Peru trip 2005 enabled our group of 16 youth and adults from Life Sources Community Church in Couer d’Alene, Idaho, to join forces with a medical team from Tennessee in Pucallpa, Peru, where we built a church, ran medical clinics, and hosted a Vacation Bible School. The heat, high humidity, and bugs were just some of the things we had to adjust to while on this life-changing mission trip to South America.

Our first Sabbath there we rode in “peki-pekis” to a village where we conducted our first service. The ride was long, but it was beautiful, just like the pictures in National Geographic.

Most days started at 4:30 a.m. We were very tired, but looking forward to new experiences and new friends. While some worked in the 105-degree heat, pounding nails into the extremely hard mahogany, others passed out medications like Tylenol and antibiotics to the many destitute people who came to our clinic. Over the course of four days, we were able to help over 2,000 people, and still we had to turn people away. We were able to complete the church, all but the screen for the windows and the door.

The most fun part of our day, though, was playing simple games with the children. Watching our own soccer players get creamed by the local barefoot, 7-year-olds was even more fun! The village children preferred their jump ropes, made of strips of banana stalks with the “flip flop” tied into them, to the ones we’d brought them from the United States, but the excitement of gold star stickers and a few balloons kept us all busy for several hours.

After a dusty drive home in over-crowded taxis, we went swimming, showered, and headed to the local church for an evening of Bible stories, singing and crafts. A church from Tennessee had donated two trunks of crayons, construction paper, glue, sequins, etc. that we all had fun with. The creativity of these people amazed us all. Their ability to take something so simple and common to us and have so much fun with it is something we will always admire.

While there, we were able to visit an orphanage, a zoo of native animals and reptiles, and the town square, where we went shopping and tried Peruvian ice cream. It was very different from ours!

What we experienced in Peru was different from anything we could ever experience in the United States. We’ve all decided that nothing is better than giving up our time to help the less fortunate. Our goal is to carry this on into our own neighborhoods. Experiencing the love of Christ in action is something we will not soon forget.