Mancora

Hammocks are becoming some of my favorite places to blog. Let me tell ya, they are everywhere over here. 

For the weekend we chose to venture out to places unknown, and took a van to Los Organos and Mancora, two beach towns of Peru. We found out within minutes of arriving in Los Organos, that this place was a dive. Really. That place is a ghost town. You may have to walk five to ten blocks inland from the beach to see a single person. But that very thing did turn out to have a huge advantage, that being empty beaches. 

It was a great place to grab a chair and a book and get baked by the sun. We found out that it is true what many have told us: it is so much easier to get burned here, because of the proximity to the equator and the more direct impact of the rays on the earth and us here. We are feeling it today. 

As of Friday, we are now on week four. The days have flown by here. It seems like forever ago that we arrived in the Piura airport, but it too does not feel like three weeks at all. This trip is a journey, I'm finding that word to be a very good description of this time. A spiritual journey.

Our time here is not ordinary truthfully, it is very different. Most "mission" trips, the kind that comes to mind when that word is spoken, is not like this trip (I really do not like or enjoy in any way those two words together: mission and trip, fyi). When those two words are together it's like saying we people, we Christians are not mission oriented people all the time, which we are MEANT to be, only some of the time. Part time. It's like saying I'm going to live my mission for a week or two and then I'm good, it's checked off, I'm safe. I've never heard or read of part time Christianity. 

We have a mission as Christians, and it's not meant to be lived out on (a) "trip(s)". The mission of Christ is plainly an every day type thing, that is in no way a burden, but a joy. Our lives are missions, with no trips. 

There's the rant. On this occasion, ha, we may not see the huge outcome, or construct a building, or defeat the Spanish language, or start a church, or anything along those lines. It may be hard at the end to see physical signs of accomplishment. But really who cares. A heart changed is of much more value than a building or something like that. A changed heart in Peru will be there, and will stay there after we leave. A saved soul has no value. It exceeds value. And if all that happens here during our time is the forming of solid relationship amongst ourselves and our fellow Peruvians, then I'm more than happy. The spiritual matters, the physical does too, just comes in second in my book. 

Psalms 145: 13

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.