Many Blessings

We are so blessed! I say it all the time but do I believe it? Do I realize how blessed we are? Not really. So many times I take things for granted. The little things such as food, clothes, education, and health. Unfortunately, I am usually completely oblivious to God’s many blessings unless He shows me those who are less fortunate. These days our lives are surrounded day in and day out by those who are less fortunate.

The last two weeks I have spent a lot of time with our Shawi friends. I have traveled the rivers and spent time in their communities. We have attended a church anniversary. And this last week we had a Bible training here in town for 30 Shawi pastors and leaders. I spent the week just talking and getting to know them. After spending the majority of two weeks with our Shawi brothers and sisters God has opened my eyes to many things and I am still processing it all. 

Last weekend we were invited to a church anniversary in a community. The anniversary lasts two days and people travel from the whole district to attend. I talked with one person who traveled three days in a canoe to attend. The men dressed in their Sunday best as the woman dressed in their traditional dress and painted their faces and feet. I had the honor of preaching for the Saturday morning service and we stayed for a baptism service in the river that afternoon. Ten young men and women were baptized. It was an amazing day of fellowship and celebration. The men and women of the community had to sacrifice a lot to prepare food for all the visitors. Having extra food is a blessing. 

Then last week during the Bible training I got to know the Shawi men much better. As I meet people it is important to know where they live. After I ask I always look at my map of the district for their community. They were so interested in my map because I am sure most of them had never seen a map of their area before. Soon I had 20 men gathered around me looking at my small map. So I went and made 30 copies of the map and returned with one for each of them. They spent the next hour studying the map and discussing it with each other. There is no actual map of the Balsapuerto district so my map is homemade and they helped me by adding some missing villages and correcting some mistakes. I had a great time learning more about their rivers and communities. Maps are a blessing.

Some of the Bible teaching was about the nation of Israel and one of the guys asked me, “Does Israel exist today?” “Well, yes,” I answered and they asked, “how long does it take to get there?” This gave me an idea, so I ran home and returned with a globe. It blew their minds! “What is all the blue stuff?” they asked. When I responded that it was water they said, “wow, there is a lot more water than land.” I pointed out Peru and Israel and said that if you could fly direct it would take around 15 hours in a plane(just guessing). It seemed like very little time to them considering it takes longer than that to get home in a canoe. Roads are a blessing.

Then one of the older guys pointed to Europe and asked, “Is that the beginning or the end of the world?” I was so confused by the question I had him repeat it three times and then I realized he thought the world was flat. I explained that the world was round and that was why the globe was round and that led to an interesting conversation about how the sun only shines on half the earth at a time and the cause of day and night and many other things. Education is a blessing.

When I visit a church it is common that there is only one Shawi Bible in the whole church and the believers share. I began to research the Shawi Bible and ask about the need for more Bibles. The men told me that the biggest problem is that the Shawi Bible is incomplete. The New Testament is complete but they only have portions of the Old Testament. The men speak Spanish but the woman do not and this makes it difficult to teach from the Old Testament. The Spanish Bibles they have are an old version called the Reina Valera and due to the use of old Spanish words they understand little of it. I can relate because I don’t understand it either and I have to use a more modern translation. As a result, it is a huge challenge to read and teach from the Bible. Complete Bibles in our language is a blessing.

By the end of the week I had spent six days in a row with some of the men. One of them, a pastor of a community 12 hours up river, brought his wife and two of their children along on the trip. I took notice that none of them had changed clothes all week. Then it hit me, the clothes they were wearing might be the only clothes they own. The ability to buy and have clothes is a blessing.

This same family is still here in Yurimaguas. The mother got really sick at the end of the week and went to the emergency room (the doctors are all currently on strike here so ER is the only option unless you can pay for private healthcare). The hospital said she had a urinary track infection and sent her home with some antibiotics. She has laid in bed all this week and not eaten anything. Yesterday Jennifer was talking with her and upon examining her found an abdominal mass.  This morning Jennifer took her back to the hospital and explained everything to the doctors and it looks like she may have a tumor. I am unsure how someone goes to the ER with stomach pain and they don’t actually examine her stomach (likely they were brushing people off due to the strike). Healthcare is a blessing.

My family and I lack nothing. We are so blessed! Even more we are blessed to have the opportunity to be here. We have the opportunity to be God's hands and feet and to share his love. We have the opportunity to help our Shawi brothers and sisters. I am praying for extra food, better roads and easier travel. I am praying for better education and healthcare. I am praying for Bibles that can be understood. But even more I am praying that through it all God's love and glory would be known throughout the jungle. 

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength."                 Philippians 4:12-13

Some videos from the Church Anniversary Services:

Set a drift

There we were, drifting down the river.  A half hour earlier we had noticed our motor was leaking oil and was dangerously low so we shut off the engine to avoid damage.  There were six large sacks of charcoal and eight people in the boat, all of us huddled together under a tarp to avoid the rain. We were still two hours away from the nearest port town and I had a sudden feeling of helplessness. I had no control over the situation but then again, do we ever really have control over our lives? I couldn’t help but reflect on how I had gotten into this situation.

The day before I had left Yurimaguas. I stopped in Munichis to pick up a companion and we drove another hour to Santa Lucia, a small port on the Paranapura River. In Santa Lucia we hitched a ride in a canoe three hours up river to a Shawi village.

The port in Santa Lucia

Our plan was a short trip to visit pastors, agriculture projects and a building project. Our first stop was fruitless as the pastor was out working in his fields for the day. But the next stop was only a 45-minute walk so off we went through the jungle. The views were stunning.

 Hiking through the jungle

By early afternoon we reach the next village and visited with a Shawi brother-in-Christ about his cacao trees. He fed us lunch of boiled plantains, boiled eggs and a bowl of chicha. Chicha is a common drink made of dried corn that is ground and then boiled in water. All the water is from the river but is safe to drink in chicha because it is boiled. It can actually ferment if left to sit for a few days but the Christians all drink it fresh. He invited us to stay the night so we left our stuff and walked on to another village where they are building a new church.

 The new church

We checked on the project and met with some of the believers there to encourage them, while drinking more chicha. It was late in the day so we returned to the original village where the pastor was now home from his fields. We discussed his chickens and his needs for his church while drinking more chicha. I shared a piece of candy with his four-year-old daughter and she wanted to return the favor by offering me a large winged ant. It was a queen leaf cutter ant. They grow wings and take flight this time of year and are a local delicacy. Normally they cook them but I noticed the one she was holding was still moving so I turned it down. She just shrugged her shoulders, popped the whole thing in her mouth and crunched it up.

 The house where we stayed

After returning to our base my companion asked me if I have ever had a cold bath. “Of course,” I replied, “I live in Yurimaguas where water heaters don’t exist.” “No,” he said, “That’s not cold water, that is medium.” “The river water here is from the mountains and is much colder.” I explained to them about water heaters and that in the United States we always use warm water, but most of them just looked at me strange like I was lying. Then my companion spoke up and said he had been in a shower once in Lima with two knobs. He proceeded to tell a long story of adjusting the handles every which way and burning and freezing and screaming and we all had a good laugh. About dark I walked down to the river to bathe and I have to say, he was not lying. It was cold. The problem was the path to the river was knee deep water and mud from a recent rain so by time I returned I felt the bath was worthless. We had another bowl of chicha before crawling into the hammock for the night at the late hour of 7:00pm. What else can you do without electricity? I realized that I had not eaten anything all day except lunch and six bowls of chicha. I would pay for that as six times I crawled out of the hammock in the pitch black dark to use the bathroom that night. And of course by bathroom I mean some nearby bushes. The nighttime view was breathtaking as there was lighting and thunder in the nearby mountains and bright stars overhead.

Traveling in a canoe

Waking early the next morning our host offered to take us in his boat to the next village. It was two hours walk or 20 minutes in boat. We gladly accepted his offer. At the next village we visited Pastor Roque’s house. If you remember from our last post he eats the bones. He is a good man of God with a heart for evangelizing his people. Every chance he gets he travels the rivers preaching in villages, many hearing the name of Jesus for the first time. I had no reason for the visit except that it felt wrong to be this close to his house and not visit. We ate breakfast together and he showed us his cacao field and his chickens. We listened to his jokes over a couple of bowls of chicha before we returned to our host’s house.

We were planning to hitch a ride from a passing boat back to Santa Lucia but our host said he wanted to go there to sell some of his homemade hardwood charcoal and would give us a ride. Loading up his boat we took off just after noon but were soon flagged down by another boat. A man had a boat loaded with sacks of corn, his family and a live pig that was flopping around everywhere. His boat was over loaded and water was splashing in faster then his wife could bail. He asked if we would take his family to get some of the weight out of his boat and since we were both headed to Santa Lucia we agreed. But not more then an hour later there we were floating aimlessly down the Paranapura River.

Soon we heard a noise and around the bend came the guy with the wild pig. After much discussion we tied a rope to his boat and he towed us for two hours back to Santa Lucia.  Luckily, the only store in Santa Lucia had the gasket we needed for the engine and we spent the rest of the afternoon repairing the motor for our host so he could return home. I slept well that night not only from exhaustion but also from the knowledge that our God always provides what we need. 

 Our tow home

Cultural Experiences

Some random cultural experiences from the jungles of Peru:

A couple of weeks ago we decided to grow plantains at the farm. It is not to difficult but it requires starts. For those of you who, like myself,  know nothing about plantains, they don’t grow from seeds but rather the starts from an existing plant. The majority of healthy plantain plants have numerous starts growing around them so getting started is not difficult. All we had to do was find someone who had plantains, ask for starts, and then dig them up. They look like this:

We had been out to a community to church and began asking around and soon we found someone who had plenty of starts and had a field only five minutes from the road. I told him I would be there the next morning and he said he would be there too. So early the next morning the guys that work at the farm and I loaded up and headed for the village. When arrived he was not home. We explained the situation to his wife and asked where their plantain field was located. She responded “por el central.” Which means in the center, away from the road or deep in the jungle and possibly an hour our two walk from the road.

I feel then need at this point to explain the time anomaly of jungle life. For the native people time means little and distance means absolutely nothing. They don’t have a concept of miles or kilometers so when I ask them how far away something is they always respond in time. For example, when I ask how far away is your village they respond 6 hours in boat. But the problem is no one owns a watch so no one actually know how long it takes to go anywhere. And since they don’t own a watch they don’t really understand how long is a minute or hour. As a result, if they say it is an hour walk that could mean 1 hour or 3 hours, no one knows, and if you ask someone else they may say 2 hours. It also depends a lot on who is walking because somehow the barefoot short legged natives walk twice as fast as me.

So when the guy told us it is a five minute walk it could actually be an hour. Who knows? We gave up on him and headed to another person’s house that we know has plantains. We had to cross a river to get there. I had crossed the river in this spot before and there has always been a dug out canoe. But this time the canoe was MIA which only leaves one other option. Praise God the river was low and only chest deep so we took off our pants and walked across the river holding our stuff above our head to keep it dry. Finally, we reached the house and of course he was not home. But his wife told us where the field was and to help ourselves to the starts. The problem was her directions to the field where a little shaky. She said, “go to so-and-so’s house then take a left then a right.” I had no idea what this meant but one of the guys with us is Shawi and knew where so-and-so lived so off we went. The guy leading the way went first and for some reason decided to walk twice as fast as everyone else(because he's Shawi). Soon we came to a fork in the path and our leader was no where in sight. So we do what everyone does in the jungle when they are looking for someone, yell real loud. But he did not respond, so we yelled and whistled and yelled some more and finally we just had to decide which path we thought looked the best to walk down and at that point I was sure we were lost. But we walked for a little bit and came to a plantain field and there was our leader standing there. I asked if he heard us and he didn’t respond, but just stared at the ground. Why? I don’t know. I can’t figure the culture out sometimes. Many times when I ask a question to a Shawi they just look at the ground and ignore me. That means either they don’t know the answer or they don’t understand my Spanish or they don’t want to answer. Either way it is frustrating.

We spent the rest of the morning digging and cleaning the starts and hauling them back across the river half naked to the furgon. The worst part was that we needed 300 starts and we only had 166.

We really haven’t landed on a home church yet. We have lived here a little over three months and in that time we have visited 6 churches. It is hard to have a home church because we are always getting invited to visit other churches. It is part of our life here. And it is not just simply visiting, every time we visit a church we are asked to stand up and say something or to preach.  The churches in town are more formal and will often ask in advance for me to preach (although sometimes only ten minutes in advance), but when we visit a church in the native communities it is just assumed that I will preach because I am the visitor. Many of the churches here in town have very loud music and most have service at 8:00pm Saturday or Sunday night that often go till 10:00pm. It is so hard to go to a church that blows your ear drums and doesn’t start till after our kid’s bedtimes. So we’ve been looking for a good church and the other night decided to visit a new church that one of our friends, who works here at the Hogar, attends. It starts at 7:30pm so we already liked it before we walked in the door. It was a quiet little church on a dirt road with about 30 people. When we go to church we stick out a little bit. First we are tall and very white, second we have blue eyed blond haired children, and third we always have a few extra people with us. Typically, we bring some extra moms, kids, or babies from the Hogar. So when we walked into church they had to scramble to find enough seats as we took up about a third of the church. Right away they asked me to stand up and introduce everyone and explain why we were there. They asked us some questions but where very friendly and accommodating.  We sang some beautiful hymns with an acoustic guitar and hymnals and we really enjoyed some quiet intimate worship time. Then the preacher gave a short and precise message from the word of God. We sang a closing hymn and finished at 8:30pm. Even with the visiting afterword we were still home by 9:00pm. The kids enjoyed it as well. We may have found a home church.

Last weekend I had big plans, but they fell through. There are some communities I have been trying to visit on the Cachiyacu River. Normally it is 6-8 hours in boat to reach them but there is a new road being constructed to the capital of the district Balsapuerto. From Balsapuerto it is half an hour walk to one community and hour and a half to the other (that is jungle time so who really knows?) As a result, I decided it would be easier to go by road and save 4 hours of travel time. The road was supposed to open the 15^th of November so I planned a trip last weekend with Davidcen who works at the farm. We planned on meeting with some of the believers that have cacao to check on their progress and attend church Sunday morning to encourage the believers. When we got to the new road, which is two hours from Yurimaguas, we were met with a large wooden gate across the road. We asked the workers and they told us that the road is finished but has not opened because they are waiting for the regional governor to come, inspect, and inaugurate the road. That was supposed to happen last week but the governor has not made it out yet.

Changing our plans, we decided to meet with some of the guys in that area that have cacao. We stopped at the community of Nueva Yurimaguas to talk with Pastor Orlando. He has about 2 ½ acres of cacao and it is producing well accept some of the pods have spots on them. I said, “can we look at it and where is your field?” “Oh, about half an hour walk,” he said. You know what that means, an hour later we arrived at his field. 

We sat in the field and discussed his cacao while eating the pulp from the cacao pods (photo above) and then prayed together. When we returned to his house his wife had prepared lunch. She had killed a chicken to make chicken soup. Killing the chicken for us is like killing the fatted calf. And one of the men with us, Pastor Roque, made the most of it. I watched him eat two bowls of soup, 6 boiled plantains, and a chicken leg, bone and all! It was a first for me watching someone eat bones but he is good humored so when I razzed him about it he told me the bones are the best part of the chicken and that I am missing out. It still wasn’t enough for me to try it.

The next day we headed back out to the same area for church. We visited the church in Segundo Jerusalem. It is a small community of believers that still don’t have their own church building but they are in the process of building one. They will spend four of five days cutting and milling all the wood with a chainsaw to build the structure. Then they will install a metal roof for protection from the rain and sun. It doesn't sound like much but it will be one of the nicest buildings in the community. We wanted to visit them and encourage them in their building project. They of course asked me to say a few words and to pray for the service. They also asked me to sing which I did not understand completely so I agreed to it until Jennifer stepped in and explained to me what was happening, so then I politely declined. It was a great time in the community as they were so open and friendly with us. We stayed and visited after church while drinking chicha with the believers and asking each other questions. They even taught us some Shawi words. I think they really enjoyed laughing at us as we tried to pronounce them correctly.

They were having a soccer game in the afternoon and invited us to stay and play but we declined as we had to go back to Nueva Yurimaguas and find Pastor Roque and take him back with us to Yurimaguas. When we got to Nueva Yurimaguas they somehow knew that there was a soccer game in Segundo Jerusalem and next thing I know we had 16 people in the back of the furgon headed back Segundo Jerusalem. That beats our previous record of 12 people. 

By the time we finally had the furgon headed back to Yurimaguas we had 11 people and a pile of plantains, yuca, corn, and pineapple that were donated by the believers for the Hogar. What a great day it was of worship and fellowship with our Shawi brothers and sisters!

A Trip to the Market

Just for something fun and different we decided to to a video post this week. Here is a video of our trip to the market. It is where we shop and get the majority of our food here. This market is called the Bado and it is right outside our house seven days a week from 3:00pm to about 7:00pm. It is right beside the Paranapura River so it is easy access for those bringing products from their communities to sell in the city. Sorry for abrupt ending, ran out of space on the phone. 
A little slice of Yurimaguas life for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

We do not lose hope

I sat in church all alone thinking about the difficulties of life here. Not just problems like cold showers, no toilet seats and having parasites but more the emotional strain.  My family was in church too, but just not sitting with me, we couldn’t find seats together. The church was full because today was the church anniversary. A day full of special songs, guest preachers, and celebration. I didn’t feel like celebrating. All I could think about was 2 Corinthians chapter 4. In July of 2015 we lived in North Carolina for a month for cross-cultural training. One of the teachers made us memorize the first 12 verses of this chapter and it was suddenly flooding back into my brain. “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose hope.” This is so true. We serve in a ministry that without God is hopeless. Two rows in front of me sat Jennifer with Henry and two other children from the Hogar. Their mother and father are both in prison. The boy just turned four and the first three years of his life he lived with his mother in prison. To this day he is more comfortable in prison than out. We know this because Jennifer takes them twice a month to visit their mom. Their mom will be in prison for two more years. The girl is eight and has problems with authority and trust issues. 

Lucy is sitting in the back of the church with the Shawi women. On one side is her new best friend, a 14-year old with a baby who ran away from home. We have written about her in the past and if you have not read Jennifer’s post, Pray for Esther, please do. On the other side of her is a family member of a man that just had his leg amputated. He had a tumor the size of a volleyball. He is recuperating but will someday return to his village. It is a 12-hour boat ride from Yurimaguas. His future is uncertain as the only thing he has done in his life is work in his fields to provide food for his family. Now, without the leg, that becomes next to impossible.

Maggie is in the front of the church with one of Susan’s girls. She was abandoned at birth and lived her first 11 years at the Hogar before being adopted by Susan. She is sweet and loves Maggie but struggles in school and has abandonment issues.

Finally, someone comes to sit by me. It is one of Susan’s boys. He was born with a cleft pallet and almost died of malnutrition. Now at 14 he is healthy but talks with a lisp and has a scar on his face from the surgeries. He also has a scar in his heart as he struggles with anger. He is mad at the world and who would blame him.

On stage the administrator at the Hogar is singing a special.  She has a beautiful voice but her life is full of pain as well. She has a host of personal issues that many are out of her control. Despite this she pours out her heart to God trusting in Him above all else.

Every day new people walk into the Hogar and into our lives. Every single person has a story and most are of brokenness. Broken homes. Broken relationships. Broken bodies. Broken lives. Right now we have a lot of court cases here at the Hogar. A family of six siblings under 12 removed from their home. A 13-year old is here because her mom was beating her. Another 13-year old that is pregnant. We have a 9 month old with a cleft pallet due to have surgery next month and his mom has abandoned him twice. And the list goes on…

The Hogar Materno is not a children’s home or an orphanage. It was designed to help on a temporary basis. We have 5 dedicated staff members that cook and clean, three full-time and two part-time. Here mothers, high risk pregnant women and malnourished children can get a clean bed and three healthy meals a day.  We are not capable of having a family of 6 children here. We don’t have the staff to care for them. 

It is easy to loose hope here. Everyday my heart is broken. Everywhere I look I see injustice and pain. I often cry.

The child we brought back from the jungle two weeks ago has fluid on the brain. His mom has refused the surgery and they are back in their village. I am perplexed.

Again I run 2 Corinthians 4 through my head. “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” To a non Christian this is nonsense, but to us it makes perfect sense. Our hope is not in this life. This life is temporary and will soon end for every one of us. So to face adversity, difficulties and trials is not devastating to us. In fact, it is expected. Since our hope is not in this life when we are hard pressed we are not crushed, and when perplexed we are not in despair. Our hope is in the eternal and NOTHING can take that away from us. And that is our message here at the Hogar. Everyday we have the opportunity to share this hope, the greatest gift of all time.

I am not alone in church. God is there too, confirming that, even though He has called us to something so difficult, He provides the strength and hope we need to get through the day.

“For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

The Long Weekend

My weekend began at 4:00am Saturday morning. A fellow missionary here in Yurimaguas has started a Bible institute that meets every other Saturday.  The institute is located in a town called Santiago De Borja. The town is accessible by road but the travel is complicated. We left early to go to the taxi company on the other side of town. We then caught a taxi to Pongo, a town an hour and half away. From there we waited by the side of the road for a pickup carrying cargo to Santiago De Borja, basically it is hitch hiking. We had to go early because the road is under construction and closes at 7:00 am. It then is open for an hour at a time at 10:30, 12:30, and 2:30. We climbed into the back of a pickup and headed down the jungle road for another hour, through the early morning mist. It was a cold ride, but beautiful passing rivers and mountains and through fields and towns. 

We arrived in town about 7:30 and ate breakfast at a local restaurant (tables in front of someone’s house). The house next door had this cow looking for breakfast.

The institute started around 9:00 and went till 1:30. Twenty eager believers gathered together to study about prayer. 

My companion is a gifted teacher and maintained their attention the whole time. At 1:30 we left to return to Yurimaguas with a donation of plantains. The road wasn’t open and we had to wait for a while to pass through. Once through we again attempted to hitch a ride from Pongo back to Yurimaguas, but none were available. After an hour and half in the hot sun we finally found a pick up with seats in the cab, a gift from God. We returned to Yurimaguas about 5:30. After a shower and supper we were back in a local church by 7:30 to preach. I preached about the great commission and how we are all called to be missionaries. After service we talked with fellow believers and finally I returned home by 10:30, exhausted. 

But at 6:00am Sunday I was back up, loading the family in the furgon. This week there is a pastor’s conference here in Yurimaguas. Shawi pastors come to town for the week to study the word of God and they need to eat. At the farm we had some goats but they don’t like our fences and when we planted the yuca they enjoyed eating it. As a result, we hauled them to a Shawi village called Nueva Yurimaguas. The goal Sunday was to head to the village to get a goat and butcher it for the pastor’s conference. But God had other plans. First we went to the farm to pick up one of the workers, Devincen and his family. Then we drove another hour down bumpy rutted dirt roads to Nueva Yurimaguas in time for church at 9:00am. To get to the village we had to cross the Aramanyacu river. 

The kids loved the little raft which was nothing more than four logs tied together. After greeting everyone we sat down on wood benches on the dirt floor. The church has no walls but it does have a roof to keep the sun and rain off. 

When it came time for the message the pastor got up and in front of the whole church asked if I would preach. Luckily I was ready from the night before and preached a similar message. After church we enjoyed the fellowship at the pastor's house.

 Maggie enjoyed talking on her watermelon phone.

A woman approached Jennifer with a new born baby. The baby was only four days old and not eating. As Jennifer held the baby he went into convulsions and we knew this was an urgent situation. We talked them into coming with us to Yurimaguas and to the hospital.  The problem is the mother is mute so the grandma was coming to talk for her, but the grandma only speaks Shawi. I don’t know how it happened but soon we were headed back to Yurimaguas with fifteen people in the furgon, our family, Devincen and his family, three Shawi woman, three Shawi babies, and no goat.

Our intent was only to get a goat but God had other plans, we were able to share His word and save a baby’s life! He can change my plans anytime. But this was only the beginning for Jennifer. After returning to the Hogar we sent Jesusa, the woman on duty at the Hogar, to the hospital with the Shawi women because she speaks Shawi. That left us alone at the Hogar. Jennifer cooked supper for 15+ people, bathed the kids, cleaned, dispersed meds and more. When Jesusa returned from the hospital they still had not admitted the baby so Jennifer went to the hospital. The health care here is rough even if you speak Spanish and worse for minorities like the Shawi. The hospital wanted to take the babies temperature but that requires a thermometer and of course they don’t supply that. So Jennifer had to go to the hospital pharmacy to buy a thermometer, but they were out of thermometers. So she asked the guard where to buy one and he said, “it is Sunday night, there are no pharmacies open, but there is one on the other side of town where the owners live beside the store and if you bang on their door they can open up and help you.” That is healthcare in Yurimaguas.

The poor Shawi women were in culture shock. Jennifer had to teach them how to turn on a faucet because they had never seen one. And to translate she called Jesusa and handed the phone to them, but they had no idea what to do with a cellphone. 

The baby had bruises on his belly and through translation we found out that they had taken the baby to a local witch doctor. The witch doctor said the baby was cursed and had a bad spirit. He tried to remove it by sucking it out his stomach, hence the bruises. 

The baby does not have a government ID to receive free health care so Jennifer had to pay for him, it cost $2.50.  Finally, they admitted the baby and Jennifer returned home around 11:00pm. And that was our weekend. We had trouble getting out of bed Monday morning, but there still is a goat to butcher and he is two hours away and across a river. 

Please pray today for this baby in the hospital and for the Shawi people. Please pray for the pastor’s conference this week. These men are being trained to bring light and truth to the dark corners of the jungle. They are workers being sent out into the harvest.

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest fields.”

Matthew 9:35-38

Yurimaguas life

Just a quick update on life in Yurimguas for the Hires.  A couple of weeks ago a Darin Schrock came from the states to visit. What a blessing he was to us. He spent a week with us and it was so encouraging to spend time with an old friend. We welcomed him by taking him to the market his first day to try some local cuisine. Here is a picture of him eating grilled suri, a large grub and local delicacy.

Then we went upriver to visit a Shawi community. To get to the community we had to travel two hours in a leaking boat with a dog and walk two hours through the steaming jungle. We went with another missionary to determine how to meet the need for fresh water in the community during the dry season as well as to give some bibles to new believers.

Maggie turned one and we had a nice party here at the Hogar. With all the mothers and children as well as other missionaries from here in town we had over 30 people at the party.  She really enjoyed her cake and some gifts from back home that Darin brought with him.

Our new furgon has been a great family vehicle. We have used it to haul many different things including people. Here we are hauling 12 people with room to spare.

We added a roof to protect us from the rain and sun and it has been a nice addition. One day last week we were told at 6:30 in the morning to leave the Hogar for fumigation. Sometimes the government fumigates the whole town house by house to get rid of the mosquitoes and stop the spread of diseases associated with the mosquitoes. The fumigation is terribly toxic and we have to leave the house for an hour and a half. It wasn't a great way to start the day but we tried to make the most of it. We bought breakfast and drove out to the bridge on the Paranapura river to eat. Thanks to the roof we were protected from the sun while we enjoyed the view. 

We are working hard to move into our own place. We are going to live in the upstairs of a house owned by the mission and located here at the Hogar. It has plenty of space but lacks a kitchen. As a result we have built a temporary kitchen sink to create a kitchen in the laundry area. It is not ideal but we are excited to finally have our own space to unpack after 9 weeks of living out of our suitcases.

Maggie has even found her own space in the new place.

Yesterday we took a break from moving to celebrate Lucy's birthday. We found a fancy hotel here in town that has a movie theater in the basement and a swimming pool. We rented the whole theater and invited some friends to watch Frozen with us. We tried to watch it but it was a bad copy and skipped and froze. Then we switched to the new jungle book movie. It took us 20 minutes to get the theater operator to switch the movie and then the movie started in the middle. We asked to started in from the beginning so he restarted it and somehow it started in the middle again so he just rewound the whole movie on slow, second by second we watch the movie in reverse. Finally the movie started from the beginning but it was so quiet we couldn't hear and had to find him again to turn it up. I was frustrated but Jennifer just laughed and said "welcome to the movies in Yurimaguas." After the movie we went swimming but after an hour we were kicked out because they were fumigating the hotel. The movie and swimming for 7 people and 18 bags of popcorn cost us $28 so I guess I can't complain.

 

Overall we are doing well. We are struggling to set up a house in a foreign country and find a routine for our family as well as meeting the ministry needs here. But each day is a walk of faith and we can only rely on God. We desperately need him everyday to not only survive but to thrive here in the jungle.

The hardest thing I have ever done

Just thought I would take a minute to describe some of my work this week. Part of our mission is a farm about 45 minutes from Yurimaguas. The goal of the farm is three fold, support the Shawi with agriculture development, support the Hogar with food, and disciple and train men of God in the process. This week the focus was on food for the Hogar. At the Hogar we eat a lot of yuca. For those of you not familiar with yuca (just like me a week ago) it is a miracle food in the jungle. Grows well in heat, can take a lot of rain or drought, can store in the ground for three to six months, pest resistant and high in calories. It might be the perfect food for the jungle (God's kind of amazing like that). So we decided to grow yuca at the farm.

We began by clearing an area for the yuca and then we needed to plant some yuca. To do that we had to make a trip to a Shawi community to get some yuca starts. On Tuesday morning two of the workers at the farm and I loaded up in the new furgon and headed out to a village called Segunda Jerusalem.

About an hour and half from Yurimaguas we stopped along the side of the road took off on a foot path through the jungle. I realized that my companions were wearing sandals and thought it strange to wear sandals in the jungle until we had walked about 200 yards and came to a river. 

There was a dugout canoe tied up on the bank but as it is the dry season now it became obvious that it was easier to walk across the knee deep water, hence the sandals. They had to wait for me to take off my boots and socks and then wait some more for me to put them back on on the other side of the river. I felt I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing but that was only the beginning.

We walked past some houses through a papaya field and a pasture and back into the jungle for a while till we came to a little clearing. 

There in the clearing was a small elevated house. One of my companions said, “there are dogs,” as he reached for a large stick. The other ran for a tree and prepared to climb. I decided it would be smart to follow suit and ran to a tree as well. We yelled at the house but no one answered. So my companion just held the dogs at bay with the large stick while I was trying to decide how to climb the tree. After a few minutes a Shawi woman appeared from the jungle with a large basket of produce. She called off the dogs and went directly into the house. She didn’t speak much Spanish but one of the guys I was with spoke Shawi. They talked for a few minutes and he apparently explained that we had spoke with her husband the day before and he said we could have some yuca starts. Her husband was away at the moment but would return later she said. She invited us up into her house where we sat on the floor while she served us a large bowl of chapu one by one because she only had one bowl and she waited till one person finished until taking the bowl and refilling it. It is custom for the Shawi to always serve a drink when a guest comes and it is never water. Chapu is a drink usually made of over ripe plantains and it is thick and sweet so I was looking forward to my turn. But I was surprised when she handed me a large bowl full to the top of red juice with white stuff floating in it. It was not what I had anticipated and it smelled terrible. But at this point I had no choice. Culturally the worst thing I could do was decline the drink. They only offer you their best stuff and to turn it down is very offensive. It could end a relationship and they might never talk to me again. So I tipped up the bowl and took a drink and it was as terrible as I thought. The first sip hit my stomach like a ton of bricks and I had an instant stomach ache. Despite my desire to gag I tipped the bowl again while everyone watched and downed the whole thing. It might have been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

After the drink we all grabbed machetes and followed her out into the jungle. 

We walked for quite a while through corn fields and plantain fields and patches of jungle till we came to her yuca field. Yuca grows like a tall skinny tree about nine-foot-high and what we needed was the trunk, called yuca poles. We cut the trunk off at the ground and trimmed the branches until we had a pile of nice straight poles. While we were doing this the woman cut some plantains from a nearby field and piled them beside our poles.  It was explained to me that this family was Christian and as they don’t have much money they often tithe in food. The plantains were her tithe to us to use at the Hogar to feed the woman and children. What a blessing!

After we had collected the poles it was time to harvest the yuca. Yuca grows in tubers underground and can be as much as two feet long. In this field there were old trees still growing so we had to harvest the yuca by carefully cutting out from among the roots of the trees. It was painstakingly slow and difficult. As the hours wore on and the jungle sun baked us I realized this might have been one of the hardest things I have ever done. 

Finally, we finished and had three piles; plantains, poles and yuca. I asked what are we doing with the yuca, hauling it to her house? “Oh no,” the guys replied, “she is giving us the yuca too.” It was then I realized we were at least a mile walk from the road and we had to cross a river with many heavy loads. My day was only beginning.

On the first load out the lady stopped me at her house and offered me another drink of chapu. At this point I was so hot and thirst that it actually did not taste that bad, I only gagged slightly. Trip after trip we carried poles, then plantains, then yuca. Finally, on one of the trips we passed the man returning home. He insisted we stop at the house for more chapu and a chat. By the third bowl I think I was growing accustom to the taste. Then he served us lunch. A steaming bowl of fish soup, made with dried piranha with a side of yuca and plantains. Luckily I sat at the edge of the house so I could sneak bites to the dog sitting below me. I think now I am his best friend. Also they had pet parakeets that ate the yuca off my plate, I didn’t stop them. 

After lunch the man offered to help us carry the rest. He easily carried twice what I could, barefoot, and twice as fast. On our last trip out we stopped by another neighbor’s house where of course we had to drink some more stuff. This time it was yuca based but just as terrible. When we arrived back at the furgon we found lemons and more plantains donated by other Christian neighbors. It is amazing to see people with so little give so much. We had about 500 pounds of yuca, 200 pounds of plantains, yuca poles, and a bag of lemons. There is no way we could use all this food at the Hogar but we donated much of it to some families in Yurimaguas who lost all they owned in a house fire. Bouncing back down the dusty dirt road to the farm, reflecting on the day, it was then I decided that it was the hardest thing I had ever done.

Continued:  The next day we cut the yuca poles into one foot sections and stuck them in the ground where they will sprout and grow. We planted the yuca only to find out we didn’t have enough poles. So we returned to the same village on Thursday where a different neighbor offered us starts. The only problem was that it was much farther from the road, at least an hours walk, and the food was worse. Also it had rained and the river was four feet higher. I ended the day much more tired, with a touch of heat stroke and a lot of food poisoning. Not to use the term flippantly but that was for sure the hardest thing I have ever done.