Mission Peru

Hola mi famillia, from Peru to you! My name is Emily Stranks, and I am here with the Mission Peru 2016 team from West London Alliance Church. These last few days have been impactful ones as we have been constantly pushed outside our comfort zones, creating long lasting friendships, humbly serving others and growing closer to God in the process.

I’ve learned so much from being here, but one moment that really stood out to me was meeting a girl named Nayeli.

Nayeli is the child my family has been sponsoring through Compassion Canada for over six years. Having the chance to meet her and her mom is something that I have been looking forward to since I can remember. I went in with great expectations, but left being blown away knowing that God was teaching me something great through this once in a lifetime opportunity. Even through a gap as large as a language barrier their attitude and reactions reminded me of how privileged I really am. Back home we understand poverty to an extent, seeing pictures and videos or hearing stories, but it’s a special connection to be able to have real life conversations and being able to physically comfort them or pray for them in their times of need.

I brought a small bag of things, as a way to bless my child and her family. They both looked through it, smiling the whole time as they discovered each new item when eventually they stopped and began to cry. Slowly they pulled out five wooden spoons, handling them with such care as if they were incredibly valuable. Seeing the tears run down their face and hearing their continual thanks for such a small and inexpensive item was a truly humbling experience. I had no words, and honestly I still do not. God showed me that the smallest acts or even physical items can mean so much to one person but nothing to another. Some may look at it as me blessing them but in reality their presence made more of a difference in my life than I could have ever imagined.

This is just one of the areas I have seen God using others to teach and humble me and there are countless more. He continues to amaze me daily on how we can sacrifice so little yet be so impacted in return, I could not be more grateful.

Thank you so much to everyone who got us here, and for your continual support through comments, and prayer. We miss you all so much and we can’t wait to see you soon (even though we don’t want to say goodbye to Peru)

Love,

Emily