A Glimpse of the Great Work of Inca Link

Our team is having a great time in Trujillo. We have been working hard at the orphanage site and also gettting a glimpse of the great work of Inca Link. To the left is a picture of a good portion of our team at work. Today we finished the footer for the security wall of the orphanage and then we went into full swing preparing a soccer court for the kids. I call it a court because almost all the soccer "fields" we have seen are small concrete courts with painted lines and that's what they are are going to have at the orphanage. We removed the very fine dirt they have here in Peru and replaced it with sand they can use under the concrete. It sounds like a small job until you consider that the dirt moving machines are us with shovels and wheelbarrows. It ends up being a huge job, but that is mission work.

On Wednesday we visited the day care that Inca Link has here in Trujillo. It provides a kind of whole life education for about 65-70 kids. Each of the kids are sponsored by people at $32 a month, just like sponsoring a child with Compassion International. The building is in another dump area of Trujillo and is the only way these kids are going to get an education and basic hygiene help. The building used for the day care was built by short term mission teams like us about 2 years ago. While we were there, we served the kids two ways. We led a VBS time with songs, games, a craft and a Bible story. There were about 60 kids that participated. We also gave the majority of our donations to the day care. Eli, the day care director, was tremendously grateful for all of donations. It's hard to consider that these families have next to nothing, so just about anything and everything is needed.

Working further backwards in time, we had a wrinkle in our plans on Tuesday. The transportation workers of the entire country decided to call a strike, which shut down all transportation including the bus we use for the 15 minute drive to the orphanage site and other ministries. It was a totally safe strike, but it means we had to exercise the number one rule of short term missions -- flexibility. In the morning, we had an extended worship time and then we went to the roof of the guest house we are staying at to pray for different areas of Trujillo. It was a great time. In the afternoon, we gathered the kids of the neighborhood and played games and did our VBS stuff with them. The picture here is of the Bible story time led by Kellianne and Melissa of First Alliance. They told the story of the Lost Sheep using a pop out book. The kids loved it. Everyone on our team showed great teamwork and was great at caring for kids.

For those of you wondering, most people on the team have been completely healthy. We have had a few minor stomach issues, but nothing too overwhelming. Thank you for your prayers. We will be home in less than 3 days. We have had a great trip and the only thing we miss at home is our families. (Well, I guess we miss being able to flush our toilet paper, but that's a story for another day.)