Tuesday - Jesus can change you

Tuesday was a long day with breakfast starting at 7:30 AM and the last bus returning to campus at 11:30 PM. It was our warmest day yet, with the temperature reaching almost 60 degrees.

We are making a lot of progress on our construction project for the CORASON center. Today we shoveled mud and rocks to help build the retaining wall for the soccer field. Our team worked hard at manual labor giving their best to help create this resource for the church to reach the children of the community. While we were there, we also had fun helping to feed the guinea pigs that the church is raising for additional funds. Guinea pig is a delicacy in Cusco.

One of our VBS locations now has over 100 children attending. This team meets every day in a city park where they have had both dogs and sheep attending along with the kids. The children who come here are longing for hugs and attention which is one way we are able to show God's love to them. Their parents mostly work long hours in the brick factories in this neighborhood. Our lesson for today was from the 19 chapter of Luke, on Zacchaeus and how Jesus forgave him and changed his life. After dividing the children into three groups, we told the Bible story, and then we made a paper trees with Zacchaeus climbing down to meet Jesus. The kids loved working with their hands and the singing exuberantly.

Tonight we had a treat after dinner, a trip to the Inca Market for shopping for traditional Peruvian goods, and then a quick trip downtown to see the city center. This part of town was very different than where we have been working as it is the high rent district of a city with 500,000 population. The Cathedral of Santo Domingo, also known as Cusco Cathedral, which is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cusco is on the main square here. The church was built in 1654, almost 100 years after it was started. Even the chaperones were delighted to find next to it a McDonald's on the square for a quick fix of ice cream and french fries. The evening ended with a bus ride up the mountain to see Christo Blanca, a white statue of Jesus, standing 82 feet tall overlooking the city full of twinkling lights below.