Sunday 11-13-2011

Today was a day that was beyond anything I could ever think about. We began our day with breakfast @8:30 am at the outdoor kitchen at the church where we have held the Outreach. Jeryl led an inspirational devotional and we joined with our co-workers from Corazones Unides for our time of singing and devotions. Following devotions we packed gift bags for the pm home visits and hopped into the Moto-taxis to go visit the Rehabilitation Center started by the local church and disability ministry. The founders have prayed for 12 years to have a wheelchair distribution in Chulucanas. The Rehab Center was well equipped for the many little children who spend time with them. After the tour we split into several groups and each group of 4 plus a translator went to assigned homes to visit families that had a person affected by a disability. Some were close by in the city and others were out of town. Deysi, CJ, Dale & I headed out of town in two moto-taxi’s with our translator Nillo Boy(last name). Nillo is a wonderful Christian young man from Puro and volunteered today for the first time as a translator and hopes to do more in the future. He is currently in Veterinary school. We drove for ½ hour in the moto-taxi before we turned off the main road and onto a sand road. Passing a few homes made of adobe and sugar cane, we continued. When we arrived at the home we were greeted by 6 children, the parents and a few neighbors and friends. The gospel was shared and the parents and the children accepted the Lord and were so happy that we would take the time to visit. The15 year old daughter can’t walk and is very small. As I held her, I could feel her bones and know that many children suffer from malnutrition. After ½ hour we traveled some more sand roads until we were nearly at the 2^nd family home. As we approached, we needed to hop out of our Moto-taxi’s and help to push them over the sand and on to the destination. This family had an adorable 6 year old daughter who was sitting on a blanket, protected on 3 sides by towels and walls decorated with magazine photos and pictures that she had drawn. She loves to draw. Chickens ran about and flies swarmed by a water jug. As we visited, shared the gospel and gifts….2 women and another teen girl joined us. Praying together was exciting as they repeat after the person praying in their language. As we prepared to leave the oldest woman(80) begged us to come and pray for her grandson, just up the road. We were already very late to return for the afternoon activities…but how can you say no to prayer requests. The grandson has been ill for a month. He did not return from the field one day and when they found him he was ill and never recovered. We hiked over the sand past a few family houses, wondering how far this close house would be until we arrived at the home. The young man sat on a chair, totally expressionless. We had prayer with the family. Each of the family participated loudly and tearfully as we prayed for the young man. The full grown turkey added his voice to the din. The family is expecting a miracle and was thankful that we took the time. Thanks to Jill for warning us that locals revere visiting missionaries as Pastors and priests. Since we had hiked a short way and the taxi’s were back at the first house, we managed to get them to pick us up at the road, rather that navigating more sand road with the taxis and we were closer to the road than they were. Shortly after getting on the highway, the first taxi stopped and the riders hopped out….the chain was off. The operator turned the taxi on it’s side and put the chain back on and we all hopped in the taxis and headed back to town. We were over 1 hour late for dinner, we ate quickly and hiked with the group to Deysi’s family home. Chulucanas is famous for it’s pottery and she had some at her home for us to admire and purchase-since the pottery is too far away from town to visit. Chulucanas is not a shopping town. We were refreshed with jello provided by Deysi’s family. Deysi was so thrilled that we came to visit and her family and neighborhood were all amazed as 20 gringos visited her home. Deysi is a local gal that found romance after a former Wheels Team-mate returned to court and marry her and whisk her away to New Mexico. We were blessed to have them with the team. D’s sister was fitted with a beautiful well fitting chair the first day at at this town and many of her friends greeted us at church tonite. Stephanie, a girl that our team fitted with a chair early in the week was at the service with her mom and sister. It was neat to see her so happy in her new chair.

We enjoyed two Sunday services while in Peru. Talk about worship. Wow. The offering song at both churches was a very vibrant joyful, lively song….a real time of celebration. Tomorrow is our last day of work. We are excited to again be meeting and sharing with our Peruvian friends. Look for photos on FB.