Life: an adventure, a journey with Jesus

A night out on the town!
Eating Peruvian/Italian/American
Duh! we DO have a small group!

I really don't know what to call this BLOG, so read it and you can choose the title when you are done!

A little history on the characters involved. Don & I (ok, so you already know we ARE characters!) Laura & Vico -- Laura has worked with the visiting American teams for a number of years and is a deaconess at the church. She and Vico have 2 daughters, 12 and 19 years old! Laura speaks some English. David & Norma -- (No, not my brother and sister-in-law!) David was Don’s taxi driver for a couple of years when he worked in Construction Ministries and Norma is the church secretary. David has learned a few English words and phrases over the years from Don! Norma speaks some English, but not much.

A month ago, we three couples went out to dinner and enjoyed a great meal, had a wonderful time visiting together, and laughing about our attempt to talk in one another’s language. David picked up the tab for the evening and it was explained to us that Laura & Vico would treat in December and it would be our turn in January! It appeared to us that we had been invited to an on-going, onece-a-month, night-out-on-the town with these two younger couples. How nice!

Last night was the night! It was 6:45 p.m. our doorbell rang, and we clambered down the steps to meet Laura and Vico, and walk to the bus stop, not to catch a bus, but to flag down a taxi. We climbed in and made arrangements to pick up Norma at her house and to head to Lima to meet David. With 4 adults in the back seat of the taxi it was close fellowship! We met up with David (he has a car) and soon were continuing our trip to the restaurant. Traffic is always heavy in the city, so we couldn’t help but wonder where they had chosen to eat knowing that our trip was already over an hour and we had not yet reached our destination. It wasn’t long until we pulled up to an American restaurant. Well, you might say an Italian restaurant! I now believe it was chosen on our behalf, with the goal to provide us with a little bit of home.

We pulled into the parking lot of Papa John’s (they all called it Papa Don’s!) at 8:15 p.m. Imagine driving an hour and a half to go to Papa John’s for pizza! As we found our table and settled in, we noticed that the wallpaper and decorations in the restaurant were all in English. However when presented the menu, we recognized the Spanish words for chicken, BBQ, ham, pineapple, and of course coca cola! With the decision being made on what to order, we settled down to some great conversation. It’s actually getting easier and we were able to join in and participate more freely than ever before. It was fun trying to translate the words on the restaurant walls into Spanish, and they were trying to pronounce the English words, asking what each meant. It was 10:00 p.m. when we vacated our table and got ready for the ride home. As we were leaving the parking lot there was a motorcycle with an insulated box on the back that was the Papa John’s pizza delivery vehicle. Couldn’t help but wonder if they would be interested in making a delivery in our neighborhood. NOT! It took us over another hour to finally reach our apartment at 11:20 p.m.

We had a great time, with good friends, good food, and good conversation. It was a night to remember as we have never spent four and one-half hours going to get pizza!

This morning Don and I were discussing the monthly night out. Hold that thought…..
We were also discussing our hunger (not for pizza). Hold that thought....
As you know, we read in Acts the first church had four components; worship, prayer, teaching and fellowship. We have expressed recently to a few friends in the states, that we really miss out on church life as we are still limited in language. However, on-line preaching/teaching is helping. Now back to the two thoughts I asked you t hold....
we realize now that the Lord has provided us with this monthly small group fellowship as an encouragement and hopefully we will continue to grow together in the Lord.