Movin´on Up

(Part of "The Hill" that divides Condevilla from other parts of Lima)

Wow! It is incredible how much 6 hours of sleep can do for you! We woke up in Hotel La Hacienda and were treated to the normal breakfast- omelettes, toast, yogurt, fresh fruit and fruit juice. Yum!

Vicki led us in devotions by reading an excerpt from Hole in Our Gospel. Though most of us had read the book the previous year, it was exactly what we needed to hear. Though we didn’t have our normal meeting room, we filled the lobby of the hotel with songs of praise and worship. Even the hotel workers commented on our acapella singing…

The bus picked us up and we wound our way back to Condevilla. Upon arrival, Jim and Kay and a few others from the church greeted us. We organized ourselves into teams, divided up the remaining vitamins, toothpaste, tooth brushes, and medicines and headed up the “the hill.”

(A picture to demonstrate how steep "the hill" is)

The hill is a divider. While it divides Condevilla from other parts of town, it also divides the rich from the poor. Some of the poorest people live on this hill- they have no running water and many survive off a single line of electricity that has been split multiple times.

We were humbled, some for the second time, to serve these people. After making the difficult climb, we dispersed in 3 directions to visit some homes. Let’s just say, when a bunch of gringos start walking around in a place that rarely sees white people, we make a scene. People notice. Slowly they begin to poke their heads out of their homes and slowly trickle out as their trust increases.

(A view from the top)

Though each group had unique experiences, one to highlight was a group that challenged each member to share their story in Spanish. It didn’t matter if they could speak a lot or a little, they needed to do their best to communicate what God had done in their life. Every one took the challenge and succeeded!

Another unique experience that happened to me (Emily) occurred after we had dispensed all the supplies. We set down our bags to take a few pictures because the view from the hill is gorgeous! As I was smiling away, I looked over to my bag and gasped! My grin slowly turned to a frown, my brow furrowed and I yelled in horror/shock. Did you guess it? That’s right, a dog was peeing on my bag! GROSS! I shooed it away and assessed the damage. He got my bag all right…just the way I like it. Since I couldn’t do anything about it, I let it air dry for a bit, strapped it back on and went down the hill. Urine is sterile, right?

(The Culprit)

Pastor Lucho who was thrilled to prepare a home cooked meal for us and greeted us at the church. The small building buzzed with conversation as we shared our experiences. Nancy returned from doing a few home visits and was glowing. If you know her, you know that visiting people in their homes and providing care 1 on 1 is her gifting. Nancy has a high capacity to serve many people and she shared how the number of people continued to grow as word gets out that there is a doctor in the area seeing patients. We love serving alongside of her!

After lunch we returned to the hotel for a brief moment of rest before heading to El Parque de Aquas. The water park isn’t like the Noah’s Ark or Kalahari that we think of. Instead, it is an outdoor, enclosed park that lit fountains- some you can play in, some you’re not suppose to. This is always a fun night for our team to hang out, have fun and celebrate what God did during the week. A few of our Peruvians brothers and sisters joined us too.

(Claudia, Dani, Tamara, Aleah and Vicki at the Water Park)

For dinner, we bought some supplies at the grocery store and had a simple meal together at the hotel. We’ve been eating lots of incredible Peruvian food (and probably a whole month’s supply of carbs) but it was refreshing to have a light meal and get to bed early (midnight). By now we are so used to the sleep deprivation that 10 pm is viable time to eat dinner and 1am seems like a decent bedtime. We’re all doing well and staying healthy and looking forward to returning to Condevilla for our last time tomorrow. It’s going to be a great day!