TEAM LIMA
Friday, July 25th, 2008

Today was our last day for many things.
like our last clean up work day, our last VBS day, and our last day with out MJ, MB, Ashley Chin, and Mike P.
so after leaving Mj, MB, Ashley, and mike, it was a really fun last work day! for our last work day we got to furnish benches and then stand around. once we had finished we got to go watch the Perales school do a parade for their upcoming Independence day. all of the little girls had on the prettiest dresses! And the little boys mostly looked like little soldiers. so to the girls we would say ''muy Bonita'' and to the boys we would say "muy macho." it was very fun and colorful! the last day of VBS was really hard. everyone told us that it was going to be but then you get there and the kids ask if you will be back tomorrow and to see their faces makes you hug them so tight and not care about the smell! other then being really hard to say goodbye to all the kids, VBS went really well i think i heard that 160 kids showed up in the end and we didn´t have to many injuries through out the week. but i think that the whole team owes those little kids a thanks for the Spanish lessons. and the love and relationships they gave us.

Maggie Patton

You never know what you have til it's gone.

I think that has been one of the biggest lessons our team has learned this week. It truly is the little things that mean the most to people. From comfort items (like toilet paper) to homecooked meals, we've discovered how much we truly miss the things we so often take for granted.

This morning, we were fed chicken sausages and banana bread....yum! Around 9 am we loaded onto the bus and made our way over to Perales where we sanded and garnished several of the church's benches. Afterwards, we got to watch a Peruvian Independence Day Parade. Then we returned to the Seminary for a delicious lunch and a little free time, during which I enjoyed some relaxation in the sun. We then made our way over to Nocheto for our last day of VBS, which felt to me to run pretty smoothly. Of course, I spent most of the time sitting on a bench with a sleeping little boy on my lap. The cutest and most well-behaved little boy, I might add, named Jonathan, who had pretty much attached himself to me the past 3 days and admitted to having a little crush on me. ^_^ He and his sister, Mila, along with another little girl named Leslie, have become so close and dear to me. While he slept, I watched the other kids play and dance. It really is fun to just sit and watch sometimes.

As the day began to wind down and the children were sent home with their snacks, we cleaned up and piled back on the bus, bringing and dropping off the children who had come from Perales. Jonathan was one of them, and he ran right to me and sat on my lap the whole way there, talking in Spanish and looking out the window at people and houses and dogs. Surprisingly, I didn't cry when he and the other children got off the bus at their stop. Maybe it's because I know I may see them again on Sunday. And if I don't, I know their lives are held safely in God's hands.

Rachel Ruppert