Home sweet home. I imagine myself to have been considerably more excited to arrive in the little town of Bella Unión than the rest of the team. That is not to say they weren’t excited, but that I had good reason to feel right at home. But I’ll get to that shortly. First let’s back up a few steps.
Let me begin by thanking all of you who have been praying for us. In my last post I asked for your prayers concerning the time Luke, Nelson and I spend evangelizing in the parks. The Lord is certainly faithful, and after a frustrating week he has given us several weeks of abundant conversations and interactions. During our mornings and afternoons at the park closest to our house we’ve had a week full of spiritual conversations with old and new friends. We spent nearly an hour talking with a young man named Luis who recently graduated from college and now works as an archaeologist. Luis believes that God exists, but he doesn’t believe that mankind can understand who he is. Pray that Luis would accept our invitation to come to church and hear a clear explanation of the gospel in his own language.
On several other occasions we were able to see our good friend George the ice cream man. George is an older man whom we have spoken to probably more times than anyone else in the parks. He rides a bicycle with a small freezer full of popsicles and ice cream bars, and he almost always comes through our park at least once a day. George speaks decent English and loves to practice with us. He is very religious, having read the Qu’ran, the Bhagavad Gita (a Hindu holy book), as well as the Bible and many other books. George loves to read, and on this particular day he told us he had received a new book as a gift. He reached into his bag and pulled out the Book of Mormon to show me. He wanted to know how Mormonism differs from Christianity, and I explained as best I could with his limited English and my limited Spanish. Pray that George would fulfill his promise to come to church with us this Sunday, our last Sunday in Ica.
After being delayed one day due to travel issues, our team departed from the Ica bus station on Saturday morning. We stopped over for lunch in Nazca, home of the world-famous Nazca lines. In Nazca the five of us crowded into a mini-van with four Peruvians to begin the final leg of our journey to the farming town of Bella Unión. As I mentioned earlier, Bella Unión holds a special place in my heart. Two summers ago I spent two months there helping Dale and Tina Ragland and their children Hannah and Josh. The Raglands are a missionary family from Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington who have been living in Bella Unión for five years. The team spent Saturday night catching up with the Raglands and enjoying the local cuisine: fried chicken, papas fritas, and rice. On Sunday morning we drove a short distance to a neighboring town to attend the 71st anniversary celebration of an evangelical church there. Sunday afternoon we attended church at the Baptist Church in Bella Unión that the Raglands have planted. Eric preached from Philemon on the greatness of God’s mercy towards us in setting us free from slavery and giving us salvation through Christ.
Seeing the church was a truly special moment for me. During my time in Bella Unión, Dale began the long and frustrating process of obtaining a lot on which to build the church. Now, two years later the church building has just been completed and the church is active and growing. Praise the Lord for his faithfulness to save souls and establish his church in Peru.
On Monday we were able to help with some miscellaneous tasks that still needed to be completed in the new church building. We literally picked up the bathroom building and placed it on its concrete foundation. We cleared large rocks from the lot, did some touch up painting and hung drywall. We enjoyed being able to fulfill a physical need to further the Raglands’ ministry. After putting in some hard work in the morning, we spent the afternoon seeing the sights and visiting church members. In the evening some youth came to the Raglands’ house just to hang out and meet the team. Tuesday morning Dale drove us back to Ica, and we are glad to be back at home after a full weekend of ministry and fellowship.
Now that we have returned, we are gearing up for our last week in Peru. Pray that we would remain focused and determined to invite the friends we have made to come to church for our last Sunday. Pray that we can reconnect with some of the people we haven’t seen in over a month. Pray for our friend Luis, who came to one night of the pastor’s conference but hasn’t showed up since then.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. We truly implore you to intercede before the Father on behalf of us and the ministry opportunities we will have during our last week.
-Matt Peel