Peru trip 2011 - day 7

Well, last night turned out interesting. We went to dinner and ate Cuy (Guinea Pig), which was salty but good. Matt ate a whole one while Walter and I split one. After dinner we walked up the street so Kim could buy a few gifts for people. We followed Walter into a store and Kim shopped. I saw a group of girls so I did a few magic tricks and soon many people gathered around. I didn't know what this place really was and what they kept asking me. They asked me if I wanted something that I couldn't understand and Walter kept strictly saying no. I was oblivious to what was going on but apparently Matt knew from the beginning and never said anything. I gave them a gospel tract and then Walter shared the gospel with them for a long time. The group of girls came under heavy conviction. I thought the whole experience was great but then Matt told me what the place really was after we finished sharing the gospel. The girls apparently kept asking us to go up stairs for a massage but they were selling much more than a massage, which Walter apparently figured out as well which was why he kept strictly saying no. When I found out we left right away and I had to drag my shopping wife out of there because she, like me, was oblivious to what the place was. Well anyway, a group of girls that definitely needed the gospel heard it. After this incident we stopped by a store to buy a bunch of groceries for Walters mom, who we will see tomorrow in Izcuchaca, which is about 1 hour away. An end to a good but weird night.

We got up early again today to take a cab to Izcuchaca. We are so thankful to Walter because we are getting to see the real Peru and we haven't did any tourist things yet. Walters amigo, Basilides, picked us up in his taxi and took us to Izcuchaca where Walter is from. We walked around the town and saw all the usual sites; dogs on roofs barking for security, rotting meat at the tiendas, cars honking their horns at everything, and many half built buildings. There is no biblical church in Izcuchaca. One was started but fell apart and now only the Catholics and Jehovah Witness' have a church. There are about 6000 people in town.

We drove out to Walters Mama's house and were greeted warmly. They don't have much but totally took care of us and offered us their best, which was so good and humbling. Their house consisted of a mud build house with a dirt floor. The kitchen was a separate building with a mud built, adobe type stove they did all their cooking on. She has a small garden and makes a living by bartering with neighbors as well as selling few items in a small store she set up. Walters family was so nice to us. Walters mom made us a snack of corn, bread, honey and coffee. Walters friend Basilides, who was Walters classmate in a bible college in Urabamba, wanted to take like crazy. It turns out that Paul Washer came to his small church in Cusco twice. Even though my Spanish is improving, my brain starts to get wore out when trying to think and talk Spanish for hours and hours all day.

After our snack, we drove in the hills on a road that is almost never used. Basilides car some how made it up the muddy road without getting stuck. We had to stop once because a cow was picketed in the center of the road. Basilides tried to go around but ran over the stake that held the cow. After running over a few big rocks, we stopped and got out to hike up to the top of an overlook. It was a great view from the top. The Catholics, of course, made a shrine at the top. This is an extremely beautiful country of lush valleys and huge mountains. They are only occupied by a few subsistence farmers so the land is pretty untouched. If this were America, the rich would have bought all the land and built million dollar houses and shut the land off to everyone, but this valley is still untouched for the most part. My wife was worried about Tarantulas but Walter ensured us that it was too cold for them, so Matt and I teased Kim most of the time. As we walked back down the road we looked at all the Quechua farmers planting potatoes in their fields. There is no machinery here to farm so they do it by hand and all the neighbors help out.

We got back to the house and Walters mom taught my wife how to make all kinds of stuff from scratch. They spent almost three hours preparing lunch while us guys talked about missions and the needs of Peru. It turns out that there is more work than we can ever complete. In Cusco, which has about 350,000 people in the city limits and over twice that outside the city, only has 4 baptist churches. We could plant 100 churches here and that wouldn't be too much. Limatambo and Izcuchara desperately need a church because they have nothing and there is no evangelical presence there. Walter's mom really wants us to start a church in Izcuchara. We talked for a long time and discovered some needs that we can provide, one being training of pastors. We had an excellent lunch with everything from the garden. We laughed and laughed during lunch and had a good time. I, as usual now, told them stuff about Matt in Spanish and they all laughed. Matt has learned a few words now and always responds to our joking with the words tonto and lento (silly and slow). The funnies joke we played on Matt was when Basilides was asking me how long Matt has been married. I told him one year but that he had two wives. Basilides almost fell out of his chair and then picked up stones to stone Matt. I said I was kidding and we all laughed for a long time. I think that Walter's family was more happy to have us visit than we were to be there. After lunch we left and they gave us all hugs and asked us to return soon. Matt, of course, enjoyed another man hug.

We drove back to Cusco and walked around some more. Walter negotiated with people for us to get gifts for much cheaper. We are building such a good relationship with Walter that we are so sad to leave. We really look forward to coming back to Peru to start our work with Walter. We had coffee and sandwiches and called it a night. We leave to the airport at 6am. We have an all day layover in Lima but will meet our other contact Walter Isse for the day.