Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
August 22, 2001
Missioners build playground in Peru
Experience teaches American team lessons in humility
By Alwen Bledsoe
Hauling rocks, painting and picking up trash in a foreign country hardly seem like the makings of beauty, but for Christian Life Movement missionary Debbie Becker, 32, it was just that.
"You don't go down there for your work to be noticed," she said, "but it's really kind of neat when you look back and think that what you did, did have an impact."
She and eight other young adults traveled to Lima, Peru, for a July 16-Aug. 1 short-term missions trip with the Peru-based Christian Life Movement, founded in 1985 by consecrated layman Luis Fernando Figari to work with youth, minister to the poor and needy, and evangelize culture. About four years ago, said Christian Life Movement member and trip leader Edith Garcia, then-Archbishop Francis Stafford invited the group to Denver.
This trip begins what Garcia hopes will be a yearly tradition of taking American young adults to Peru to work with the needy.
The nine missionaries spent 17 days working at a medical rehabilitation clinic, cleaning the grounds, painting and repairing dilapidated equipment, building a playground with funds raised in the United States, and playing with children, they said.
They also collected clothing and food to send to Arequipa, the city hardest hit by the 8.1 magnitude quake that hit southern Peru June 23.
Though they went down expecting to help needy Peruvians, many said the Peruvians did much more to minister to them.
"They helped us more than we helped them," said Mark Alderman, 23. "We went down thinking we were going to do all this great work and all of this, and seeing the way they lived their lives and what little they have and how well they use it — they're grateful for every little bit they have, not complaining for what they don't have. We were wealthy Americans, and I guess they definitely showed us something."
"It was a humbling experience," agreed Kevin Huarte, 30, "to experience the people and the different culture: how they live ... how happy they can be with having so little, and we're not very happy having so much — we want more."
And daily, despite their poverty, the Peruvian people brought the Americans gifts, said Matthew Alderman, 20.
"What impacted me the most was the children," he said. "There wasn't a day that one of them wouldn't bring us a gift. ... One of the ladies gave us all a coin. It seemed like they all wanted to give to us."
The missionaries worked in the morning and then spent their afternoons playing with the Peruvian children who swarmed to their work site, grabbing free arms and entangling the missionaries in hugs.
"You couldn't help but play with the kids," said Jennifer Ryan, 24. "They had you all tangled up," she said, her brown eyes sparkling as she laughed.
"It was a really good time," agreed Mark Alderman. "After two weeks it was hard to want to leave."
Kim Kendrick, 31, marveled at the "compassion," "tenderness" and "openness" of the Peruvian children.
"Leaving was always like an hour ordeal because you had to say goodbye to everybody, and it could be a day when there were just a few kids around, but once you started saying goodbye, kids would just come from everywhere to say goodbye to you and give you a kiss and a hug," she said.
Though the trip left its outward mark, many said the mark it left on their interior lives was larger and more lasting.
"We didn't just help people," said Garcia. "We had an experience of community. We were living together. We were praying together. We had Mass almost everyday. So it was like a complete experience. We were giving to each other and in that way we could help better the other people because we had a very nice experience among us."
Added Ryan, "For me that was the most unique element — the community that we had because it sort of fostered a retreat in a way, an interior experience, for me, more than an exterior experience. I found out happiness doesn't depend on wealth."
The group prepared for the trip with four months of bi-monthly meetings during which they learned small amounts of Spanish, and learned about the culture and the meaning of missions, said Garcia. Next year, she added, the Christian Life Movement will go back to Peru to, among other things, build a library for children as well as a labor and delivery room.
The trip comes highly recommended by this year's group of missionaries.
"(The Christian Life Movement) is so open to so many different ways of serving," said Matthew Alderman. "You can find a way for anyone: introverted, extroverted, or in between, you'll find a spot."
"In our daily lives we never really get to reach out to the poor and this is an intense moment in a year that you can go and really just selflessly help the poor," said Richard Sillin, 36.
For more information, call Edith Garcia at the Christian Life Movement office, 303-420-0933.
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