Saturday, August 12, 2023 (Beth Gibbs)
Today is a special day to Steve and me as we celebrate 45 years of marriage together! And we still love one another–a lot! And I am very thankful for my loving husband! This year we get to celebrate with a wonderful team from Landis Valley. The 15 of us are a great and fun group together!
As the primary person planning this trip, I have been worried about everything going smoothly–too worried really. The other day I read:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength…
blessed are all who wait for him…
whether you turn to the right or to the left,
your ears will hear a voice behind you saying,
This is the way; walk in it.”
So I have been learning to trust, to wait for Jesus and to listen to His voice and just walk! The Lord has been with us–lost things have been found, the six children traveling with us have been amazing, and I think we are all getting used to the high altitude.
Today we left with our host families to travel about two hours to Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. Ollantaytambo was an Incan Temple and fortress where Pachacuti (the Inca leader) retreated to when the Spaniards attacked Cusco, and Ollantaytambo is the one place where the Spaniards lost a battle. We climbed up, up, up, and even young Daniel and Luke made it to the top!
We enjoyed a delicious lunch at a local restaurant. Here the main meal of the day is midday, and of course we did some shopping!
Next on our itinerary was the Salineras de Maras (Salt mines) which are fascinating. Warm salt water flows out of the mountain to thousands of very shallow pools where the water goes and then evaporates leaving behind Salt! Local families own the pools and they are passed down from one generation to the next. The trip here was our most “interesting” drive as we went down, down through many switchbacks where we saw many drop offs. I prefer not to look :).
We wanted to visit a few other places, but the sun was setting, and it was time to head home. As we drove, we all talked and shared and then began singing together! Most of our worship leaders are here on this trip, so I must say it was beautiful and brought joy to my soul. We sang in Spanish and English and Telugu–hymns and choruses and just some beautiful music. It was a wonderful way to finish our trip today!
Saturday, August 12, 2023 (Moses Madavaram)
Today we embarked on another journey. It started with greeting our host family and having an amazing breakfast.
However it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine since earlier a lot of us weren’t feeling well. Getting the cold, sore throat, upset stomach, car sickness, and well you name it.
But there’s always that voice in our head with God saying, “it’s going to be alright.” And it sure was indeed.
Greeted by our generous Pastor Roberto he drove us to Ollantaytambo. Going up these large steps to make it to the top, we found amazing scenery to take pictures of beautiful landscapes and animals as well. A good way to make memories indeed.
After tiring ourselves by hiking up and down we stopped by for lunch, even though we got a sweet deal, the quality of food was so good it felt like a bargain. Ranging from spaghetti, grilled chicken, fish, rice, and even french fries, we were able to energize ourselves for our next journey.
We then went to the salt mines and although it started to get chilly, we still found many opportunities to take nice pictures and to buy gifts from the local market.
We then drove back home from the setting sun to settle down and call it a day.
