Month: November 2017

At this point, all flights should have landed on U. S. soil. We are tired, but awed by all that we have experienced this past week. Words are inadequate to describe the emotions: humbling, awesome, touching, miraculous, buffet of blessings, stretching, graceful. We have seen the body of Christ working together, living together, laughing, praying, and struggling together. Each part of the body is needed – the team from the U. S., the Peruvian volunteers, those who supported us financially and in prayer.

Blessings to you all! Dios te bendiga!

The group has made it through the first leg of our flight – from Tacna to Lima. We are now waiting for our flights to the states. It is bittersweet. We want to get on that plane and go home (flights range from 11:30 pm to 2:05 am!) but it is hard to leave our friends. The team has really bonded this past week.

We have a couple of people not feeling really well (on the last flight, of course), so please pray that they have the energy to make it through.

We are so grateful for all your prayers. We felt God’s presence in all that we did this week.

Reflecting on the last day, the word that comes to mind is “humbling”. What we could never do in our own strength is accomplished by the power of God working in and through us. We started off the day down two mechanics and a therapist and yet the work moved forward as volunteers and others stepped in to help. Fortunately, the morning brought mostly simple adaptations and we were able to serve the people who were waiting fairly quickly.

We have been overwhelmed by how gracious our hosts have been. The people of the church have worked alongside of us and provided food, translation, guides for the patients, evangelism, and so much more.

The evening ended with a celebration of what God has done this week. One of the highlights was a traditional Peruvian dance performed by a church member (who has worked alongside our mechanics all week) and his wife.

We have come to love the people of the church and will miss them.

Today we will be doing some shopping in Tacna before beginning the LONG travel home. A flight from Tacna to Lima, a wait in the Lima airport, followed by flights to the U. S. and, for most of us, connecting flights home. Pray that none of us succumb to this illness that has spread through our group – it would be miserable to be this sick while traveling.

Thank you all for your prayers. If internet connection allows, I will add pictures later.

Thursday began our outreach at Church 2. We were warmly welcomed and had many eager and able volunteers. We began the day short one mechanic (due to illness) and lost two more along the way. But God provided a Peruvian auto mechanic, who ably stepped in to help. Our other mechanics worked extra hard to fill in the slack.

Here is a glimpse of the process that people go through when they come to the outreach. The person enters at the registration table and is given a number. They then move to the waiting room where they are greeted by a smiling Roxy and other volunteers.

When there turn comes up, they are brought by Roxy and a “guide” to the seating station. The therapist, mechanic, support person, and translator (for those of us who don’t speak Spanish well) introduce themselves to the patient and any family member present. After discussing the person’s needs and praying, the search for a chair begins.

After choosing a chair, adaptations are made to the chair. A cushion is made if necessary. Most people are given gifts sent from some of you lovely people in the states: bags for the back of the wheelchair, blankets, hats, fingerless gloves, etc.

When the chair looks good and the patient and family members have been instructed in its use, the team prays again, thanking God for the chair and the gift of mobility. The guide then brings the patient and family to the evangelism station where the gospel is presented and they are given a Bible and a Joni book.

Just to give you a feel for the process of adapting a chair, here are some pictures of a chair we adapted for a three-year old little girl. Due to internet issues, the pictures will have to be posted later in the day!

 

Wednesday was a day to relax between the two portions of our outreach. We still managed to pack in a busy day. Breakfast was a little later than Monday and Tuesday, which made many of us happy. After breakfast we did some shopping and had a communion service and some singing (complete with hand motions, as you can see!).

We followed this by a lovely buffet in a Peruvian restaurant, complete with a woman singing Peruvian songs, then a bus tour on a double decker bus.

 

After our tour, we headed to the next outreach church to set up and meet the volunteers.

We are looking forward to a wonderful day today, seeing God work. We have some illnesses and injuries in our team, so we know we can’t rely on ourselves. We are grateful for all those out there praying for us!

The team started out the second day of outreach tired and stiff, but ready to go. As usual, there were less chairs from which to choose, so modifications were often necessary. A familiar scene at a Joni and Friends Wheels for the World outreach is seeing a mechanic (or sometimes therapist or support person) lying under a wheelchair making adjustments.

The mechanics were kept busy modifying chairs and walkers.

Everywhere you looked, the team was busy. Seating specialists working with the patients, mechanics adjusting chairs, support people creating cushions and seats (among numerous other tasks), and the tailor busy sewing on his machine.

Many people’s stories touched us as we served on Tuesday. Javier was 23 years old when he was involved in an accident and lost his left leg. Not long afterwards he read the Joni book. He found encouragement reading about another young person who had been involved in a life-changing accident. He found that he could relate to what she had been through.