16 de Septiembre (Catcumbas)

What a wonderful day this was!! We attended Flamingo Road Church in the movie theater again and truly learned another great lesson! I’ll save the serious stuff for the end, though. :) I did take a small video while in church *sneaky* so that I could share with you a little bit more of Peru!

After that was over, we decided to go to Solari for lunch which is part of a nice Peruvian restaurant called Norky’s. I had pasta covered in a bisque sauce with langostinos! It was delicious! We also ate yucca balls with guacamole and had some naranjada frozen!

*yucca balls

When our bellies were full, we hopped on a slightly uncomfortable bus and went downtown. Although we just went on Friday night, we wanted to see the sights during the day! So, our first stop was the Plaza de Armas. While there, we were able to see the Palacio Gobierno and the Catedral de Lima.

*I stopped in at Citi to tell Joey hello, but they said they didn't know a Mr. Valenzuela. :(

Next, we made our way over to the catacombs! Of course as we were walking there, we HAD to stop in a few shops. I bought a cute green leather purse and Liz bought a purse as well.

*palacio gobierno


*catedral de san francisco

*One of the vendors in the shops was a Peruvian Indian lady:

The Catedral de San Francisco and catacombs were amazing! Artwork was still hanging on the walls that had been there since the 17^th century. It was mind boggling that this church is not air-conditioned or maintained in any way against natural elements. This means that pieces of artwork are still hanging outside on the porches! I guess they figure that if it’s survived this long, it’ll survive for a bit longer. I wish we could’ve had more time to look around, but our tour guide was very impatient and kept telling us to move along. Boo. One of my favorite pieces of artwork was a Peruvian interpretation of the Last Supper. This painting was complete with cuy (guinea pig) being served as the main course! The church also includes a place where priests used to gather to have their private mass. The chairs in this meeting room were some of the most intricately designed pieces of furniture I’ve ever seen! I just can’t quite describe the detail and beauty of the carvings on these wooden chairs. Amazing.

While down in the catacombs, we learned that somewhere around 25,000 people were buried over time. Researchers took the bones that they found and divided them into group so as to be able to count which resulted in piles of femurs, skulls, etc. I was saddened that they hadn’t left them where they were originally, but I guess that’s what some call progress. They had graves dug in the ground 5 meters deep where they would bury a body, put lime over it, pour ground on top and then repeat the process. In the end, several bodies would be buried on top of each other.

*Lima has intense security, and I couldn’t help but take some pictures. . .

Next, we walked around a park in downtown. They were having some type of carnival complete with Barney!

There were also some ruins in that same area. Some old homes were discovered from the 17^th century. Apparently whoever discovered it didn’t place much emphasis on getting the signs translated into English correctly. :)

After a quick bite a McDonald’s, we went back to the Palacio Gobierno to watch the changing of the guard. A marching band played and the soldiers took their new places.

Walking down the street a bit further, we came across an exhibit on the Bible! There was a little “museum” and several vendors selling Christian books and other merchandise. I bought a magnet that says, “Cristo te ama.”

Our final stop was a view of a bridge in Lima that is lit up at night.

WARNING—serious material to follow.

The pastor spoke this week about waking up! That’s right, waking up! Often we go through the motions of life, doing the right things but in a daze, a fog. God wants us to wake up from our spiritual slumber and become all that He has called us to be! Sometimes we become so sure of the fact that when we die, we’ll go to heaven, that we forget that God has placed us here in this world for a reason! That reason is to tell others about His love for them so that they, too, may receive His gift of eternal life. I feel that I am a victim of this very disease, laziness. It’s so easy to want to sleep in on Sundays, or pray just a really quick prayer instead of actually spending some time with my Father. This can cause permanent damage, though, and we must pull ourselves out of this habit! Another thing that I tend to do is get lazy when things are going well. It’s easy to depend on God when things get tough, and that’s what He wants us to do. BUT, we must not forget those times, and we MUST depend on Him at all times. This is a lesson I have yet to master, but I’m working diligently on it. Friends, we MUST make the effort to get up on Sundays, we MUST read our Bibles (that’s how God talks to us), and we MUST make time to talk to God through prayer. There is simply no gray area. Aye, what a lesson to learn.

Proverbs 6:6-11

You lazy fool, look at an ant.
Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.
Nobody has to tell it what to do.
All summer it stores up food;
at harvest it stockpiles provisions.
So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing?
How long before you get out of bed?
A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,
sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?
Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,
poverty your permanent houseguest!

Katrina

More pictures! I had too many to post!