The “H" Team

In October 2019, I hosted the "J Team" (St. John's Lutheran Church in Jamaica); last week, I hosted the "H" Team: the Hoyt family of 4 + Mark, whose last name begins with the same letter. 

Three of the Hoyts served in Peru in February 2020 and had been looking for just the right opportunity to come back ever since. A work project was just up their alley, and when we settled on October, they took kindly to my suggestion that the FORO account for a portion of their time on the ground. They arrived the day before FORO arrival day, but instead of getting our hands too dirty, we eased in with a morning of sightseeing (I sat at a nearby café; the millennia-old ruins haven't changed since I was there in September) and then made the hardware store into a cultural experience. 

Team members took advantage of Sunday worship in Los Olivos with the FORO group to scope out the project specs for one of our chief tasks: installing window panes and protecting them with iron bars. 

Also on the docket: bookshelves for Himnario Luterano. The wood was pre-cut, but with only six horizontal pieces instead of seven, we had to quickly re-work the layout. Engineer Cameron came in clutch. 

Meanwhile, I'm still in awe that God raised up a team member with precisely the right niche skillset needed for the ironwork. I mean, what are the odds of finding a welder?! He worked hand-in-hand with Jorge, a local welder we'd hired for his expertise - and his tools. 

Church member - and deaconess student - Oriana came with us and jumped in however she could, as did our bus driver Pablo. I figured he'd leave with several hours to kill until pickup time, but I think we were more entertaining ;)

Two thumbs up from the supervisor. 

I fretted all day because Jorge was also responsible for the MIA window panes. They arrived - with installers we'd already paid -  just as we were thinking about packing up. In typical me fashion, I then started fretting because either we were going to be there allllllll evening and sit in traffic the whole way home, or the group would miss out on the experience of helping them go in. Turns out, everyone was beat, so we left the professionals to it and were delighted at what we walked into the next morning. 

Whoever said work expands to fill the time allotted was right. My visions of an earlier 2nd day quickly evaporated as different team members learned how to do the tedious but necessary work of griding and others not only cleaned up the mess of sawdust we'd made but left the church in better condition than we found it. 

I noticed the heavy foot traffic that continually passed by, so I lugged the church sign out and set some Spanish Portals of Prayer on a chair next to it. Quite possibly my "high" from the whole trip was glancing over to see Oriana dialoguing with a young woman, Neida, who'd paused to pick one up and read the sign. Oriana reported that she came to church on Reformation Sunday!

Kevin (far left), a Bolivian pastor-elect who'll be supporting the Peru Lutheran Mission through 12/21 while awaiting a call in his home country, was with us much of the time, too, including for our celebratory "progressive dinner." The team was craving ceviche but didn't necessarily want to eat someplace with a seafood-forward menu, so we chased down our appetizer with pollo a la brasa at a place a few doors down. 

The following day, we took the bookshelf show on the road to the Castillo Fuerte after-school program. We enjoyed an arroz con pollo lunch together, then pulled small groups of kids out of the upstairs classrooms to come down and help. Their eyes gave away their obvious fascination (OK, so did mine when I tried an antique hand-cranked drill), and they proudly signed their handiwork when they got back from the park. 

I ordered dinner from a delivery app on the bus ride home...and got ready to Uber to the airport!?! It's never ideal when I leave before a team, but Jamaica was calling. I left the team with a carefully orchestrated plan for their final day that included more bookshelves and in the capable hands of Kevin and Alliance missionary pastor Walterson Siewert. It sounds as though I'll be able to serendipitously connect with at least a couple of "H" Team members during my upcoming home service, and I'm anxious to see how their congregation's involvement with God's mission in Peru develops as they beat the drum for people and places they've grown to love. 

Until next time, blessings in Christ!