Final Thoughts about serving in Peru

I will be processing my thoughts about serving in Peru for quite a while. The trip was at times both exhilirating and exhausting and both hilarious and humbling. I felt revived at times, but I came home tired. I laughed harder than I have in quite a while, but I was humbled by the tremendous needs that exist in our world. I can't imagine that these really are my FINAL thoughts about our trip to Peru, but here are the ones that floating through my mind and they will have to do for now.

1. TEAMWORK IS SWEEEEET! It was thrilling to be part of a team that worked so well together. Everyone was willing to do whatever was needed to get the job done, to have a good attitude doing it, and to give 110% even when they were tired. We also constantly encouraged each other.

2. CHURCHES SHOULD NOT MISS OUT ON THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK TOGETHER. It was great having two churches cooperate on this team. One of my favorite comments from the week was when one of the intern leaders said they couldn't tell which people went to which church. That's beautiful! When we work together we show a watching world what the love of Jesus is all about. When we work together, we are blessed and we bless the world.

3. FLEXIBILITY WILL ALWAYS BE THE NUMBER ONE RULE IN MISSION TRIPS. I already knew this from my previous trips and I preached it to this team, but this trip proved it again. Not only did we have to deal with a national transportation strike that kept us from going to our daily work site for a day, but we also had to adjust our kids ministry after the puppets we brought for the trip mysteriously disappeared. In addition, flexibility is constantly necessary as you face food, lodging and other things that are continually different from your preferences.

4. SERVING IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF LEADERSHIP AND LOVE. Jeff Enns, the Inca Link site director for Trujillo, and his interns displayed servant attitudes all week. They told us how much they appreciated our team, but their servant attitudes created an atmosphere that helped our team. Serving makes us and those we lead stronger. Serving opens hearts and encourages people to follow without using words. Intern Lisa Palmer demonstrated her servant heart when she jumped in to help Consuela the Churro/Manjar lady make the churros. Intern Dan Kasnick demonstrated it when he helped the sandwich lady make our sanwiches. Those were yummy churros and sandwiches, but their serving made them sweeter. Serving is the exercise our trust muscles need.

5. NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO IN THE WORLD, THE ONLY THING KIDS REALLY NEED TO BE HAPPY IS TO KNOW THEY ARE LOVED. There is no doubt that major work needs to be done to change the circumstances of the dump people of Peru and Inca Link is off to a great start in making changes. But what kids need most of all, no matter where they live, is simple love, to know that someone believes they are valuable. Inca Link is doing a great job with this along the way and we can all do this wherever we are.

6. I WANT TO SERVE WITH INCA LINK AGAIN. This needs no explanation. Inca Link is doing a great work and I want to be part of it in Peru or at one of their other sites.

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.)

Peru 2009 - Beauty, Teamwork and Unfathomable Needs

It's already been a great trip in many ways. Here's a picture of the coastline as we drove up from Lima to Trujillo. We had sand and mountains on one side of us and sandy beaches on the other side. The airplane ride from Newark to Lima was about 8 hours and then we went to sleep at house of a kind woman from one of the churches in Lima. It was a short night of sleep before we caught the almost 10 hour bus ride from Lima to Trujillo. The good conversations and card games along the way the were obvious signs that this mission team would work well together.

Our first day of construction at the orphanage proved we would work well together. Here's a picture of some of us in action. We spent the morning moving rocks, mixing cement and hauling cement to prepare the footer for part of the wall around the orphanage. It was a great feeling to work hard together. It's a high crime area so the wall is important to the safety of the children.

After our hard work in the morning, we went to the dump site where families live and work. I wish there was some way I could describe the needs we encountered. It's hard to fathom the desperation that must be felt so that people would live and work in this dump. The trash trucks bring in the garbage and then adults and children sort through it trying to find items they can sell like aluminum, glass and rubber. They compete against the pigs to sort through the trash because pig farmers actually pay the dump to let their pigs feed off the garbage. Just about every step leads to the possibility of stepping in pig dung. It smells beyond imagination. In addition, they have no running water so the people have dirt caked on their hands and clothes. One of the greatest acts of love we could show the people was to hug them and kiss them and shake their hands. We sought to honor them with our affection in this way. We spent the time giving away fruit, playing soccer with the kids and some adults and giving away balls, bubbles, hygiene items and clothing. It was sobering to experience this need and I honor IncaLink for carrying on this ministry.

I do not know how often I will be able to do this from Peru, but I will definitely write a post to sum up the trip when I get home.