Painting the Town Red...Church Brown...Whatever.

The before picture of Monte Sion. 

Last week started in Monte Sion with a popcorn covered floor and a dusty white church. A few days later, we sat in the same building, eating a soft and sweet cake and celebrating our freshly painted light brown walls. Let’s recap.

Tuesday marked our first ever movie night in Monte Sion. For a while now, the most dynamic thing about the congregation in Monte Sion has been the youth participation. Any given Sunday, we have about 25 local kids come to our classes, ranging from 2 – 13 years old. Since it’s summer in the southern hemisphere, the students are finishing up their summer vacation and heading back to school for a new year. To celebrate, the church hosted a movie bash and we watched “Lilo & Stitch” and “The Emperor’s New Groove.” We had planned only one movie for the night, but in true Peruvian fashion, nobody showed up until the last 15 minutes of the movie, so we played another.

Wilfredo, mixing up our new color! 

With a lot of children’s events in Monte Sion, we’ve had the awkward experience of the kids coming, getting their presents or snacks, then instantly leaving (to me, this sounds a lot like college kids in the United States.) Movie night was no exception—as soon as the soda, suckers and popcorn ran dry, most of the kids scrambled out of the church—but the night was about hosting kids and familiarizing them with who we are and what we do. So—even though only two or three stayed until the end of the movie, while about 40 came to eat popcorn—I’m going to call the night a success.

Wednesday morning I woke up elated, because it was my big day—my stitches were FINALLY coming out. I hopped a combi, and went to the doctor solo, a little nervous about talking through the appointment in Spanish; however, everything got off without a hitch... well, that is, until the doctor looked at my foot and dropped the bomb on me that it would need ANOTHER week with stitches to heal. So it goes.

The kids at Monte Sion, sanding before we paint! 

Thursday brought plenty to distract me from my stitches disappointment, because we FINALLY started painting the church in Monte Sion. Ever since we’ve come to Peru, the congregation has said they want to paint the church and Katrina and I have been pushing HARD to make it happen—so Thursday, after seven months, we finally headed to Sodimac to buy paint.

The day started out looking bleak. While the congregation had voted on colors to paint the church, we quickly realized we hadn’t decided on a specific shade or brand. We also found out that there WASN’T money in the budget for paint (Katrina and I had been pushing the project along because we’d been told the church already had the money.) Next, we also encountered the issue of how many colors we were painting the church. I was under the impression we’d selected two colors, Katrina thought we’d decided on three colors and now the running total stands at five colors: two outside, three inside. Needless to say, the day started with a lot of head shaking, sighing and thoughts of maybe we should just put this off another week. But low and behold, we persevered and eventually made it to Monte Sion with a cart full of paint. And so it began.

Gettin' my paint on! 

All day Thursday, Friday and Saturday we painted and painted. I have to pause here to say that some of the people here are simply fearless. There is only one large latter in the church and it looks like it was hewn together in about five minutes out of some random sticks someone found in their backyard. At Christmas, Wilfredo climbed the latter to hang up lights and promptly went tumbling down its uneven rungs. Additionally, the floor in Monte Sion is concrete, so everything naturally slides across the floor. All the same, at multiple points during the day I’d turn around from painting something and there was Prudencio,15 feet off the ground with nothing keeping that latter from sliding and clattering to the ground. The man is fearless.

I call this move, "the neck breaker." 

After three full days of painting, taping, begging kids to stop touching the walls, and pollo a la brasa for lunch, we were scrambling before church to clear enough space and sweep so that we could have a service. The church isn’t completely done—we still have some spots to touch up—but I have to say, as we sat in that service on Saturday night, we truly felt like we were in God’s home, not just an empty church. Katrina presided and Gladys preached, and after the service we pulled out a cake to celebrate International Women’s Day. As we began eating, a giant rat ran out from under the water tank and I have never seen such chaos inside of a church. The event can only be described from a gloriously awful song from my childhood called “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival.” If you didn’t grow up with a father from Hannibal, MO that calls the thing you clean clothes with the “warshin machine” you can watch a YouTube video of the Ray Steven’s song by clicking here.  Anyway, the chaos of part of the room running away, part of the room standing and shrieking and part of the room running about, smacking the ground with brooms, ended when Wilfredo stomped on the rat with a sickening crunch. Happy Women’s Day!

The after picture--much more homey! 

Anyway—after that excitement, Sunday was “tranquila.” We ate a cevicheria on the coast, then had our typical service in Filidelfia.

This week is already flying-- tomorrow we’re putting the finishing touches on the paint in Monte Sion, Wednesday my stitches come out, Thursday is Sandra’s birthday, Friday is Billy and Anna’s last day in Callao and Sunday I’ll be preaching in Filidelfia. In our free time, we’ll be planning MEADS (Ministerial Education and Discipleship Studies) which is now just under two weeks away (more info to come.)

Until then—I hope you enjoy the pictures of the new church colors as much as I do!