Princeton Bible Church - Peru Trip - Day 5

Since today was similar to other days this week, I am going to do some "highlight writing".  Not to mention - it is already after 10...

• House visits today - Three of the team members have committed to sponsoring children, so we had the privilege of going to all three of those children's homes.  Ali was also able to go to her sponsored child's home as well.  Experiences ranged from cardboard style walls and a single room home where the children slept on the floor  - to - a two story home where the floor had tile on it.  The visits were very impacting for the team, and hearing their stories at the end of the day was awesome!

• "Are you a good person?" tracts - the team worked through these tracts with the children and shared with them the truth of the gospel.  It was neat to see the kids responding, knowing that some did not fully understand while others did.  It is always great to see the team get excited about sharing the gospel with the kids.

• This afternoon we played various different games with the children - Jenga, Memory, and of course the sports games - soccer, football, volleyball, etc.  Watching the children laugh and play is always a highlight of these trips.

• Singing with the kids today was a blast - we sang 2 Spanish songs, and then the group sang 2 English songs.  The kids loved both.

• Breakfast and dinner were special today - we had ham and eggs for breakfast - not anything different from other days, but as always it was delicious, and then tonight we went to La Hacienda (Pastor Jose's favorite chicken place) and we ate chicken, french fries and salad.  Enough food for everyone.  We washed it all down with a trip to Sarcletti's.

Thought for the day: As I stood on the hill above Buen Pastor and surveyed the land around me, I was again reminded of the vast number of people that live in this region.  Carla reminded me that just a few years ago (15-18) the child care centers that now hold 220 and 89 were just a dream that began with 7 children meeting at a local park!

My thought is - what does the next 15 years have in store for these team members who are seeing what God has done over the past 15 years?  How will he take the passions, the visions, the lives of this team and use them in the future?  Maybe 10's of people will be impacted - maybe 100's of people - maybe 1000's or more - who knows.

What I do know is that from just 7 children, over 300 children are being ministered to now, and over the past 15 years, probably 500 or more children have been impacted (and who knows how far out that impact has gone).  God can do something amazing with this group - I just pray that they will be doers of the Word - not just hearers - as we talked about this morning in James 1.

And the person I need to begin with first is me...