Pachacutec

On Sunday afternoon about 80 of us from FRC-Lima visited the shantytown of Pachacutec, Peru. Pachacutec is a place of extreme poverty in the sand dunes about the Pacific Ocean, about 90 minutes north of our cinema church. There are about 300,000 people that live in the shantytown of Pachacutec. Many of them come to Lima from the provinces of Peru, in search of a better life, but quickly find themselves trapped, without any job hopes or money, and they wind up in a place like Pachacutec.

We brought chicken, french fries, soda, and Christmas gifts to our friends in Pachacutec. There had to be close to 1,000 people there, and we didn't even promote the visit beforehand! Many of the people that we serve in Pachacutec only eat chicken when we bring it, and the Christmas gifts that we gave out will be the only Christmas gifts that many of them receive this year.

Serving nearly 1,000 people in a shantytown can be quite chaotic, and at times it reminds me of the scene in Matthew 9:36 (NIV), when Jesus "saw the crowds, (and) had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

Just like in Pachacutec.

It was a long and arduous afternoon, but also a time of great blessing for us, as we were able to be the hands and feet of Jesus to nearly 1,000 of the least of our brothers and sisters in the Peruvian shantytown of Pachacutec.

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