This entire trip was completely amazing and life-changing! So incredibly blessed that God called me to minister to those beautiful people in that beautiful country again!!! <3
7/22
We made it to Dulles airport with the Team! I had like an hour and a half of sleep. Woot Woot! Before we left, we ate at Denny's for breakfast at midnight with 6 members of the Team and had a great time. We had a devotional and lots of laughs. At the airport, we waited for Tim and Ethan to arrive. They finally came and Ethan went for a handshake to me and I went for a hug so we were confused haha. Ethan and I started harassing each other right away and the old inside joke of I broke his heart came up very often.
Chatted with Tim and about our Peruvian friends and they things we have exciting for the week!
On the flight to Panama City, El Salvador, I saw between Dee and this spanish-speaking lady. We tried to talk to each other and it was pretty funny. We both laughed about the language barrier. Her little girl was adorable though!
Tim kept asking everyone if they're his friend and I guess that meant we'd help with VBS if we said yes. Very funny! :) Then Tim called me name and I turned around and he made the barking duck sound from last year. We wanted to go back and see it. Tim mentioned seeing Jerson again too.
Tim: I wonder if he'll remember me.
Me: Jerson?
Tim: The duck. Or was it a girl? I talked to it. Did the Peruvians eat it?
We had the most weird conversations sometimes, but they were awesome ones!
We had favor all through customs and got into the compound. Found Marcos and Israel! :) I ran up to Neiser and he picked me up and spun me around hugging me really tightly! I was squealing in happiness! <3
7/23
Got up at 7 and got ready for breakfast with the Team, then hung out with Neiser for a while. He told me he wants to destroy Obama at the White House and flush him down the toilet. We laughed and cheered!
The different age groups in the school performed dances for us. It was misting during it, too.
After lunch, some of the Team went on-sight to build the first home, but I stayed to help with the craft and get ready for VBS. The kids kept begging to play tag with me. It was a fun time! :) Those kids make my heart so happy! We ate fresh bread in the morning from the bakery. It was so good it didn't even need butter.
Neiser said my hair is bonita! I met Miguel and he plays guitar, too! We didn't get to play together though, unfortunately.
The rooster would not stop crowing! We thought it was confused.
7/24
Neiser's new favorite word is "weird". He kept walking up to me and putting his hands around my neck saying, "chokey chokey" hahaha! At breakfast Pastor Gary talked about the Book of Philippians and 1 thing in each chapter that can steal your joy.
Chapter 1 - Circumstances
Chapter 2 - People
Chapter 3 - Things
Chapter 4 - Wrapped up everything and said to find joy in the Lord.
We did 1 chapter each morning.
We worked at the house, and they had Inca Kola and crackers for us there. Coming back from the home, Ethan slipped and got his foot caught in the wheel of the motto. He's fine now though. It was so cold that day! Sazaar drove Alyssa and me back to the compound and he is a speed demon on that motto!
We had chicken made with orange juice. It was really good! We also had several other missionaries come and eat with us. After dinner, we all attended a small group meeting in the church with the Peruvians where the new pastor, Tony, was speaking on the 9th Commandment. Neiser sat by me and kept pulling my head down to ay on his shoulder haha. He kept pinching me and playing footsies, too lol. After the lesson, there was a short skit and Neiser volunteered me to go up and be part of it. Then I made him go up when Tony said to do it in Spanish after him and I did it in English. He growled at me and I just smirked and pushed him in front of me. Afterwards, we stayed to watch a video about evangelism. It was awesome! Then we went back into the cocina and played UNO! :D Neiser and I handed each other cards and cheated that way. Had a great time yelling at everyone. When only 5 of us were left, we managed to play a game without cheating! First time in years!!! I said "aww" but it came out as "oww" when Marcos handed me 2 cards and Marcos said "ouch". We all started laughing so hard, and it became our inside joke.
7/25
I had a hot shower finally! My other 2 thus far were cold. The one was so freezing it took my breath away! Welcome to missionary life.
We finished building the house and the family was so grateful. They kept saying it was muy bonita! <3 We took pictures with the family. Took a crazy one where we all made faces and held up something that shows what we did to help. I found a rock that looked like a heart and Tim held up a hammer like he was going to hit it. :O That rock was so heavy, and I was complaining about it, and Tim said I was lifting weights! LOL.
Neiser held me like a baby and said, "mio". lol.
Riding on the back of the motto with Ethan, we watched a little boy running after us and eventually passed the motto!
We went shopping in the city downtown and ate at Norky's. In the restaurant, Neiser set up plates and 3 Liter bottles of soda in front of Nicole and Ben to make it look like they ate it all. Tim gave the cross demonstration to the workers. During shopping, Sazaar helped me count my sole because I'm bad at Peru money. We stopped in the park and took pictures. On the walk to the bus, we passed a show store, and Ethan kept trying to hols us girls back from racing over there. Then he kept picking up the girls randomly and we were all screaming and trying to shield each other and run away. Hilarious moments! I lended the one girl my hoodie since it was really cold. Neiser made a good pillow on the ride back.
When we got back, we learned the dances for the outreach.
7/26
The park outreach got moved to the church. 75 kids came! The Peruvians danced, the kids played musical chairs, and there was a Pooh costume. Clinton was a clown. The Team danced to 2 songs we did last year, then God's Not Dead. The kids had streamers and masks to wear during it. We danced while setting up too and Neiser thought we were crazy. The kids got told about Jesus, woot woot!
We walked out to Liliana's fields and helped her pick crops. Neiser helped me over a ditch and pretended to drop me in.
After dinner, we had a church service for the youth and Tony spoke on sex. Tim did a short message on being worn, and a group of us did a pantomime to Tenth Avenue North's song Worn. Each of us picked something that might be a struggle to the Peruvians and acted it out, then each coming to the cross at the end. We had signs that showed our problem, then had a new sign with words like "Redeemed", "Saved", "Loved", and so on. Cassidy was the self-image, Nicole and Ben and I did relationships, and I was the loner, Clinton did drugs and alcohol, Tim did suicide, and Stephen was Jesus. The cross call at the end was amazing! Most of the church came to the altar to lay down the things they were worn out about. We stayed on the stage to lay hands on and pray with the people who came up. Most of us were crying, and you heard many languages being spoke at once. It's the coolest experience in prayer and worship! We hugged everyone for awhile. Then I saw Alexander by his sister Luce and Tim and I talked for awhile in the church with them. Alexander played guitar for us, too!
Cui (guinea pig) was served for dinner. I didn't eat it again though. I talked to Jerson's aunt and she told me he isn't a believer in God anymore and asked if I'd tell him about Jesus since I keep in contact. I told of course I would. That's very disheartening though. :(
7/27
We ate pork and sweet potatoes with our breakfast. So good! We also did the pantomime again after the Sunday service. The altar call there was amazing as well! The Holy Spirit was really felt this week! So many lives were touched!
Nicole and Cassidy and I gave out a bunch of stuff for the children. I gave Alex his and showed him and his mom the pictures of my life back in the States. They loved it!
We had spaghetti for lunch. I saw Pastor Jacob and his wife and their new baby too! So happy!
Played Dutch Blitz with Tim and Cassidy and Ethan. We all Blitzed at the exact same time during the last game and we were crazy!
We walked to this other church for another service. They really knew how to rock it! We sang in Spanish and English and worshiped God together! We danced and Neiser kept spinning me around. We were laughing and raising our hands cheering for Jesus! There was another altar call that was awesome, too! We watched a group dancing, all wearing black, with white gloves that glowed in the dark. They acted out and spelled words, and all we saw were their hands. It was the coolest thing ever!!! We were so energized after that! I wish more church services were that into it!
The girls rode back in the motto because when it gets dark, it can get bad out.
After dinner, we had cake to surprise Marcos! And Sazaar gave me a massage.
7/28
We cleaned the 3 outside bathrooms today. It was so gross, but the squeegie thing amused me. Pastor Jacob was putting up a brick wall in the boys' bathroom and I talked to Benjamin for a while. He told me his testimony. At the third house that was built, there was a beautiful bird that we got to hold! It pooped on Ethan! :P We got back and I ran around with Alex and /Franco yelling that each other is crazy. Love those guys!
Tony and Gabriella invited each member of the Team into their home one at a time to pray for us. It's their first year there and they wanted to let us know that we could emotionally unload on them and they wanted to encourage us! <3
Had to say bye to the Peruvians. Lots of, "I love you" being said and hugs. It was so hard. Sazaar told me to not cry, but it was so hard not to when he kept telling me how he loves me. Alex and his family gave me a purple hat they made! I ended up losing it when I was running around. We found it in the corner on a bag. I swear it wasn't there when I checked there before. Nicole asked if I prayed for it, and I said I did. She did too. It was a total God thing! It's special to me since it was from my sponsor kid! <3 :) God heard and really cares about the little things that make us happy. It amazes me! Neiser gave me a pencil to remember him by (lol) and he left. Marcos said I'll always be in his heart, too.
Cassidy and I fell asleep in our room for an hour and a half before we had to meet down in the feeding center to leave. Ethan woke us and we walked down to talk and eat popcorn with the Team. Tim lost his passport, but ended up finding it. We left in the bus and checked our bags in. Tim kept saying random things and we were laughing, we were so tired. It was 4am and we met Neiser and Jordan in the cafe. I got ice cream. We said bye to them and Sarah and Marcos. We had a speedy time through customs and waited for our flight back to Panama to leave. Cassidy and I kept saying we smuggled Tiago (Tony and Gabriella's dog) and Axel into our suitcases.
We danced to "Get A Little Crazy" on the plane before we took off. We didn't even care who stared at us.
7/29
We flew from Panama to Dulles and slept most of the way back. We ate on the panes, too. I miss Peruvian breakfasts! We got to the baggage claim and said goodbye to Tim and Ethan. I can't believe the trip is over already! It seemed like we were barely there, but yet we felt like we've known everyone forever! <3
Peru will always have my heart, no matter where God leads me in the future. I'm open for anything. But I really can't wait to return down there next year and see everyone. A week once a year is not nearly long enough!
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