Buenos Dias!

Originally posted 7/14/08

Hola! Greetings from Erika, Amanda, Nydia, Kristi and Marianne (July/Peru Interns)! Everyday we wake up and give God praise that we are in Peru. We consider it to be a huge blessing and privilege to be serving the children in the orphanages alongside the Buckner staff, our friends and sisters in Christ. They have welcomed us and made us feel at home in their beautiful country and shown us so much grace and love. While we are in Cusco for the week we are also working with another team, who are wonderful as well. They own a construction company called Red Dot that is in Texas. While they are here they will be painting the dormitories at the girl’s orphanage and putting all new tile in the dormitories as well. Their wives have also accompanied them to Peru and have planned the most fun, exciting, God-glorifying week! We will be putting on a VBS program at the girl’s orphanage everyday this week. The focus will be on forgiveness. We will study the story of Joseph, and all the struggles and hardships he went through. We will discuss how the events in his life, men meant for evil, but God meant for good. Towards the end of the week, the children will see that even though Joseph had been so hurt and betrayed by his brothers, he was able to offer them forgiveness because of his faith in God. We have never walked where these girls have walked and cannot imagine all the ways they have been hurt and betrayed, but we are praying that God will use this story in their life. That they will see how much God loves them and has forgiven them for falling short and we hope that they can let go of some of their anger, bitterness and hurt that we know they must feel. Please pray for meaningful discussions. We will also be building relationships through sports camp, crafts, and science experiments! The women from the Red Dot team have seriously gone above and beyond. We have never seen so many suitcases filled with gifts, candy, clothes, Bibles, books and toys. We are also planning a huge carnival for Saturday. We will have rides, bouncing machines, hotdogs, cotton candy machines, games, prizes and a DJ for plenty of dancing. Yesterday we visited the girl’s orphanage for the first time. The precious girls were dressed up like princesses and ran to the bus to greet us. As we walked off the bus they hugged and kissed us. They were full of smiles and giggles. They grabbed our hands and took us on a tour of their home. We were seated around a stage and they brought us cake and sprite. Then we were treated to the most beautiful dances that the girls had prepared with love! The girls are so talented and know wonderful Peruvian dances. They told us how important it was to them that we came to visit with them for a whole week because usually groups only stop in for a day. We also were shown their workshops where they learn dance, chorus, cooking and hair styling. Our biggest treat was when they took us to their store where they have made purses, scarves, sweaters, hats, mittens, jewelry and many gorgeous crafts. They know how to create so much! We also have visited the boy’s orphanage where we will spend our afternoons. They also greeted us with cultural dances and brought us snacks. We spent most of our time playing soccer and volleyball. We are praising God that hugs, kisses, smiles and laughter are universal! We have translators, but are wishing we could speak fluent Spanish as well. Please pray that God would show His perfect strength through our weakness, that we will build lasting relationships and that we will make much of the name of Jesus during our week. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from not being polluted by the world.” James 1:27