Peru: Days 7-9

Thursday: Back to work! In the morning, we did the HEART DRAMA. Afterwards, the students were split up into groups and each group sent to be with a different grade level. It was exciting seeing the students being responsible for the ministry that was happening. They were teaching the songs, leading the activities, and speaking their Spanish without any help!

While the students were teaching the kids and playing with them, I had the opportunity to spend time with Mrs. Smith and the teachers from the Cusi school. Of the 8 teachers, only one of them was receiving money for his work. The others will continue to work until their one year of service for the Peruvian Government is finished. Even after that, they will get paid very little. Mrs. Smith shared teaching ideas and encouraged them. I had the joy of translating! What a joy it is to help someone else communicate what God has put on their heart! The teachers were so hungry for any ideas to help them reach their children. We will take even more ideas with us when we return in June.

After this, the all of the kids returned to their classrooms from playing with our students and we passed out bookbags to each one. They were very happy and very thankful for the bags they received, and our students to got to learn the joy of giving to others!

The number of bricks grew to over 150 due to the amazing adobe skills of several of the girls and the shoveling/wheelbarrowing skills of Pastor Malloy, Mr. Horton and Mrs. Smith. The boys and some other girls continued the building of the side walk by bringing in more rock from the river.




Around 3:30, we stopped work and took a beautiful mile and a half trek down to the village of Yungay, which was wiped out by a mudslide in 1970. After an earthquake, a piece of the mountain broke off and while sliding down brought mud, rock and water, covering the entire town in less that 3 minutes. The only ones who survived were visiting the cemetery which is raised off the ground (it is the circle shaped area in the left of the before and after photos at wikipedia). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Ancash_earthquake

Friday: Our last day in Cusi! When we got to the school this morning, the children at the school did their Friday routine of marching in and singing their national anthem. They asked us to sing our national anthem to them...OH SAY CAN YOU SEEEEEEEE!

Afterwards, we shared the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE drama with them. This was an especially exciting point of the day! At the last minute, one student, who played a main part in the drama, was not able to go on the Peru trip. However, Ron E. stepped up and learned this part in a matter of probably only 3 hours, and he did an AMAZING job!!!! In fact, he even added some of this own style to it to make it extra good! It was neat to see God take care of the details and Ron provide some skills, especially the Ron-sneak..."get your sneak on" (quote by Lizzie)

Today we played with the kids and then said goodbye. While the students were playing, I talked with some of the teachers. It was such a sweet time of fellowship! We talked about teaching, we talked about the Gospel (some of them are not yet believers), and we talked about Peru. They even taught me some Quechua, which is the language of the Ancient Incans and still one of the three main languages in Peru (Spanish and Aymara are the other two. The only words that I can remember off the top of my head are imanota (hello), ancash (blue) and mishi (cat). The last word stuck because 1) I LOVE CATS and 2) there was this super cute kitten at the school and his name just happened to be MISHI and it also somehow ended up hanging out with me for about 2o minutes....I enjoyed the purring.....I missed my kitty at home! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quechua

Friday night was the beginning of the end of our marathon. We drove all night (from 6pm until 3 am the next morning) back to Lima.

Saturday: After breakfast, we took a city tour of Lima, which included the San Francisco Church and its winding and somewhat creepy catacombs. As we came back to Centro Girasoles, we passed the Presidential Palace as they were changing the gaurd, which included a band, some high stepping, and of course, some guards to be changed. We also met up with a rather unusual dog and his not very nice owner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lima,_Peru

Upon our return, we all went upstairs in Girasoles for the presentation of a drama put together by the street boys. It is a three part choreography that tells the story of their lives and how God has rescued them and given them new life! Afterwards, we were able to share our dramas with the boys, which was very exciting for us. All week, the students had looked forward to sharing with the boys!

After that, a whirlwind shopping trip through the indian market, some Italian food in the Miraflores district of Lima, rushing to the airport in Callao, and an all night flight to Houston.....everyone cheered when we hit US soil: flushable toilet paper, drinkable water, and hot showers tonight!

Thank you SOOOO much to everyone who was praying! God kept us safe and lives were changed....both theirs and ours....