Helen's Andean Adventure

Tiwanaku (Ancient Incan Ruins)

The team from my church in Gaithersburg, Maryland is here in La Paz on a missions trip, helping in the church here, doing evangelism, and ministering in various other places.With them, I had a chance to visit the ruins of an important religious site of the ancient Inca civilization (400BC-about 1200AD), which stretched from Northern Chile, all over Peru, the Bolivian Altiplano, and even Northern Argentina and Southern Ecuador. It was very interesting to see what a high level of development the Incas had reached; from the ruins of their temples and the remains of their culture, it was evident that they had progressed in engineering, mathematics, astronomy, and architecture.They lived by three principles and always used them to greet each other:
~Don't steal
~Don't kill
~Don't be lazy
The Incas lived in constant expectation that something big would happen to them (according to their astrological predictions), and that is why when the Spaniards, white men on horses with guns,came, the Incas thought that they were gods and welcomed them into their cities, resulting in 120 Spaniards overtaking almost the entire Inca empire (I think I remember this correctly).
On the way back, we had a lot of fun sharing our testimonies and laughing at each other.It was amazing to see how God has put such different people together on this team and to hear about the evidences of God's grace in their lives.

posted by HM @ 5:11 PM