Peru!

I am in love with Peru...totally. Even though this trip was through school, I kept praying that God would break my heart for the people of Peru and use this experience to do change me. We went into the favellas (the shantytowns) of Lima, the capital city. For miles all around, all I could see were these little huts side by side. I could not forget that those tin roofs represented families who were living in extreme poverty. As we were driving up the mountain, driving through the shantytowns, I saw something that I had not expected. There was this huge cross at the very top of the mountain, at the top of the favellas. I started to realize, to remember, that in this seemingly hopeless place, God is still there. God has not forgotten them, God hears every cry of those beautiful babies that I fell in love with, God cares about their every need. You know how I know He cares? Because He absolutely broke my heart as I saw the poverty and as I stood at the top of the mountain next to that cross. I felt convicted, I could not help but wonder where the church is in all this, where I was in all this. How often do we build monuments to our experiences with God and just stop there? I know God didn't let me go to Peru for no reason. When will we let our experiences with God move us to action in order to bring the Kingdom down to earth? When is the church going to start to live up to its calling? God does not call us to something we cannot attain or accomplish, He'll provide whatever we need. We need to begin to look at our calling as the measure of our potential. When will that cross become food, become blankets, become water for the millions crying out to a higher power everyday? We need to take this cross, this love, that we claim to believe in, and do something about it. Let's make the love of God tangible. The bride of Christ should do no less. I decided to do something about what I saw, I'm sponsoring a child through Compassion. Her name is Maricarmen, she's 15 and I'm so excited to be helping her, praying for her and writing letters to her! So that's what I'm doing and I could not feel more blessed to be given this opportunity :)