For the next several weeks, I am going to be writing about my volunteer trip to Ayacucho, Peru, in 2009, so I am hoping to tie my Sunday inspirational blog to that, each and every week until I have finished the story of those travels. Let’s see how I do.

Ayacucho, Peru, high in the Andes Mountains, is known as the city of churches. It is said that there are 33 churches in this town, one for each year of Christ’s life. Odd that no one seems to know exactly how many churches there are. Is that because no one knows exactly how to define a church? Does it have to have an active congregation with regular services? Does it have to have a certain architecture, does it have to “look” like a church?

Actually, as cool as these old buildings are, they are just buildings. A church may be just a building, but The Church is what is important. The Church can be anywhere, anywhere that believers are gathered. The Church is what we each carry with us in our daily lives. For you see, The Church is the Body of Christ.

And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself. Ephesians 1:23New Living Translation