Mission Peru

by Autum Klassen, West London Alliance Church

I had the chance to go to a daycare, and meet some Peruvian’s who are involved with the church.  A group of us went around to some of the Peruvian’s houses who had kids that attended the daycare. There were some families that didn’t want us to go into their house to share about the word of God. When the Peruvians opened their door for us, we went in and sat down. When we arrived at the door of someone’s house, we told them that were from Canada and we were here to tell them about God and how he loves them. Some people wouldn’t listen as much as the others in the family. After we introduced ourselves in English, the Pastor would speak to them in Spanish. For me it was hard to understand, but I got some of the words.  While in all the houses we went to, I tried to hold my tears back. The very first house we went into had only one room and there was about 7 people living in there. There were only 2 beds, one table and a curtain splitting between half the room. When we were leaving this one house, I was walking beside a guy in my group, and a little girl, jumped on him, and didn’t want to let go. Then another little girl jumped on me. We laughed, but one of the girls followed us even though we told her to go back home. When we finished evangelizing, we headed back to the bus. On the way to the bus, we walked to what would seem like a garden, but everything was dead and there was a lot of garbage around the area.  It looked bad. When we were coming out of the garden area, I turned my head and saw a girl about 5 or 6 years old, holding her brother (who was maybe 4 years old) in her arms, wrapped in a blanket sitting on a pile of garbage.

Being here in Peru is a life changing experience. Going around to people’s homes was difficult for me. Peru is different than Canada. A lot different.  Being here made me realize that we have so much stuff, and the Peruvians have very little. We as Canadians take lots of things for granted and we don’t use everything we have for good. Seeing the smile on their faces when we give them something they don’t have makes me cry. Peruvians don’t take much for granted because they don’t have much, but they are happy. I haven’t seen them complaining and wanting more like we Canadians seem to do so often.