Hola from Collana! Indya, Andrew and I (Kris) returned back from Collana early this morning by a perilous taxi ride down the mountain and we are so happy to share with you what had happened while we were there! On our 1.45 hour hike up we ran into 2 children (Andie and Eric) who were walking home from school in Matucana. We found out that they walk to and from school everyday, a 2 hour round trip each day. These children value their education and are willing to walk 2 hours a day to go to school, something that I doubt that I would have ever done at their ages (both where younger than 11). While talking to them we found out that they were cousins and their fathers work in the fields on the side of the mountain. We asked Andie how long of a walk it was for her father to walk to the fields, but she said that sometimes he would sleep in the fields because he had so much work to do. Its incredible to think how hard people work here just to get by, yet, in America we complain if we don´t have enough vacation time. It was a huge eye opener for all of us.
We arrived in Collana right before the sun set and began to look for Juan, the pastor of the local church. While doing so, we met a lady (I forgot her name but i´m sure that we wrote it down in a notebook) who welcomed us into her house for some fried doughnuts. They were out of this world, even better than what my mom used to make (sorry mom, she got you there). The only thing better than her doughnuts was her personality. She was a spunky little old lady (video coming soon) We asked her if she met the other group who went up to collana before us. She said no, but she recognized who they were and remembered them leaving in a car. As we asked more peple if they met our friends we found a common theme. Although many did not personally meet them, they remembered them and remembered what they did. It was a quick reminder of how our actions speak louder than words at times.
After a long search of the town, we met Juan who greeted us with open arms. He allowed us to sleep in the church (a simple room on the second floor of a building which was full of dust) and simply told us that what was his is ours now. Before then we had never met Juan, yet, he welcomed us like his own brothers and sisters. It reminded me of the early church in the book of Acts, where the church shared everything with each other. Being on another continent didn´t matter or neither did the language barrier. We were his brothers and sisters in Christ and that was all that mattered.
Later that night we went to the house of Juan´s friend, (once again, I forgot his name but we have it Written down in a book...which is currently sitting in Indya´s bag...in the hostel...3 blocks away from here) who we invited him to come to the church that night. Juan told us that his friend had a Bible and that he has been ministering to him, yet his friend doesn´t want to get baptised or make a sure commitment. So Juan went back to work his fields as we talked to his friend, answering any questions he had about the Bible. He mentioned that early on that his family didn´t wan´t to come to church and that they didn´t believe in the Bible. As soon as he spoke those words, his daughter came into the room and sat down next to him, eager to hear what we had to say. God´s timing is impeccable. Throughout the rest of the night they asked several difficult questions pertaining the Catholicism like `why do priest´s teach something wrong despite having learned the entire Bible´ (pertaining to the veneration of the Virgin Mary and offering stuff to her stature) and `what is the meaning of grace´? We talked for an hour or two and when they left our hearts were overflowing with joy. We would have never have thought that we would have had such an encounter on the first night, but as I said before, God´s timing is perfect.
We spent the next day going through the village, getting to know some of the locals and playing with some of the kids. We taught the story of Zacchaeus the tax cvollector to the children in the local preschool. It took us about 30 minutes to convince the kids to climb onto my back so that they could be Zacchaeus in the tree! Once they warmed up to us they became our best friends, and followed us arround and played with us for the next 2 hours.
That night we held a church service in the building that we were staying in. We were uncertain if anyone was going to come, but at our amazement 10 people showed up (well 9 if you don´t count the little kid who fell asleep and snored the entire service). We taught them Hosanna in both english and spanish, a project that involved many laughs and many more good memories. We taught them the story of the Golden Calf (found in Exodus 32) to show the importance of not having idol´s in their lives. Afterwords we played a game of Musical Chairs where the high school girls had a thing for cheating. Needless to say, the bruise on my thigh is proof of that! Overall, the church service was incredible. The people who came really enjoyed it and we hope that they will continue to go to church after we are gone. To God be all the glory!
Some specific prayers that Juan had was to not forget about him and his church. Collana is very small and Juan claims to be the only Christian int the village, so, pray for him to have the strength to continue to preach the Bible to the People there and for them to be receptive of the Word. Pray that the Church will grow, and for them to understand that Jesus is all that they need for the veneration of the Virgin Mary is a huge problem in all of Collana (and all of Peru).
Pictures will come soon...
....there was no churro man in Collana......
No comments:
Post a Comment