My fifth Sunday in Peru

May 14

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!!!!!

◦                My first reminder (today) that today is Mothers Day came at midnight when "Las Mañanitas" began to be blared outside our window. That is apparently the custom here, as well as in Ecuador, but I've never heard it happen in Ecuador. It's supposed to be a serenade to the mothers. I say, "If you really live your mother, let her sleep."

◦                Another glorious shower - hot water, good pressure, basically clean

◦                Breakfast - quinoa in some hot liquid gelled with corn starch and little apple pieces and cinnamon - quite good. Also, the ever present bread, and I'm loving the butter!!!

◦                Two lovely lovely meetings.

 I took a walk between meetings. It felt like spring, and I could have kept on walking forever, but it was fortunate that I turned around when I did because just as I got inside, it started to rain. That would have been a "too bad" ending to a lovely walk!

Taken on my walk:

After the last meeting

Jacob didn't join the family picture (below) since he was already conked out in the back of his dad's mototaxi.

Most of Palmira and Celmira's family (at least the ones in Cajamarca)

Sra. María (left) and Sra. Elsa (right) are daughters of don Amadeo.  Sra. Bremilda (center) is another of the local friends.

A few "worker shots" back in the bach after the meetings

Miriam and me

Add Sara

A picture of the cousins

(Second cousins once removed, to be exact!)

◦                Spent the time between the last meeting and our supper trying to figure out how to get the Spanish hymns on Sue's phone with little success.

◦                Supper was super super special. The young folks were so anxious to serve and they had prepared a lovely meal. After eating, I shared my testimony. Then, Trevor asked Silwers about his family, and he basically ended up telling his testimony. It was beautiful. Basically, his family was/is Catholic, but it had never filled him. When they would recite their prayers, he would think, "We should be thinking about what we are saying" and would try to be sincere about everything that he was repeating. Even so, it didn't do anything for him. He talked about seeking in other churches and his disappointment in not finding answers. He talked about trying to just be a good person according to his own standards, but it wasn't enough. Finally he met Rosemery through work and saw something different in her. She invited him to meetings, and he saw that it was different than anything he'd seen before. And he talked about his deep thankfulness to God for taking him out of the darkness and bringing him into the light. He was quite broken in the feeling, and it was evident that what he has found in the gospel means everything to him. Really special! And as we were saying good bye, Gonzalo thanked me for what I had shared about waiting. So, who knows?! The picture that we took after supper tonight could be a picture full of future workers!

Dishing up the plates

And storing leftovers

Back: Silwers, Ántony, don Juanito, Álex(???)

Middle: Rosmery, Betty (niece of Olinda), Pablo, don Pedro, Ofelia, Gonzalo

Front: Sue (holding Betty's niece), Sara, Beverley, Flor, Miriam

Sara and Álex(???)

Flor and Gonzalo

◦                One more shower that I know will be good before heading off into another unknown.

◦                Breakfast in the morning at 6:30. Then downstairs with our luggage by 7:30 to be able to leave for Olmos by 8:00. I'm hoping for an early night.

◦                Not such an early night. All the young people came over to "our" house to clean up from the super preparations and ended up staying for a quite a while. It would have been nice to go up and have a little more time with them. I think they were sharing their testimonies. But somehow, I just felt like being alone with all the events of the day to think about. I probably ended up showering somewhere around 9:00, but it was another blissful shower and worth the wait.