Family & Friends,
Praise be to God! What an amazing month in the small but beautiful village of Lahuaytambo I have been blessed with. Just to give you a taste of the village, Lahuaytambo is a very small province in the mountains of Peru.Each morning the people wake up and start their days at the latest by 6am. The stores open from 6-9am and the village comes alive with its people, each preparing for their day in the fields. At 9 they return to their homes prepare their "sack lunch" and head to the fields for a full day of work. They return from the fields around 6pm and the stores again open until about 9pm. They eat their dinner and go to bed ready to do it all again the next day. The foods they grow in the fields is their food for living, the animals they care for and produce are their food as well: milk from the cows provide milk and cheese, wool from the sheep provide yarn for clothing, the chickens provide eggs and meat, they also breed guinea pigs which is a very luxurious dish in the mountains of Peru. They also have a garden down at the bottom of the mountain where they all have a second house. There they produce fruits: apples, avocados, prickle pear, etc. There is not much money in the village because it is its own source of sustenance. What a beautiful way to live, but difficult and challenging I'm sure when the land does not produce!
The team I worked with was awesome and a blessing as well! Our team leader Salomon Grados Panduro is a 26year old Peruvian who has been working with REAP for about 5 years. He has a heart of gold, serving and giving, always laying his life down for his team! He was always challenging us to go deeper in the word and life, encouraging us to continue seeking God, reading his Word and praying at all times! Andrea Gave Fonseca is a 19year old Peruvian student from Lima who took her month of summer break to serve the Lord! She is new to the faith but her energy, excitement, and friendliness are so inspiring! She is a soft and quiet but powerful spirit. The Lord used my teammates to teach me about endurance and patience.
However, what I learned the most this past month was about....Giving; the gift of giving! In order to learn this there was many things the Lord had to teach or reveal to me first. He began by challenging me to give that which was "mine" to others. Wow this can be easy when what you are giving you have in abundance, but when you have a limited supply of something, Oh how difficult it can be! It was a challenge and I had to be humbled greatly. My view on that which is "mine" was changed dramatically. I have been specifically studying His love for a while now and am trying desperately to apply it to my life and by His grace through the Holy Spirit I am learning little by little.
"No greater love has one that one who will lay down is life for another." - John 15:13
God demonstrated the beauty of this to me in Lahuaytambo through 3 people in specific: 1. Paula Rosado 2. Mamita Luz 3. Nilton & Jeanpierre.
1. Paula Rosado: "They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life." - 1 Timothy 6:18
Paula is a beautiful grandmother from Canlle, a village 1hr away from Lahuaytambo that is part o the church people group. The first time we met Paula we helped her harvest potatoes, and we shared our sack lunches with her, as we packed up to leave she pulled out a plastic sack and filled it overflowing with potatoes and insisted we take it. We had come ready to work for whoever the Lord put in our path, ready to share our lunch, but this woman did not expect strangers to show up yet she was ready to share and bless us with a portion of her produce. The second time she was in Lima, but we met her husband Abraham. The third time they were both there, Salomon helped Abraham chop wood, while Andrea and I helped Paula carry the wood from the field to the house, sharing stories and giggling uncontrollably. We ate lunch together, Paula cooked a wonderful lunch "Tallarines Rojos con pollo" and we shared that which we had brought as well. After lunch we went back out to the field, as it grew dark we got ready to head back. Paula in her generous heart asked us to stay for some coffee, dinner and to stay the night in her house as the walk/hike back to Lahuaytambo can be slightly dangerous if you do not know the way and it is dark! She invited us, strangers, to stay in her house! How incredible! Some people won't even invite you into their house just to sit for a small chat and here she had invited us in for lunch and to stay the night. "They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the furture, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life." - 1 Timothy 6:18
2. Mamita Luz: "Blessed is he who is generous to the poor." - Proverbs 14:21b & "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." - Matthew 6:3
Mamita Luz is a grandmother in Lahuaytambo who owns a restaurant; she provided us with the majority of our meals. She continually blessed us with her generous heart giving us large portions and sneaking treats into our sack lunches. And when I got sick she was so worried for me and told me the next day that she had been praying for me, everyday after that she would ask me how I was feeling, still so worried for me, my mother in Lahuaytambo. But one particular day in her restaurant impacted greatly. It was breakfast and as we sat there at the table she brought us our plate of fried sweet potato sandwiches. About 2 minutes later she snuck out the door walking very quickly; I happened to notice she had a sweet potato sandwich in her hand, she came back a minute later empty-handed. Then a minute later I saw a little boy named Nilton outside the door eating the sandwich... We had heard this little boy's mother has mental problems and that his grandmother takes care of him and his 2 siblings, there is no father-figure in the house, and she struggles to provide. Mamita Luz did not desire for us to know she was doing good, God had simply put it on her heart to provide this little boy with a little nourishment and she wanted to obey. "Blessed is he who is generous to the poor." - Proverbs 14:21b & "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." - Matthew 6:3
3. Nilton & Jeanpierre: "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up & walk" - Acts 3:6
Nilton & Jeanpierre are the two little boys I was talking about in the story of Mamita Luz. Nilton is about 8 years old, Jeanpierre is Nilton's little brother of 5 years, and they have an even littler sister. As I mentioned the state of this family is a sad one...and it hurt to see these little boys in the streets running around looking for food and causing problems because they had learned to do whatever it took to get the food, even stealing. One morning we had shared some bread with them...these 2 hand-size bread rolls lasted about 1minute...and it wasn't long before they were begging us for more food...however, we did not have anymore food with us. As we left them I felt this sudden, overwhelming feeling of anger and sadness. It was such a strange feeling...the bread did not last but an instant and they were hungry for more,and this upset me. I desired to give them something that would last them their entire life, we shared the Word with them and later with their grandmother...the truth and love of Jesus Christ, the only thing we could share with them that will last for eternity. "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to y ou. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up & walk" - Acts 3:6
As I meditated on these verses that God was giving me as well as the LIVE examples day after day, I began to realize EVERY-SINGLE-THING I have is a gift, a blessing from God! My family, my church family (in Blair, in Hastings & in Lima), this opportunity to be here in Peru! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING I have is of my own doing, it is ALL by the grace of God! Everything I have is a blessing, it is not "mine"; this Life that I have been given is not my own, it is His, it has been purchased by the blood of Christ! And what better hands to be than in those of the Lord God himself! Therefore, if I have been blessed with this life, none of it is "mine", it is all God's! Thank you Jesus!
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