Some things I learned in Peru

Hey guys, I hope everyone's summer is going great! I just got back from Peru a couple of days ago from a mission trip with my church. We were down there for about a week and it was so amazing. We went down to encourage and work with a church in Comas that my church here in Nashville partners with. It was so amazing to see the amount of love and joy of the believers down there, despite how little they had. God really worked on my heart by bringing these believers into my life. It's so amazing, how much I have here in the United States, and yet I still don't have the same kind of selfless, unconditional love that they all had down there.
The main santuary of the church was a big room with cement floors, no air conditioning or heating, and lawn chairs as their seating. No body at the church owned their own car, they all got around by taking little rickety motor-taxis. Yet despite all this it was evident that the people had a genuine joy in their lives, a joy I so often see lacking here in the States despite people's huge houses, fancy cars, and high-paying jobs. It was like they had so little, for some hardly enough to even survive on, that their last hope was none other than God. I think here in the States people have an excuse to rely on their own abilities and resources, whereas in Peru every day is a constant reminder of how much they need God. And what greater kind of joy can you have, the joy of realizing that God is all you need and at the same time realizing He's what you already have!
It's amazing that God has shown me this on the trip, because I'm reading a book right now that seems to be saying the exact same thing. It's called Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. In one of the chapters he talks about how the Christian life is a call to risk, a call to suffering, a call to hardships and challenges...that is if we truly are picking up our crosses and following Christ. God does promise to provide for our every need, he does say that if we seek first his Kingdom then all else will be added unto us (somewhere in Matthew?). Yet what exactly do we need? We don't need comfort, an easy life, or strife-free existence and GOd never promises these. The only need we have, according to Piper, is the strength to push on for Christ and to continue glorifying His name. And God will give us everything we need to do just that.
This is exactly what I have seen in the believers down in Peru. True, compared to American standards so many of the people down there lack basic "needs" so many of use here have, but they have enough to continue praising God's name and living for his glory. It is my prayer that we can all become content in God for who He is and the promise He gives of never leaving us, rather than the gifts that He gives us.