Thursday, August 13, 2015

I'm going to let it shine!

On a hot Sunday morning in the jungle of Peru as I was driving to help the people of Nuevo Chimbote celebrate there first liturgy of the word in over three years i noticed something odd. This rough jungle road that normally is sparsely used was quite busy.  But not thinking to much of it I drove on passing many other motos along the way.  Of course I arrived a bit early, which in Peru is excessively early.  As I waited people from a different pueblo called Nuevo Egipto began to come in to town and in this moment I realized that they have all come on their day of rest to support this community, which is about a 30 min moto ride for them. Beyond that they then began to clean the town hall that we were going to use as a church and sang hymns and encouraged the people of Nuevo Chimbote, who were nervous and had know idea what to do being that they went three years without any church activity at all.  Now i was not very surprised by the love and care of the Catholic community of Nuevo Egipto. They are in my opinion a spiritual light in the darkness of the jungle, Nuevo Egipto is one of the smaller pueblos in the region that my family covers but upon visiting one will quickly see that their love for Jesus and the Faith is great and my weekly bible study with them is the much needed spiritual fuel I receive to get through the week. Often I wonder if the Lord sent me here for them or if he sent me here so they could encourage me. Never the less at our bible study the Wednesday before this Sunday we were talking about how as baptized Catholics we have the responsibility to care for our church just as God charges Adam with the care of the Garden.  I used this analogy - if you have a garden but you do not cultivate the soils, water it and fertilize it what will happen? In which they replied " it will not produce."  They know a great deal about this topic of gardening, the people of this region live and die by their gardens. It is the major source of all of their food and income.  After their reply I said with the same care you give to your garden you must give to the church. It is not only the responsibility of the church leaders and the priests but of every member and although they are a flourishing community just a couple miles away was Nuevo Chimbota, a community that has almost died out.  Now I said all of that just hoping for a couple of prayers not expecting anyone to go to visit Nuevo Chimbote next Sunday, but their they were singing and praying in support of the mission and I might add far better missionaries then me.  The day was very special for the people of Nuevo Chimbote to come together and rekindle their faith. Many were excited to start preparing to receive their sacraments and also to receive their first bibles.  So it was on this day that one community has found their faith again and another has found out what amazing thing they can do with their faith and for the faith of other when they let Christ's light shine through them. ~Taylor

Many of the people pictures here are preparing their children to receive the sacrament of Baptism on October 25. Once the children are baptized