Seeing the Sites with Emily and Steve

In the middle of our first week back, our bosses/supervisors/mentors/etc etc., Emily and Steve, came to visit us in Peru! They arrived Wednesday night and stayed through Sunday. We had a blast getting to know them better (I had only met them 1 time each in the past), touring Lima, sharing thoughts, and sharing in church and class. It was a busy few days! 

I very big thank you goes to Wilfredo for letting us use his shower with  hot running water multiple times! They definitely helped us refresh and reset for the following busy days.. 

Thursday, Melissa and I chatted with Emily and Steve for about 2 hours going over things we have experienced and observed in the church, with WSC, and with each other. It was an intensive meeting, but was nice to get some feedback and do some venting with people that understand where we are coming from. 

Friday was our dia de turismo. We headed out to Lima to visit Plaza Mayor and the National Cathedral. I have visited the Plaza many times and is the first place Wilfredo takes everyone. It isn't very exciting or anything, it's just a plaza. We watched the changing of the guard again. The band hasn't changed up their playlist since we went 6 ms ago, in case you were wondering. The National Cathedral was pretty spectacular. They have all of these very ornately decorated nooks that celebrate particular saints or events. You can head down stairs and check out the graves, how people were buried, and what kinds of people were buried in the church. It was my first visit there because other people I went with said it was too expensive. As it turns out, it only costs S/. 10, which I suppose could be a lot for going into a church, but it doesn't break the bank. It was a good experience, so I am glad we finally went inside. 

Carved wooden statue.

Choir Pew

After checking out the Plaza and eating some Peruvian grub (or Ceasar Salad in Emily's case, though she did try chicha morada), we headed over to the Museum of the Inquisition. Wow. I mean, I have studied about it and seen depictions of the torture, but this takes your understanding of how gruesome it was to a whole other level. Did you know that 5 people had to accuse you to start an investigation, but only 3 had to stay firm on their accusation for you to then be tortured to death? They have a room that talks about how people were brought into the public square dressed in robes with the devil on them. Then there is the room with the various types of shackles, such as sitting with your feet strapped in for 6+ hours or the others where your head and hands are locked in place. After that, there is the room with dummies set up to show the types of torture - whipping, stretching, waterboarding, strangling, etc. Very vivid. You then go underground to see the very deep cells that the prisoners were kept in. On a lighter note, after making it through all of that, you go through the rooms that talk about the Congress of Peru. Haha. It was a bizarre and intense museum experience. We had a few kids around 8 years old in our group and I felt bad for them having to see that. Good for them for not freaking out as I probably would have done at that age. 

Melissa, Emily, Steve, and Wilfredo
with the President's house in the background.

Since it was Friday night, after getting back from Lima and getting cleaned up, we headed to Monte Sion for adult class. I enjoy every part of being in Peru, but when I show up at Monte Sion, I feel a sense of need to be in Peru. There is a lot of potential and possibility for the church there, but I also feel like I have a lot to learn from the people there. It's far and it's tiresome to trek there, but it is totally worth it. Steve started setting up the chairs for class and Wilfredo made a comment about it being a lot of chairs. However, all of those chairs were filled for class. Melissa led a class on giving up our anxiety to God, which led to the Trust Fall activity and then writing down a pressing issues that causes us anxiety and offering a prayer over those things. 

Saturday and Sunday were filled with classes and discussions, followed by a small church service. At the very least, it was fun to do. In time, I will figure out how much I actually learned from it. It was definitely nice to have "important" things happening because it meant everyone was in attendance, so we had opportunities to finally say hi again to everyone and catch up a little bit. It was an excellent way to throw us back into the thick of things here in Peru. 

Showin' us how it's done! (How to teach a little kids' class)

Jose Luis was very proud of our pictogram of Jeremiah 31:12!

Thanks for the visit Emily and Steve! 

~nos vemos~