(note: this morning a second journal entry was added to Friday's blog)
Saturday, August 19, 2023 (Steve Gibbs)
Our trip to Palqoyo today began at 4:30 am and finished when we returned home at 4:30 pm. One way it’s a three hour bus ride with about one hour and 45 minutes on rough, winding, bumpy dirt roads so multiply that by two and that was our travel time.
Yet it was so worth it to see three “rainbow mountains”, the glacier on Mt. Ausangate (at 20,945 ft. highest in the Cusco region) and some very impressive jagged, natural rock formations called “the enchanted forest”. We started our journey leaving our homes, boarding the bus at 10,100 ft. riding up to 15,652 ft., where we were dropped off in the parking lot and then hiking up to 16,250 ft. The hike took your breath away! Any pictures that you see could never compare with what you see when you are there.
Even though the hike, which was about 2.5 miles altogether, was a bit grueling, it was a tremendous opportunity to experience the beauty of creation. As Psalm 19, which was our devotional Scripture today, says, “The heavens declare the glory of God. . . “ Something of God’s majesty, power and purity (holiness) was being revealed to our team and to all who were making this climb today, including our 2 tour guides and the tour promoter, who accompanied us.
Since Beth and I are the slowest hikers in the group, we brought up the tail end of our team. Of course, one guide goes ahead leading the group and the other guide stays with the last members of the group. As such Beth was able to engage that guide, Samuel, in conversation. Eventually the topic of faith came up. Our guide, Samuel, told of his belief in the “Pachamama” (mother earth) and of the energy that she gives to him. Beth told of Jesus being the God above all gods and the one true God over all creation. Then the topic moved on to other things.
Somehow over the course of the day, something moved the guide, Samuel, to ask if he could attend a church service. Someone in the group said, “Certainly”. Then he wanted to know the specific location of the church and as we got dropped off at the end of the day, we told him all of the particulars and invited him to come to church tomorrow.
We will see what happens. We are praying that we will see him when we go to church tomorrow. Please join us in that prayer.
As glorious as the revelation of God is in creation, God through his Holy Spirit uses us, his people, to reveal Christ to those around us through our words and our actions. I think that all of those from the tour agency who accompanied us on the hike as well as the bus driver, saw that we were not an ordinary group of tourists. For one thing, our group wasn’t just folks from the US but there were 5 Peruvians in it as well. And 4 children! With two of the children from the US speaking Spanish so well that our tour guides were amazed, the tour promoter asked me very early in the trip, how were we all related? I explained that we were not a family but rather all from the same church.
May we individually and as a body of believers reflect Jesus in whatever we do and in so doing reveal him to those around us!
