Arequipa

After a night on the plane, nearly twenty-four hours, we arrived in Arequipa. All of our bags made it all the way intact. Praise the Lord.

We met Peruvian friends we had made just a year ago,soeem like old friends now. Our common love for the Lord crossed barriers of language and culture. Pastor Pablo brought Andrea and Adrian along - there was no other way for Andrea and Lindsey. They became close last year and kept up through social media. They were anxious to see each other again.

We boarded a large air conditioned bus for the orphanage. We had some down time to rest. Pastor Pablo, David, Robert, and I went out to exchange money and buy supplies, like bottled water and soft drinks.

Thursday evening we joined a local church for their evening service. I'm pretty sure this was a special service since it was such an odd time of the week. Still a good crowd of church members showed up. Between our team and the church, we filled the sanctuary.

The young people on our team picked up where they left off last year, and Cindy was drafted as well. Walker played guitar while Meagan, Lindsey, Andrea, Adrian, and Cindy sang "Open the Eyes of My Heart" in Spanish.

Next we did the "Chicken skit." Pastor Pablo began addressing the crowd, while the team stood off to the sides. Suddenly, we all moved around him acting like chickens: pecking, scratching at the ground, bobbing our heads forward and back, and, of course, clucking and crowing. Soon Pastor Pablo asked what we were doing. We responded "Nosotros pollos." (We are chickens.) He asked, "Why do you think you are chickens?" Three team members had memorized responses in Spanish like: "I have chicken legs," and "I'm a mother hen." Pastor Pablo explained that having chicken legs and acting like a mother hen didn't make us chickens. We walked back to our places disappointed.

Pastor continued addressing the crowd. This time we interrupted him acting like cars. He explained that things like sleeping in a garage and having a spare tire didn't make us cars. Again, we were disappointed.

Finally, we interrupted him by acting like Christians. He explained that giving money to the church, having a long family history in the church, and singing in the choir did not make us Christians. Then he explained to the congregation what it really means to be a Christian.

I was on the schedule to preach. The Vacation Bible School theme at Hickory Grove Baptist Church this year was Agency D3. I taught lessons on evidence about Jesus. To tie the lessons together, I made an evidence wall on a disposable table cloth. It included things witnesses said about Jesus, things Jesus said about Himself, and pictures of paintings about these events. We answered these questions using eyewitness testimonies from the Bible: Was Jesus God's Son? Was Jesus more than just a man? Did Jesus really die? And Is Jesus alive? The challenge was, what do we do with this evidence?

Gaby Carhuachin translated for me and did an excellent job. The church was really involved in every part of the service and the pastor dubbed me Pastor Kurt. I don't consider that a call or an ordination, but the team has enjoyed referring to me with this title since.

After the service the team went out to dinner. This food was not worthy of social media, like the airplane food from the day before. It was Papa John's. A warm shower and a bed were just what we needed after trying to sleep in the air the night before.