So my seniors graduate in a month! I am excited for summer to come, but parts of me think I only have one more month to leave an impression on these kids. Lets be honest, I want to teach a lot more in my class than just how to take a good photo. I want to teach my kids about how important it is to travel and to see the world that their text books talk about. I want to inspire them not to compromise, not to settle down for what their parents want them to do. I want to encourage them to dream big and actually have the guts to follow their dreams.  So in these next few weeks as graduation approaches, I am going to tell my students stories from my life, my travels and from the sufferings I have had in my short 31 years of life and try to impart some wisdom I have learned along the way.

So my first story is from my trip to Peru, when I was 18. Being a Christian for only a year, I felt compelled to tell the world how much I loved God. Little did I know how much God was going to teach me!

The year was 1997. At this point Peru was coming out of  a decade of bled shed, a decade of terror, a decade of living under the Shining Path. This terrorist group started with a socialist agenda and was angry at how their government was corrupt and raping them of their tax dollars. Sounds like a legitimate complaint, but when fused with cocaine production, the Shining Path became very powerful and especially dangerous. Over the ten year period that they reeked havoc over this beautiful Incan paradise, resulting in over 70,000 people slaughtered. So here as I thought it was the perfect time to visit!

We worked for an organization called MISIUR who worked with marginalized people groups, victims of the Shining Path and refugees who lived in hiding. For six weeks we traversed the country listening to people’s stories and making sure they had enough food to eat and clothing on their backs to keep them warm at night. One story we heard was from an old man who had a machete to his throat and as he prayed out to God for his survival, miraculously the earth quaked and he was spared. We heard lots of stories like this.

But my story is about how we were spared. On our trip we visited the cocaine producing town of San Francisco, which was nestled between mountains speckled with cocaine fields. Incidently, people in Peru don’t do coke, Americans do it; we are the ones who fuel the drug trade. Anyhow, I got my passport stolen while we were there. The police kindly announced on the radio for people to look out for a passport. But now we were at risk, cause the only reason an American would be in this region, was because they were CIA or they were missionaries; two types of people, the Shining Path killed and we were both. To make a long story short, on our way out of town, on a very long mountain road, we heard that two army officials had been killed by the Shining Path. These two same army officials we had spoken to earlier in the day. For reasons I don’t know, these two heros didn’t tell them where we were and gave up their lives for us. Our lives were spared. They sacrificed their lives for strangers.

That event was significant, probably one of the most important events in my short life. Two strangers saved me. God spared me. From this I learned that I can’t waste the time that I have on earth, that every second counts. I learned to be a good friend and sacrifice for others. I was reminded of the desperate poverty of a country that lived under a corrupt government and how blessed I was to be an American. I learned that I can’t forget about how most people in this world live under the international poverty line. I realized how rich I was; how I can sleep at night and not worry that someone was going to kill my family while I slept. I learned how precious my life truly is and quickly it can be taken away. I learned that I can’t take this life for granted.

This trip made me into the person I am today. And go to Peru! It is over run with tourists and totally safe now! It is a magical place.