Cheon Il Guk Peru Missionaries: Caring for Returning Guests From a Year Ago

It has been such a joy to watch each guest grow in their desire to learn, make it a part of themselves, eventually want to share these universal principles at CARP to others. What is unique to the CARP center and witnessing experiences here in CARP Peru is that we have a diverse range of people we get to work with, grow alongside, and invest in. We have a group of full-time CARP members who we barely see throughout the day, then we have members who finished hearing all the conferences that CARP has to offer, but has yet to apply in their waking life. Finally the last category of simply being new!

Throughout March 3 to March 8, we held numerous meetings and discussions surrounding the development of returning guests from a year ago (or more). It has been a journey of supporting one another as a team to make sure we give well-balanced quality time, care, and education to each one of them. Most nights, we end up staying up past our designated ending time due to the fact that we are planning for each individual scheduled to return the following day!

On March 4, R. Saito and D. Lee had great experiences with their guests. R. gave her first conference here in Peru, and D. had a one-on-one study with his guest, and had a great time talking with him afterward.

On this day, Milagros was to receive a lecture from Fernando, our only CARP member who is assigned to help us to give the conferences. At this specific time though, due to some miscommunication, he was booked for another Spanish-speaking guest. Luckily, Milagros has been studying English the past couple of years. Next thing you know, R. is pulling out her laptop and opening up the PowerPoint slides. You could see from her initial expression that she had not intended to give one and was a bit nervous, but later on in the evening, we congratulated her and laughed at the situation together. We truly felt that even

though we may be short-staffed, God still works. He knows our situation well, and is able to work with what He has; we were so grateful for that!

This is a short conversation held between D. Lee and Albert:

D. asked Albert, “What do you think of CARP?” Afterwards, D. shared how he was genuinely impressed, and at the same time, very moved by the response that he received from Albert. Albert says, “CARP really brings out and restores the values lost in humanity. And in the future I would like to teach these Principles because I love the environment that is here.”

D. says that Albert doesn’t always share so deeply. Laughter often times cuts off his response, and after some time, he continues to share. You have to first explain things by giving real-life settings, and break down the abstract concepts to be more concrete. Once you do, he will start asking the right questions.

This past week, we focused more on an upcoming event we are having this Saturday, March 14. That naturally brought up topics of who can help with the preparations for the event beyond the immediate CARP and Cheon il Guk Missionary team. On March 7, we reached out to Jesus to see if he could help us with snack prep, serving, and activities planning. So far he’s been such a big help! The most noticeable areas in which he has been able to assist are communicating with the local people; especially in the area of conveying our hearts and motivation to them. Earlier in the week, he even helped explain to parents why we are here from the United States!

Every day, we are so grateful for the initial efforts that has been laid here from our previous years’ missionaries - for having met, and raised such wonderful people with open and trusting hearts. Without it, we would not be having such deep and fulfilling experiences this early into our mission.