Amazon Project Update

The Amazon Project, a ministry of Youth Frameworks and Cedar Creek MBC of Palestine, TX, completed another portion of God’s work in the Amazon jungles of Peru. This is the seventh time a group has gone to work in the last two years.

While there were many things accomplished and we are excited about the future, the highlight of the work was going to Villa Esther, the uppermost village of the main tributary river that you can only reach when the water level is sufficient, and being immediately met by the school teacher who invited us into the school to talk to the children. After a full Gospel presentation, the children said they had never heard it before! We returned a few days later and conducted a Bible school where the majority of the village attended. The sad fact is that there are literally hundreds of villages like Villa Esther in Peru.

God has made our purpose for the Amazon very clear. By leading us to people and churches who are of like faith and order (it’s almost scary how much like us they really are) and by leading them to not ask us for physical things, but spiritual, our role is to supply them with education and teaching materials they cannot get on their own.

These people are already showing themselves to be very evangelistic by starting regular Bible study groups in villages where there are no churches. They also are going to the next river and sharing the Gospel and seeing souls saved. They want more training and education so they can do even better at the work God has for them.

Another highlight is the addition of our first boat. One of the believers in the jungle told us in November that he would like to see us have our own boat. He offered to supply the labor and lumber if we would purchase the other necessary supplies. After a very generous donation from some of our team members, we commissioned the building of the boat.

It was completed by mainly three people and only using three tools. From standing tree to floating boat, they only used a chain saw (cutting trees and milling the lumber), hammer (assembling the boat) and a machete (for making the necessary small cuts in the wood). This boat is 40 feet long and 8 feet wide! It will comfortably carry 20 people. It has already been a tremendous help.

In total, we conducted 9 Bible schools and 5 ladies Bible studies. We were also able to have more in-depth conversations with many people, including the pastors, and continue to build our relationships. We were also given the paperwork and talked to the community leaders at Cabo Pantoja about acquiring land and building some facilities to help us teach seminary. We also purchased a chainsaw (Stihl 660 with a 36” bar) for the churches to begin cutting lumber for us to use for construction.

Our next step in the work will take place in late October when we will teach our first session of seminary. Plans are currently being made for what material will be taught and the overall scope of our seminary training there. Please pray as we make those decisions.

Our biggest need at this time is a larger motor for the boat. The “pecky pecky” motor we have been able to purchase at this point goes at a top speed of about 8 MPH. This caused us to spend, at times, as much as 7 hours on the boat in a day in addition to conducting two Bible schools! A 40 horsepower motor will cost us about $5,000, but would be a HUGE benefit to us. It would cut travel time by at least two-thirds and allow us more time to work in the villages.

We will soon begin raising funds and assembling a building team to hopefully go in late May/early June, 2012. In the meantime, we ask that you continue to pray that God lead us and guide the people in the jungle as we seek to do His work together.