It’s Tuesday, May 12, and Allison, Cole, and I are back home from our almost three-week-long survey trip. A special thanks goes to all those who supported us on this trip. We’re extremely grateful for your generosity. I’m going to try and back up for about a week and let everyone know how our week went spent in Cusco, Peru, which will be our new home in a few months!
On our first day there, we arrived in Cusco from Lima and quickly checked into the hotel. Afterwards, we spent the rest of the day touring the city in a big van. One of the members of the church in Cusco works with the tourism industry in the city, and she accompanied us on several tours of Cusco throughout the week. She was very kind and helpful as we got to know the city. We ended the day eating at one of the restaurants in the city.
The next morning was spent again touring the city, and after lunch we toured a brand new hospital. We were all very surprised by how nice the building is, and we were excited to learn about the details of the hospital: the insurance plan, the size of the rooms, etc. We ended the day with a devotional.
Thursday we drove around and familiarized ourselves with the four or five different districts of the city. It was exciting to dream about where we might plant the church where others could come and easily worship with us. We also check out several apartments and were encouraged with the quality and prices of the places. Thursday night, before I went to bed, I felt a little funny but was excited about getting up early in the morning and joining the group on a trip to Machu Picchu.
Early Friday morning I woke up only to find myself nauseous and sick. I was running a low-grade fever and so the Kizers and stay back in Cusco for the day, while the rest of the group enjoyed Machu Picchu.
After spending Saturday morning resting in the hotel room also, I felt a lot better and got out that afternoon to meet with the church leaders in Cusco. There are basically two congregations in Cusco. We met with the first, which meets in the San Sebastian area. The leader here actually planted the second (Wanchaq) earlier in his life. We had a great meeting with he and his wife, and I was encouraged as he told us that the city had grown from 60,000 to 400,000 in the last 30 years! Afterwards, we met with the second church, the Wanchaq congregation. Several of the members met us at the building and we had another exciting meeting. They were thankful to have more workers come, thankful to all of our supporters, and they mentioned that they had prayed for years that someone might come to Cusco. We were humbled when we heard of their prayers. Our team will benefit from the great group of Christians who are already in Cusco. That night we ate downtown and then took a van ride up to the top of the city. We stood on the mountains overlooking the city and prayed for the future of the church and for the future of Cusco. It was a great way to end the day and the week.
The next morning we worshiped with the Wanchaq congregation and then our group traveled to the airport to begin the long journey home. We finally arrived home the next day (yesterday) at noon.
Enjoy the pictures and video from our time in Cusco, Peru!
