PERU '09 ~ DAY III ~ San Pedro & Solemn High Mass

Bienvenidos! Nothing says Peruvian Missions like a smiling ex-paratrooper/ now Deacon getting his very first taste of national Peruvian soft drink...Inka Cola! Deacon Reamsnyder was a happy man!

(The neighborhood we made pastoral visits in today)

(Each "neighborhood" is identified by these signs above steep yellow stairwells)

This morning we returned to the Church of San Pedro (where we painted yesterday) in order to make Pastoral Visits to peoples homes and to pray for them. We were divided into two teams lead by Fr. Allen and Claudia and spent the morning praying for dear brothers and sisters in need of healing for their hearts, and bodies and families.

(Peruvian seminarian Marco, Ana and Mark make their way to parishioners' homes)

We traversed the steep, rocky and hilly foot trails to make our visits which included praying for a number of babies who were premature and had jaundice, broken families and in one home healing and repentance for a family that took their sick child to a witch doctor.

(Precious, smiling baby Abigail with her mother Margarita)

At one of the homes we prayed for a precious little baby, Abigail. While Ana held her tiny fingers and prayed little Abigail had the HUGEST smile. We really felt the Lord's Presence in these homes and it was a privlege to fulfill the promise in the Epistle of James to lay hands and anoint with oil for healing the sick; expectantly trusting God to glorify Himself in this. All I can say to sufficiently describe how powerful these times of prayer were is...Wow! God is awesome!

(Jude making friends with one of the "ninos" at a home we visited)

(Claudia & Jude have become fast friends, here they are on the stairs I mentioned above)

Mark, "the Davids" and Joel spent this afternoon with Fr. John Park, the dean of the Cathedral, rehearsing for tonight's Eucharist. Fr. John loves traditional, solemn, Anglo-Catholic liturgy in all its fullness and invited us to serve as the altar party. Being Nashotah House seminarians we were more than happy to oblige of course. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to share with our Peruvian brothers and sisters our unique style of worship. While we're well-trained at Nashotah House nothing could prepare David R. or Joel for chanting the Epistle and the Gospel...in Spanish! (And lemme tell ya, the Gospel tonight was looonnng) We had a full altar party vested in dalmatic, tunicle, biretta, zuchetto and humeral veil with lots of incense and everything chanted. It was a blast.

Then after Eucharist David R. taught tonight on Ascetical Spiritual Disciplines which was wonderfully received by the Peruvians seminarians. The amount of riches he presented from the tradition of the Church spanning the Shepherd of Hermas through Thomas Aquinas and on to Jeremy Taylor and Michael Ramsey in a word...rocked!

P.S.: I'll have pictures from the Eucharist and David's lecture up tomorrow.