The morning of day five carried nothing really new in store. Laura and I were preaching tonight, so we spent most of our free time preparing, memorizing, and praying. Early morning, bus ride to the orphanage, and back to work for us guys. We had made some really good progress in three of the four holes and had one where there was still some significant work left. While guys jumped into the deeper holes and begin shoveling out dirt, Alex and I went to work on the more shallow footer. Alex was digging and found an enormous rock near the wall. We thought we would try to dig around it and pry it up, so I took up digging for a bit while Alex took a break. Well, I was digging and found a boulder that was about the size of half the hole. Conundrum here. We tried the rock bar, we tried the rebar chisel and mallet, and the thing just wouldn't budge. It looked like it was made of granite, and five minutes of banging on the thing with the chisel would yield maybe a handful of chipped rock. Meanwhile, all of the other holes were finished throughout the day. We did have to do some cleaning up on them, but we finally got them looking ready to go. We left by 12:00 to get back to the compound a little early for our adventure to some nearby ruins!
We had a quick lunch and then headed to the ruins in Huaycan. We had driven past them everyday and they looked pretty intriguing, so all of us were pretty excited to be able to finally see them up close. After Lucho picked the lock to get us into the ruins (he used to be a gang leader, by the way), we walked up to the ruins and met an archeologist at the base of the entrance. I was hoping for Indiana Jones or the like, but I guess this guy was alright. We originally thought the site was an Incan site, but it turns out that it is from a pre-Incan civilization. There were a lot of pathways and open spaces where the ancient peoples used to celebrate treaties or gather for festivals. It was pretty interesting stuff. Now, I would have loved to see Machu Picchu, but this was alright. Laura and I are turning into Central and South American ruin sites connoisseurs it seems, adding this to Chichen Itza and Tulum.
We headed back for a shower and dinner before going out to the churches for the second night. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous for our sermon that night. I may be a seminary student, but I've only preached a grand total of two times before this. Thankfully, we had Basilio as our interpreter, which was a great scenario. Basilio, you see, has a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Seminary, so he could have taught the sermons himself with no problem. He told us that he led a mission trip with his pastor a few years back. Before his pastor began preaching, Basilio told him not to worry because he would clean up the sermon for the pastor! We were so grateful for our brother to interpret for us.
When we arrived at the first church that night, we ran into a bit of a problem. We pulled up the alley that the night before held lights and people waiting for the bus to arrive. This night, there were no people. There were no lights. The church for some reason was closed and no one was there. But like champs, our team rolled with the punches. Instead of going to three churches, we will just go to two! Perfect! So instead of it just being Basilio, us, and the Bobos, we also gained the Baxters, the Jacobs, and Jim. What a group!
We arrived at our church to the same scene as the previous night: the church was already gathered and reading along in their Bibles. They were reading several different passages on marriage and family. After reading with them, we sang (rather, they sang, we smiled and clapped). After singing, Laura and I were anticipating going up to the pulpit almost immediately and beginning our sermon as Stephen and Caroline had done the night before. But the worship leader asked instead if some of us would give a testimony of our marriage. Jim smiled, almost as if he were expecting something unexpected, and pointed to Richard and Tara (the Baxters) as if to say, "You're up." They did a great job. I could tell they were a bit panicked when they first went up there. I think Tara asked Jim "What should I say?" right before getting on stage. They gave a brief story of their personal testimonies and then talked about how God had been using their marriage to teach them about him and the many things they had learned from their marriage. After that, Alex and Andrea Jacobs gave their testimony. It was very powerful how God has brought them together and molded them throughout their marriage so far.
Laura started off the sermon. It was on boldness from Luke 11:5-10. I'm married to a wonderful, godly woman, who had the great privilege of preaching on God's ability to answer prayer. After she introduced the sermon and went over the first point (God is able), I preached on the second and third points (God is approachable and God is active.) I was greatly encouraged by the congregation. They are definitely a vocal people, not afraid to throw out an "Amen!" when compelled. I thought it would be very difficult preaching with an interpreter, but if anything I thought it might be easier. There is a pause in between phrases as he interprets, which means that I have time to collect my thoughts a bit and deliver the next sentence or phrase. Plus, if I mess something up, I knew (or at least hoped) that he would catch me and correct me.
After the sermon, we did more question and answer time and prayer requests. It was so humbling to hear and pray for our brothers and sisters in Peru. They were so grateful for everything and were intensely curious about many different things. There was a couple who was having marriage trouble that came up front and we laid hands on them to pray for their marriage. There were some really deep questions too. Jim answered several that I thought were very difficult questions. He did his best to tie all questions back to the Bible and really give as thorough an answer as possible. This is definitely not my gift. When people ask me a question and want an immediate response, I usually answer within a few seconds, answer simply their question, and move on. Jim and some others really used this as a teaching time too, for which I'm very grateful.
We were really blessed by the encouragement of the church and of our team that night. I thank God that he has given us all things, including each other. We as the body of Christ are able to help each other and minister to one another in incredible ways. I thank God for our brothers and sisters, and I pray that he will keep them in our prayers.
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