Congreso de Jovenes

Last week-end I had the opportunity to go to a Congreso de Jovenes – teen retreat. The church in Arin, where the Whatley’s minister, hosted the event for churches as far as eight hours away. Many young people were there, from various home situations and at various stages of spiritual maturity. Kristie, Raquel and I were careful to not form our own “Gringa Group” and talked to as many girls as we could. Peruvians are extremely social people – more so than Americans. To a higher degree than Americans, they are the most comfortable and have the most fun in a group. Many of the girls were willing to talk to me and bear my bad Spanish long enough to have a profitable conversation.

When you go to a camp or retreat in Peru, you must bring your own dishes and utensils. After eating, just rinse out your bowl and it is ready to use again. We had typical Peruvian fare when cooking for large crowds. Breakfast was hot chocolate with two pieces of bread to dip in it – a favorite of mine. Lunch was soup and a segundo. In Peru when you go to a restaurant or a meal, you will order a menu which has two courses: soup, then segundo which is always rice with some sort of bean sauce, meat, or fried egg. For dinner, we had just segundo. I was glad I was really hungry and it was too dark to see what I was eating. The chunks of “meat” in the segundo just felt weird. Kristie told me it was the inside of the intestines; they are chewy tubes with a somewhat grassy feeling.

We had three main speakers. Cristobal spoke on evolution, Uncle Ken on biblical relationships, and Pastor Ruben on music. After lunch, girls and guys divided up and had a “questionario,” asking missionary wives and pastor’s wives any questions they had. Most were about how to handle things at home when parents are unsaved and relationships. The core issues that young people struggle with here are very similar in the states, but most have very little spiritual encouragement at home. Sometimes it seems like those few whose parents are saved are the ones who are the most spiritually hardened.

Both afternoons, we had a treasure-hunt kind of game. One led us to a huge waterfall, then other led us to a kidnapped victim who looked remarkably like my uncle. We found him parked in his car, watching Fiddler on the Roof, waiting for us.

I almost skipped the congreso to work on school, but am glad I did not. For one week-end I lived with thirty Peruvian girls. Now I am looking forward to next month, staying with a national pastor for a week in the jungle!