Marvelous Mission to PERU...!

"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

Isa. 55:11

Well, we have just got back from the amazing land of Peru, and from an unforgettable Mission Trip! I wish I could have posted updates on here regularly, but, we were extremely busy!

Our packed, busy schedule on regular days went something like this: breakfast at 7:00am, departure at 8:00am for the clinic, have clinic from 8:00am to 2:00, arrive home at 2:30 for lunch, 3:00 to 5:45 meeting preparation, and meetings from 6:00 - 9:00pm. It was so fun! :-)

We were in the city of Cusco for a total of 20 days. In the beginning of the trip, we were blessed to be able to take the trip up to Macchu Picchu. Oh it was absolutely breathtaking!! I am so thankful that we were able to make the trip - God really worked things out for us!!

The hotel we stayed in was really nice and pretty. It didn't have any heat though, so it was a little cold. Something interesting we noticed while in Peru is that none of their bathrooms have any toilet paper! So that is one thing that we are thankful to have here at home. :)

Since Cusco is 11,000 ft elevation, we were so thankful and very blessed not to get altitude sickness. Several people that were in our group got acute altitude sickness so badly that they had to go home!

5 days a week, we had a medical clinic with different sections - a Medical clinic, dental clinic, eye clinic, and pharmacy. Matthew, Caleb and I, along with our wonderful friends worked in the eye clinic doing eye acuity's. (using an eye chart with letters on it) Some of the people that we saw couldn't see anything on the chart at all! It was so sad. But then they were fitted with eye glasses, and oh the joy on their faces was just unforgettable - it just filled my heart to overflowing to see these dear people be able to see things again. Some couldn't read their bible - because of their poor eye sight and they were just so thankful to us for bringing them glasses! Oh I just loved working with these special people!

On average we saw in the eye clinic alone, about 150 people every day. Total, we fitted 1100 people for eye glasses. I can tell you – we really really learned the alphabet in Spanish VERY well by the end of the trip!

Every evening for 18 nights we had evangelistic meetings. There were 13 different series going on at different churches. My family and I did children's meetings for around 45 kids. It was such a blessing to work with them! Each of them were so special, and it was hard to leave them behind. On the last night of our meetings, many of our little children asked us ‘when are you coming back??’ It was so precious! We told them that we hoped we could come back really soon…
And this mission trip really stretched some of my Spanish to the limits as the sweet Peruvian people speak at what seems like 100 words per 10 seconds - well, that may be a hyperbole, but it surely does seem so to me at times!! But it really was SO fun to try to talk in Spanish to them. When learning a new language, it really can be dangerous! Before our meetings began, my sister and I were asking our translator how to say, "Please come to the meetings, and bring your children." She told us that "Trigan (sp?) sus niños" means bring your children. I was trying to practice it, but I was saying "Treygan sus niños" And the traslator laughed and said, "No! Be careful, because trigan means bring, but tregan means eat!" Oh dear, what a mistake!! I'm glad that I didn't say that to any of the natives - what influence would that put on these foreign missionary's! :-)

Another time that my Spanish was really put to work was one night at the children's meetings when our translator didn't show up! I had to lead song service, tell them how to put the craft together, among other things. The children were asking for the Bible Story first but I replied “No primera, por mi espanol está muy mal.” Meaning “We are not doing the bible story first because my Spanish is very bad.” The reply of one of our boys (from the meetings) was priceless, “Mi English es mal tambien.” Meaning “My English is bad also.” It really was fun – I loved every minute! And it motivated me to learn more Spanish - Next time I go to a Spanish speaking country, I want to be able to preach all the sermons in Spanish, and be able to carry on a good conversation with the people. ☺

Altogether, our mission trip was a huge blessing. (and a huge exercise for my Spanish - I loved it!) It will forever be memorable. God worked and blessed in so many ways - and we were ever reminded that truly God is the potter and we are only the clay - His instruments to carry forth His work. Oh there is no greater joy than working, and living for Jesus!!

Our dear friends from Peru will forever hold a very special place in our hearts. It was hard to leave the people that we have come to love so much, but we have the blessed hope that we will see them all in heaven. Oh what an unspeakably glorious day that will be!!

God bless each and every one of you. May we all faithfully walk each day with Jesus, so that when Jesus comes again, together we can say 'Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be *glad* and *rejoice* in his salvation.”

We’ll be working on putting together a slideshow of our pictures – so then you’ll be able to see more than I’d be able to put on our blog. Hopefully we can complete that soon….

Until then, God bless!

Blessings & Smiles,
~Ashley