Picture-Postcard Perfect: Machu Picchu

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: Picture Praise, 11/21/11

I spent a week on the river with Amazon Medical Missions, traveling to small villages to set up clinics, distribute clothing and drill a well. We shared the Gospel, prayed with every family and washed their feet. I had a blast teaching little children to brush their teeth and doing fluoride treatments. The people were beautiful, and a pod of pink Amazon River dolphins spent a day playing alongside our boat.

I am blessed with a family that prays for me as faithfully every day as they do when I am on a mission and God’s grace was abundant as I spent a week touring Peru on my own. I fulfilled a lifelong dream and visited Machu Picchu, taking the train from Cuzco, then the bus to the top of the mountain. You are not allowed to board the bus without rain gear, as it rains every day, and many people see the ruins only through fog and mist.

I arrived at the top just as the sun broke through and the view was picture-postcard perfect: grass greener than green; grazing llamas; Andean condors and snow on the mountains in the distance. This remote Incan stronghold is one of history’s great mysteries and many find it mystic and spiritual. To me, it felt familiar, as though I’d been there before. I’m grateful to God for the opportunity to see it, and the beautiful light that allowed me to enjoy and capture the moment.

photographer: Susan De Graaf, USA. Susan lives in a Norman Rockwell small town in Wisconsin and works in a busy Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Widowed when her daughter was tiny, she takes the most joy in having raised(and homeschooled) her to be a mighty woman of God in her own right. They spent a summer at an orphanage in Mexico, have done short term missions trips together and separately, and have had the privilege of visiting Christ in women's prisons. Susan loves to travel, read, walk and learn!