El Arca

Hello there! 

Our apologies that there have not been pictures posted yet… the internet is scarce, and when it is available, it normally is not strong enough to load our pictures! 

The second half of our trip has flown by! We arrived in Cusco early Friday afternoon and were picked up by Joshua, one of the sons of Bud and Laura, who run the orphanage, El Arca, in Cusco. We arrived at the orphanage to find many (40-50) small Peruvian children running around playing, doing laundry, and a few helping cook food. About 20 minutes after we arrived it was lunch time for the everyone. It was at that time where we got to watch the children all work together to pass out the food, it was very special to watch. Each child had his/her own name on the bottom of the bowl and the bowls were filled with food accordingly and then passed out to each child.  I walked around the orphanage in amazement at how efficient and orderly everything was. They had a system and schedule for everything, including a bell to distinguish different times of the day including: school, meals, chores and meeting times. Because they work so hard at keeping up a consistent schedule for the kids, volunteer hours go from 9am–4pm. 

The first day consisted mostly of playing with the kids since we didn’t arrive until early afternoon. There was another church group there, from North Carolina, as well who was putting on a vacation Bible school in the afternoons, so we were able to join in on the games, singing and dancing with them. After leaving the orphanage we went into the city to the plaza to grab dinner; the travel there and back would take most of the night.

Because of all the travel time to get into Cusco, we only got two days at the orphanage. Our second day we were able to buy 200 adobe bricks for the orphanage, pick them all up and transfer them into the backyard where they would be used to build a chicken coop. After transferring all of the bricks, our team met with Gabriella and Bilguie, two of the adopted daughters at the orphanage, who run the orphanage when Bud and Laura are gone. We learned their testimonies of arriving at the orphanage and how the Lord had provided for their lives. They also told us all about the story of how the orphanage started and we learned that they were in the process of building another orphanage in the jungle. There is much work to be done there, so unfortunately we did not get to meet Bud and Laura, the parents and starters of the orphanage, because they were both working at the orphanage in the jungle. After hearing their stories, we got to pray over them and give them some encouragement. 

Right before we left, we were able to pass out candy, toys and soccer balls to all of the children. After exchanging lots of hugs, we had to say good-bye for now. 

Overall though our time at the orphanage was short, it surely was impactful and very precious. We greatly appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers and those who gave financially. All of those things were a huge part of all that we were able to do and the gift of money we were able to give to the orphanage.