Stories from Ventanilla

presents Stories of Ventanilla

Alan as well as all other members of the Peru Team have had so many stories to share! Some of them are wonderfully heart-warming...while others are more heart-wrenching. Alan has said many times since returning home, that he went to peru to help to build a church and to minister to the needs of the people there. But what he was not expecting was to be on the "receiving end" of many, many blessings and experiences for spiritual growth. When Alan was given the opportunity to stand up at church and share about his experience in Peru he said, "Everywhere around me I saw the face of Jesus. In the faces of the children who loved me unconditionally...in the faces of the other members of the team... some of them from other churches, various denominations, races and cultures. Yet we all worked in perfect harmony, reaching for the same goal...to show the people of this poor village the face of Jesus." * Read more about this life-changing experience. I am sure that YOU will be affected by these stories as I was. God Bless... Denice *

A typical street in Ventanilla First thoughts about Ventanilla: As soon as they stepped off the plane they were overwhelmed by the odor of diesel fuel. There are no "E.P.A." regulations there, no laws to protect the environment. No "E-checks" for automobiles. And if you are not overwhelmed by the diesel fuel, the other stench is that of garbage. No regulations there either. And the streets, the walkways, the desert and the beaches are lined with garbage and debris. One of the first things one notices about the area is the absence of GREEN. There are almost NO trees or grass. And it has not rained in Ventanilla in more than 40 years...just a "mist" that seems to hang in the air at all times, causing everything to always feel damp and sticky. (Alan said that the women wash there laundry and hang it outside to dry...but it takes DAYS!) In stead of green...the primary color seen in the backdrop of this village is an oppressive BROWN. Brown dirt or mud and dirty brown one-room shacks. These small shacks are the people of Ventanilla's homes. They are contructed of various combinations of scrap wood, metal and woven straw mats. And a generous sized "home" might be 12'x14'. Behind each "home" is the "banyjo" (outhouse-I'm not sure about my spelling), but these "restrooms" are NOT even like the "outhouses" we might remember from our childhood visits to Great-Grandma's. They are made as a small little "house" but there is no "seat" but just a concrete slab with a hole in the middle of it and a board to cover the hole when not in use. The "user" must "squat" over the hole and do what needs to be done. :o) These "homes" are crowded together....1000's of them as far as the eye can see. And the rows of "homes" are outlined by dirt streets that are identified by letters and/or numbers. (e.g. "M11") There are many small little cars, public buses and "taxi's" that are half motorcycle and half "buggy"...and all of these drive through the dirt streets with no real traffic laws seemingly observed. Another very noticeable thing about this village is the presence of 1000's of children. Ages 3 and up are free to run the streets. The average weekly wage of a family in this village is anywhere from $4 to $10 weekly. So a mother must go into Lima to work and she cannot afford to give a portion of that money to childcare. So the children are taught at a young age to fend for themselves and to care for the younger ones. When there are strangers in the area...such as our team of workers who are busy building a church building among these tiny "homes"... the children are very curious and gather round to watch. The ladies on the team pent a lot of time working with these children...doing crafts, sharing Bible stories, etc. This helps to keep the kids safe and away from the work site but most importantly it is a great opportunity to share the Gospel with these precious children of God. * A Very Special Little Girl:one little child in particular really pulled the heartstrings of my big softhearted husband. Her name is Gracia and she is 7 years old. Gracia also has 2 sisters, 4 year old Rosita and 9 year old Katrina. They have a very good mother who loves them very much and although they are living in poverty in a tiny shack their mother makes sure the girls are always clean, with their shiny coal-black hair always neatly brushed and pulled up into ponytails and their clothes always clean and neat. However their father has a serious drinking problem. He will get a job in Lima, earn a paycheck or 2 and then disappear for days at a time drinking away the money he earned. So their mother must also go into Lima to work and to earn a meager check to provide for her children. So like most other children in Ventanilla, Gracia and her sisters are left unattended for much of each day. There was an instant magnetic attraction between ALan and Gracia the first time they met. The children in Ventanilla love to be held or touched...they crave attention and affection. They freely give unconditional love to anyone willing to receive it...and hopefully to return it. When I first heard about this, it struck me as DANGEROUS! Here in the U.S. we teach our children "not to talk to strangers"!We'd never allow our children to go up to a strange man and ask him to pick them up! And besides...most kids over the age of 5 or so usually doesn't care to have much contact with adults anyway. But in Ventanilla, it's different. My guess is these children crave the attention since their parents are forced to go an hour away into Lima to work long hours and they cannot afford to give a portion of their tiny paychecks to childcare. So the first time that Gracia met Alan she asked him (in spanish) to pick her up. He did so gladly and she gently hugged him and patted his face. One of the first times he held her she lovingly stroked his beard and said, "Papa Noel" which means "Santa Claus". This name stuck and ALan was known as "Papa Noel" for the rest of the trip, not only by all the children but even his team mates too! :o) One day after doing crafts with some of the ladies Gracia came running straight up to Alan to give him her cut out of a sheep covered with cotton balls and another drawing that she had colored. What a treasured gift... On the last day at the work site ALan went into Lima to buy some gifts for his little friend. He bought her an "Apaka" sweater (Llama wool) and a "Barbie Doll". Gracia loved her gifts and thanked "Papa Noel" with another hug. One of the other guys on the team, Aarron was "smitten" with Gracia's sister "Katrina" and he bought her an "Apaka" sweater and a barbie Doll too. And not wanting to leave out little Rosita, ALan and Aarron both chipped in for a sweater and a "Baby" doll for her. All of the girls were extremely appreciative for their gifts and their mother thanked the guys with tears in her eyes. What she didn't realize was that her precious children gave Alan and Aarron a "gift" far greater than the ones her children received. Gracia, Katrina and Rosita showed the guys what the unconditional, innocent love of a child felt like. And as ALan put it..."that's what the face of Jesus looks like". On that last day at the work site Gracia's mother came looking for her. Gracia was to be in a wedding that evening and she had to get her hair fixed. It was time to say Goodbye. Gracia hugged Alan with huge tears in her eyes. She and her mother boarded an old city bus to ride into Lima, but the driver had to talk with someone off the bus for a minute so the bus didn't pull away immediately. Gracia stuck her little head out the bus window, with tears running down her face, waving her little hand. As ALan put it, it seemed like an eternity and he was wishing that driver would get on that bus and take her away...to end her anguish as ell a his own. It was so painful saying goodbye to Gracia, not knowing when or IF he will see her again. And since he has came home and shared the stories and photos of Gracia and her sisters...everything we do causes us to think about Gracia in that dirty, poor village of little dirty shacks. All the things here that kids take for granted... McDonalds "Happy Meals", getting new toys at "Toys-R-Us", trips to the Zoo or the County Fair, nice warm, soft, clean beds with big fluffy quilts, closets filled with clothes, shoes and coats.... but yet so many times kids take all that for granted. But as Alan shared, the one thing that really stands out with the kids in Ventanilla...especially little Gracia... is that they are so happy and so carefree. They have so little and so they are so very appreciative for anything that do receive. Alan with little "Gracia"

* A New Bed: Many homes are built up the sides of these rocky-sandy mountains. At the top of one of these mountains is a small church and the Pastor and his family live in a tiny one-room shack also at the top of this mountain. The Pastor has a daughter who suffers from severe crippling arthritis and is bedfast. She sleeps in the one bed that the family owns along with her mother. This "bed" is just a thin dirty piece of foam laid on the dirt floor. The father (Pastor) sleeps on a board outside behind the house. (Every night since hearing this story, as I lay in my nice warm, king-sized bed I've not been able to get the image of this loving, giving father sleeping outside on a board out of my head. "Thank You God for my bed that You have provided..amen") Our team of men and women made the trek up this mountain one day to meet the daughter and to annoint her with oil and pray for her. Coming back down off of that mountain everyone's heart was so heavy upon seeing the sleeping arrangment of this dear family. Soon everyone started putting their money together and they were eager to head into Lima to find a furniture store! They decided to buy a bunk bed that was able to be seperated...like getting 2 beds for the price of one! And they also bought a new mattress. It was getting dark by the time they got back to the mountain.

The mountain path where they carried the beds * Eleven men carried that bunk bed and mattresses up that mountain. And the money that was collected for the beds was more than enough for the beds and so they were also able to give that Pastor $100 American dollars- almost a years salary for that Pastor. And as Alan put it, "I don't think any of our feet touched the ground coming back down that mountain". He said that he felt as though he was cheating... he said that we went there to GIVE a blessing and it ended up that we were the ones RECEIVING it! God is so good. * Because of a Kidney Stone?: Aarron Yost, a young man who is the son of friends of ours was a member of the team. Just 2 short years ago, I remember his mother Marla's heart-felt request for our prayers for her son. He had graduated from high school and seemed to be running from the Lord and the Christian background he had been raised in. Alan had a bad attack with kidney stones back in the winter and Aarron's mother is a nurse in the E.R. of the hospital I took him to. Once she gave Alan enough pain medicine to get his horrible pain under control, Alan shared with her about his upcoming trip to Peru. Then Marla shared with us that Aarron had recommitted his life to the Lord and he was really excited about serving the Lord and was seriously considering full-time missions. She said she thought Aarron would love to have a chance like this to go to the mission field! So later when ALan was out of the hospital and back to health he got an application for Aarron and gave him a call. He invited Aarron to come by our house to pick up the form. Aarron was so excited, he rushed over that night! It had been several years since we had seen Aarron. And I could not believe the difference in him! Even his face looked different! I could see the peace of Jesus in Aarron's life and his love and excitement for the Lord was so apparant! And now Aarron was going to Peru! Alan has since said many times that it was worth every bit of that pain from his kidney stones if that's what it took to get Aarron to the mission field!! :o) ~ The children of Ventanilla loved Aarron! Whenever someone looked for Aarron they just needed to look for a crowd of children. And Aarron would be found in the middle of them. Alan and several others have said to me that it was amazing to watch Aarron around those kids! he just seemed to have a real gift with them. Aarron was so giving..so generous to those children. He went into a little store there in Ventanilla once accompanied by atleast a dozen kids. And he bought them each a little bag of what we know as "Cheetos". The kids called them, "Cha-cheetos". Suddenly Aarron became the "Cha-cheetos Man"! The kids followed him everywhere all crying out, "Cha-cheetos, Cha-cheetos!!". Aarron bought out every little store in Ventanilla of their "Cha-cheetos". :o) He also generously bought them candy, bubble gum... and he also bought "Katrina" (Gracia's sister) a sweater and a doll. All the other team members really loved Aarron too. He has a great sense of humor and it's NOT hard to love him. It is apparant to everyone that Aarron has a gift for working with children. I am sure that the Lord has great plans for Aarron. And to think it all started with a kidney stone... * The Leper Colony: Not far from Ventanilla is an old abandoned hospital. It had been a Lepers Hospital, but they had ran out of funding and were forced to shut down. But all the Lepers had no place to go, they could not go into Lima because even the child of a Leper is discriminated against severly. So they really didn't have any choice but to remain there in the abandoned hospital. Not everyone that lives there is afflicted with Leperosy. As I said, if you are a child of a Leper you are ostrasized. So there are people of all ages living there. Most of the people have no real means of support. There is no government welfare system and no one will give a Leper or the relative of a Leper a job. Some of them sell matches or individually wrapped candies or combs at the gates of town. They depend a lot on the kindness of strangers and the missionary people to help meet their needs. There are 9 of the Lepers that are suffering very badly with serious infections on their feet. Leperosy is like a "flesh-eating infection" and so they have no skin on the bottom's of their feet. The people are lucky if they have even one pair of shoes and they are dirty, full of holes and badly worn out. There is a man there who is treating these wounds for the Lepers. This man is not a doctor or a nurse...but he is willing. So he "got the job!" He has very little in the way of supplies, but occasionlly someone will donate some bandages or some antibiotic ointment. He will scrape away the dead tissue on their feet, then he washes them, wraps them in either clean bandages or when he runs out he rewashes the ones he took off, and then he hopes... he hopes that their infection doesn't spread through their bodies and kills them, he hopes that they don't end up loosing their leg because of this. When our team went there to visit they took lots of treats for the children, they took dozens of bottles of lotions- something that a Leper needs desperately for their severe dry skin, we took T-shirts, socks and other clothing, we took lots of bandages, antibiotic ointment, irrigation syringes, and lots more for the man treating their feet, and we took Crafts and Sunday School papers for the children to work on. Most importantly we came armed with the love of Jesus. Our people gave out hugs freely when these lepers are so used to everyone staying away from them. Some of the children sang for our people. They welcomed us with open arms. We have a lot to learn from these people! They have nothing...and yet they are happy and content. They love others unconditionally...without judgement. They trust God to meet their needs... and He does. He always has. * "God is Good All the Time": Soon upon arriving in Peru the team came up with a "slogan". Everytime one of the team members would shout, "God is good!"...then the rest of the team would respond by saying, "All the time!" and if the first person would shout, "All the time!", then the rest of the team followed with, "God is good!" Pretty soon even the nationals were getting into the spirit of things and joining in. The first Sunday in our church service after they had all returned home, the Pastor even shouted from the pulpit, "God is good!"...and soon the whole church was shouting, "All the time!!". God IS so good...all the time. His mercies are new every morning. There is no "cut-off point" at which we can no longer get his assistance or love. He is continously faithful to us. So many of the team members has had wonderful testimony's of God's faithfulness. Before, during and after the trip. Many of them were sharing even before they left how God has miraculously provided ALL the funds for their trip. One of the guys had his house up for sale for months and months. He was getting quite nervous about the sale of this house as his new one was almost finished being built. Lots of people went through the house but no one would make an offer. he even seriously considered canceling his trip to Peru and at one point even offered the ticket to someone else at no charge. But no one else was available to go. So he reluctantly went to Peru. When he returned home, at the Cincinnati airport his wife greeted him with a chocolate cupcake with a little "SOLD" sign stuck in it. The house had sold while he was in Peru. "God is Good!!....... "All the time!" *

I have shared about all the stories that I have heard. Of course I am sure there was so much that took place, so many hearts that were touched, lives that were blessed, so much that could never be put into words.
What I consider to be the most important "story" or Life Lesson" to be learned here is that when one truly gives of himself he is actually the one who receives the most. I know that to be true just from my own personal experiences. Not that we should serve with selfish motivation. But when we have a servants heart, and we reach out to be "Jesus" here on earth we are the ones who receive the greatest blessing. There is nothing like the smile on an elderly persons face when you have taken the time to sit and listen even if for just a moment. There is no greater joy than to witness the heartfelt gratitude from a mother in need. There is no greater investment than the times we spend encouraging a child.
The short time that Jesus was on this earth He was always giving of Himself, never seeking anything for selfish gain. This is the example that He has given us. Since my husbands involvement in this mission to Peru, I have had to examine my life, I have had to ask myself, "Am I following that example?". Are you?

dgw

One of 1000's of young children in Ventanilla

* Other Pages About The Trip: * Mission To Ventanilla, Peru June 21 thru July 1, 2000 The original page where I entered info. about the "Briefings" held prior to the trip, list of team members, etc. * Alan's Missions Journal Entries from Alan's personal journal * "Simplicity" A lesson that the Lord has been teaching me through this trip and also a wonderful book I've been reading * Thank you for your interest in this mission trip. dgw~ We attend Millville Ave. Church of God (of Anderson, Indiana) * Need help finding your way around my site? Point your "mouse" to my Site Compass

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My Testimony/Denice's Update/A Special Message/ A Tribute to my Mother/Homeschooling Through Adversity/ The Whitaker Family Kitchen/Chronic Pain-Illness Ministry/Denice's Devotional/ Webpage & Email Tutorial/To My Child/Friendship/Site Compass/ My Victorian Home/My SoulMate/Graphics/Awards/Friends Pages