Peru In Review

Hi there, friends. I’m here to share some thoughts, memories & experiences from Peru 🙂 I hope you enjoy! 

Location: Lima, Peru 

Arrival: July 5

Departure: September 3 

Days: 61 (This was our longest stay in a country this year.) 

Team: Candor – Kayla, Jamie, Steph, Me, Madison (Squad Leader) 

Living conditions: For a majority of the month, my team was in Lima (more on that below), and during this stay, we were on a 3rd floor apartment. It had two large bunk bed rooms and two smaller rooms, a kitchen and a large living space. It was very open; for example, one wall of the kitchen was open to the outside and just had a mesh material over the space. Super interesting. 

The best part about the month in this apartment was shopping for & cooking our own meals. There was a market just down the road with every kind of fruit & veggie for VERY cheap. You just take a handful of coins and buy fresh, vibrant produce. I spent $8-$10 for about a weeks worth of peppers, onions, carrots, broccoli, tomato, cilantro, lime strawberries, bananas, blueberries, & avocados. The avocado in Peru was the best I have ever tasted — I unashamedly ate guacamole every single day. The experience of shopping in the market & cooking fun meals with fresh fruit and vegetables will rank in my favorite experiences of this entire year. 

Weather: After 6 months in hot, muggy, humid, sunny countries, we found ourselves on the other side of the equator. Winter. Our time in Lima was defined by cold, foggy, cloudy days. When I say cold, it was in the 50s and 60s and pretty windy. Having an open-to-the-outdoors house, our month was spent bundled up in our sleeping bags anytime we were home. I personally loved the break from the hot and getting to wear cozy clothes. 

Best Food: If I am honest, it was my daily guacamole, but for the sake of a culturally informative blog post, I will say it was “picarones.” These were basically donuts with sweet potato somehow included in the dough, and after frying them, they were covered in honey. They could be found at almost any street corner and I had to stop myself from eating them every time I saw them. 

Ministry: Our ministry for the month was a difficult one. The Lord used it to teach my team and I the importance of good doctrine & Bible-teaching leaders in the church. Let me explain. 

We worked with a different church each week while we were in Lima. The theme we saw in each church was their expectation of us, as “missionaries,” to “bless” them, to “heal” them, and to ask God for something on their behalf and be heard based on us being from America/labeled American missionaries/something of that sort. The sad reality we came to was that these people have been misled. There have been pastors and teachers that have preceded us & taught that missionaries from America bring what we know as the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel teaches “health, wealth prosperity” — that Jesus came and died to give us these things when the truth of the gospel is that Jesus came and died to save us from our sins and restore our relationship with a holy God. 

It was very sad to see how false teaching can impact the church and what the people desire and believe. 

It was hard to realize that these problems created by false teachers are foundational and will likely take years of truth-teaching to undo what is understood now. 

It was difficult to see that these people didn’t think their prayers were heard by God and that is why we were so relied on to pray blessings and healing over them. 

My team had many discussions about these three topics:

1. the necessity of good doctrine in churches (1 Timothy 4:6-7)
2. the importance of our own personal knowledge of Scripture (for how are we to know what is not in Scripture if we do not know what is in Scripture?)
3. that any preacher of the Word of God should be held to a higher standard because they are not only responsible for themselves, but for those who follow them (1 Timothy 4:16) 

It wasn’t easy to see the real life repercussions of false teaching in churches. Our prayer leaving Lima was that, in those churches we encountered, the Lord reveals truth and brings people to point back to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Memorable Day: I wrote about this in my last post (To Know & To Know), so I am just going to copy & paste it here. 

The memorable day was getting to meet up with two families that I was in language school with in Costa Rica in 2021: the Coopers and the Hayes!!!!!  They both finished late last year in their language studies and are now permanent residents of Peru. There were a lot of factors that played into this meeting. The Hayes live in the jungle and are rarely in Lima My ministry just “happened” to be only about 45 minutes from where the Coopers live. The day that I planned to meet up with the Coopers was the same day that the Hayes “happened” to be in the same area of Lima. We had a joyous ILE reunion at the zoo and spent the day catching up on life and reminiscing about our time in Costa Rica. Not a coincidence that all of that worked out. 

Debrief City: Cusco, Peru

Here are somenotable experiences from our debrief week at the end of the month: 

1. Our bus ride from Lima to Cusco was 24 hours, so we started midday one day, rode through the night, and arrived midday the next day. It was as miserable as it sounds. The effects of curvy roads through the Andes mountains and the altitude change had us all nauseous and it is near impossible to sleep in those cramped seats in the freezing cold. 
2. The city of Cusco was  a m a z i n g . It is by far my favorite city i’ve ever been too…ever. It is surrounded by majestic mountains, has cobblestone roads and historic buildings and churches, has tons of fun restaurants and coffee spots and is just so full of character. I enjoyed every second spent exploring the streets of this beautiful place. 
3. Machu Picchu!! Yes, we went! It was quite the day. This attraction is not an easy place to get to. First, you take a two hour bus to from Cusco to another town, a two hour train ride (lots of fun!) then another short bus straight up a mountain and finally, arrival. The ruins are fascinating, the mountains are stunning, the history is intriguing, the location is unbelievable. 
4. We spent an extra week in a tiny town called Lucre where we, as a squad, fellowshipped, worshipped, prayed, studied Scripture, rested, played games, told stories, and reminisced. It was a good time of rest before launching into an insane travel week then our last three months of ministry in Africa !!
5. My new number one recommendation of places to visit in the world is now Cusco, Peru & a day trip to Machu Picchu while you are there! 

This sums up our two months spent on the continent of South America! We have now made it through our travel insanity from Peru to Eswatini. It is an adjustment being in a new country, continent, time zone, ministry, living space, team, etc. Thank you for you prayers concerning our travels. Prayer requests now would be for our adjustment to all of the change, endurance as the end is in sight but still out of reach, and patience with each other since we are all 16 living in a VERY small space. Thank you, again and again, for following along on this journey and for faithfully praying for me. Love to you all.