Peru Project

This was our last day of work at Hannah’s Home. We are all very pleased with the accomplishments that we made this week. We also more pleased with the renewed committment that we feel. And although we miss home, in a way feel sad that the week is over. Saturday and Sunday will be filled with some more relaxing tasks, with departure from Lima at 11:30 PM Sunday evening for most of us.

Herman, Marlin, and Sue have been under the weather. Please pray especially for them. Others are not feeling the best. Please offer a special prayer for Chelsey as she heads home tonight. She left the group at 11 PM this evening to head to Lima. She has a 7AM flight tomorrow for Miami. She has prior commitments so had to leave the group early. Thank you for your special prayers for me, my cold is much better.

We experienced “Peruvian rain” today. To us it was just a mist, but to Peru it was rain. The sun never did come out today, just cloudy with a mist of rain now and then. Really, quite a comfortable day for most of us.

Tonight our team hosted a dinner at Hannah’s Home. Organized by Childreach leader, Larry Ray. Duane made spaghetti for about 50 people. Some of the Peruvian people at Hannah’s Home thought it was very unusual for a man to be cooking. The kids from Hogar de Ninos attended as well as a few neighbors, the Peruvian workers and some of their families. We also had salad, which was prepared by several members of our group. I made homemade rolls and cinnamon rolls. They did not taste quite like they do at home, but all seemed to enjoy them. After I mixed up the bread dough, Sylvia (works at Hannah’s Home) and Freddie (our bus driver for the week) could hardly wait to help make the rolls. They both had worked in bakeries as children (I think both of their fathers had owned a bakery). They actually taught me a few things. We then sat around a bon fire watching the children play.

Tomorrow, we leave Ola Grande, visit Hogar de Ninos (the orphanage) and then head to Lima for the remainder of our time in Peru. I have had trouble downloading pictures the last couple days but will include a few from earlier in the week. God bless.
Judy

[caption id="attachment_29" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Children at VBS"][/caption]

No update last night because we attended a church service in Lima (one hour north) that lasted until 10:30.

Wednesday’s highlight was VBS again. We had it at the same location as Tuesday’s VBS. We had an even larger crowd.  What a blessing!  We had music, face painting, soccer, volleyball, and basketball playing, a

bible story (The Good Samaritan which featured Marlin as the samaritan’s mule),and a memory verse.    The audience just loved it.  We then passed out coloring sheets and crayons.  The kids really listened to the story and memorized the verse.  Language is a barrier but we have been blessed to have 2 great Christian interpreters, Dina and Miqual.

 

Thursday was a full day of working.  Most had the same jobs as before except Elaina, Chelsey and Verla are now scraping and repainting the building that will house the pregnant girls.  Duane, Sue, and Nathanial have been putting up strips in the bathrooms in the orphanage.  After a full day of working, we went back to Ola Grande for a special supper of barrell chicken.  It was very good.  As an additional delicacy, those of us that wanted to could also get cuy (pronounced kwee).  It also tasted a lot like chicken.  I tried it, but many declined.  It was guinea pig, complete with the head, eyes, and some internal organs.  We had a good time with that.  Each evening we have a debriefing session  (Sounds like we are on some secret mission) to discuss the day and the trip to that point.  There has been much interesting and rewarding discussion.  Tonights session was around a bon fire on the beach.  Words used by each of us to describe the week:  amazing, contentment, peace, recommittment, reverent, beginning, listen, startled, surrender, acceptance, need, eye opening, work, trust, inclusive, and thankfullness.   These were just the words from one evening. 

The weather has been great from our perspective.  Cool in the evening and comfortable in the day (70’s).  It is hard to comprehend never getting rain.  The only vegetation is what gets watered or a few cacti.  This is winter for the Peruvian people.  They are freezing in this weather, with coats and sweaters.  Some even have coats on their dogs.

I have been under the weather a little with a cold, but seem to be improving.  A few have had quesy stomachs, perhaps from a change in diet.  But no one is down.  We are all just so thankful to be here.  Please keep praying for us.  Our mission is really 2 fold – yes, we are here to help with construction at Hogar de Hannah, but even more we are here to grow in the Christian faith. God Bless.

Judy

Monday started out with assignments at Hannah’s home. Marlin and Jeff are working with Mark on rafters of the Petersens master bedroom. Larry and Andrew worked with Lynn Petersen on the 2nd floor deck. On Monday, Chelsey and Nathanial were helping MJ, our interpreter, and Freddie, our bus driver, digging a hole for the septic system. Sue and Elaina worked with Duane on putting furrowing (sp.) strips up for the dry wall. Herman and I (Judy) were mudding dry wall. Verla and Heidi (from Oregon) were working with Larry Ray on putting up dry wall and taping it. Monday morning and afternoon we were busy at our assigned jobs. We were to go on a community prayer walk in the afternoon, but our plans were changed when a tractor trailer loaded with 2400 blocks arrived to be unloaded. It was truly a group effort. Two lines, bucket brigade style, were formed with all participating. Some just took turns in the lines while a few worked the entire time. Two hours later we finally were finished. Most everyone felt fine today. Thank the Lord for that.

Tuesday was back to Hannah’s Home to our duties. Chelsey, Elaina and MJ were promoted to scraping the outside stucco walls of the kitchen and dining hall to be repainted. The rest of us just worked on our jobs. We had an early afternoon quit today. We went a few miles into the town of Chilca to have a VBS. It was on the porch of a dentist. What an experience!!!!! We ended up with approx. 200 students. It was so neat. Some of us went around the neighborhood (with interpreters) and invited the children. All the families and children brought a dog along. It is amazing how dogs roam the streets down here. Mark and the teenagers sang and did motions to praise songs. (In Spanish, of course) The kids seemed to love it. We were performing on a open porch type area and the kids sat on the street. People from the houses around brought out benches and blocked off the street. We even had 4 vendors there trying to sell food, etc. One thing I have really noticed about the Peruvian people is that they are very lovable. They want to be hugged.  Marlin so enjoyed all the little “tooties”

The VBS experience was truly wonderful for all of us.  We will never forget it.  It has been a blessing to see the joy in the faces of the Peruvian people.  Sue has done an amazing job organinzing VBS.  We all have our duties and everyone is ready to pitch in and help.  The Lord has blessed us all on this trip.  Tomorrow we will be having VBS at the same location.  Continue to pray for us.  We love and miss our families, but we are doing what the Lord wants us to do in working with the Peruvian people.  It already has been more rewarding than any of us could imagine.

Judy

We’ll start with breakfast,we had chicken patties and rolls, yumm!

Next we went to hannahs home to work. while we were there we ate
ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch with rice and
vegetables. We worked on the rooms and cleaned
up before leaving for VBS at 2:00. We went to a
site where there has never been a VBS before.
When we got there, there were only a few children
around but others started coming and a few of
our team went through the community inviting
the children and by the time we started about
3:30, there were nearly 200 kids there and at least 12 dogs.

Mark began with praise music in Spanish
then we had the Bible Lesson of Jesus calming
the storm. The men were the disciples and
Marlin was Jesus and they really hamed it up
which kept the kids attention – they listened
extremely well! One of the highlights was when
the invitation was given, many children raised
their hand and then audibly repeated in unison
the sinner’s prayer. It was a very touching
moment that we will never forget. Afterwards
we did a craft with them of wordless book bracelets.
We divided them into groups of 10-15 and our
team members were the leaders of each group.
The kids were so proud and pleased with this
little bracelet and we pray they will remember
the colors and be able to share it with others.
We could not believe how they came up and
hugged us and seemed starved for love and attention.
We will never be the same because
of what the Lord is teaching us.

What a great start to our week. Following our breakfast and orientation to the week’s schedule we reviewed Joshua 1:8-9. Success and prosperity without significance may actually be failure. Go where God sends us with confidence, He is with us.  Hmmm. Two solid points to remember. Now … on with our day. After lunch in a fishing village, a romp with the kids at Hogar de Nino (Pleasant Ridge Church must been in a church soccer league!) and a tour of Hanna’s Home – Hope, we were off to Pastor Jorge”s 5:00 pm church service.

WOW!

His teaching from Acts 9 was right on point with our morning discussion. God was speaking to us this morning and clearly He was making sure we got the message through Pastor Jorge. God wants to do something of significance through each of us to build His Kingdom and He is right here enabling us to see it through when we obey.

And if that were not enough, Pastor Jorge managed to call ten of us up front at different times to share testimonies before his congregation.  I’ve never experienced anything like this before.

It was a terrific day!