I don't think that I could have asked for a better birthday. Today was literally one of the best days of my life, and definitely top on my list for birthday days :) I literally went up on our roof and just wrote in my journal and cried because I felt so overwhelmed with love. I thanked God for His goodness to me on this day and how He showed me His perfect love through the hands of my family here in Peru.
This is what my day looked like:
I got up in the morning and went downstairs to breakfast. My whole team sang Happy Birthday to me first thing in the morning before I could even sit down. They are great. We took the bus to the construction site and right when I got off the bus I was bombarded with more Happy Birthdays from the nationals that were already there at the site. The Kimbros also all wished me Happy Birthday and gave me a hug as usual. They are the best.
For construction I got to play in the mud all day with my girls from my team to mix together the materials to make bricks. So I had to change into shorts so I didn't ruin my pants, and while I was doing that, my friends Jess and Annie went and got a little donut-cake thing for me and put a candle in it and when I got out of my room at Albergue they sang me Happy Birthday and I blew out the candle :) We had lots and lots of fun doing bricks. And when Annie opened her little snack corner she gave me a piece of her delicious Tres Leches cake. It's probably my favorite cake here.
Joca, one of my friends here in Peru, told me that my gift is coming tomorrow. He's sweet and I'm excited to see what it is! On the bus to lunch all the Peruvians sang me Feliz Cumpleanos and then a couple other Peruvian Bday songs. THEN when we got to lunch ALL of the teams for this week were there (over 50 people in total) and Marion made everyone stop eating so that they could sing me Happy Birthday AGAIN. hah. After lunch my co-interns for this team, Jereme and Vicky gave me flowers! They were really beautiful.
The second half of our day consisted of going to the fruit market down town and then spending our day giving the fruit away at the dump. I think that this time really impacted my team. I had been praying that God would give me a new experience this time in the dump than he had ever given me before and that He did. I was able to just stand there in the midst of the dump, in the middle of all of this burning trash, dirty people and animals and just pray for the people. In Psalm 113, I love verses 7-8 which say, "He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people." What a beautiful picture that is. To think of the God of Heaven and earth reaching down and scooping one of His dearly loved children out of the dust and ash heap of the dump and places them with princes! WHO IS LIKE OUR GOD?!
All of us took quick showers and ran real quick to America Sur. (where we have dinner every night when we have teams here.) At dinner I got to sit by Cindy and tell her all about my day. Then for dessert we all got ice cream! And before we left Kaleb gave me a gift! He said he had been working on it for a while and then he gave it to me...It was 2 journals. Both of them were hand-made from scratch. And they were awesome. This was probably one of the highlights of my day.
We got back home to Helping Hands after dinner and Jereme, Vicky and I prepared for debrief with our team. I was a little "late" to debrief, but really everyone was just early, and my team brought out a cake for me with candles and sang Happy Birthday to conclude one of the best days ever. They went out after dinner and picked out a cake just for me :) As they were singing Happy Birthday, Vicky came up and smashed the frosting from the top all over my face. It's a tradition here in Peru! To conclude the night we had worship in our living room with some of our Peruvian friends, so we sang in Spanish. It was beautiful.
Bethy was sick on my Bday so I visited her, and when I went to my room to write all of this down I found the most encouraging letter from her on my bed. She is the best. I love being in Peru together.
Also, Mom and Dad sent a little gift down with Bethany to give me on my Bday and it was the Newsies soundtrack. Hah. I've already listened to it and I love it a lot. It was a fun little surprise.
Lastly, Joca gave me my gift the day after my Bday and it was a "wolf in sheeps clothing" stuffed animal. It's great. He got it for me cause he laughed when he saw it and knew that it would make me laugh too. I love extended Birthdays!!
God is good and He blessed me more than I could ask for on my 18th Birthday. Thank you everyone who wished me Happy Birthday on this special day!! :)
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