today i'd love to share emi's follow up letter from her mission trip to Peru this summer.
to those of you that prayerfully supported her
& those that financially supported her
we are eternally grateful!
Hello family and friends,
Thank you all so much for helping me with my trip. It was a blessing to have your help and support throughout my time in Peru. I appreciate it very much!
I will never forget Peru and having the opportunity to attend. I learned a lot about myself, people, the Lord, and how to grow deeper into the Word. When we first arrived we had to take an 8 hour bus ride to get to where we were going, which was Huarz. On that many kids got sick, some had to be on air because they were short on breath, and most other sicknesses were just stomach and headaches. With everyone’s prayers the kids got better, and were able to join the rest of us with what we were doing. When we were in Huarz most of what we did was construction work; we helped build the preschool part of the church then painted the preschool room, we also cleaned up around the church. During the nights we had youth rally’s and would share testimonies and sing songs, I will never forget the smile on the Peruvians faces when they listened to our testimonies and especially when we sang, they loved singing with us, they would jump up and down, they had so much joy within them, it was amazing.
Although it was very hard to leave Huarz, I knew we were headed to Yungay and I was thrilled to go there, I knew what we had planned was going to be amazing! Most of our trip was spent in Yungay, we spend a week and a half there. We did a lot with the schools. They told us we could chose high school to teach sex education, middle school about private touches, or preschool just to love on them. Since I am a freshman I knew it would be best for me to go to the preschool. I am so glad I chose to go there. I will never forget the kids there, they were so sweet and I feel like my heart is still with them at the preschool.
One of my favorite things was that I went to drop of this one little girl named Leslie, probably my favorite child; her teacher looked at me and said, she has no mom or dad to love on her. That hit me so hard, because it was like wow I could have just made this girls week by loving on her and just spending time with her. She will always have a special place in my heart.
We also went to a symmetry where a glacier had broken off the mountain and killed about 1,500 people. When we went there, we got to sit on top of another mountain and just think about life and take in all that God has been doing in Peru, we just gazed in awe of his creation. That was probably one of the prettiest symmetry I have ever attended. Another place we went to was another church, this church was on a mountain so we had to travel about an hour to get there, and thankfully no one got sick. Soon after we arrived my friend and I were like hey lets go take a jumping picture with the mountains in the background, so we did! Great picture that’s for sure, only one probably the landing was not so great. Sadly I fell on my ankle; I started crying and was in serious pain, I knew something was not right. Thankfully the nurse was with us and helped me elevate it while they tried to figure out what they were going to do with me. I was sent back to the hotel and stayed there in bed, I was taken very good care of, with the kindness of the team, and I was carried around so I could still be involved.
When Mrs. Stephanie arrived she brought me crutches so I was about to be on my own and could still do what everyone else was doing, with some exceptions. I am healing much better now, all I have to wear is a brace, although I did break my tibia, my doctor said the boot helped me heal better. Thank you everyone for the prayers and support.
The last place we went to was Chosica, was definitely the poorest, but had one of my favorite days there. Even though I love to talk my favorite day was the day of silence. Each one of our team leaders would come around and find us and give each one of us prompts to read and then write about. This gave me time to reflect on how the trip has been, how to prepare to go home and just reflect on what the Lord had been doing through me.
We also worked in the orphanages, there we washed kids clothes, bathed the kids, cleaned up, make a library, and played volleyball with the kids as well. I got to play with the kids and paint some girl’s nails, very fun! Also at the end this one girl was not talking at all the whole time we were there, some of the adult leaders eve thought she was knew because she had not smiled, talked, or anything the whole week, but right before we were about to leave she ran up to me! She gave me the biggest hug ever, and talked to me for forever, she would not stop, it was the cutest thing, she sang me a song, and it brought me so much joy!
I must say those were the sweetest children I had ever met; they did not want to see us leave each day. I remember the last day we left some of the kids even tried to get into our bus and come with us. I must admit, I even cried leaving them, it was heartbreaking.
There were a few times where I would get so homesick I just wanted to go home and be with my family, especially after the whole thing with my ankle, but I am so thankful the Lord healed me and kept me in Peru and I did not go home early as I had wanted to at one point, because the Lord taught me so many things.
One thing hit me very hard, was that “even though we don’t have as many orphanages here in the US, we have just as many kids that have an orphan life.” We don’t have to go out of the country just to show people God’s love, kids here need to see his love just as much. Thank you all for supporting me throughout this experience, I appreciate it so very much!
(the jump that lead to the broken ankle)
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