Sightseeing finished. Now back to the Central Church for a final worship service and an ice cream social with our Peruvian friends. Wow! A song or two, a sermon from Jim, and communion and our worship service ended. Jim spoke about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Well, he actually used that story as the backdrop but he focused on the stone that would have sealed the tomb. A stone much like the one used to seal the tomb of Jesus. But who moved the stone? The Bible doesn’t say; so Jim offered his own explanation. Jim posited that people surrounding the tomb who wanted to be part of what Jesus was doing moved the stone. Plain people like you and me . . .not super stars, not preachers, not teachers, not music ministers but ordinary people who care about other people. We witnessed Peruvian stone movers work right along beside us and Jim used the analogy to encourage us and our Peruvian friends to keep moving stones because behind every stone is a rotting, smelly dead person waiting to receive a new, fresh life in Christ! But someone has to move the stone.
We spent our last day in Trujillo sightseeing along the coast north of the town. The trip included a stop at Chan Chan; the World’s largest adobe brick city. The city is now an archalogical dig turned tourist site. We then travelled to a public park and spring fed lake where Martin baptizes new believers. They typically baptize in January/February; their summer time because the water is warmer and believe me, the water was COLD! We paused at the point where Martin & each candidate enters the water and prayed for God’s blessing on Martin’s ministry. We’ve heard our Senior Pastor preach “God blesses what He favors”. Well, God must certainly favor Martin and Tracy Reeves because they are two most blessed people I’ve ever met and the ministry in Trujillo may look like Martin’s but it belongs to God and He’s doing some really great things!