My weekend in Huacarpay

After praying about how I could get involved with my church in Huacarpay and talking with some others, I decided to get involved in the worship ministry. Because of the dance and other things that I was involved in, I haven't been able to begin my ministry with them until this weekend. And what a weekend it was. Because Huacarpay is a relatively good distance from my house and it's not necessarily safe for me to travel by myself back home at night, a trip to Huacarpay at any time after about 5 PM usually involves staying overnight there. This trip did.
Worship team practice starts at 6 PM on Saturday night. So around 5:15 I left my house with backpack and violin in tow, ready to spend the weekend out in Huacarpay. I got on a bus that completely freaked me out, because it was just me and the driver the entire way (20 minutes or so from my house) out to Huacarpay. Normally, the bus is quite full (to say the least) and there is, in addition to the driver, a cobrador who collects the bus fares from everyone. I was praying quite fervently and singing worship songs to calm my nerves. I also had the sense that someone was praying for me right then too. If someone was impressed to pray for me at around 6:30 PA time on June 14th, I'd love to know about it. Honestly, the driver could have done anything, if he'd have had a mind to. I definitely felt the presence of God on that trip.
After an uneventful, though unnerving trip out to Huacarpay, I arrived at church 10 minutes early, only to find that I was the only one there. So I walked down the street to Hermana Rene´s house (who is also on the worship team). Practice ended up happening around her table around 8:00, after a yummy supper and some good fellowship time.
Sunday morning I got to play with the worship team for the first time. It was a blessing to be up there with the rest of the team, praising God in Spanish, Quechua and violin. I was blessed also to have the privilege of seeing the miraculous and beautiful, if simple, wedding of Valentin and Manuela.
Valentin and Manuela are two older people - probably in their seventies. They are very poor and have quite an interesting story. They, as many people do here, have been living together without being married for years and years. Manuela was diagnosed several years ago with cancer and it has spread through her body. It´s just a matter of time, the doctors say. She has cancer in her eye as well and wears a patch over the eye. The church has a strong health program in Huacarpay and a health representative from the church has been working with her for about 2 years now, changing the eye patch. Through the witness of the church and the health representative, Manuela has come to know Jesus. At the beginning of this year Valentin, who used to be a witch, got some kind of infection in his foot, which spread to his leg and became infected to the bone. My friend Juana, who´s a nurse and the director of the Mennonite church health program, worked with him and gradually, miraculously, his leg was healed to the point where he can now walk on it and the wound is very small. Through the witness of Juana and another woman from the church, Valentin also came to know Jesus and dedicated his life to Jesus during a worship service this March. Last weekend he was baptized and he and Manuela expressed a desire to follow through with Jesus´commands and be married. The wedding was scheduled for this coming Sunday. However, last week, Manuela was very bad and in a lot of pain from the cancer. It was decided that it would be a good idea for them to get married now, before her mind succumbs to the influence of the cancer and she loses her rational powers. So on Sunday, as part of the worship service, Valentin and Manuela became husband and wife in a ceremony that lasted all of about 3 minutes and was entirely in Quechua (translated: I hardly understood any of it). Now Manuela and Valentin are ready to meet Jesus, thanks to the witness of the church in Huacarpay. It was the most simple and unpretentious wedding I have ever been to, but also one of the most beautiful. Which just goes to show that God truly does make all things beautiful in His time and through His servants.