The past few weeks have been full of exciting happenings! I
finished my junior year of college, I was bitten by a monkey, and I’ve been
able to start working in my internship.
For the last two weeks of classes, I
took a bus every morning and afternoon in a town called Chaclacayo. It took me
around an hour and a half for each leg of the trip. Pastor Gary Whipple from
Baptist Mid-Missions has a church there. He has taught the Personal Evangelism
class to the ARRIBA students for quite a few years and always offers it to his
church members as well. In the mornings, he taught (in Spanish) how to effectively
spread the Gospel to the Peruvian culture. Then in the afternoons, we would go
to different parks or markets for two hours to practice what we were learning. At
the beginning, I was so nervous to talk to these people in Spanish. I’m not the
kind of person who goes and talks to strangers…even in my own language! God was
definitely stretching me and taking me out of my comfort zone. By the end of
the two weeks, I was feeling more comfortable not only going up to strangers,
but also more comfortable with the gospel presentation in Spanish. After the
Personal Evangelism final exam, I technically finished my junior year of college.
However, I probably have to do three semesters at Clearwater (depending on how
many of these credits they accept) in order to finish my degree.
Also this past week, I was able to
play with a little baby monkey from the Jungle! What started out as the most
exciting day of my cultural experience soon turned into my biggest headache.
Let’s start at the beginning. My friend Daniel and I were going into a few
different stores at the market sharing the gospel. We go into a certain “tienda”
and start talking to this sweet university aged girl named Viviana. We tell her
about the ARRIBA program and why we’re walking around the streets of Peru as
silly North Americans. I just started telling her my testimony when we hear
this noise behind us. We turn around and see this cute little monkey dressed in
a sweater on a leash tied to the leg of the table. We practically squeal with
delight, while trying not to look like too much of stupid American teenagers. She
tells us his name is Martín, he’s only six months old, and he’s perfectly
harmless. After she gives us the go ahead to play with him, we walk over and I
crouch down beside him. He immediately jumped onto my arm and starting climbing
up and down. He was licking me, giving me little kisses, and talking to me in
his little monkey squeaks. Daniel tried to hold him and he just kept trying to
come back to me. Viviana told us that Martín really didn’t like men that much.
She was right. Every chance he got, Martín would look over at me and try to
jump from Daniel’s arm to mine. We played with him for quite some time until we
remember the reason that we were out and about in the first place. We left the
little monkey alone for a while in order to talk to Viviana more about the
Gospel. We were able to talk to her for a god hour or so. She would ask us
questions here and there letting us know that she was actually thinking about
what we were trying to say. After about an hour, Daniel and I finished up our
conversation by inviting her to the local church where we were taking the
classes. As we were walking out, I wanted to play with Martín one last time and
say goodbye. That’s where all my problems started. Since we had been talking to
Viviana for quite a while, the silly monkey had gotten a little hungry. He once
again jumped up on my arm and was licking and kissing me again. However, being
a little hungry, he decided to start nibbling on the back of my hand. It’s not
like he opened his mouth and started chomping down on my arm! It didn’t even
hurt. I knew it hadn’t broken the skin yet, but I was trying to put him down
because I had to go anyway. But he just loved me so much that he didn’t want to
let go! He kept nibbling on my hand as I was trying to put him back on the
ground. I didn’t even notice that he had drawn blood until we were back at the
church for our post-evangelism talk. I
showed Daniel and asked him if it was anything I needed to worry about. He said
I should probably tell Miss Becky about it. I was very reluctant because it was
barely a scratch, but finally sent her a little text message. She didn’t
respond. I took my long bus ride home and enjoyed a nice dinner with the
family. Still no response. I text her again to see if she had even received the
first message. She calls me back and says “I thought you were joking!” hahah
Yes, I’m the type who makes up a story about a monkey biting me just to get a
little extra attention. J
She told me she’d call the mission’s Doctor in the morning to see what we
should do. In the mean time, they take me 3 hours downtown to the sketchiest
part of Lima to start my rabies shots. A series of 5 shots that cost S/4. (Less
than $2). I was a little skeptical about the validity of these shots, but I
didn’t say anything because I wasn’t convinced that I needed them in the first
place. Meanwhile, the doctor in the home office jumped to worst case scenario and
wanted them to buy me a plane ticket to the states. Miss Becky and Pastor Jim
tell her that we’d go to the American Hospital here in Lima first before we do
anything too drastic. The next day, Miss Becky drives me 2 hours downtown to
the American Hospital. The doctor at this hospital said I shouldn’t have a
problem with rabies, but to keep getting the shots just in case. He was just
more worried about the herpes that I might contract from the monkey. Who knew?!
I certainly didn’t know that Monkeys carried the herpes virus. Sooo…he gave me
the prescription to buy some herpes suppressant meds. We go to the pharmacy and find out the
medication will be almost $300! I guess that makes up for the $2 rabies shots!
I was not in favor of paying that much for herpes medication when I didn’t even
think I needed to go the doctor in the first place! So we call the doctor and
ask if there’s a generic brand of herpes meds. He gives us a different name and
we find out it’s less than half the price AND I didn’t have to take it as many
days. Tough decision…by the time I finally buy the meds and get home it’s about
11:00pm. Longest two days of my life (and I still had to go get four more
shots). But through the whole ordeal, I learned a really important lesson.
Never fall for a monkey in a sweater. P.S.
It’s been a week and three days and I’m still alive without any symptoms of
neither rabies nor herpes.
In all the excitement of finishing
a year of college in the middle of September and being bitten by a monkey, you’d
think I couldn’t take any more excitement right? Wrong! Over the past two weeks
I’ve also gotten a head start in my internship. In November, we officially
start our internships working under a missionary in the local church. However,
I was able to do a few things a little early. I’ve been sitting and commenting
in the Sunday School class for the youth group aged girls at church. I’ve
gotten to know them pretty well and really enjoy being in their class on Sunday
mornings. Vicky, the one who normally teaches the class, was planning on going
on a trip to visit some family members. She asked me to teach the lesson for
her while I was gone. I thought she was joking! She wasn’t. So that week in my
Spanish tutoring time, I worked on preparing my first lesson in Spanish. I spoke on the life of Joshua. We looked at
the characteristics he brought as a leader of the children of Israel. We discussed
the qualities of a leader and applied them to the qualities we should be
looking for in our future husbands as they should be the ones leading the family.
It was a very applicable lesson that I don’t think many of the girls have
really heard before.
Also while Vicky was gone, she
asked me to meet with a girl named Erika for a discipleship time. Erika is one
of the girls that I’ve been praying about discipling. Vicky has started meeting
with her on Sunday nights with the vision that I will take over once I start my
internship. I met with Erika for half an hour before church. We were supposed
to be talking about what she read in the book of Romans that week. However, we
really just talked about her life, her family, her friends. She asked me some
about my life too. We just spent the half hour talking and getting to know each
other a little better. Although we didn’t get into the book of Romans at all, I
went into the church service that night smiling at the new friendship God was
building between me and Erika. The next week Vicky was back in town, but she
asked me to come to the discipleship time anyway just to be able to continue to
get to know Erika a little more each week. We actually did get into the first
chapter of Romans. It was a really good three way conversation between the
three of us girls. At the end of the time, Vicky asked Erika if she thinks she’ll
be able to continue meeting for half an hour before every Sunday night service.
Erika says she even wanted to come for an hour before the service. Praise the
Lord! Vicky and I were ecstatic that Erika not only was willing to keep coming
every Sunday, but that she wanted to spend MORE time in discipleship with us.
Both Vicky and I are really excited for the opportunity to watch Erika grow in
her walk with the Lord.
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