A good night's sleep

What a regenerative power there is in a good night's sleep. Unfortunately that doesn't allways happen for me. Often I wake up early in the morning with thoughts of work chasing through my head and then spend 2 or 3 hours tossing about trying to solve tomorrow's problems. When I finally get back to sleep the alarm goes off and its time to face the real problems of the day.

Here in Arequipa, Peru I have not had those problems. We wake up with morning prayer, a devotion, a time of worship and the love of God and our team-mates wrapped around us. The day is filled with activity, sights and sounds (lots of sounds, this is a very noisy city), laughter, some tears, but most of all the lyrical language of spanish all around and the beutiful children and adults of the Casa Hogares orphanage. I hate to use the word "orphanage" as we all know there are no orphans of God.

We work hard and play hard (yesterday I played to hard and pulled my hamstring). We taste food with aromas and flavors different than we are accustomed to, we pray (after the team prayed over me last night my hamstrings appears to be completely healed this morning) and we have endless conversations of coffee and card games. The day is full.

WE end with evening prayer and devotionals and discuss our moments closest to God (there are many). This daily routine seems to be the perfect Rx for a sound and peaceful sleep in which our energies are renewed and we awake with a new appreciation of life in every sense of the word. We are grateful and humbled by the infinite extent of God's love and grace and mercy. Here in Peru we are especially in touch with the fact that God is present everywhere and His love and grace and mercy is available to all people of all colors in all parts of the earth.

Pat Mc