As a child, I was fascinated by mission stories about Fernando Stahl, Peru Indians, and the floating islands, but I never dreamed I would ever see those places. As we sat on the reed bunch benches in the Adventist church on that island and listened to the people sing and tell their history, our hearts were touched. One of my fellow workers said, "It made the whole trip worthwhile."

I was on my tenth Maranatha trip with the Cicero (Indiana) Church. I was accustomed to the sights, smells, and sounds of "south of the border" countries, but the grandeur of the Andes mountains where we worked was beyond what I had ever seen.

Working in the little town of Taraco, at an elevation of 12,660 feet, proved a challenge for our group. One team member had to fly to Lima to work for the week, three other members passed out the day we arrived, and still others went to bed regularly for a day or two because of headache, nausea, dizziness, and weakness.

We stayed in the dorms at the Adventist university near Juliaca and shared one bathroom in the girls' dorm with the students. Because there was no heat, we welcomed the heavily-woven blankets on each bed and the alpaca sweaters and blankets sold in the market places.

In spite of the obstacles faced, by Friday evening the church we came to build was completed. The school our church committed to build on their own was also completed early Sunday morning. The people's joy, expressed by hugs, kisses, and tears, was beyond description.

How do you reach the people of Peru with the gospel story? You take along a medical team—a doctor, nurses, and translators—and treat physical needs first, then minister to their spiritual needs as they ask. David Bolin, a physician, and his medical team ministered to about 150 patients a day.

One little boy sneaked past the line of waiting patients holding his belly, which caused him great pain. His mother was located and told he needed to go to the hospital. She said that was impossible because of no money or insurance. The next day Debbie Ashley and Melody Hoover hunted down the little boy and took him to the hospital and paid for his visit and care. They were informed he did not need surgery, but was full of parasites. They paid for the prescribed medicines and took the little boy home. Do you forget an experience like that?

Yes, it is good to be home, but my horizons have been expanded a little farther, my love broadened, and my heart touched a little more with the needs and pleas of yet more people in the world. I understand a little more why Jesus told us to "Go ye into all the world."

Ramona Trubey is a Cicero Church correspondent.