And On The Second Day... They Rested

As the Mumford and Sons ringtone blared at 6 am our conversation was short and not sweet. Will: "My head is killing me." Me: "I can't move, my back is broke." Then we threw water on our face and caught a ride to the mango farms. You see, I can brag on us "Gringos de Americano" as they call us here. We actually worked extremely hard yesterday on day one. As we have quickly realized, only being here for five days so far, the Peruvians don't believe that white Americans actually work. All they ever see of us over here is a business man in a 4 wheel car with a cell phone up to his ear directing orders in a very accented North American broken spanish. With that being said, as we stepped off the plane in Piura, we were already at a disadvantage. One vow we made to each other was not only are we here to help these fellow citizens of ours (because that's what love does), but also we want to help our culture and our country out by changing the view of America as a whole. Yes, we worked hard one day getting dirty with several other workers, but anyone can do that. We are here for nine weeks and it is going to be a grind to keep up with them and continue to be servants to them just as Jesus was when he walked the streets of this earth. Isn't that our ultimate goal? Isn't that our calling? Love one another as Christ loved us? If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times, but it never really rang in my head like it has here. How can we even try to express his love for us through words. All I can even try to put onto paper is that he left the RIGHT HAND of GOD! Why would any of us ever want to leave that position? That is so inhuman it is scary. I know the day I walk the Streets of Gold, there is not going to be a single ounce of my spirit that would want to turn around and come to this place we call home. Not only did he do everything I just mentioned I wouldn't do, but he did it all the while knowing he would ultimately receive the wrath of God and die the cruelest death known to man. Speaking of the cross, have you ever stopped to think, "Jesus actually had my name and every sin I would ever commit, whether small or large (since we are humans and rank our sins), and still decided to bare the nails for me?"If that doesn't bring tears to your eyes then maybe you should really take a check into your walk with that Man that did bare those nails for you. Because if you didn't know, HE DID! This whole idea that I had heard about for 21 years through hours of sunday bible school, longgggg boring sermons (so I thought), and even a Mel Gibson produced movie, didn't actually sink in and take a toll on my life until this year. Why is that such a downfall for so many people of my generation that are raised in the church? The only thing that I have come up with (not scripturally based) is that I never needed God. As Jennie Allen talks about in her book Anything, God was just a plastic God to me. He sat upon the shelf and my family lived for him. They loved him, gave him pretty much all they had, but for me that's all he was. Therefore I never needed him. Everything in my life was taken care of for me. I was a good athlete, made good grades, didn't do drugs, and was in church every Wednesday and even TWICE on Sundays. It wasn't until tragedy hit, that I actually had to get on my knees and seek God. Truly seek him! No longer could I just pray a prayer for forgiveness and to bless my family and the food I am about to eat three times a day to this plastic God. I had to open up myself and stop hiding from this God that was supposedly still pursuing me. WHAT?!?! Pursuing me? Why the heck would he be doing that?
That, my blogger friends, is what this blog is about. That is what Love Does. It is, it really is! There is no greater story in the history of mankind that can outdo this love story! No Nicholas Sparks story can even be put in the same breath! Sorry ladies. But it is true! So why would I not give up everything I had going for me in the states and come love people that need it. Is that not our commandment? Is that not what we just agreed He did? What if everyone started loving the way we are commanded to love? It seems like such a cliche, but seriously! If we all decided to put one foot outside of our comfort zone and decide to try this word called love, I promise we will all be dancing before you know it!
As for the rest of our day today, yes once again my ADD kicked in, we were able to ease off on the manual labor and count trees for a new plot of land we are about to contract out. It was interesting because my two amigos and me are still trying to brush up on our spanish. With that being said we had to find out which trees were healthy and which were not. Oh and somehow find a way to count up to 563 in spanish. Also today was the first day we got to experience the sun and heat of Peru. So of course I wanted to get my tan on. I took my shirt off and am now going by a nickname I am not proud of. "Baywatch" has been given to me and I am quickly trying to put it to rest. The problem is Will and Alex loved it so lets just hope we can leave it here in Tambo Grande when the trip is over. Haha. All in all, this trip is building up to be all we had hoped for. We have to get up early in la mañana to go back to the field and grab a shovel and get back to work before calling it a week. But for now I got to get back to our competitive card game. Still praying for all those affected by the awful weather in Oklahoma! Always sad to hear, but we have to trust that there is a bigger picture. He must've needed some new Angels :)