The 50th finale

Sunday was the final day of the celebration.  We gathered with Peruvian Friends for some worship singing and instructions for the parade.  You heard it!  A parade.  Every quarterly meeting (region) gathered to  be one section of the parade.  They dressed in matching shirts or some sort of clothing that matched.  Each was provided a large banner.  The YM leaders went first.  The foreign guests went next.  In case we were difficult to notice, we had a small brass and percussion section.  They blared "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" and a couple of other songs that I can now hum in my sleep.   I think they played for new fewer than 3 hours.  Those are some chops to be sure. We walked and waved for quite awhile.  Thankfully we had been in the altitude for a bit, still a couple of our members headed directly to the city square by taxi.
   Each community large or small has a city square.  They often have fountains, park benches, a catholic cathedral, and lots of activity. The flags of the country and city are flown, officials do official things here. In small communities the weekly market centers around the square as folks from the countryside come into town to buy and sell.  It becomes a bustling place and there is lots to see and many many more people. (we happened to have to cross the border during market day the following Friday-Yikes hang on to your hat-people everywhere.  They were not particularly mindful of the slow tourists, they had business to do.
   Guess what day is market day in Illave?  Yep, Sunday! It started to come together in my mind.  We are parading so that all these folks know about the Friends Church.   I have not perfected the parade wave, nor did I have candy to throw, but we didn't have a hard time capturing the attention of people along the streets. I broke ranks several times to photograph and video tape the excitement.
   As it turns out we were not the only parade in town that day.  AND in addition the local and regional authorities were in town to raise the flag in the square, the military had their own band and several schools were parading (one, a group of very young students with handmade banners touting healthy eating).  So the parade took on a different feel in the square.
     For about two hours there was no parading as the dignitaries gathered and the military cleared the inner square.  It was a lot of hot sun with no where to sit.  Needless to say we lost a couple of folks who retired to their  rooms to get out of the sun.  The combination of sitting in the sun on Saturday and the parade on Sunday left some sunburned skin.

  Since Dan Cammack had professional flag raising experience from the prior day, he joined Jesus Huarachi (the Peru YM Supt.) in the invitation to help raise the flag in the city center.  It was an honor and significant opportunity to have the the Friends church represented and honored in the ceremony.  When that was done we waited some more and then paraded by the dignitaries while the military band played.  Sort of a surreal experience.  After wandering back to the meeting place the celebration came to an end with more music and recognitions.  Robyn Mohr (FWCC) shared with the whole gathering-she did a nice job.  I have really grown to appreciate what she brings to the FWCC Section of the Americas.  She is and will be a great leader.  After lunch we said our good byes and lingered with lots of embracing.
   We spent the rest of the afternoon packing, resting and a friend of Ken's named Martin took us out for a nice chicken dinner.  Martin is a fish farmer and he told us his story. We spent some time praying for him and his son who is struggling with some serious eye problems.
   A great end to a wonderful celebration.