Day 5

I served as deacon at the beautiful church in La Legua, which I had seen many times, but had never entered. The church was packed and Mass was beautiful. Father picked up young children and walked around the church while preaching on baptism. I’ve learned that each church has a lectionary with a different translation, so I can’t get too prepared for proclaiming the gospel.

On the way back to Santísimo Sacramento, we stopped in the village of Los Polvorines and Fr. Joe drove the trails until he found the “right” one. He honked his horn and people came pouring out of their homes. He took all of his Green Bay Packers stuff out of the car and put some of it on the residents. (Fr. Joe has a church in Wisconsin that keeps him supplied.) Ginet took photos, which will be submitted along with a story to the newspaper in Green Bay showing the Packer following in Piura.

Evening Mass was an overflowing crowd. Again, Father introduced me and explained about deacons. I did multiple blessings after Mass. I get to sprinkle the people after Mass with holy water. They want to get drenched. It reminded me of Fr. Taylor with the evergreen branches.

Two scary things happened today. I was reading Spanish and didn’t know it. I thought it was English. I also found myself beginning personal prayers in Spanish. Is something finally coming together?

Tonight I showed my family my laptop. Google Earth blew their mind. The dad is very smart and saw the opportunities. He asked, “How much?” He was very disappointed with my answer.