God Winks in Peru
Do you ever get a feeling that God’s hand just made something really cool happen to you, like when a car pulls out and gives you the best parking spot ever? That could be a God wink!
God certainly winked at the Living Waters for the World (LWW) water team from Trinity Presbyterian Church, Pensacola, Fl., on May 2, 2019. That’s when we signed a covenant with the community of Jicamarca, Peru, to form a water partnership.
The Living Waters for the World mission team from Trinity Presbyterian Church, Pensacola, Fl.
Carol Gilroy (left) represents Trinity Presbyterian Church when signing a covenant with a Jicamarca community leader.
The team from Trinity felt the power of God’s hand from the inception of the LWW mission. Among the most phenomenal “winks” was the way our team was paired with another mission group from Pensacola already established for ten years in Peru. We just happened to ask Linda English, a friend of several members of Trinity, what she thought would be a good area for our water mission. Ironically, she and her husband had just purchased a 1.5 acre property in the little village of Jicamarca, just outside Lima. Their ministry of building houses and spreading God’s love in Peru is entitled “Reimagine Peru.” Well, needless to say, the connection was instantly made and the wealth of their knowledge and experience in Peru, as well as their remodeled building, are reaping great benefits for all involved.
The Trinity team surveys the property at Reimagine Peru which will also be the site of Jicamarca’s water purification system.
During our first visit to Jicamarca in February, we had the opportunity to meet with many community members. The idea that people from America would come to their village to help provide clean water was overwhelming. With the help of interpretation by LWW’s in-country personnel, we conveyed the idea of a covenant and the many roles for villagers to play in this water partnership. Two months later, the Trinity team went back to Peru to sign the covenant and found the villagers enthusiastically ready to do whatever was needed for the installation. From there, the winks just kept on coming! We discovered that Reimagine Peru has an available room that is perfect for the water system and dispensing water bottles to the community. They also have accommodations in which our mission team can stay, saving us a two-hour drive from our usual hotel in Lima. We also identified several strong water committee members from the community and potential health educators as well. In this, our first Living Waters for the World partnership, we are encouraged by the way God is showing up in the arrangements. The Trinity LWW team, as well as the Reimagine Peru family, look forward to each day, knowing that God is a faithful God who will continue to provide for this mission and the people of Jicamarca.
Beverly Patteson is a member of the water team at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Pensacola, Florida.
