A Servant Named Gigi

There are so many things that I want to tell you about as I write this first update with less than a week of time actually being in Peru. It amazes me how much I have experienced in only five days in this new country. I could tell you about the city of Lima, about its tremendous size and impossible bus system that doesn’t have any rhyme or reason to it. I could tell you about my orientation with Paz y Esperanza, the organization I will be working with this summer. I could tell you about talking to people on the streets of Lima about International Environmental Day in a city that is extremely affected by air pollution. There are so many things I could tell you about, but I want to tell you about a young Peruvian woman whom I have never met. Her name is Gigi.

I arrived in San Juan de Lurigancho on Thursday morning to a new apartment and a new roommate, Grace. Grace is from California and has been living and working in this community for a year and a half. She has an incredible smile and a great personality. We have a lot in common and spent the first half of the day drinking coffee and talking (two of my very favorite love languages!!) Grace had just heard the news that a young woman whom she had been in ministry with, Gigi, had passed away earlier that morning from leukemia. As Grace told me about her friend, Gigi, little did I know that this young woman whom I had never met would be a huge part of my first week in Lima.

Grace attended Gigi’s viewing and funeral on Thursday. On Friday, I accompanied Grace to a “pollada” in Gigi’s name. A pollada is a type of fundraiser where chicken (pollo in Spanish) dinners are sold. The ministry where Gigi volunteered was having a pollada to raise money for the funeral and hospital costs that the family needed to pay off. Grace and I picked up Gigi’s family to take them to the pollada as it was the first time they had gone to the ministry where Gigi volunteered. I sat next to Gigi’s mother on the crowded bus. Gigi had just passed away a couple of days earlier and her mother was suffering deeply. She began to talk to me about her daughter – about her dreams, her life and her death. I was so privileged and blessed to hear about this amazing woman of only 31 years of age. I was also blessed to be able to cry with her mother as she shared her pain and her heartache. It was a precious moment for me, one that I will never forget.

Gigi was a true servant of God. Her family comes from a poor area of Lima also in San Juan de Lurigancho where I am currently living. But, although living in a poor area, Gigi never liked her family to say that they didn’t have things. Gigi would always tell her mother, “We have a family, we have a home. I have a mother, a father and a brother. We don’t have nothing. We have a lot.” And what she had, Gigi wanted to share with others. She spent her time teaching young kids and loving her neighbors. She volunteered in an even poorer part of Lima, ministering to young children living in extreme poverty. These young children that Gigi loved and nurtured were the ones who prepared the pollada in her name.

One by one these incredible children stood up to testify to Gigi’s life, talking about what Gigi had taught them and how much she had loved them. The first young boy that stood up was named Marco. You could tell by looking at Marco that he has a difficult life. Marco stood up and said, “Gigi taught me a lot. Gigi helped me a lot.” And then his lip began to tremble. And his eyes watered up. His body began to shake. He couldn’t say any more. Marco was too overcome with emotion to finish. You see, Marco lives up in the hills of Lima in extreme poverty. He comes from an abusive home and is a target for not only his parents, but his older siblings as well. With Gigi, he found love and compassion. He found someone who loved him like a child should be loved. She was like an earthly angel for this little boy. She was Christ’s hands and feet caring for him. And Marco was not the only child that Gigi touched. One after one they stood giving testimonies about Gigi.

So this is what I learned from a young Peruvian woman that I have never met. I want to be a sold-out servant of God for whatever time I have on this earth. I want to practice a ministry of presence wherever I am. I want to show people Christ through genuine love and compassion. I want God’s love to pour so strongly from inside of me that people can sense His presence always. I want to love my family. I want to love my friends. I want to love the people that many would say are unlovable. I want to live simply and love fully. And when my time comes to be in the presence of the Lord, I hope that people will say that they saw the love and the compassion of Christ in me…just like Gigi, a servant of servants in the Kingdom of God.