Breakfast was served at 8:30am, (we were given a generous extra 30 mins in bed due to the late night celebrations the night before) and it was the usual hot fryer drink and jam sandwiches in a plastic bag. The bugs had obviously not celebrated the new year and were up extra early to bite people on the arms and face and were obviously not going to let us leave without a parting gift.
Today would mark the final concert of the camp and we were to have it outdoors so all of the groups could preform without being cramped in the space of the main chapel area of the camp. Benches were laid out in a semi circle so that everyone could see the performers.
The program consisted of all of the classes and bands that had lessons this week and first up was the beginner guitar group lead by Ruth Choi who lead them in a rendition of"Open the eyes of my heart Lord" followed by the beginner band led by David Me and Sarah Elliot who let the band perform a stiring rendition of "Ode to Joy". Following that was the Lyrical dance group lead by Kaitlin Hardiman and Timbrels lead by Amerika Outlaw who performed "David Danced". The percussion group led by Tyrone and Selena performed a piece on a ping pong table and this was followed by the Hip Hop dance led by Amerika Outlaw that featured close to 50 dances performing. The concert was concluded by the advanced band lead by Dr Kate Wholman and they performed Walls of Jericho and Blessed Assurance.
The next part of the concert moved inside and this was the worship service. The DYB band performed several numbers and led the songs throughout the service as well as help from the Peru divisional praise team. But the focus was the call of officers in Peru and it was announced that no one from Peru was going to training this year and more officers were needed and Lt Michel Good shared his testimony in the hope to get them invigorated and this was followed by a power message from Captain Nester Valverde who spoke passionately about the call to officership and ministry in The Salvation Army not to mention on how to live a Godly life as a young person. Several people came to the mercy seat and prayed and the band were thanked by the division for coming.
After a delicious lunch of chicken and rice we packed up and got ready to leave. It was a sad moment for the Peruvians as they said goodbye to our boys and girls and pictures were taken for a very long time as well as hugs and kisses (adults were on hand to make sure it was safe from harm) and tears flowed as friendships were continued by the swapping of emails and Facebook names. Several of the boys cried all the way back to Lima as they said goodbye to their new friends that they only knew for 3 days!
After a delicious lunch of chicken and rice we packed up and got ready to leave. It was a sad moment for the Peruvians as they said goodbye to our boys and girls and pictures were taken for a very long time as well as hugs and kisses (adults were on hand to make sure it was safe from harm) and tears flowed as friendships were continued by the swapping of emails and Facebook names. Several of the boys cried all the way back to Lima as they said goodbye to their new friends that they only knew for 3 days!
We then departed back to Lima and were eager to get to the beach. When we arrived it was not quite as we expected as there was no sand and no pebbles and no one was in the water. We were then told by out guide that the beaches in Peru are not really good beaches to swim in but none the less that did not stop Rudy Li who stripped off and dived and attempted to swim back to America, only to realize he was on the wrong side of the country and came back.
For dinner we went to the popular restaurant Bimbos where we ordered a burger and then proceeded to wait 45 mins to cook all our food, But it was very good and was worth the wait.
We then headed to the light show where we proceeded to see lights and water project images and pictures to music and it was very interesting to see. The park had a water maze and we watched as many of our friends attempted to get to the middle without getting wet but none made it and Esther Kim, Stefan Hall and Nate McMllan who were told to get a taxi home as they were too wet to get on the bus. This also included Rudy Li who thought the idea of the game was to get wet as possible and ran around like a headless chicken much to the delight of the crowd who clapped him and the stern looks of 3 nuns who came by. Before we left the park we took a picture outside the fountains and were almost run over by the park train whose route was right in the middle of our photo, but we stood frim and were honked at the the 90 year old train driver and his 3 passengers of 2 year old's.
We headed back to the hotel and had our devotions which were lead by Capt Tim Delaney who gave us much thought about the final day of our mission trip. All went to bed utterly exhausted but happy that the mission was almost complete and our final day would be spent seeing more of Peru and perhaps a few other souls to save. Good night ya'll!
Praying for safe trip home and ability to sleep on planes for all! Thank God for His blessings on and through each of you.
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