T Minues Two

48 more hours… Two more days. We’ve had our last English class. We’ve had our last night with the youth. We have one more church service.Tonight with the youth we got to celebrate: celebrate our time in Peru and the wonderful friends whom we have made. We sang, heard Jano speak, Lisa and I got to thank everyone for playing an amazing role in our lives, and then the pastoral staff called us all up and handed us each a bag to open. Inside we found a t-shirt that had our photo, a map of Peru and the words “Kutimnukichu?”. In that moment, I lost it… I started crying. But I had the opportunity to pray with some of my friends whom I’ve gotten to share life with over these past three and a half months. We celebrated, ate cake, watched soccer, and took pictures.

I have so many emotions going through my head and my heart, I’m not certain how to decipher them. I’m overwhelmed by the love and the warmth that we’ve been showed. We were all surprised that people brought us small gifts. I know I was surprised how many people showed p for our last night of youth. I don’t think that God ever ceases to surprise us with joyful things. When it was my turn to thank everyone I read Romans 1:8-13. It’s Paul’s prayer for the Romans, how he’s longing to see them so that they may encourage one another. I feel like that is my prayer for my team and for Lima. “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.”

“Kutimnukichu?” means “will you come back?” And the big problem of my heart is that my world is now in two places. I have two sets of family and two sets of friends who are both asking “Kutimnukichu?”. I want the answer to be yes. I want the answer to be “Yes, I’m coming back to California” and “Yes, I’m coming back to Lima”. And simply the answer can be “yes” on both accounts but the more important question is “Will you stay?”… Unfortunately a tree doesn’t grow roots in two places.