Kendra Caddell - Day 3

It's not really possible to describe in detail all that we do in a day. There is too much that goes on, but I will do my best!  Most of us girls woke up about an hour after the "dream murdering" bell - Andria named it - went off at 6:15 am in the morning. After getting ready for the day, the team ate and had our daily discussion over our assigned scripture passage.

We loaded on the bus at 9:00 am and headed toward the Museos Oro del Peru y Armas del Mundo, which translates to The Museums of Gold in Peru and Weapons of the World.  We drove through the wealthier part of Lima for the first time on our way there. The gap between the rich and the poor is hard to describe. Having spent time in the shanties yesterday, the fact that those two opposites coexist in the same city, is shocking!

The Museum was really fasinating. It had everything from German daggers from WWII to stone mirrors that dated back to the pre-Incan era.  It really made me wish that my dad was here to see it, because he would have loved it!

After visiting the museum, we ate lunch and left for our ministry site. It was different from yesterday in that this time we were in a small building in a more urban area, and it was raining a little bit on and off.  With the help of a national named Marco we walked through the streets and invited people to come to VBS.  The culture here is so different!  It is considered polite for a man to kiss a woman's cheek when they say hello, and I didn't actually know that, so it kinda weirded me out the first time it happened to me.  It is also acceptable for you to approach a child and invite them to come with you.  The parents don't really seem to mind, which is something that I still haven't completely figured out.

Anyway, VBS started about a half an hour after we got there, and I am in charge of Photography!  So I began to photograph the children and the menbers of the team interacting with one another.  I might as well have been passing out gold!  It was unreal!  I had mothers, children, fathers, and anyone else coming up and asking me to take their photo.  Now, I found out once we got back to the seminary for the night that they were also asking me to send the photos to them, but I can't speak their language, so when they asked I was most likely nodding like an idiot and going, "Yeah, photo!  Photo, si, si, si!"  It didn't take them long to flock to Kari and give her addresses, only I never learned the names of the people in the photos and thus have no way of knowing which one to send them.

I also had the pleasure of having fun with Becca, and two Peruvian girls named Nicole and Julia. It is hard to guess the ages of the kids due to malnutrition, so I don't know how old they were, but they were so sweet.  They loved for me to take their pictures and were even more excited when I turned on the video setting and told them in Spanish to dance. They gave Becca and me hugs and we got some of my favorite photos from this trip so far with them.

When VBS was over, we met a man with a heart that truly burned for the Lord.  He was 98, and quite a character.  I couldn't understand a word he was saying, but he sounded pretty sharp to me.  Right before we got on the bus, all of the members of our team, and the members of the church that were hosting us for the day held hands in a giant circle in the middle of their one room church and he led us in prayer.  What a powerful moment that I will remember for years to come!

It is difficult to be in a country which leaves you illiterate, unable to communicate outside hand motions, and the culture confuses you to no end.  But I am so blessed to be here at the same time. God has really been working in my heart, explaining the meaning of faith, patience, and unconditional love.  The people of the churches here are so on fire for the Lord, and so loving toward us, even though many of us can't speak to them.  We are equals to them in their eyes, even though I feel helpless standing in the middle of the dusty street with a slightly confused look on my face.  God is working here in Peru, and not just in the shantytowns we have visited, but in the dormatories at Lima Evangelical Seminary in the hearts of teenaged Americans from small town Ohio.

Kendra Caddell