Peru: Tacna

We took a bus overnight from Cuzco to Tacna. We left at 9 pm and arrived the next day at 1 pm. It was a long bus ride. When we woke up the next day we had left the lush mountains and had come to arid desert. We saw a 20,000 ft. volcanic mountain in the distance too.

Pastor Tito, his wife Patty & Brian picked us up from the bus station. Tito and his wife gave us a tour of the three churches in Tacna and told us about the different ministeries that they are involved in.

They work mainly with the central church in teaching and leadership. Brian works with the youth in the "New City" (Ciudad Nueva). And other brothers and sisters run breakfast programs for the kids and elders in the "New Jerusalem" church. Pastor Tito y Patty let us stay with them for the time we were there. They were really cool. Betty was like a mom to us and took such great care of us.

Brian walked us around the next day and we got to learn about Tacna. We even saw the famous Tacna Arch, the Catholic Church, a Colonial Building & the Train Museum (The old train station). There were tons of old steam trains there. They were open and we climbed up in them and got to check them out up close. It was really fun.

That night we got to go to the youth group at Ciudad Nueva and see Brian teach a Bible lesson. It was prayer night and about 8 kids showed up. They built a huge church building in faith that God will bring the people.

The next day Brian and Chiqui gave us the Desert Tour of Tacna. We went way out to the outskirts of town and then walked straight out into the desert. It was really fun and really helped us understand why there are basically no plants anywhere in the new urbanizations. They don't even have water for their houses let alone to water plants...

Well I was able to work on Tito's computer at home and fix the computer at the church office. Many of the computers had viruses and other problems that were causing them lots of problems. We even were able to catch a big soccer game and watch the local team get beat in the Copa de Libertadores (It's a South American & Mexican soccer cup...)

That night we went to the youth service. It's called "culto.com" which means "worship.com" in English. It was really amazing to see all the work that our friends put into the place. I believe that Brian, Chiqui, Ricky, Tracie, Steve, Pauli & Crystal all played a part in making the place so cool looking and helping evangelize and disciple youth in Tacna.

The next day we were able to fix some more computers & spend the afternoon eating at Brian & Chiqui's house before we had to go to the airport and fly to Caracas, Venezuela. We had a really great time seeing Brian & Chiqui and learning about their ministry.