Mission Peru

by Kerry Provost

Two years ago my trip to Peru was defined by brokenness. I prayed for God to break my heart for what breaks his and He did... I met Anna.  Many of you have heard me talk about Anna and almost as many have seen me cry about Anna.  She is the disabled daughter of one of the families in the dump.  I loved her immediately but couldn't bear to think of her.  I am not proud of my inability to control my emotions so before leaving this time I spent a lot of time praying for emotional appropriateness.

I had the opportunity to meet Anna again this year and she is still severely disabled and in many ways seems worse. But God answered my prayers by showing me that there is great joy in being aligned with him in brokenness.  It is the way we are supposed to be and being aligned with Christ is what we strive for.

As the youth on our awesome team cry about what they have seen at the dump or discover the pain of meeting a fatherless child who is lucky to get one meal a day, I can't help but smile in the knowledge that their brokenness, my brokenness is making us more Christ like.  

Don't get me wrong, when I lay down with Anna whose bottom half was wrapped in a garbage bag and her mother told me that she is struggling with more and more seizures, I was holding back some serious tears.  But in that moment I mostly laughed with Anna and marveled at the opportunity to see her brain on an X-ray.  It was abundantly clear to me that God wanted me to love her and laugh with her thereby glorifying Him. 

In John 11 we learn that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  The way it was written it seems clear to me that He did this to bring glory to God and so that his disciples would believe.  Ultimately we have to assume that Lazarus still dies.  Anna will also die as will the people in the dump and in the community adjacent to the dump, regardless of what we bring them or what we do for them.  And so I am reminded that we are not here to save people, we are here to love people.

I assure you that your kids have been doing a phenomenal job in this, through their prayers over people, their laughter with kids and their overall love and caring.  When I had the opportunity to meet Anna again I know that I also had the opportunity to glorify God and that makes me say that I for one choose joy.