Days in the City.
- Apr 15
- 3 min read
I want to tell you a secret…
sharing something inside me that makes me tick.
Like a guilty pleasure but not - it is so much better.
One of my absolute favorite things to do in Cusco is walk around in the historic district. Layers and layers of civilization are evident here. Everything is constructed onto of megalithic structures, the kind of architecture so precise that stones are so close together and millions debate how they did it. Stacked on top of them is the rugged stone construction of the incas, next the Spanish, construction continues layer upon layer to what we build today. There is a deep sense of time, history, and how life and cultures change, and shift... and are forgotten.
In the Plaza de Armas, the heart of Cusco, a tall foreign woman walking from one side to another has the probability of being approached by at least a minimum of 8 different vendors and often more. It can feel like a bit of a circus - people carrying huge bags filled with their wares needing to make a sale to sustain their life - machine made alpaca sweaters, promises of great inexpensive massages, gorgeous underpriced intricately carved gourds, guides to everywhere: Machu Picchu, the Mountain of 7 colors, golden Incan warriors who want a photos with you, mammitas with their days old sheep and alpacas in their arms colorfully dressed and demanding you to take a photo with them, disabled men singing as if they are on stage at the Voice, candies, paintings, and anything else that can be sold. The local people are polite where in some countries I have found these styles of sales to be more aggressive.
When you are walking you can sense a tenseness in your group´s energy, a defensiveness, and an annoyance because being approached by the 3rd watercolor artist in 5 meters can be overwhelming. Then one day - everything changed. I was walking with a good friend, Vicente, and someone asked me to buy something and I looked them in the eye and said, no, but may I pray for you? She said yes, I asked her name and my friend and I prayed and in that moment everything changed. The energy was flipped it became an opportunity for connection and to share love. People selling things on streets are often in need and overlooked and seen as burdens. Like a cold caller on a phone call - day after day they are rejected - not out of cruelty but the reality is most people just do not want or need what is being sold.
Praying for people breaks something and brings healing to people and a connection. We created a habit that when people ask us to buy something we offer a prayer to them instead.
97% of the people we ask to pray for say yes. I have seen tears, felt chains break, lives, change happen, curses destroyed and most importantly I see the light of God speaking to people often when they need it most and I see the fruits of someone being cared for. I love Cusco, the city for these moments in particular.
Many people in society walk a fine line, here in Peru - it is managed very well - you rarely see homeless people here and their sense of family is rock solid. But the poor and in need exist everywhere and we exist for that because together no one needs to suffer. Yeshua said the fields are ripe for harvest and it is right there in front of you. These opportunities to be different every single day.
Someone one day shared Gods love with me and those small seeds changed my life. Though out my life I have ventured into some dark dangerous places to pray for people from standing on milk crates in ghettos telling people how God changed my life (we would take people home with us then to find a new life), to bars, alleyways, almost anywhere. My sister knows, people who know me know. I find it one of the most intimate moments I have ever had with human kind because there is a moment in everyones life we need a prayer and to connect that moment to a miracle is the best feeling I think you can have.
With Love,
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