FINALLY it is PERU

Finally!!!
It seems like forever since we have written anything on here, and well, it has been. Plus, all we have talked about it how our feelings were going and the things God has done in our lives. BUT now, it is time for me to actually start talking about the trip. Might as well, right?!?! It has only been a month since we got back and still haven't written one thing about the actual trip.
We got to our church, http://www.fountainofgrace.us, on Sunday morning. We weighed all the bags and loaded them on the truck. It was a good trip to Atlanta in the van. It was Amanda, Chris (me), Hunter, Nichole (sorry Nichole if I mispell your name), Kevin, and James was our driver. Which, just as an update, the van we were in broke down when they were on their way home from the airport. There was a total of 24 of us that would be boarding the plane to Peru. If I remember correctly, we all chatted in the van the whole way up. Except there were a few attempts at naps from people.
So we get to the airport. As soon as we stopped close to the actual unloading area, boom, we all jumped out and unloaded the bags off the delivery truck. We had an assembly line goin that would make UPS proud. That much luggage was off in no time. All of us worked hard and got the job done in record time. This was just a sign of how the 1 weekers and then the 2 weekers were going to work together as one body in Christ. Unity was evident.
Then it was time for all of us to head inside. We gathered around and made sure everyone and everything was there. Then Pastor Phil went and used his gift of talking :) and Delta brought all of us over to the side and opened up a line just for us. Got us through in a short time. Well, for the Atlanta airport it was short time. So that was one way God made the trip easier for us. Think what you want, but I am saying it was God. He gives blessings to His children in all things (Matt. 7:11).
>>fast forward<<
We are sitting at the gate waiting to load. If I remember correctly the 2 from OHIO were already sitting there. This was the new church going with us. So we get to know them a little bit, and then the group shows up from Tennessee. I have heard about most of these people from others who had gone on the Peru trips and from Amanda, and they were all right in what they had told me. Take that how ya want to, but you Tenn. people are fun to be around. Luke and I struck up a friendship that I hope will last and grow over the years.
So the plane ride was quite long and pretty boring. I watched a couple of movies as Amanda slept.
Once we got to Peru, God showed up again, of course. We had everyone of our prayer partners to pray for us to have "green lights" as we went through customs. God did more than that. When the Peruvians saw all the red shirts (that was the color of our mission shirts this year), security basically said "let all the red shirts go through and skip the buttons". So only those of us who had changed shirts actually had to push the button, but we got "green lights". So God was good to us.
Ok, I have written a bunch, but I have just gotten started. I am going to stop now, but I want to make the comment of how I feel like Pastor Phil is at ROCKSTAR status with the church in Lima. Pastor Tony is too, but I will talk about his ROCKSTAR status later. The church had a big sign waiting for us when we started out the door, and there was a large group to meet us. As we were walking on our way towards the door, before we met up with the church, I saw several Peruvians get very excited and start yelling Pastor Phil's name and jumpin around and waving, and it was just interesting to see their reaction to Pastor Phil and our team showing up.
Well, just so you know, I am going to try to start writing more about our trip. There may be long blogs or short ones, but every few days I am going to start writing. Also, just so you know, all that was just the first half of the first page of my journal I kept in Peru. So I have alot to write. Amanda will be on here writing her view of things too. We were on the same trip, but I know God pointed out different things to each of us. Plus we will probably both talk about how God worked in our lives differently while we were there. He is still changing us to be more like the IMAGE of His Son, Jesus Christ.
God bless