Does Short Term Missions Really Work? Part Two.
We got off the bus and after a few quick prayers began wandering up the street in search of Segundina’s house. Everything had changed in the last five years (paved streets, landscaping, new houses). So we moseyed up the street and what do you know, at the next intersection I recognized Segundina’s house! I raced up and knocked on the door. A strange lady answered via the window. “Do Segundina and Luis live here?” Si, si, but they are not here right now. She won’t be back until 4:00. She invited us in for some chicha (a traditional Peruvian drink made from purple corn). We sat down to talk – she said Secundina had been healed from cancer, the church was still going and when I scanned the room, I even saw an old photograph of my family – my dad had given it to Dina 5 years ago!
We found out when Dina would be back and promised to return then. Four hours later upon our return people poured out of her house to greet us! Dina squeezed me and didn’t leave my side until we left two hours later.
In some ways I felt a bit like Rip Van Winkle returning to find so much had changed; so much life had continued without me.
Segundina had indeed been healed of pancreatic cancer. After we’d prayed for her in 2002, she continued
returning to the doctor’s office for chemotherapy. She didn’t suffer any side effects and so the doctors decided to put her on a more intense round of chemo. They decided to scan for cancer again, just in case, and found nothing. Her doctor referred her to another doctor who also found nothing. Five years later she is still cancer-free and the doctors told her (five days ago) that if she’s still cancer-free in five months she doesn’t have to go for check up visits anymore!
The church still meets, the Body of Christ still exists in Zapallal, Peru. Praise you Jesus!
I led another lady and her daughter to the Lord while I was there five years ago – Nikolesa and Jessica. Dina showed me pictures of them from the past years, it was wonderful to see them. But life hasn’t been all peaches and creame. Two years ago I found out Jessica (the daughter) died of leukemia. I was close with Jessica. Hearing the brutality of her death (there was no money for medicine or surgery) and seeing pictures of her funeral hurt my heart deeply. I had to leave after a couple of hours, but we made plans to meet during my layover in Lima, enroute to Buenos Aires. Dina promised to bring Nikolesa and a few others with her.
The following week we met up at the airport and when Nikolesa and I hugged I hurt for her pain, but she had a very different story to share.
Jessica died two years ago, she shared about that and we cried together. But since I left, she’d stopped selling fruit in the market (a job that required her to work from 2:00am-7:00pm – a 17 hour shift). And now works as a local missionary, partnering with a US based ministry. She leads teams into nearby villages. The Lord speaks to her through dreams and visions and she loves him dearily.
