We arrived on Tuesday night and were greeted at the airport by the AFCers who are serving abroad here and a couple of the missionaries. They greeted us with lots of hugs and the favorite soda of Peru, Inca Cola. It was so great to see our friends who have been working here since January! Since it was so late when we got in, we went straight to bed to prepare for an early morning of work.
Wednesday morning we went to a part of Lima that most visitors don't get to see, Villa Maria. We took a bus to get there, which is an experience in itself (traffic is CRAZY here!). I think we were all a little shocked by how different Villa Maria looks than the rest of Lima. It's an incredibly poor area with lots of houses and small businesses crammed together on the hillside. Our goal for the morning was to visit a local school and help make it look a little nicer by picking up the trash and doing a little painting. The missionaries that took us there told us that the public schools in Peru are among some of the worst in the world. We were surprised to hear that because on the exterior, it seemed pretty decent. We were greeted by lots of Peruvian children who were really curious as to why we were there. Most of them had never seen Americans in their neighborhood. After a long morning of work, we had worked up an appetite, so we went to a favorite restaurant among the interns where most uf us had a stir fried dish that contained beef, french fries, and vegetables. After that, we went to the Yoakum house to have a time of praise followed by a game night.
We spent Thursday morning working at the new church building. We sanded, painted, and did a couple of other things to fix it up. We also walked around the neighborhood and passed out fliers for the big party the church is hosting on Sunday. The party is supposed to be the final step of all of the outreach efforts the mission team has been working on for the past several months, so it was really important for us to help get the word out. That night we went to the Fletcher house to entertain the kids while their parents went out for dinner. We had so much fun, but we would not have been able to do it without our friend Jackie Beth, who was in town for a visit before she went to Brazil.
The plan for Friday was to reach out to some of the church members by taking them homemade cookies. Alicyn, Kyle, and Lee Fletcher, one of the missionaries, wanted to go to a hospital to visit a lady whose father had been very sick for a while. It was quite an experience! The hospital was almost like something you would picture in WWII with a ton of beds all crammed together in one room. It was unlike any hospital in the states. That night, we went to some nice soccer fields and played an intense game with the missionaries. Afterwards we had a nice picnic by the beach, followed by a devotional and time of reflection.
Today was supposed to be all about the missionary kids. We had breakfast at a buffet and then took a trip to the zoo. Those kids are so much fun, and it was good to hang out with them and get to know them! Afterwards, the girls had a Bible study at the Thompson house with some of the Peruvian women. It was all in Spanish, so some of us had a hard time understanding, but it was great to learn that we share some of the same struggles as the Peruvians.
With love,
The Few
P.S.
Trenton got a haircut!
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