Taking Root
A short-term team from Virginia planting trees at SIM Peru's camp
Here in Peru, SIM has a children's camp, where each summer, hundreds of kids study the Bible, ride horses, swim, shoot bows and arrows, etc. Many lives are changed for eternity. Last week, a team from Virginia came to help run a camp for the local children and help with camp maintenance, such as planting trees, as you can see in the pictures. As I drove them back to Arequipa at the end of their time here, I asked them, "What was your favorite part?" The teenagers quickly sang the praises of lunch and supper, while one of the [ahem] more mature team members said, "I was so impressed that over and over we were told that we were building this for the local Peruvian church to take over some day. So many times, foreigners can start projects that become their own like fiefdoms, but this is from the start designed to be run by the Peruvians."
We are making big steps toward this goal. On Monday night, the board of directors of the camp just invited 3 more Peruvians to join to help lead the camp as we foreigners try to 'work ourselves out of a job'. Pray that we find good Peruvian leaders to help lead the camp years after we are gone!
Serving with you.
A recently-planted palm tree