Mission Trip to Lima, Peru
March 22-28, 1990
Under the leadership of Rev. Ricardo Fachisters, our Spanish Pastor, and our pastor David York, First Baptist Mableton sent a mission team to an economically hard-hit area near Lima, Peru, in the town of Callao on the coastal side of Lima. We had Spanish-speaking team members, and the others had learned as much as they could. Brenda went along as team nurse and to participate as a clown in ministry. They collected about 20 large boxes of clothing and several boxes of Bibles and launched out to Lima.
When you are dressed up as a clown, you don't need to speak Spanish to communicate with the children on the street. Some of the ladies of First Baptist Mableton worked to minister to the children, and just learned enough Spanish phrases to invite them to the stadium in the evening where there were evangelistic services and they distributed some of the 20 boxes of clothing which they had collected back home. LR front: Brenda Nave, Pat Peal. Back: Ruth Floyd,Maria Hope, Inez Russell, Ruby Guinn, Wanda York.
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Sherry Dawson joins the group at back left beside Brenda. Ruth and Pat were the makeup experts for the clowns, so they all got together at the church to put on their costumes. They had a community room at the church where the team ate together, had Bible studies, and did other tasks in preparation for their work in the community. |
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Out on the street the clowns communicated with the kids, and then went back down the street near the time for the rally to lead them, "pied piper" style, to the stadium. It was in the neighborhood of two miles to the stadium and the clown team walked up and down all those streets. It took about an hour to get to the stadium. |
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Back at the church, the team members and the ladies of the church sorted clothing to distribute at the stadium. Ruby Guinn and Inez Russell are at center back. The distribution of the clothing was done one afternoon at the stadium after having been announced to the community. There had been radio announcements about the meetings at the stadium and the clothing distribution. |
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Clown Pat waits at the edge of the platform during the rally at the stadium. The kids spilled out onto the field for the clown presentation and activities and they were very enthusiastic.
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Ruth and Pat wash up at the outside sink in the courtyard as Inez and Ruby make other preparations. Ruby and Inez are in the kitchen where the stove is, but the sink was outside the kitchen. Ruth demonstrates the sleeping quarters at left. The less than luxurious accommodations at the church were taken with good spirit, particularly in light of the sacrifices the people of the church made to provide them. One of the biggest problems was the scarcity of water - water was only turned on about two hours of the day, and they had to collect as much as they could in buckets. |
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The richness of the human interactions was compensation enough for the lack of luxury. The people were very warm and giving of what they had, and the children were very receptive. |
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A huge seaside city built in a desert region, Lima sprawls up the dry mountainsides. With many political and social problems, exacerbated at this time by the radical "Shining Path" terrorist group, it was a place which needed a loving touch. The team did their best to provide that to those whom they met. |
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Public transportation was by battered busses and taxis which would have been in a junkyard in the U.S. |
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The only luxury that the team saw was on the way to dinner at a nice restaurant in the beach resort area. The country's unrest was made evident even there as they noted the gaurds with machine guns posted on top of the restaurant. |
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Having helped each other with currency exchanges while they were there, at the end of the week they joked about "moneychanging" in the church as they tried to straighten out their finances.
| More details of Mableton First Baptist trip. |
| Brenda and Sherry to Cuzco |
1990