of [Trujillo]

 ¿Listo para un viaje a Trujillo? 

We set out for our trip on a bus, solo!  Our fearless leaders sent us away for the week ;)  After our 9 hour bus ride, we finally arrived at the Seminary in Trujillo and had quite an interesting night.  The Seminoristas had prepared a serenata for the seminary guys and we happened to arrive in time to participate.  We waited for the guys to all fall asleep and then stood outside their dorm and sang until we woke them up!  When they had all gotten up, we went to the chapel and played games, watched a skit, ate a pancake snack, and had a message (about waiting for God's perfect timing for marriage!  This was definitely a theme at this Bible college!  But what's new?) until 3am!  Needless to say, we were exhausted :)

 For most of Saturday, we helped a brand-new church in Alto Trujillo.  The people who live in this area do not even have running water or electricity.  Five churches have been working together to get this church up and running.  They sponsored a Campaña Medica, like a free medical clinic for the day.  The people could come and even bring their kids for check-ups with the doctor, pediatrician, or dentist.  But first, each person had to go through a time of evangelism.  Over 70 people heard the Gospel!  I spent most of the day playing with all the little kids running around (and I loved every minute of it!).  They loved burying me in the endless amounts of sand in the church area :)  I finally feel like I'm able to communicate, at least on a basic level with people!  It was so exciting to be able to sit down with the lady and just talk about life :)

 While we were in Trujillo, we lived with the seminary students.  We woke up when the blessed bells rang every morning at 6am to start the day (and thoroughly enjoyed the frigid showers every morning :).  It was such a blessing to get to know this group of college students that has such a heart for God and His work in Perú!  Many of the students come from many miles away just to learn at this Bible college and return to their homes :)

While we in Trujillo, we did some touring after classes :)  We went to Chan-Chan, which is a mud-palace from the Chimu civilization (yup, I learned something from Latin American History).  We also visited Huaca de la Luna and the beach at Huan Chaco. 

 

 

On Wednesday, we went out to Camp Fortaleza with the seminary's senior class to prepare for an all-day church event on Thursday.  The senior class raises money every year for their senior trip by preparing and selling typical Peruvian meals at this big church event.  We helped wash and cut unending amounts of vegetables (and squeezed over 700 limes!).  Everything has to be done from scratch which is alot of work, but the end result is so worth it :)

On Thursday, we helped with many of the activities for the churches.  We also life-guarded at the three pools.  While I was standing at one of the pools, a little girl started pulling on my pant leg and telling me that she wanted to get in the pool.  She wasn't really dressed for it, so I followed her brother's directions to go talk to her mom.  When I couldn't find her mom, another lady told me her mom wouldn't mind if I stripped her down to her undies to swim.  So I did!  And she swam around quite contentedly (like most of the other kids in the pools :)