Home Again!
It's hard to even know where to start, so I'll start at the beginning of the trip. I arrived at DFW at 5:15am on Saturday, June 21st. Didn't see anyone from the mission's team so checked in my bag and waited around. Finally, I saw a group of folks in the same shirt (we were given matching tee-shirts to travel in). At first, I couldn't understand why we needed to be there 3 hours prior to our flight time but that became abundantly clear! With a group of 57 people it takes a looooong time to tag bags, check them in, get boarding passes and finally get everyone through security. Along the way, I met a lovely lady named Tiffany who works with an organization called "Orphan Outreach" here in the DFW area. She was joining our team for ministry in Arequipa and also going to be meeting with folks about their work expanding into Peru. She is a Co-Founder of Orphan Outreach. We had great conversations about her family, her ministry, my past missions' experiences and helped each other pass the time until we boarded our flight. She has a great story of how God called her into missions and told her to leave a very lucrative career in advertising. Her husband was on the same page and this decision changed the course of their lives. It was a delight to meet Tiffany, and I am sure we will meet up again soon for coffee at home. We made it to our gate with a cup of Dunkin in hand at 7:30, one hour prior to departure. Fun fact, I shared a row on the plane with 2 guys on our team named Sterling or Sterling2 as I like to call them. LOL
Our first leg was to Miami which was a smooth flight. I was concerned during our 3-hour layover as my checked bag showed picked up for transfer but not that it had arrived onto the plane. Eventually I found someone to help me who assured my bag would be on the plane to Lima. It was, thankfully. When we arrived in Lima it was a looooong (this word will be used a lot!) time to get our bags, head to the chartered buses then get to the hotel. We arrived at 11pm after having dinner of a chicken empanada on the bus. It was a tasty treat! I didn't know my roommate prior to the trip but we hit it off and got settled into our room for the night. There was a very nice gift of a bag, water bottle, two tee-shirts, some snacks and a sweatshirt from the team of Camino de Vida (Way of Life) Church that we were working with for the outreaches during our stay.
Sunday morning, we had breakfast & devotions at the hotel and went to the church at Camino de Vida in Lima. My now good friend, Kris, shared about God's mission in Matthew to We were warmly welcomed by everyone and blessed by the worship and message shared that morning. There were even a couple baby dedications in the service. After church we went back to the airport (with all our bags; spent only one night in Lima) for our flight to Arequipa; the second largest city in Peru. Another hotel check-in then dinner and orientation of what was planned for the days ahead. Next a bunch of us went to work helping bag meds with the Pharmacists on our team - ibuprofen, acetaminophen & antibiotics. Then got a good night's sleep to prepare for starting the clinic in the morning.
Well, that's the first two days. I can write more but want to get an update posted for you all to see! There will be more to follow.
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