A Day to Relax - 2/29/08

2008

Mar 4

Written By

Today was a day that was very much so looked forward to by the whole team. Our day off!! Not wanting to sleep the day away, we met for devotions around 9:30am on the rooftop. Daniel expounded on the passage of John 15. Abiding continually in Christ has been something I have been learning myself lately. Not just knowing Christ but having the intimate relationship with Him. God delights in spending time with us. Does that not make us long to spend time with Him?! If we are not in His word, learning about the ways of God, how do we expect fruit to come out of our lives? Okay, onto our day…

Our 1^st stop was a boat ride on the ocean. Once we arrived at our destination and got off the bus, we almost immediately saw the boat driver Jose. He had no idea we were going to be there but as he said, “God always makes our paths cross!” (Elizabeth has taken other teams on this same ride with the same driver in the past.) He was a very energetic guy. Loved to laugh! He took us out to sea and we rode the waves. It was good to breath air that wasn’t full of dust, exhaust, and dirt! Jose also let a few of the guys be the captain for a few minutes. Luckily we made it back to land alive!

Smelly Fish Back on land, we stopped for a few minutes to look at a small stand of jewelry. Some got some really good deals! On the way to browse the fresh fish market, we saw a sea lion on shore basking in some sun! At the market, they definitely had some interesting sea creatures! And of course, it smelled like…fish!

We then headed out for lunch at Café Café in the same shopping plaza we had ate ice cream at earlier on in the week. We have really been eating good food here. That is a blessing.

Our stomachs were full, we were happy, and off we went to the Inka Market to bargain for some Peruvian souvenirs! Elizabeth gave us a few tips on how to bargain…which helped a lot! One thing we did have to keep in mind is that these Peruvians have to make a living too so we couldn’t bargain them down too much. After a while of shopping we gathered our belongings and headed back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and a few feeble people. We also picked up Cristy and Pastor Salazar.

in front of fountain The biggest attraction we went to today was the Circuito Magico del Agua. Here they call it the Water Park. It is a park of 13 different water fountains of different sizes and shapes! One of the ones we liked the best was one fountain that played along with a medley of songs. They even had pictures inside the water! The person who thought of that had to be a genius! After walking and walking and walking some more, we finally found the exit and got on the bus to eat.

Finding something to eat that was fast and easy wasn’t the easiest thing to do. We went to 3 or 4 different places before we settle for take out pizza @ Domino’s. We had to walk a ways to get there but it was a blessing in disguise because we were able to witness to 2 little kids while waiting for our pizza. There was a little boy whose name was Juan who did a juggling show for us for some sol’s. He made a lot of money that night from our team. Cristy asked Pastor if he could translate for us so we could witness to him. Of course Pastor was happy to. He thrives talking to children. He told us that you need to be direct with the people here. We don’t need to beat around the bush! The kids here are so open. They are also hungry for attention and affection. A little while into talking with Juan, his cousin Wendy joined us. By the end of our time at Domino’s, we were able to pray for these two kids. Pray that we were able to touch the lives of these kids. I don’t think they will forget their time with us. Please continue to pray for the rest of our team; some are still sick and lacking energy. Tomorrow is our last day in Callao...praying all goes well!

Lacey, for the team

Our energetic boat driver. (Note to Jacob Matchak - he's still asking when you're coming back!)