axelson, Brie Thomas, Lesa Hatfield, and Jaide Penney (Abbey and Jen are on a different team). Other highlights from debrief include: a skit competition (which we should have totally won :)), a squad-only 5K race (coordinated by my squad-mate Allie Mitchell – my time was right around 35 minutes, which is a not-so-bad time considering I have been completely out of shape since winter of 2012/13), and a really moving worship session with a message about Holy Spirit.
After debrief was over, it was time for our 38-hour bus ride to Quito, Ecuador, which is where I’m at now. We’ve already begun our ministry here, and I can’t wait to share the latest happenings with you in my next blog posts!
So, I guess this is it, the last time I’ll be able to say: Potatoes are Peruvian. 🙂 See y’all soon!
