I know Chris has been discussing in depth each day of our trip. He currently is on Friday. I told him I wanted to share something from Saturday, and he said he has another post for Friday, so this one will be a little ahead of schedule.
So it's been a long week. Today is a day we have been planning for, preparing for, and most of all praying for. Today we are going to a section of San Juan de Luragancho called Paradise. Last year was the first time our USA team had ever been to Paradise. We took a tour of sorts. We, as a team, along with several Peruvians just walked through the area. It starts in a valley, and works its way up the mountain. The houses at the bottom are in better shape. They are brick & mortar, with a couple of rooms. But as you go up the mountain they become more like shacks. Just paper, and trash put together to be some sort of shelter. You eventually reach a point where the houses stop. It's pretty high up, but looking back down is absolutely beautiful. Midway up there is a pig farm to help them make money. It stinks a lot! It doesn't rain in Lima, so the wetness you see streaming down the road isn't from rain, it's peoples feces & such. They have no bathrooms, so they use buckets, then pore out the buckets down the mountain. There's trash all over. It's quite a sight to behold, and not in a pretty way. So last year it was quite heartbreaking for me to see all this.
Now, I say all that so you can understand where it is we are heading. Before I said we were planning for this day. See after last year, Pastor Phil had a vision. That in 2009 we would go back. This time bringing a block party of sorts. We would have games, food, prizes, drama, a message. We wanted to give them a day of fun, but more importantly we wanted them to see Christ. We wanted to give them the hope, joy, peace, & love that we know & experience because of Christ in our lives.
My blessing for the children was face painting. They absolutely loved it! We had wipes to use on their faces to remove dirt,so paint would stay on their pretty faces. I had to quit using wipes, because they all had dirty faces,and I was running out. At first we said just one cheek, but I had plenty of paint left over, and they wanted all the paint they could get! :) These children are truly precious & beautiful. I didn't care that they might have lice, or whatever. I hugged them, smiled with them, played with them; so they could see Christ.
This event wasn't just for the children, although they were the main ones, we reached out the adults too. We had a message of salvation shared by Mr. Brooks, through an interpreter & loudspeaker. It was neat to see people walking on the street, on sitting on the porches listening to the gospel. Christ was shared throughout that mountain that day. Several came forward, receiving Christ also.
Another neat thing to see was the uniting of the church. See the church we are "sister" churches with in Peru, is divided into 12 locations, called sectors. *by the way, the USA is sector 9* All the sectors came together to help with this day. It was so cool to see all the different pastors there, elders etc. United for the cause of the gospel. God is good. He worked this day out on many levels. And I thank Him for putting this day on Pastor Phil's heart. I know it blessed me. It blessed me seeing those children happy, if only for an afternoon. To know that seeds were planted throughout Paradise. They may not have much, but I pray that they will know true riches in our Lord Jesus.
Below I'm posting a few pics of Paradise from last year. Also, there are pictures on our photobucket page http://s752.photobucket.com/albums/xx166/IamaGodfollower/Peru%202009/
I love you all, may you know the love of our beautiful Saviour, Jesus.
Amanda
