Take my Hand and Lead my On

After walking for years down the road of life alone, what a glorious moment it was when my small, baby-sized hand slid into God’s mighty, guiding hand the day of my salvation. Throughout the years as we traveled, He never left my side and never let go of my hand. Oh, certainly there were times where, as a fascinated child, I tried to wriggle my little hand from His, but His firm grip held fast as the alluring pleasures slipped by ever so quickly. Numerous times His firm hold kept me from the fleeting pleasures of the world and directed me on the right path with eternal rewards in the end. With my reaching for the temporal, He constantly pulled me to Himself reassuring me of His capability to provide me with the best.
At times, I reluctantly followed my all-wise Leader, like a child being pulled away from a pet store window, and at other times, I charged ahead seemingly pulling my Guide to the next bigger and better thing. Yet, through it all, our hands never released their enjoined position. He put up with my fighting with a gentle tug drawing close His side.
Without worries or cares throughout part of our journey through life, our hands hung relaxed at our sides or swung happily in the air, yet those same hands could be seen later on in our journey with white knuckles – the times where allurements that I followed so quickly after did not make the difficult paths any easier.
At times, the path was slippery where I could not get a firm step in of my own and would stumble and fall, but my sure-footed Guide pulled me up those precarious paths with divine strength, and I would cling to Him vowing I would never again wander far from His side.
Yet, further down the road of life, after following my own desires, plans and dreams, I found myself without a foot-hold with a chasm below my dangling feet, and while over such an abyss crying for forgiveness, the strong hand of the Lord, continually with His hand securely holding mine, would again pull me safely to Himself. Throughout all the fascinations, the slippery paths, and the numerous times I stumbled and fell, my God was always there holding my hand and leading me on.
Throughout the path of life, as even now it winds and twists and the next step is not certain, I can walk with confidence with my hand in the mighty hand of my all-knowing Guide, knowing that He will never leave. With Him always by my side, I can face the difficult road with this prayer always on my lips: “Take my hand and lead me on.”

Cusco

Just three short days after getting back to Lima from Chinchil, the group and I were on the road again for other adventures. We took the hour long flight to Cusco instead of opting for the twenty-four hour long bus ride. (It took that long because it was all in the mountains weaving back and forth up the mountains.) We figured we spent enough time on the bus to Huacrachuco. Upon arriving in Cusco, we met up with Rachel Tarvin, a single missionary who lives in the seminary in Urubamba. She acted as our chauffeur and tour guide throughout Cusco, Urubamba, and Arin. With this trip to Cusco, we got to play tourist for six days. It was nice to relax in a different sort of way.
We attended classes at the seminary our first day and visited a famous pottery workshop. The following day we were able to visit one of the Seven Wonders of the World: Machupicchu, an ancient Incan settlement nestled in the Andes Mountains. On our way back to the seminary, we crossed paths with Jake, a lone traveler from Michigan who immediately took us for missionaries, since we were young, happy Americans in Peru. We talked with him for a while and soon went our separate ways leaving him to find his cheap room for the night. After getting in the combi, our hearts sank as we realized what an opportunity we had to share the Gospel with him, yet we did not make it a main topic in our conversation. After getting back to the seminary, we decided that we would head out early in the morning to search for him. In a tourist town of about 12,000 people, the chances of finding Jake again were slim to none, but God answered our prayers with a “yes.” After talking with some teenagers about the Gospel, Caleb and I quickly began our way back to the plaza to meet up with the rest of our group. While coming up a hill, Jake was passing by on a cross-street. We quickly went up to him and invited him to see some ruins with our group. He accepted and ended up spending the entire day with us on Saturday. He even went back to the seminary with us and helped us clean out a storage room. We enjoyed our time with him and before he left, Caleb was able to share with him why we had wanted to find him again. Caleb was able to share the gospel message with Jake and exchange e-mail addresses as well. It was amazing to see how God worked everything out in his timing and how He allowed us another chance to talk to Jake again. We were reminded of how we ought always to take the opportunities to talk about God and His Word that we have, because we may not be given a second chance.
Sunday we were able to visit two different churches and participate in their services. Again, it was such a blessing to fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ. Monday we got to go whitewater rafting and enjoy being out on the river. We had a great guide who allowed us to play around carefully with the rapids and later on allowed us to jump off a bridge into the deep part of the river. We jumped from some Incan-placed rocks some sixteen feet above the water. It was a beautiful day to be outside, as the sun shone on our rocking raft. That night we were able to walk around the different plazas in Cusco. It was beautiful. The lamps in the plazas gave the sky a golden glow and folk music from the restaurants nearby could be heard. Later on, it began raining lightly, which caused the wet sidewalks to reflect the lamp’s glow. Tuesday we took a tour van to a place to ride horses to see different ruins around Cusco. The horses were not the tame animals that are normally used for tour groups, but now, after-the-fact, we enjoyed the heart-racing times when the horses would break into a gallop.
The trip to Cusco was our last trip together as a team for a while. We left Caleb in Urubamba to help missionary Tim Whattley and his family, while Janae and Rochelle left on Friday for Chimbote to work with Steve and Molly Stillwell. Tessha and I are staying in Lima for this time to work with our Peruvian father, the pastor of our church here in Ate. These next six months will be our time of internship where we will be able to put into practice what we have learned by taking part in teaching Sunday school, doing kids clubs, working with the youth group, having discipleship meetings, working at camp during the summer months of January and February, and independently studying our Spanish. I would appreciate your prayers as November and December are the slower months of our getting into this internship time. Pray that I will use my time wisely and work the hardest that I can in the tasks that God brings before me.

Chinchil

After getting to Josue’s house, we were all too excited to crawl into bed that night after hiking for the majority of the daylight hours. I stayed on the second floor of the mud house where all I had to worry about was making it safely up the ladder and not walking on the weak spots on the floor. The ones who slept on the main floor had other worries, like that of having the piglets trying to get into your room in the morning. There were three main buildings on Josue’s land: the building with all of the rooms (the two-story building), the building with the kitchen, storeroom, and dining room, and the little shack behind the hill (the outhouse). There was a faucet in the center of the area where all the water came from. There was no other running water besides that. After waking up in the morning and cautiously making it down the rickety ladder, I made my way through the mud, the chickens, piglets, and dogs to get ready for the morning with the ice cold water. I was thankful for the presence of water as opposed to having to haul the water from a stream.
The kitchen was a tiny room, big enough only for the stone stove, a little table, and a few people. The meals that came from the kitchen were delicious as we were able to have the meat right from their livestock. Mutton and pork were the staples. It was interesting to see them slaughter one of their sheep, since I had never seen the slaughtering and cleaning of an animal before. The dining room was another small room with three short tables in the shape of a “U.” We could fit about eight people in the room at a time, but whenever one person wanted to get out, everyone else, it seemed, had to leave the room. It was a time of close fellowship and we enjoyed our times around the tables.
Since the people live off of their land and their animals, animal noises could be heard throughout the day and the night. Donkey brays were heard around three in the morning, the rooster (I believe it must have been blind) would crow in about five minute intervals making it difficult to fall back asleep during the wee hours of the morning while pigs squealing and sheep bleating could be heard at any hour. It was quite a hilarious time listening to all the sounds of the night in the mountains. One night in particular as Tessha and I were about asleep, the donkey went off with the loudest brays I had ever heard. We both erupted into laughter as soon the rooster joined in to add the harmony to the lullaby.
It was a great experience in the mountains. The sights were unbelievable as looking through our window in the morning the clouds covered the nearest mountains, but as the day progressed, the clouds lifted showing the splendor of God’s creation. The mountains were speckled with herds of sheep and goats while the colorful clothes of the shepherds stood out against the green background. The majesty of the mountains is something impossible to describe, likewise the majesty of the Creator and our all-powerful God is something that no words can even come close to explain.

Ministry in Chinchil

While in Chinchil, we were able to have kids clubs for three days. Throughout those days, we covered the entire Gospel message starting with the first sin and finishing with the provision of eternal life for those who believe in Christ’s work on the cross. We had a great time with the children, but found some things to be more difficult in Chinchil than in Lima. For example, it was the first time that a pig had interrupted our kids club, and that it rained so hard on the tin roof that we could not be heard, but also a huge difference was that the children speak Quechua in their houses and learn Spanish in school, so the younger ones were at a disadvantage. Often times, the older siblings would be translating as we were teaching and talking with them. There were no decisions of salvation during that week, but we thank God for the opportunity we had to share the gospel with the people there.
Each night we had services in the small little mountain church. The first night, the village people were all standing outside the church with their flashlights waiting for the pastor to unlock the door. Once we were inside, we sat down on little benches about a foot off of the ground. Due to the loss of electricity, we used our flashlights through the whole service. It was a unique experience taking part in the services there, but a sweet time of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Along with planning the lessons for the kids club, we also were in charge of getting the church ready for a wedding. Josue, the missionary in Chinchil was to be married while we were there, so we had the privilege of getting the church ready for the special day. Thankfully, the electricity came back on in time for the wedding after being off for about three days. We had an enjoyable time getting the church decorated and later on participating in the service. It was a unique situation as all five of us ARRIBA students took part in the ceremony without knowing the bride or the groom. It was a blessing to see the hearts of Josue and his wife ready to minister to the people of Chinchil together. It was a great week to see the work of Josue and to see the needs of the people in Chinchil.

On the Way to Chinchil

The ARRIBA team and I were able to take a trip to a beautiful mountain village along with eight other Peruvians from local churches in Lima. After traveling about twenty-four hours by bus, we stopped in Huacrachuco, a large city in the mountains. From Huacrachuco, the plan was to take a combi (a mini bus) for about two hours to meet up with some men from Chinchil with horses and mules. While in our combi ride, it began to rain and hail. The hail did not last very long, but a light rain continued as we were dropped off. The dirt roads quickly turned to mud and the realization that he horses and mules were not there made us quickly decide to begin walking with our luggage. The sun came out which made things a bit better, but the heavy burdens on our backs made us question the necessity of some of the items we had packed for our week-long trip. After about two hours of walking with our luggage, the welcome sight of horses was in the distance. After strapping our duffle bags to their backs, we were able to cover more ground more quickly. I followed after three Peruvians from the Carlton’s church that had come with us from Manchay. We were the lead group and arrived at our destination around seven that night about a half of an hour after nightfall, having walked about eight hours through the mountains. With the help of passersby, we made it safely to the missionary’s house. Slowly, the others straggled in with the horses and mules, but tow never came that night. Groups of men from Chinchil and other villages went out searching only to resume their search in the morning. The two were found and made it safely to Chinchil. We thank God for his protection during our time on and off the trail and the wondrous sights we saw on our way.