Silencio Means...
Monday, August 13
“How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance.” Psalm 89:15
Peru is a land of sound. You notice it as soon as you leave the airport: a constant din of honking taxis, street side capitalists shouting their wares, construction hammering, mariachi bands practicing, and, if you listen carefully enough, fruit doves cooing.
Today the Hotel Britania resounded with ecstatic cheering…not because of new and wonderful experiences, but because today was…Laundry Day!! Everyone on the team was much gratified to deposit our dirty laundry at a small laundromat in downtown Lima, probably financing their entire next year’s supply of Inca Kola.
We are all feeling ready to sing praises today. First of all, we are much relieved to be back on familiar turf in a very comfortable hotel with consistent showers and internet! We had a great outing to the Inca Market to play tourist and buy souvenirs and cachi-vachis (Spanish for ‘stuff’). Also today we have been blessed to see God show His might when we prayed together for each other. It was a great thrill to see the team pull together as we lifted our voices in prayer for a team member who wasn't feeling good. God hears prayer, folks, no kidding. It was amazing to see Him work as we raised our voices to Him in spiritual battle. One other blessing was that the church provided dinner for us after the kids’ program, which helped immensely (no late-night restaurant visits tonight!)
Tonight was the first night of the Lima CI. We have been so blessed by the Lima church, who have made numerous preparations for the program. It was great to feel prepared for the kid’s coming. They’re great kids, all 37 of them…a small start, but we are praying for more tomorrow night. They all caught on to the verses and songs very quickly; Peruvian kids are really musical and seem to love learning and practicing the songs! Of course they also have a lot of trouble being quiet when they should…Peruvian kids don’t seem to know what “quiet” means…and we would know, because we spent nearly the whole night shouting “Silencio!” (Spanish for ‘why don’t we all talk to our neighbor very loudly!’) The kids caught on really quickly to the ‘firecracker clap’ and saying “Oooooh…Aaaaahhhh….Beeeeautiful!” as a part of one of the skits.
Bus rides between the hotel and the church are filled with lots of talking, laughing, review of the day’s lesson, and singing of Children’s Institute songs (yes, they do have a tendency to get stuck in our heads.)
Pray for the Children’s program this week, that the kids would catch the tune of the songs we teach them, but that they would also catch a little of the song in our hearts. Pray that the people of Peru would be blessed with the joyful sound and that they would walk in the light of His countenance!
Joanna Spindler
Praying and planning with the translators
Creating a clay man for the armor of God craft. It's interesting that as we have been teaching the kids about the armor of God we have experienced the reality of the spiritual battle that is often a part of ministry. May these children be better prepared to face spiritual battle themselves and stand strong in the Lord because of the truths they hear this week.
