Peru - Part Three

Before I type this post, I want to ask for prayer for RC...He has had a fever since Sunday and they are not quite sure what is going on with him.  He has been tested for strep and had some blood work done to determine if he picked up something while we were in Peru or just what may be going on.  His throat is very swollen and the doctors are very concerned about that...he will require a CT scan if it is not feeling better tomorrow after a shot, some antibiotics and steroids.  He's feeling pretty yucky and I'm feeling pretty helpless and can't be around him and I absolutely hate it!  Thanks for lifting him up! S <3

Monday was our first day at the mission site, Bellavista.  On our way into the neighborhood, we stopped alongside the road, got out of our mototaxis and shook hands with a group of men and were introduced by Pastor Farfan.  I didn't know until we got back into the mototaxi that they were the gang leaders who 'run' that neighborhood and we were stopping to ask their permission to be in 'their' neighborhood.  Whew...talk about culture shock!  Our God is SO big though that one of these men actually brought his kids on the last meeting night...how COOL is that?!?!?!

The first set of pictures are from the neighborhood where we started our campaign and then from Oscar's house, our chef and host for the week.  The top left picture is the bathroom at our host house - it was something else....It did have a commode in it, but it was just covering a hole in the ground, no running water in it and the shower was in there too, which was buckets of water to rinse with.  I just can't describe the smell.  So I won't...I'll just move on!  Oscar and his family share this home with his wife Esmerelda's sister and her family and their mother, but are building a very nice home that I'll show in a later post.  They 'have' a cat...it doesn't have a name, nor is it really like a pet...but it 'lives' at their house, according to Oscar. 

Lunchtime was a long event, since there is a meal and then a siesta time everyday...and as you can see, Omar took great advantage of that down time :)

Monday also brought our first nightly meeting for the people we had made contact with that day.  They could come to learn more about God, interact with other new believers and those from the church as well as bring their kids to learn and have some fun!  Hearing these precious children singing Jesus Loves Me in spanish and singing songs I didn't know that my translator Noemi taught them...oh my it just makes your heart melt!!  They were a great group of kids and we had a lot of fun coloring, singing and talking about the creation story!