In the wee hours of June 27th, a team of eight departed Elkhart, Indiana for O’hare International Airport in Chicago. The two hour drive was followed by a flight to Lima, Peru via Miami. The stark contrast between home and Lima is breathtaking.
the drive through Chicago
the drive through Lima
The team of eight, brought together by People’s Bible Church of Goshen, IN, were there to serve Kids Alive International (KIA), a mission organization that reaches out to the underprivileged children and families of Lima. KAI is also the organization we served along side in Haiti this past November. You can read about our adventures on the ground in Haiti, here.
Lima – so much dust, dogs, and dumped garbage
As you can see on Kids Alive’s website, they have many ministry sites in Peru. We visited and served at the Oasis Center in Manchay and the Juniper Tree Children’s home in Pachacamac.
I was tasked with providing nutrition and health workshops to various groups throughout the week. Using a felt board, handouts, my weak Spanish, the Holy Spirit, chocolate and a translator when needed, we broke the ice, covered a lot of material, learned from each other, and had a lot of laughs; all with the primary goal of honoring God and improving the nutritional status of families living in poverty.
Leading a nutrition and health workshop for the moms program at the Oasis Care Center
Leading a nutrition and health workshop for community members. Like the surrounding community, the church I am speaking in here has no running water.
In addition to the workshops, I did some one-on-one nutrition counseling, worked with the leadership of KIA to address concerns regarding intestinal parasites, and joined the team’s activities when time permitted. The team helped with sponsorship packages (if you sponsor a child somewhere, you probably periodically receive a picture and letter from your child… I’ll tell ya, those are a lot of work to put together for a load of kids!), helped with maintenance and repair of the facility (who knew my home-improvement skills would come in handy?!), put together gift baskets to bless families in need, and supported and participated in the women and children’s ministries.
Having fun at the Moms Helping Moms program
Community group that attended the nutrition and health workshop
Shopping at the local market for gift-basket items to bless the families
A little car trouble. Nothing prayer couldn’t fix!
Making the gift baskets
helping with sponsorship packages
The week flew by and it was time to return to our precious families. My valiant husband held down the home front (with help from my awesome parents so he could still be at work while I was away). I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve with KIA in Peru. May God bless them and all of those their ministries reach.
For a full album of our service trip, follow this link.