Can life get any better??

If its possible to hit a point in life when you are mentally, physically, and emotionally drained… I hit that point today. The past 4 days were filled with laughter, food, a few tears, tons of pictures, hiking, and a lot of youth. There is so much more that happened but I’ll just start with that for now.
On Friday afternoon we all piled into a bus and headed to a children’s hospital. We walked in and stood before about 15 little precious faces with various sicknesses and problems. We led worship, acted out the story of David and Goliath, made some crowns, played some games, and handed out food. Each face showed pain and suffering and just the attention they got brightened their faces to a smile. There was one little boy in a stroller that clinched my heart. Sarah helped him make his crown and we fed him his cupcake and juice. One of the nurses told us a little about some of the children and when she came to this little boy, the words she said made me love that little boy even more. They had just recently brought him to that hospital after they found him in a dumpster nearby. He was only one year old but looked old enough to be 3 or 4. Just the thought that someone had not wanted him and just dumped him off to die if no one found him made me realize how lucky I am to have the family I have. I have parents who love me and there were probably times when I was growing up that they wanted to dump me to, but they didn’t. They chose to love me and give me a chance at life and to love the God who made me. That little boy didn’t get that chance.
Saturday morning we woke up early and got ready for our monthly church breakfast. Buns, jam, ham, cheese, and coffee filled the table as people walked in as they pleased. We walked around the table making sure that there was always enough plates at the table for those who showed up which meant doing dishes 2 or 3 times within that hour and a half.
After we ate, we split up and had woman/men devotions. Our main passage was Matthew 25:14-30. Following that were some major points:
What is the highest priority in your life? ( Mark 12:29-31 )
How can I put God first in my life? ( Matthew 6:32-34 )
What are the things that are keeping God from being first in my life? ( Proverbs 3:5-6; Luke 12:34 )
What are some benefits of living with right priorities? ( Psalms 127:1-4 )
Even though the whole devotion was in Spanish, it really made me think and made me see what is really high on my priority list.
The youth stayed around all day and Lidia came over and taught us how to make Perogies and Cake de Calabazas. We all took turns rolling out the Perogies and stirring in the ingredients. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed singing Spanish worship songs as we worked. Things like this bond us together more and more with the family here and the whole church in general.
Saturday night/afternoon around 4, we headed to a Christian concert in a very shady part of town. I have never been to a Christian concert where you had to hold on to someone’s hand to make sure people didn’t cut in line and you had to keep your ticket out of sight so no one stole it. We arrived at the stadium at about 6 and stood in line until about 7:15 and the concert was supposed to start at 7 but then again its Peru and things never start on time. The concert was very good and Jesus Adrian Romero is a very good singer. I enjoyed his music even though I didn’t understand much of it. Kevin sat beside me and was translating most of it for me. About 25 to 30 went with us total. We enjoyed it all.
Sunday morning we all stumbled out of bed after a long night and got ready for church. We were to give our drime in front of church and we hadn’t even scouted out our tiny space. We managed to look things through and walk through some of the steps without giving it all away to the people already there.
I have to say that we did good!! We had Jano record it and things looked good. We saw some with tears, some with looks on their faces as if they had been touched, and some didn’t have much to say. They all congratulated us on our job well done and that was enough to cover for how nervous I felt before we preformed.
This morning we woke up at 6 and got ready to meet some more youth and head to the foot hills of the Andes Mountains. We rode 3 different buses for a total of about 2 hours and then hiked for an hour and stopped for a picnic. It was absolutely breathtaking. Words can’t describe the things I saw. I have so many pictures to prove how it looked… but when it comes to words… there aren’t any to share. There was a huge waterfall and while I stood in front of it… I just couldn’t imagine any better place to be. I was in Peru, standing in the Andes Mountains, standing in front of a waterfall, and singing worship songs. How could it get any better? This was the life. This was were I was meant to be. This place at that very moment.
I’m sitting on my bed right now wondering what I’m going to do when I go home. We are down to less then 10 weeks left for this whole TREK experience. I try to think about what its going to be like to go home… and it doesn’t come. I cant even imagine going home at this moment. This is my life, my home, and this is where I’m meant to be. I thank God for this place and for the people he has set in my life. And I know that when the time comes to head back to the life I’ve grown up in… the long to be there will come. I just cant believe that God chose me to serve him in this place, serve to these amazing people, and that God chose me to be his hands and feet at this moment!!