Sierra Basista - Day 5

Hello everyone!  We are having such an amazing time here in Peru.  God has shown us so many wonderful experiences and I feel that I am learning so much.  Every time I see a little Peruvian kid I get a huge smile on my face and then once I see one on theirs, I smile even bigger.  A lot of these kids live in shanty-towns, their houses all stacked together on the hills, and most don't have running water.  Every time we visit a place like that, God reminds me how blessed we are in the U.S. and how many things we take for granted; going out to eat at a nice place or going to a big shopping mall, isn't something that these kids have probably even gotten the chance to do.  But it is amazing how giving and generous they are.  It seems that the people with hardly anything to give, are always the ones giving.  As a group we talked about this and that it reminded us of the parable of the women with two coins.  She gave everything she had and was then blessed for doing so.  At our first VBS, a little girl gave me a little popsicle and then on our fourth day, another girl gave me an orange. I thought that that was so cool that even though we just got there and they had just met us, that they wanted to give things to us.

One of the many things that I have learned is the importance of prayer.  Without it, our group wouldn't even be here serving in Peru.  Yesterday we got the chance to go to the beach and do a prayer walk.  It was a great time to finally be able to kinda relax and be able to think things through about what God wanted us to do and what he has already done for us and through us.  I prayed that God would show us something amazing at our VBS that day and I love how he always does that (Jeremiah 33:3).  That day I was able to talk to a little girl named Rachel.  I found out that she was nine years old and was in fourth grade in school.  The rest of the time we were there she didn't leave my side unless they were playing a game or doing crafts.  She stood right beside me as I played the guitar for the music portion and would smile whenever I looked at her.  While I was playing, a lot of the kids surrounded me and all wanted to play and strum the guitar, and I was just so happy that God sent me here to serve and glorify him in Lima.  I was really sad when we had to leave because I wanted to spend more time with Rachel and all of the other kids.  Right before we were about to get on our bus, some people from the local church came to us and gave us all cold bottled water and gloves, socks, and bright colored turtles that they made themselves.  At that moment, I felt so humbled and almost embarassed because of their willingness to give and my stubborness sometimes not to give.  I have also learned that you really have to put of your faith and trust in God, because we can do absolutely nothing on our own.
Thank you so much for your prayers and I can't wait to see what else God has to teach and show us during the rest of our trip!

Sierra Basista

Philippians 4:13