Mission Peru

by Kerry Provost, West London Alliance Church

I want to tell you how I feel about a particular experience I have had but I also want to tell you about how your kids and your representatives have impressed me with their ability to tackle the emotional and physical challenge of the day. So here is a small portion of my journal entry pertaining to our visit to the city dump on July 3.

Today was the day we went to the city dump. I thought I was prepared for the dump, knowing that we would see people living and working amongst the trash. We had purchased fruit (lots of fruit) as well as rice, beans and carrots to distribute and we also had shoes, shirts and various other items. There are no words to describe how it felt to walk ankle deep in smoldering trash to hand an orange to a man with 1 leg who is digging through garbage for recyclables to sell. Garbage is picked through 4 times here before it gets to the dump in Peru so little more than the toilet paper I am not allowed to flush is left. We all prayed that we would not be paralyzed by awkwardness and fear going into the dump and I must say, as a leader of 12 of the youth, that I did not see one paralyzed with fear. Each on did a phenomenal job “serving the least of these” Mathew 25: 31 – 40, and I myself struggled to reach the standard that they had set for serving God’s people. They played soccer in the trash as if they were playing soccer with Jesus, they handed out oranges while shaking hands and smiling as if they were handing oranges to Jesus. Most impressively some even helped load a cart with bags of trash as if they were helping Jesus.

For those who know about my personal cry count….I have decided to count today as one since I have been crying on and off all day and by God’s Grace I must say only at appropriate moments.

It is not hard to question why we are so blessed with stuff and they are not but I have learned today that our stuff is not our blessing. It might even be that those we served today are more blessed than we are. I can’t believe that God blesses me more than he blesses them, instead I choose to change my perspective. Blessings are not clothing or steak dinners, brick houses or nice cars, rather blessings are God’s grace and love and the joy that comes from hope in Christ and the salvation he has given us. We must rest on these facts not only because they are the truth but also because it is these truths that allow us to see the people we served yesterday as equals. I choose not to be afraid of head lice or dirt, smell and disease but to shake hands and hug and share reminders with each other (this was not one way) of God’s true blessings and assurances that this pain is temporary. I kneeled in the back of a car speaking with a young girl lying motionless with spinabifida, rubbing her leg and telling her she was beautiful. In this moment my tears flowed freely between her mother and myself and I needed to be reminded of how to choose joy in a moment like that.

We all need to process what we have seen a little more but I am sure that many share my sentiment that my heart is now broken for what breaks my Lord’s.