Day Eight Part Two - "We were terrorized by the Floods"

I remember the floods in Peru last January, we prayed and I asked others to pray for those in Cusco. We had already planned to go to Cusco so this was going to add to our list of opportunities to help.
We drove to the worst area outside of Cusco, house after house was turned into rubble. Most of the houses are made of adobe and straw, . . adobe tends to give to standing water.
The team spread out to minister to as many as possible.
Jen, Jorge (Pastor of Cusco Maranatha Church) and I approached two ladies sitting outside their plastic homes. I asked them what happened. The elderly lady spoke with such humility and sadness, she said, "The floods came in the middle of the night, we weren't warned or prepared. We all thought the waters would go down, instead they came up at night and we are lucky to be alive." She then began crying, it was more of a quiet weep. She said, "We were terrorized. We can't sleep well at night, keep dreaming about it happening again."
The have been living in these refugee plastic homes. Basically its four poles that are wrapped with heavy plastic. "USAID" is all over them (see pic below), it felt good to know that the US was involved in helping at some point. . . but it is now seven months and the people still live in these shelters that are not very good. Its freezing cold at night and burning in the day as plastic exaggerates temperatures to the extreme. You never hear about the Peru refugees anymore on the news. We are moved by current disasters but soon forget those left behind without any help.

We were moved to pray with them and give them bibles. Jen then grabbed two blankets that we brought from our home and wrapped them around the two ladies. They were moved to tears again and thanked us over and over again. They were so gracious, so grateful and so hurt. Jorge's church had already delivered over 1 ton of supplies and more was coming. When is the government going to allow them to rebuild? Who knows but they need help soon. O Lord, please provide a way for these people to find safe shelter.
It was awesome to do this with Jen and the other sick members of our team. Thank You Lord that they are feeling better.

Next Stop: Orphanage in Cusco
We have always visited orphanages in almost every country where we do missions. Its always a painful and joyful experience to see the children. This was no exception. We were moved by this kids, so loving and happy in this new family. Most of them were abandoned or abused and the government placed them here. This orphanage is run by American missionaries (See pic on lefso the conditions (by our standards) were much better than other ones we have seen. The children looked happy, cared for and secure. We were impressed with the work they are doing with these children. They are currently building a new orphanage in the jungle and will move there once complete. Of course funds are short so we hope to help somehow. The cool thing is that most of these kids go to the school run by David's sister Mary, the one we painted and taught parents. Both ministries collaborate together to help the orphans, its awesome.
We sand happy birthday to two orphans and I pulled out my old trick - Animal Balloons. At first it was just me but soon the Peruvians swarmed me to help make the giraffes and small dogs. I am really good at making those, any other animal I try to make looks more like your lower intestine than an animal. The kids loved them and so did the adults. Jen again was the last one to leave, she loves orphans and her heart is so moved by them. She makes friends quick and ends up hurting so much for them.

We left home exhausted but satisfied after a very long day in the mountains with the Quechua youth, the flood refugees and the orphans of Cusco.

Pic on left is Pastor Mark Eisold giving balloons to orphans. He and his wife Sandi are moving to Lima Peru in December as LCMS missionaries. They are dear friends and we were so excited to introduce them to Peru and our friends in Peru. Pleased pray for them and support their awesome work in Peru.

Tomorrow is our last day in Cusco as we fly to Lima and Miami! I love what we are doing but I really miss my kids. I can't wait to get home.