On Friday, we said goodbye to the second half of the First Presbyterian Group from Huntington VW, I was very sad to see them go, after two weeks with members from their church, its almost like joining the congregation :)
So here's to all my long lost Huntington friends :) you are all so generous and friendly and truly made us a part of their fellowship, and you all were so generous with us, and we loved working with you, it was an amazing experience for me to see the partner church relationship at y'alls phase, because you have deep emotional connections to the people of Gallito you love them and they love you, and through those connections Gods love truly shines... I was privileged to be a part of it, I've been so very privileged this whole experience meeting all these amazing men, women, and young people going out and doing the lords work that I can't imagine leaving this experience behind me, so I want to take a minute and thank y'all for the deep impressions you have made on my experience here...
I wrote out a draft of this, where I thanked each of you by name for the amazing experience you allowed me to become a part of these last two weeks, but instead I'm just going to list the many things that I experienced with y'all that I am thankful for...
Thank y'all for your ability to make me laugh like a fool, with their strategy of just adding an "O" to the end of ever word to make it Spanish, which we learned didn't actually work all that well... but more importantly thanks for radiating your love for these people and this place :)
Thank you for your shared kind smile and jump rope :) which I'm happy to report I use everyday :)
thank you for sharing your passion and organization with me and giving me some great bible school craft ideas...
Thank you for making me smile every minute even as we ventured from pharmacy to pharmacy looking for children's victims, y'all exude a happiness that should be bottled and sold...
Thank you For the opportunity to learn Rooke and perfected my appreciation of UNO :) I plan on teaching my family once I'm back stateside...
Thanks You for sharing your "America's favorite cookies" the real Oreo, and teaching me peanuts, which although is another card game I'm terrible at... I will go home and teach my family...
Thank you for your passion for and discomfort with the situation down here, you manage to inspire us all to examine every minute.
Thank you to the amazing women I painted and played with... Y'all are amazing :) I had so much fun getting to know y'all and seeing the lord work his message and spread his love through y'all
Thank to the amazing men, who labored tirelessly to do the jobs I could have never done.
Thank you to the people who organize this trip and continue to organize future trips it is through y'alls dedication that relationships are formed and bridges built... Bridges that start in the US to Peru, from Huntington to Gallito :)
It's relationships like the one y'all have that made me want to come down here and I'm so privileged to be a part of that, so thanks for showing me the amazing bonds you've formed...
Friday in general was an amazing day for me because I got to see a whole new side of Pam's missionary service work down here in Peru... After me and Pam left the airport, we went to visit another pastors family, Pastor Herman from Santa Clara, it's the pastor whose church is partnered with Pam own church in Spartanburg, and its a partnership that has existed for, I believe 13 years now. The love exchanged in those walls, watching Pam, truly at work.... Working at comforting, consoling and communicating with the pastors wife not just as the missionary in residence but as a missionary who has become one of this women's nearest an dearest friends, the experience was eye opening because i finally got to see what Pam sends here time doing when all the american mission teams go home, the experience was one of my most amazing experiences down here to date... Pastor Herman's wife confided in Pam over the pressure some pastors families experience, pressure created by the critical review they receive from their parishioners. I'm not going to discuss the personal nature of this woman struggle because I was a guest to this conversation, a mere fly on the wall of a Great personal struggle, she grieving a deep personal loss and struggling with the understanding that humanity is imperfect and bound to fail, even the section of humanity who knows better, who are educated in the way of the lord, even the every family members of pastors... It was amazing to see Pam at work relating the loving message of God to this Peruvian woman who was clearing struggling. I'll be praying for her and her family.
After all of the Huntington group made it out of the airport and all our other work was done... We were exhausted so we all turned in a little early to ready ourselves for the Lake Murray group from Chapin SC, they arrived early on Saturday morning... We collected them from the airport it being only five of them... our week seems like it will be filled with tons of time getting to know each of them personally
We had lunch toured El Jardin and the city of Iquitos, and then had dinner and gave them a little time to themselves... All in all they seem very nice and excited to get to work, they'll be working on the new pastors research center building and exploring the possibility of partnering with the First Presbyterian Church of Iquitos, so we'll spend a good amount of time with them this week.
Today Sunday, July 10th my 39th day in Iquitos is my last Sunday I will spend here this summer, and I'm completely in nots about it... I fly out of Iquitos next saturday July 16th.... I'm not ready to leave this amazing place, but I press forward knowing my time here has not ended yet :)
Today we went back to the Cista Coche Zoo :) sorry to disappoint you but their won't be any ant pictures this time, actually I didn't even bring my camera so their won't be any pictures at all... We had a nice time, I enjoyed returning to it on a weekend because their were a ton more people their and it really came alive today :) then we went out for a lovey lunch and are going to do some odds and ends now, before dinner and church this evening... It's been a pretty amazing day :)
I ask all of you to please pray for Villa, (pronounced Vija) our amazing handyman here at El Jardin, he has Stones in his gallbladder, they need to operate but they have to wait because he has a bad case of gastritis, and they won't operate on him if he has an infection... Please pray for him, his health and his fast recovery!!!
Location:Iquitos Peru
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