So now that I’m back in Lima I would love to update you all on the ministry and adventures of the past four days with the TBarM Team. During their time in Tarma we entered into 4 different high schools doing sports camps and evangelism. Each day was a little different, but all were filled with games, laughter, and bonding between the TBarM kids and the Peruvian high schoolers. Each day a few of the TBarM kids would share their testimonies and the gospel was presented via Wordless Book Bracelets. We invited every school to come to a final event in one of the local reception halls for Thursday night. At this event we played a few more games (mind you these are camp games and hilarious to watch Peruvians play for the first time), shared a few more testimonies, presented a few skits and once again the gospel was given. We handed out response cards and at the end of the night have about 50 people accept the Lord and another 25 or so reconcile with God. We were thrilled to see so many kids approach us with questions after the event and there were conversations going on until late in the evening. One of the kids (I call them kids even though they are all college age) named Danny (a 26 year old Construction Engineer in Oregon) shared his testimony and blew us all away with how God has changed his life. He became a Christian 6 months ago and is already doing ministry overseas! There have been a lot of doors opened this week, and we as a team will be following up at each of the schools over the next couple of weeks.
Yesterday I helped escort the team back to Lima where they had plans to check out the artisan market and the beach and then eat dinner at Gabriel’s house (one of the Peruvian interpreters). But due to the amount of sick kids, Drew (the team leader) and I loaded up the four sickest kids and took them to the emergency room. This was my first experience at the hospital here in Peru, but I was very surprised at how well they were attended to. We arrived at the hospital at 5:00pm and they all had to leave for the airport at 9:30, so the nurses and doctors got right on those kids drawing blood and giving them IV’s. Two of the four just ended up being severely dehydrated and after a few hours of saline and anti-nausea drips they were feeling back to normal. The other two were a little worse off and were still feeling a bit unstable when we had to leave the hospital to get them all to the airport on-time. But we arrived at the airport and everyone got checked in okay, and we began to say our goodbyes.
This was such a wonderful and encouraging week for me, and the TBarM was great as our first team in Tarma. One of the areas that I have been struggling through since being in Peru is my introverted-ness and lack of social desire. Part of that is due to the fact that I don’t have any friends in Tarma outside of my team, and my teammates are all significantly older than me. But having 23 kids my age that spoke my language and were part of my culture was the break I needed from the daily grind of life in Tarma. And life in Tarma is not bad, it was just so wonderful to realize that part of my extreme introverted-ness here in Peru is more due to my circumstances than me have changed so significantly. God really blessed me with this group of young people, and I am so grateful that they were able to minister to me in this way. I met some of the coolest kids, and of course was delighted to meet a few sorority sisters in the bunch! So in the end, God continues to be way bigger than my circumstances and he continues to give me exactly what I need exactly when I need it. And I am once again amazed by his greatness and his love for me.
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