I DIG PERU
The story of how we started-Page 2
These boys as you can see lead a hard life that would cause so many to hate, but Scripture Union in Peru works with these boys to give them a better life by giving them a chance both physically and spiritually. I could never do justice to the full Scripture Union story so please visit the Amazon Hope website via the link on the home page.
These boys instead showed myself and every team member bright smiles and just wanted to play and sing with us all day. It was this that made me realize I needed these boys as much as they needed Scripture Union. So when Dr. Rampey said he was taking a year off from leading mission teams, I went back to my church and asked for permission to lead a team back down to Peru to do construction work (my background is construction not medical). We had never sent a team from our church so we started from scratch. I have many great friends too numerous to give proper credit to that helped get this going and we formed up a great 20 person team. Along the way I could see God at work in our team and our church. We raised more than the $30,000 needed for our trip to Puerto Alegria about 1 hour upriver on the Itaya in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. We worked on buildings and played with the boys and sang songs for a week that I think no one will forget. It was hot, hard and the best work most of us have been blessed to do.
When we came back and it was immediately clear that we needed to start a second team and go back the next year. So we started working on the next trip about 2 months after we got back from the 2004 trip. In 2005 we took 26 people to Kawai which is about a 1 1/2 hour drive below Lima along the coast. The weather was cooler, the work was just as hard and we added school visits to our team activities. It was fantastic and again you could easily see God at work in our team. This was the year the I Dig Peru slogan first evolved. We meet a different kind of Street Boy at this camp as most of them were older but were just as loving to us and making us feel welcome. We worked on various construction projects at this camp. Again we got to do one of my favorite activities which is concrete and in case you are wondering that is the name of the background color for this website.
At the end of 2005 we were certain we wanted to have another trip, but I felt God telling me to take a back seat this time, so Derrik Chandler took over as the team leader and I went along as a team member for the 2006 trip back to Puerto Alegria. It was hard to believe but we had 28 people sign up for this trip. It was also hard to believe but Scripture Union found much harder work for us to do. With almost daily arrivals of sand bags and cement to unload from the boat and carry up the steep banks and then through the jungle to various worksites. Once again we got to spend many but not nearly enough hours with the boys and there were many new faces. It was great to see faces that we knew and instantly recognized us as well. This trip was especially great for me because I could see the faces and joy of our team members since I was not dealing with the day to day details. Derrik did a fantastic job and the tradition carried on.
This year we have a new team leader in Stephan Dunlap who has been on the two Puerto Alegria trips and his wife has been on the previous Kawai trip. We are going back to Kawai this time and we have a team of 21 going. It is fantastic to see the growth, to have played a part in making it happen and to feel the blessing God has bestowed on this ministry of our church. I will be going again this year and hope to always be a member of the team.
In the three years we have gone, God has sent 50 people to Peru on our mission teams. We have raised over $100,000 for our trips and for Scripture Union. This year we have 11 first timers going which will bring our four year total to 61.