Post-Peru Letter

***This was the letter we sent out to our Peru Trip supporters. It shares some of the experiences from out trip.***

We wanted to send out a quick letter and some pictures to you. Our trip to Peru was truly amazing! God used it to show us how real and life changing missions can be. This trip might just be another step in our transition to full-time foreign missions. The children at San Mateo, the church where we held the camp, were welcoming of all the activities we did. Everything went so well, even better than it has for the past 6 summers they have run it in Ambridge! We just wanted to highlight two things.

First, as we had said in our letter, we led the Arts portion of the camp. When we arrived in Peru we explained what we planned on doing with the kids. The missionaries’ response was very troubling. They said not to expect a lot from the kids in the way of creative expression. Many of them would not have any art in their schooling and if they did it would be limited to sketching. All of the art projects we had planned were rather abstract in nature, mostly giving the children the materials and asking them to create what they wanted. As you can see in the included pictures, the kids had absolutely no problem with any of the projects. They jumped in and created beautiful art projects. We were so proud that they proved the missionaries wrong!

Second, on our last Saturday in Lima we visited San Patricio. The time there meant so much to both of us. We went with Paul and Sarah, two full-time missionaries from England. They have a program once a week at San Patricio for the children. They split them up into two groups, older and younger, and start off by letting them play with toys and games. For many of them this is the only time they get to build with Lego’s or blocks.  Then they teach a short Bible program and get a snack. This week was the story of the Good Samaritan. Sarah narrated as some of the children acted out the story. Ben got to play a special role, the donkey! It was truly an honored experience. As Sarah was explaining later, culturally in Peru children are looked down on. Like in many other countries, the adults are above children and rarely get down on their level. The fact that Ben was willing to participate in the play with the children, literally getting on his hands and knees, along with being a man and a foreigner was a powerful image for them. They finish the program with a small craft. This week they had extra children and things were rather stressful. However, we LOVED it and wished we could be there every week. Ben even said, “I envy Paul and Sarah’s pain.”

Those are just two parts of the trip, we hope to talk to you about it more when we see you.

Ambridge Youth Ignite and Rock The World are praying about why everything went so well and if that is sign from God that these camps should be continued in other developing places.

Thank you again for your support of our trip and of the children of Lima!

Peace and Love

***For more Peru stories start here on AYI's blog. It has multiple posts about our trip from during the trip.***