Day 1 in Peru!

Well we have safely arrived in Peru and were only delayed by around 3 hours! The Peru airport was in full swing even at 1am in the morning and we were greeted by our hosts who gladly took us to our bus where we discovered the bus driver was missing but was finally found by someone who spotted him asleep on his makeshift bed underneath the coach. We sent Stef in who promptly woke him up by banging on the side of the bus and we all got moving. After unloading our instruments at the corps, (and stopping the bus almost taking out half of the building next to the corps) we arrived at the hotel Colon (yes the city is called Colon.....) and after what seemed like an hour to check in we finally got a massive 2 hours sleep before our alarms woke us up ready to get going for morning worship!

After a delightful breakfast of something that was very nice to eat we headed to the corps building where we set up in the small chapel for the morning service. Although the service starts at 10am people were just about arriving at 10:30am and by then the corps was packed so full extra chairs were brought in and people stood outside to listen to the music of the vibrant praise team (despite Tyrone trying to steal the drummers drum!) We had several testimonies from our crew (Richard Li and Rachel Wiley) and a very moving testimony for the CSM. Highlights including a rousing song of I'll go in the strength of the Lord and a quartet version of Be Thou My Vision which had a number of church members with tears in their eyes. The whole experience lasted 2 hours and 30 mins and you never would of thought it as the band played song after song and the congregation sang and clapped and enjoyed every minute of it.

After the service we headed out to see the catacombs of the main Catholic church and was shocked to see a line that must of stretched so long it was impossible to see where you joined it. After asking what they were doing we found out that they were all waiting to put flowers down for Catholic Saint Jean which was honored on the 28th of each month. Our tour of the catacombs was interesting and the kids were rather perplexed seeing real bones but very moved by the paintings of the life of Jesus that had been painted some as long ago as 1680.

After our museum visits we headed to do a concert at downtown Colon where we had around 600 people waiting for us. The band and dance groups performed several rousing numbers and the crowd was excited to clap along to the marches and sing along to the performances. The local corps timbrel groups performed and it is obvious they have a deep love of the timbrel in this area of Peru! The band continued to play and after their last piece of Camp Happyland there were chants of "Encore" and the band played another number to please the crowd. Afterwards the kids were asked to have their pictures taken with members of the audience and they felt like rock stars!

After a dinner that lasted over several hours (or what felt like it) we headed back to the hotel for evening devotions lead by Capt Tim Delaney on the steps of the hotel outside. During this moving time police cars came around the corner and music blared from several houses, but the moving of the spirit was still evident as the group sang "Oceans" and several passers by watched and listened for a few moments before moving on.

This had been a day of wonderful worship and music making and many opportunities of spreading the message was apparent as the corps officer and soldiers spent time praying and telling the crowd about Jesus.

Tomorrow we head to the camp to start teaching to the young adults of Peru and we can't wait to get there! Please pray we have an impact on the young people of the Peru division and David Delaney will get out of bed in time!