Peru Journal Entry 1

January 16th

Very early this morning around midnight we arrived in Peru, after going through customs & immigration, we finally met up with our host from Peru, Paul & Susan. It was wonderful to see then even though we had never met them before. We are staying in a hotel in downtown Lima, which took us awhile to get to from the airport. We finally got to bed around 230 am. Our flights and security all went on as scheduled and were very uneventful which was a huge blessing.

I awoke today with an eagerness to get started. I knew today that we would shop for the rest of the sports camp equipment and the arts supplies. For me getting those pieces together is very helps me have a clearer picture of what the week is going to look like.

We went to the Cathedral where Susan and her husband John work. We were given a quick tour and then we sat down with a few other leaders from the church we are going to run the camp. It is always humbling for me for someone to speak to me in english when the struggle with it so, it truly shows how much they care for you and desire for you to be comfortable. That happen again today, as we spoke with one of the youth leaders. She has a wonderful heart for the youth of Peru and many of the ways that she and the diocese desire to serve the youth are very similar to the ideals that I have learned through Rock the World. A couple of those are team leadership within their parishes, mentoring / discipling the youth not just creating converts and being aware that their leaders need constant attention and training.

During our conversation we came to the realization that Lima Sports and Arts Camp would work best if we can run the camps behind the scenes, putting the Peruvian leaders in front. This would give the youth the opportunity to see the Peruvian leaders in leadership roles and they would be able to focus on developing relationships with the youth.

We finally went to downtown Lima to shop and we got a lot of really neat things for the camp. We were able to buy 10 futbol/soccer balls, 10 volleyballs, 2 volleyball nets, 10 cajones/box drums and art supplies. It was a bit draining walking around the city, trying to find very specific items and also trying to get the best price. Thank God for Susan, she was a huge help as no one on our team speaks fluent spanish.