Well, we finally made it home from Peru!!! God truly blessed our travels with His work. The primary purpose of this trip was to survey. We priced everything imaginable, talked to salesmen, rental agents and other Americans in the area. We looked up, asked about and wrote down more information than any normal sane person would want to read! We spent 10 days in Peru, 7 in the city of Iquitos and 3 in the jungle.

Beware of Motorkars

The days in the city began in the Hotel Marañon. From there, we would get into a motorkar. If you have never ridden in a motorkar, you just don’t know what you are missing. It is a 3-wheeled motorcycle with a bench seat on the back. In the city of Iquitos, there are approximately 1/2 million people. With all those people, there are about 20,000 motorkars. Traffic rules in Iquitos exist, but we can’t for the life of us figure out why??!! We went from place-to-place trying to plan for the future of both our ministry and the ministry of whoever God is preparing to follow behind us. We now know prices for chainsaws, building equipment, building supplies, cellphone service, internet service, satellite internet service, boat rental, boat construction, boat motors, “pecky pecky” motors, rental property, legal fees, food, and gasoline. We learned about the process for establishing a non-profit organization under which to work  in Peru. We learned the steps for receiving resident visas and special religious visas in order to be allowed to legally own things in Peru. We learned what is required to register and operate a boat legally in Peru (namely the Iquitos area – an International seaport). In doing all these things, we experienced some (a few) honest men. Mainly, we experienced the difficulty of dealing as an American in a third-world city with 72% unemployment. With every dollar (or sole) holding such importance, dishonesty is the natural inclination of man. God personally made it clear in our hearts how blessed we seem to the rest of the world. Trying to explain to these men that we are ministers and live meekly ourselves would have been useless. While visiting with the family of our guide, his wife joked about him being so fat because he “wants to eat 3 times a day.” The first thought was, “if I don’t eat 3 times a day, I’m starving.” Keep in mind, it is clear that God has blessed us all and we shouldn’t feel guilty. It just puts things in perspective.

Meeting with Iquitos Pastors

On Wednesday, we had a meeting scheduled with the Ecumenical Group of 80 pastors. Some of them are trying to work in some of the same villages we are and we met them in June. They invited us to come and share our vision for the ministry there. While we knew all along that this would most likely come to naught, we couldn’t get around it. Of the 80 pastors, about 20 attended. Inside the group there are power struggles and political dealings. We hoped these men would be an asset to the ministry in the jungle, but we discovered their true intent. The government has recently changed their guidelines for religious orgainazations. These men want us to work in the city and find a way to rubber stamp the seminary training they already have so they can be recognized by the government. Of the 20, almost all had seminary training. The meeting was cordial and the men were friendly. But, in the end it seems they only had their hands out and had no heart for the jungle. They had their hands out in a very subtle way, but they were out all the same. They also asked us for monetary help, supplies and support.  The only material thing we were asked for in the jungle was a chainsaw so that they could build their own churches. This sounds great on the surface, but even then the man’s pastor stared laser beams through him for asking! The people of the jungle want Biblical knowledge. “Silver and gold have we none…” Praise God for showing us the true colors of the bad men and the good men.

The Long Walk

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday we made it to the villages in the jungle. The water was extremely low, so traveling was interesting. We would take an hour boat ride. Then disembark and walk with our 50lb boxes of Bibles and supplies for almost an hour. We would then hitch a ride on a boat with a “pecky pecky” motor to the villages we were trying to reach. On Friday, we traveled across La Isla de Los Monos (Monkey Island). At the end of the trail, a man has built an orphanage for monkeys. It was fun to see one Monkey sneak up on Bro. Juan and make him jump higher than I thought possible. On the way back, we all got to play with the monkeys. The next 2 days, we traveled by foot to San Juan de Hushalada. From there, we accessed the backside to the Yanayacu River. Traveling in the heat up a dry riverbed with 50lb boxes on our heads brought a whole new meaning to, “How beautiful are the feet of them who BRING good news.” Thank God that He gave us the chance to do this for Him.

Tarantula Bridge to Yanayacu Timicuro

On Friday, we went  to Yanayacu Timicuro and Las Palmas. We were encouraged to learn that in Yanayacu Timicuro, the pastor of the church in San Pedro de Falcon has honored our request and been traveling twice-a-month and starting regular Bible studies. The churches of the jungle are already doing the work! We need believers in the States to pray for the village of Yanayacu Timicuro (yawn-ah-yah-koo teem-ee-koo-roo). They are in desperate need of a man in the village to rise up and become the leader of what will be a church soon. It also seems in Las Palmas that services are continuing. One interesting bit of information: In June, we were surprised to find a new church building in Las Palmas. They told us it was built by a group that came in, built it, and never returned. That sounded as if it could not be true. While in Iquitos, we met with a man named Mike Dempsey. He owns a large houseboat supplied for medical teams. He will be assisting our team in March. We told him that we would like to go to the area of Las Palmas. He replied with, “I just built a church there.” He builds buildings (as the Spirit leads – he says) as he sees a congregation with no place of worship. He then leaves them to do with as they please. As we see the work in Las Palmas and the works in all the villages with churches (who have built their own buildings), we see how this, while it is incredibly heartfelt, may be detrimental to the churches understanding of their own abilities in Christ. God had truly blessed us with the answers to most of the questions we left with in June.

Bethel Baptist Church of Cabo Pantoja

Saturday, we went to the village of Cabo Pantoja. This village will be the site of seminary training. The pastors of all the village churches in the area were invited to hear more about our plans to teach. Bethel Baptist Church in Cabo Pantoja has it’s own building. It is 1 meter off the ground, and about 25′ x 60′. It also has a very nice tin roof. They paid for all of this themselves and have done all the construction. There are no walls, but there will be soon. Posted on the door of a cabinet were 3 lists. One was a preaching and teaching schedule through the end of the year. Another was a weekly cleaning schedule. We joked with a 12 year old boy and asked, “Where is your name on the cleaning list?” He proceeded to show us!!! They are extremely capable and are very proud to take care of all that God gives in blessing. The last list was a food list for the next associational meeting! We learned that the association of 9-11 churches meets every other month for a weekend. They have Saturday night services, begin Sunday with a 5:00 AM devotional, have breakfast and then have lessons until noon. They are well attended also. They are not just a chance for pastors to get together. Our November group will take part in the next meeting. We are very excited to fellowship with them!

The meeting with the pastors began with a presentation by Bro. Juan Gallegos of Articles of Faith of the American Baptist Association. We wanted to clearly present what we will be teaching and allow them to stand with us or ask us to leave. These are churches of  the Living God and if they choose to ask us to leave, they have that right. After the presentation, they asked a few questions about the list of doctrines and we discovered that they agree with us. They struggle with the ability to prove all that they believe and present it in an orderly way to their congregations, but they believe it all the same. We learned that Bethel was started by a member of Iglesia Bautista Canan of Iquitos. The aunt and uncle of the current pastor began Bible studies and they were organized in 1972. However, Vilfredo, the pastor, told us that the sending church changed their doctrinal stance and Bethel cut ties. This was the first church in the area to be organized. This is why they asked for seminary training. For an entire generation, they have had no contact with people who desire to teach them the deeper things of God. We see in the Bible that seminary is the Biblical model and this is what they desire of us. This was definitely a God-moment. It is so easy to think the world revolves us. When we saw the building, the lists, the organization and the success of the church of Cabo Pantoja, we saw clearly that our involvement here is not based solely on God blessing us, but on God blessing them. They have taken their church as far as they can with all that they can. They have faithfully served God for almost 40 years and now God wants to use us to take them to the next level. We have seen them as a piece of our puzzle, but that is not the case. We are a piece of theirs.

Sunday, we were pleased to attend services at San Pedro de Falcon and General Marino. We experienced sweet fellowship and saw 2 more thriving churches.

God continues to make the vision clearer. While we see now that, due to governmental regulations, we may have to slow our plans down, we also see that the work has been predetermined by God for us to do. Thank you all for praying for us and please continue to do so.

March Medical Trip Boat

Cory, Norwi, and Robert

Us with Malita and Malisa

Today a Turtle, Tomorrow Soup

Alfredo and the Boa Constrictor

I've got a monkey on my back!

Just Hanging Around

Get me out a' here!!