San Francisco

When we first met Ester she was 14 and pregnant. She did not speak any Spanish and had ran away from home to save the life of her unborn baby. Today 11 months later she is in the custody of the Hogar and has a beautiful healthy 11-month old boy. You can read her whole story in our previous post, Pray for Ester.

Ester

She is from an indigenous Shawi village called San Francisco. It is remote. Located at the end of a small river the only access is walking. It is what we call, “campo blanco,” meaning it is an unreached village without a gospel witness. Since first learning about San Francisco, we have prayed that God would reach out to the people there and open the doors for the gospel to enter. Yesterday I was able to see that prayer answered first hand.

The church in Nuevo Yurimguas

We attended a special church service in Nuevo Yurimaguas. The road is in good shape right now so this is the third time in as many weeks that we have visited. We were invited by Pastor Orlando. He has a burden for his people and travels to unreached villages sharing the gospel. As a result, there are many new believers that need discipleship. He decided to have a special service and invited all the churches in the region as well as the new believers. It was an honor to attend. Orlando started the service by introducing all the different communities present and I was floored when he introduced a family from San Francisco.  

 

An example of the worship that lasted an hour and a half.

For the next three hours we sat through the service. An hour and a half of worship followed by three different messages from three different pastor and 90 percent of it in Shawi. I tried to listen and pay attention but I do not understand Shawi and my mind kept wondering, how did that family from San Francisco get here?

Finally, at the end of service a man stood up to give a testimony and Pastor Orlando sat next to me to interpret because he thought it was important that I understand.

Gathering for lunch after church

Inico is a man that lives in a nearby community. Six months ago he was a drunk. He would often hear the music from the church in the evenings as it is quiet in the jungle and the sound of worship travels to his village. But he thought, “those Christians are crazy, I don’t want any of that.”  Then one night he had a dream. In his dream the devil was chasing him with a spear. He was caught and the devil stabbed him with the spear and all of his guts came spilling out. He thought he was dead and he cried out. Then he heard a voice saying only one thing can save him from death. God. The next day he walked to Nuevo Yurimaguas, found pastor Orlando and gave his life to Jesus. Today, six months later, he is a changed man.

He was very sick with stomach problems and God told him in another dream to quit drinking. Now he is sober and healthy. He reads his bible everyday and all the people in his village ridicule him.  They tell him that the witch doctor will kill him for being a Christian. He has had other dreams where a bright light is shining on him and his house and he can see demons approaching his house but they can not enter the light. In John 1:5 it says refering to Jesus, "The light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." This is God’s protection. He does not fear the witch doctor. 

In the Shawi culture when a man is married he leaves his village and goes to live in the village of his wife. As a result, the women never leave their village but the married men are always from a different village. Inicio is heartbroken for his home village. He thinks about his parents who have passed away and did not know Christ. He wants to return and share Christ with the people. Guess where he is from? San Francisco. 

This is crazy! God is answering our prayers for the people of San Francisco. But never as I had expected, God’s plan is so much better. Through a dream he touched one man’s heart with the plan to touch many others.

A three hour walk from Nuevo Yurimaguas, Inicio walked to San Francisco on Saturday and brought some of his family to church on Sunday. I thought is was rough to drive two hours to church, they got up at 6:00am and walked three hours to church. But this is only the beginning. We need to pray for Inicio. Daily he faces persecution because of his faith. Daily he faces trials and temptations. Pray for Orlando as he disciples Inicio and please pray for the people of San Francisco.

Maggie with her new amigita.

Water Filters

In the last four weeks we have had many visitors. First Jennifer's brother Brent, and his family visited, then Jennifer's uncle Alan, and his family. It was such a blessing to spend time with family. We spent a couple of days in the jungle with Alan, Nina, Ben and Rachel. On one day we attended church in Nueva Yurimaguas and afterward we built water filters for every household and had a small training on how to use them and basic hygine education. Thank you to Larry Truitt and Sugar Plains Friends Church for donating the filters.  Attached is a video of our time in Nueva Yurimaguas.

Open my eyes

It is amazing how quickly I have become desensitized to the poverty around me. Yesterday my eyes were reopened during my visit to the indigenous community of Nuevo Chiclayo.

I traveled two and a half hours down the muddy, bumpy road on the back of the motorcycle that my companion was driving. Upon arriving it took me a while to stretch my legs and work the cramps out of my back. We found the men of Nuevo Chiclayo in the soccer field standing around a broken gas powered string trimmer. They had been cutting the grass in preparation for a big soccer tournament the next day for which they had invited many of the nearby communities. I was surprised to see the string trimmer.  I had seen Shawi men cutting grass before and it usually involves all the men furiously swing machetes at the grass in the blazing heat for hours on end. It takes twelve men with machetes a whole day to do what could be done in a couple of hours with a push mower. So I asked where they got the string trimmer and they said it was donated to them. The problem was the machine was at least 5 years old and looking pretty tired. The throttle cable was broken and so my companion and I set to work on fixing it.

As we worked I began talking with some of the men. I knew only a few of them and they began asking me questions. “Where are you from?” they asked. “The United States,” I responded. “How long does it take to travel there?” the asked. They always measure distance in the time it takes to travel.  “About 6 hours in plane from Lima,” I responded. They all laughed at that because they had no idea what it meant. “How long in boat?” they asked. “I do not know, probably weeks.” They all laughed because this they did understand. “How much does it cost?” they asked. “Around 1500 soles,” I said. “1500 soles?” said one man, “I don’t even have 15 soles.” They all laughed again because it is true.

Soon we had fashioned a new cable from some extra fence wire but it just did not want to stay in place and we needed a little bit of small string, so we asked. One of the men immediately reached into his shorts and ripped off a strip of his underwear. By the speed in which he did it I could tell it was not the first time he had sacrificed his underwear. A little later we needed more string but somehow that guy had disappeared. Another man upon looking in his shorts realized that he must have had a good pair on or none at all because then he took a strip out of his son’s underwear instead. Everyone got a good laugh out of the whole ordeal.

I live in a world where this seems normal to me. I often judge the level of poverty in a community by how often the children eat. It is sad, but if the children are not malnourished then I consider that a middle class Shawi community. I have quickly become desensitized to extreme poverty. Many of my friends often skip meals, only have a couple of sets of clothes or can not afford soap.

Later after visiting some of their cacao fields one of the leaders pulled me aside and asked me a question.  “I know a man who lives in a nearby village, he is not a Christian, he is a drunk and is sexually immoral. He has a bunch of chickens and a pig. His children are not sick. He even told me that he eats three meals a day! I am trying to serve God yet my chickens die and my children are hungry and sick. Why would God bless him and not me?” This launched us into a long theological talk but what impacted me more was what that question revealed about the level of poverty here. Among the Shawi you are considered rich if you eat three meals a day and your children are healthy. I thought of my refrigerator back in Yurimaguas that sometimes doesn’t work when we fill it too full. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.

May God open our eyes to the needs around us. May we love are neighbors the way God has called us to do. The needy are all around us. In your everyday life the needs of your neighbor may look different then here in Peru, but there are needs none the less. Take the time to listen to those that are hurting. Spend time with those who are lonely. Encourage those in despair. Today let us love our neighbors.

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice Hospitality. -Romans 12:13