"Are we going to get there in
time?" one of the girls asked. "We’ll have to run
across the fields instead of going by the road," I answered."But you’re the one who told us not to run at 12,500 feet above sea level. We could get soroche (an illness caused by lack of oxygen at high elevations)," came the comment of another youth.
There was no alternative; either we ran at that elevation or we would miss the one train that would take us back to Cerro de Pasco, the mining town where we were staying.
Suddenly it happened, just as I feared. In the field there were water channels we would have to cross. The water was more than icy cold. It was murder. But the alternative was worse. It would mean trying to find a place to stay overnight in the middle of nowhere. So across the ditches we plunged, with soaking and freezing feet, but thanks be to God, we reached the train station just before the train pulled in.
What were we doing up at 12,500 feet? As Christian Education Coordinator for the Peruvian Methodist Church, I had been challenging the youth in Lima to do outreach ministry in the two most difficult and isolated areas of the country where our church was in ministry. That summer for two weeks ten young people and I were carrying on two Daily Vacation Bible Schools on the high plateau near Cerro de Pasco, where we were staying overnight and having breakfast and supper.
At noon each day we would catch the Huancayo train to go to the isolated area where the other DVBS was held, have lunch with a family of the church, have DVBS for two hours, and then catch the train on its way from Huancayo to Lima. That day I mentioned above we had been doing special crafts with the children and just forgot the time.
Was it worth the freezing crossing of the icy ditches, eating cold food and freezing at night as well? Yes, it was. It meant joy and excitement for the children living in isolated areas without any fun things to do. It meant bringing materials for continued Sunday School with the children, and some in-service training for the older brothers and sisters in the church who had promised to continue ministering to the children. It meant for our Lima young people the opportunity to experience the reality of the areas of greatest need in Peru, and brought them to greater commitment to the One who came not to be served but to serve. And it meant to me a new awareness of the ministry that God had and continues to do to "the least of these my brothers and sisters."