La Palabra Vida: Peru Day 4

Day four is when we really got into the swing of things. The morning schedule was exactly like the previous day, with an early rise followed by a bus ride to the orphanage. As soon as we arrived, the guys jumped right to digging again, hoping that we would be able to knock out the digging and get on to pouring concrete or something else. We had a few Peruvian guys there who were working on cutting and bending rebar, getting ready to place it in the footers we were digging. Well, as the day progressed, we began looking at the rebar grids they were wanting to place in the holes. They were definitely larger than the holes we were digging. So out came the tape measure and we found out that we needed to take out the holes another foot or so. Nonetheless, we kept digging and made some really good progress.

Laura:  Day 2 at the orphanage for the girls ended up being a cleaning day.  When we arrived a good number of the children were at school till 2.  Also there were some French Canadians volunteering at the orphanage that day playing with the kids.  So it proved to be a good day to get lots done.  We worked in a room that had become a small library of sorts.  As you can probably tell from the photos, it is extremely dusty in that area in Peru.  All the books were covered in dust.  We took every book off of every shelf and wiped down everything.  After the books could be called clean, (our Peruvian friend Jackie called them "los libros limpios") we folded all the blankets and sheets and organized them.  We worked for the majority of our four hours there.  We played a little with the children before packing up and heading to the bus.

We headed back to the place where we were staying for the afternoon and ending up playing football for an hour or so out on the field. What was especially fun about this game of football is that it was me, Bob, Stephen, and Jaime. Now, Steve, Bob, and I are all Americans. We grew up playing back yard ball, went to Auburn games all throughout college and even earlier, and basically know the rules and strategy behind a football game. Jaime, however, is Peruvian and has never played football in his life. To make life even more interesting, Jaime does not speak English. I know a little Spanish, but unfortunately I never learned, "Run a five yard crossing route through the middle and look for the ball to come to you or Bob" in Spanish class. So we did the only intelligible thing, drew plays on each others chests. "Ok, I'll be quarterback here in the middle of Ryan's chest. Bob, you line up at the left nipple. Jaime and Ryan, you line up to my right." Made for some uncomfortable moments. The best moment was when Jaime caught his first pass. It was beautiful. He was wide open, made a great catch, and ran for another 5 to 10 yards. It all kind of unraveled when he saw me running about five yards in front of him and he decided to pass. Unfortunately, we forgot to explain that only the quarterback can throw the ball forward. He was thoroughly confused as to why we were laughing so hard until Emanuel explained the rule to him. It was a lot of fun, a good time to get to know the rest of the team and Jaime as well.

After dinner at 6:15 or so, we loaded the bus and headed to Huaycan. We were going to separate into three different groups and be able to preach throughout the week in three churches that Lucho had worked with before. The Baxters and Jacobs went to Christo Te Ama church (I think), the Robinsons and Ashburners went to a Pentecostal church, and the Bobos and the Adams were in La Palabra Vida church. We were the church that was farthest away, so we were the last to be dropped off at the church, arriving around 8:00 or so. The service was already in progress when we arrived, but we were quickly ushered to the front row of the church. There was a lady at the pulpit in the front reading Scripture, and the congregation would repeat each verse after her. They were reading about marriage and apparently had been discussing it some in the church for awhile. After reading several more verses, they gave us a warm welcome and we started to sing. We found out that the same lady who was leading the reading was the pastor's wife/worship leader as well. She may not have had the most beautiful voice, but she sang with all of her might. I once heard a comment by John Piper on why he liked Rick Warren. He said that he sat next to Rick at a conference, and when they began to sing, Rick sang with both a loud and off key voice. Pastor Piper said that he would like anyone who sounds that bad but still sings that loud when it comes time to praise Jesus! I immediately liked this lady.

After singing, Stephen and Caroline preached the second sermon from the Lifeline series that David Platt, our pastor in Birmingham, preached in July of 2007. It was a series on prayer, and a very good one at that. I remember when he preached those sermons and how much some of them affected my own prayer life. Now we were getting the opportunity to reteach them to our brothers and sisters in Peru. What a blessing, to pass on the God-given wisdom and teaching that we learned from our pastor to people in another country. Stephen and Caroline did a great job of teaching on desire in prayer, based out of Luke 11:1-4, while our new friend and co-trip leader Basilio interpreted. It was a great reminder to pray for God to shape our hearts to want the things that he wants. After the sermon, we took prayer requests and did a question and answer time. That was something that was obviously very different from our church at home, but it was a tremendous blessing to be able to pray with and for our brothers and sisters. There were some good questions too, like what to do when you run out of words to pray, or how to increase desire for spiritual growth.  (The picture above is us with several of the children from the church who were so excited to take a picture with us, even though their lack of smiles makes it look like we forced them to take a picture with us!) We left the church around 10:00 and head back to pick up the other two groups. God gave us boldness and wisdom in teaching to our brothers and sisters, and all of us were greatly encouraged by the stories of God's faithfulness in the other churches that night. As we went to sleep, Laura and I thanked God for the wonderful day he had blessed us with and begged him to give us wisdom as we prepared to teach the following day.