I arrived in Lima, Peru to meet a group from Apple Valley, MN in the airport Thursday, June 14th!! They are from Hope Church in Apple Valley, and I was to be part of their group and try to translate for them! This picture below is our welcoming night, Pastor Juan and his wife Marta are on the far right, with their middle of three kids in the front. This group had been to Chepén for a week last year, and now their church has made a "sister" relationship with the church here in Chepén. They taught me the ropes of living in Peru in the 12 days I had with them, and accepted me as if I had been preparing with them all along!
One of our jobs was to help with construction! It was some hard manual labor, but we loved helping and getting a workout in the process! Last year the group helped with the columns for the front in the sanctuary, but now we were helping put in the bathrooms agains the back wall, and an office for the Pastor. A lot of shoveling dirt, wheelbarrowing, and tossing rocks was done, but all in the name of Jesus! The mayor of the city of Chepén paid us a visit too, and did an interview with one of the leaders of the group, and I translated. Then that night they put the interview, and all of us working on the news for all to see! The town was amazed that we were actually HELPING with the construction instead of just paying Peruvians to do the work, and also it amazed them that us women would get down and dirty right with the men!! That's not their culture! So it was a great way to tell the whole city (who are NOT used to North Americans at all) that we were there to serve just as Jesus served!
One of our jobs was to help with construction! It was some hard manual labor, but we loved helping and getting a workout in the process! Last year the group helped with the columns for the front in the sanctuary, but now we were helping put in the bathrooms agains the back wall, and an office for the Pastor. A lot of shoveling dirt, wheelbarrowing, and tossing rocks was done, but all in the name of Jesus! The mayor of the city of Chepén paid us a visit too, and did an interview with one of the leaders of the group, and I translated. Then that night they put the interview, and all of us working on the news for all to see! The town was amazed that we were actually HELPING with the construction instead of just paying Peruvians to do the work, and also it amazed them that us women would get down and dirty right with the men!! That's not their culture! So it was a great way to tell the whole city (who are NOT used to North Americans at all) that we were there to serve just as Jesus served!
Below are pictures of the soccer camp that the group had hoped to put on!! The pastor and the "coach" (both named Juan) rounded up 20 little boys ages 7-10 to come to the camp that was Saturday and Sunday for 2 hours each. There they taught new soccer skill games, taught lessons from the Bible, and just had some fun! A person had donated some money to the group for a ministry that they would be doing, and they used it to buy all the boys new soccer balls!! You should have seen their smiles!!
And that about sums it up!! It was a wonderful group to be a part of, and to serve with! I was honored for the opportunity to translate for them. Oh, and below is the sign for the church! The Pastor and his wife moved here to Chepén from Trujillo (it is an hour north) to plant an Alliance church. Wonderful people, and good times all around!!
God is SOOO good!
Some other things we did was we went door to door evangelizing. That was very fun, and it was amazing to see God work in that! We went to youth and young adult groups and played games with the kids, we helped out with the Sunday School, and we went to prayer groups on Wednesday.
Here is a little description of some random pictures below: first (from right to left):
This is our Sunday School group of kids that showed up (normally there are only 12 or so!) with thier pictures they colored for kids in the Sunday school back in the home church in the group, next is a picture of our hotel we stayed in right in Chepén, next is the hill that is North (I think) of Chepén-- the city sits right next to it, lots of bakerys with great cakes like this!!, here's a pic with me and some little Peruvian girls, some traditional Peruvian dancers at the airport (but not there to welcome us... haha), this is a picture of a couple of the adolecents, a picture of the museum we went to-- we couldn't bring in cameras--- but it was really cool!, and me with the young girls of the team right before they left to go back to the States.
Here is a little description of some random pictures below: first (from right to left):
This is our Sunday School group of kids that showed up (normally there are only 12 or so!) with thier pictures they colored for kids in the Sunday school back in the home church in the group, next is a picture of our hotel we stayed in right in Chepén, next is the hill that is North (I think) of Chepén-- the city sits right next to it, lots of bakerys with great cakes like this!!, here's a pic with me and some little Peruvian girls, some traditional Peruvian dancers at the airport (but not there to welcome us... haha), this is a picture of a couple of the adolecents, a picture of the museum we went to-- we couldn't bring in cameras--- but it was really cool!, and me with the young girls of the team right before they left to go back to the States.
And that about sums it up!! It was a wonderful group to be a part of, and to serve with! I was honored for the opportunity to translate for them. Oh, and below is the sign for the church! The Pastor and his wife moved here to Chepén from Trujillo (it is an hour north) to plant an Alliance church. Wonderful people, and good times all around!!
God is SOOO good!
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