Peru…

I realize that it’s going on almost 3 months since I got back from Peru and I apologize for it taking me so long to write about it… let’s just say life happened.  I want to first thank everyone  for the prayers before, during, and after the trip and for for those who helped me financially go and be the hands and feet of Christ in Peru.  It was an amazing experience and one that I will never forget.

I really could write a book about what God did while our team was in Peru, so hopefully I won’t bore you too much.  Every mission trip I’ve been on has been completely different and God showed me something different every time I step foot on foreign or US soil serving Him.  Before we even left Houston God started revealing himself to me.  I was a bit frazzled about the trip due to 2 weddings I’d be photographing within 48 hours prior to taking off for Peru.  God showed me even before I hopped on the plane that He was there surrounding me and looking out for me.  After close to an 18 hour day of traveling, we finally arrived in Peru.  On Tuesday we made our way to Chincha, Peru.  For the next 8 days we would call Chincha our home.  As soon as we hopped off the bus in Chincha we were greeted by our brothers and sisters in Christ and shown nothing but love over the next 8 days.  We worshiped, fellowshipped, and lived with the people of Chincha and it was great.  We built classrooms at a church in one of the communities, we taught English, we went door to door in the communities to invite people to come and watch “us crazy Americans”.  We shared Christ through skits and dramas; we shared how we have experienced God in our own lives.  We loved, hugged, and served with, and to the people of Chincha.  Most importantly God most definitely moved while we were there.

Time and time again God showed every single one of us that we can do all the planning and preparing that we want… in the end, He may or may not use us… but what’s awesome is that He does choose to use us.  When he chooses to use me I am nothing but humbled because even in my bumbling and stumbling there is something in and through my life that He wants to share with others.  God even used 3 of us dancing  to interest an entire family to come later to see what we were doing.

That entire family ended up giving their lives to Christ that day (I wrote about this exact experience on my friend Emily’s blog back in July).  All I have to say is that we serve an awesome and amazing God.  One of the biggest take-a-ways for me and this trip to Peru is God’s urging of me to really trust Him and His timing for me, and for different things in my life.  Daily I remind myself how God spoke to me and daily I give Him my life and lean on Him.

I had an amazing time and am so glad that God opened the doors for me to go and be His hands and feet to the people of Chincha.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for being part of this mission trip.  I am so unbelievably thankful for the prayers and support and I can’t thank you enough.  Going on this trip would not have been possible without all of you.

<><  Kendra

Here’s a slide show that I put together of just a few of the photos our team took while we were in Chincha.