First, Praises for answered prayers. . . ALL the luggage has arrived!! Carey Black finally got her bags yesterday morning while we were at camp. And our first day was a wonderful success and we give all the glory and praise to the Lord for what he is doing here in Northern Peru. Second, prayer requests, in addition to the obvious of praying for the children, the Peruvian helpers, and the work God is doing here in Northern Peru, please continue to pray for our health. A few still have colds/coughs.
Yesterday was our first day of camp. It is being held in 4 different sites. They are all in the city of Moche that is about 10 km south of Trujillo. It is a very rural area and just recently has seen improvements to the road going to Moche. It is now a windy bricked road that certainly had lots of scenery. The Peruvians take this New Year Stuff seriously. They celebrate into the wee morning hours. On the way to camp, the streets were so empty it was spooky. Normally it is lots of traffic and everyone uses the horn--often. It was quiet and a beautiful morning. We drove through Moche to get to the Campina de Moche were we would be having camp. It was a beautiful campsite. With a nice mountain view for the backdrop. Also, you can see Huacas del Sol y de la Luna (Temples of the Sun and the Moon) from the campsite. These are over 700 years old and on the south bank of the Rio Mmoche. The Huaca del sol was the largest single pre-Columbian structure in Peru, although about a third of it has been washed away. It is thought to have been used primarily as a huge ceremonial site. They are also doing archaeologic work on the mountain right beside the temples. They have found bones from sacrifices that were made. Two men would fight and the winner would drag the loser by a rope up to the mountain and sacrifice him. So, in the midst of land that for hundreds of years was used as pagan sacrificial grounds, we started the first day of Reformed Christian Camp of Peru in the shadow of these temples. Where pagans used to sacrifice humans, we are now spreading the Good News and expanding God´s kingdom. It was an awesome day and we praised the Lord for His goodness and mercy and had a fabulous time sharing the gospel through activities and lessons with His precious children of Peru!
We set up our activites in different areas, we had sports, super fun games, crafts, horses, archery and an evangilism tent. Today, we will do the same but instead of crafts, we will have a pool. The children are all bused in and as they arrived, we greeted them with a human tunnel to run through and gave them a Twin Lakes T-shirt. We then started our day with a welcome and prayer and some songs. One of the camp songs is the first question of the shorter catechism set to music and one we also sang in chruch at Larco. Then we split into groups by ages and started to the activies. Each activity has an object lesson to help point them to Christ through that activity.
We had lunch and then an assembly where Paul Nasekos gave the lesson with a live sheep as one of his props. He is teaching through the lessons of Jesus as "I am" and yesterday was "I am the great shepherd." He uses a translator and we also teach the children a bible verse each day. The children were so attentive and learned a lot. After assembly, we had two more activities and then ice cream in home made cones before sending the children home excited about returning for day 2!
After camp, we packed the supplies back up and Emanuel, one of our helpers, drove it back to his church in Moche where he worships. It is the only evangelical church in Moche. We unloaded the gear and then had a treat to go to the beach right behind the church for a quick visit to the Pacific Ocean. The beach was Deliciso beach (Delicious beach). The water was cold, but we all had a great time seeing the ocean and playing on the beach for a short time before heading back to the hotel. We then went to the Ferguson´s for dinner. It has been such a blessing to have that time with the missionaries and a home cooked meal each night. We cannot thank them enough for thier hospitality.
Today is day 2 and we look forward to another wonderful day with the children! Thank you for your prayers and support of this trip. We are so excited that you are working with us in God´s work!
