“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
From May 28 – June 5, 2011, I was blessed to be able to travel with a group from my church to Huarochirí, a small village in the Andes Mountains in Peru.
The flight was LONG. About two hours from Charleston to Newark and then eight hours from Newark to Lima. But they fed us well (haha) and I got a good picture of the sunset.
Below is a picture of our first restroom stop.... no rest stops on the side of this mountain! Take a close look at the roads.
This is a picture of Senor Prado and I with the Andes Mountains in the background. On this particular morning, we went on a prayer walk. Senor Prado, Martin and I walked through the town and prayed over the people and the town.
“Oh Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood! He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood!”
Words and Music by Eugene Monroe Bartlett Sr, 1939
Julie, Andrea and Alisha
This is a picture of our hostel, "El Rey". It was situated right above a meat market. It smelled. The pillow was as hard as a rock. Bus horns were blown all night. Dogs barked. And I slept just fine!!
View from the top....
"Be assured from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to His will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works." Colossians 1:9 (The Message)
God Provides.When we left Lima to take the 8-hour trip up the mountain, we had no idea where we were going to be staying once we got into the village. Our church has been to Huarochirí before, but they were unable to make contact with anyone to confirm our arrival and make arrangements. We arrived late Sunday night. We were able to get rooms in a hostel that was situated over the local meat market. The next morning, we met Raida. She is a restaurant owner in the town square. After talking to her, we found out that she has been a Christian for over a year now, but no one else in her family is. She told us about how she has been praying to God asking for direction as the restaurant is not providing enough income to cover their expenses. Raida had planned on leaving Saturday morning to go to Lima to find work. Her husband, Vidal, has shoulder problems and after working in the fields all day (this is how most of the people of Huarochirí make a living), he is in a lot of pain. She was on her knees for an hour praying out loud to the Father. As the bus honked the horn, her husband told her that if she was going, she needed to leave. She felt that the Lord wanted her to stay. The next day, we arrived. We ate with her for just about every meal. We were able to provide her with enough income to make it through the summer months. But wait. The story gets even better.
Meet Pedro and Andy. Pedro and Andy are two of Raida’s five children. On any given day, the boys could be found helping mom and dad in the restaurant, at school or playing soccer. Each night, we met as a group to hold a bible study and talk about the plans for the following day. Originally, we had planned to go to another village for the day on Wednesday. Our leaders felt that the Lord wanted us to be in Huarochirí for the day. Wednesday’s are a very busy day for this little village. There are a lot of people that come in on the bus from Lima and surrounding villages to buy and sell their goods. We prayed that morning specifically for salvation. We talked about being intentional about our faith in God. We planned to invite everyone we could to a bible study at Raida’s Restaurant. One of the guys on our team ran into another young man named Daniel who wanted to learn English. Daniel showed up at the bible study where he read from the Spanish bible. Pedro and Andy were also there. That evening during the bible study, Pedro, Andy and Daniel prayed the prayer of salvation and were welcomed into the Kingdom! After the bible study, we all walked to a waterfall where we sang and looked at the gorgeous night sky. Praise the Lord!
“…for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
Galations 3:27
Baptism Time. On Thursday, we walked back up to the waterfall with our team, Raida, Vidal, Pedro, Andy, and some additional family members. There in the waterfall, Pedro, Andy and Raida were baptized.
School Time. On one of my favorite days, we were able to go into the primary school and share the love of Jesus. We told stories such as Jonah and the Whale, Noah’s Ark and David and Goliath. The children in this village are so full of life. They don’t have much. They play volleyball and soccer daily. They play in the dirt. They do not have cell phones and probably do not know what the internet is. The schools have dirty wooden floors, a few textbooks, a chalkboard and a teacher that cares. This experience has taught me that I can use my gift of teaching wherever and whenever. I do not need the latest technology or the best of the best to do my job. Thank you Lord!
OK....the rest of the pictures are random fun pictures taken by me, Andrea, Kevin or Alisha. My camera died the third day into the missions trip!
The girls of the "Bath"sheba Suite
For five days straight, I wore the same clothes and didn't take a shower!! Once we got back to Lima, I had the BEST shower of my life. Then we walked to the ocean to take a look at the Pacific Ocean!
Thank you for your prayers, support and love. It was truly amazing.
Thank you LORD!!
And thank you Mr. Byrd for picking me up from the airport.
I was SO HAPPY to see you.
xoxo
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