Thankful for the Bible

I received a beautiful email this morning from my father. In it he listed some of the the things for which he is thankful and one was the Bible. If I were to make a list of things that I am thankful for, shamefully, I am not sure I would have remembered to list the Bible. Later this morning I met with a Shawi pastor friend of mine and was reminded how thankful I am for the Bible.

He had been upriver for 10 days, visiting four remote villages, three of which were completely unreached with the gospel. He has a heart to visit the unreached villages and share the love of God with his neighbors. He receives invitations by the people to visit. They tell him, “We have heard of you Christians, that you live peaceful lives and do not fight, please come to our village and tell us more.” In most non-Christian villages, the people make masato, an alcoholic yucca drink. They drink it in excess and drunkenness is normal. The men are typically violent and physical and sexual abuse is commonplace. So when they hear of a village where the people live in peace they truly are curious and want to know more about it.

During the meeting the pastor told me all about his travels. In one community 25 people came to Christ, in another 20 and in the third 10. Then he told me the story of when his canoe rolled over.

We are in the rainy season and it has been raining a lot. The rivers rise fast, flow fast and can be dangerous. He was on a small flooded stream when his canoe rolled. This can be very dangerous and even deadly to the passengers not to mention everything can be lost down river. Thankfully no one was hurt when it rolled. Also thankfully he used a piece of rope to tie his motor to the canoe and after a change of oil and gas it was running again. At the bottom of the river he found his backpack of clothes and his tools. Yet he was missing his precious keyboard, a speaker he had borrowed, and the clothes from another pastor that was traveling with him. He always travels with his keyboard and plays worship music wherever he goes. The people love it because he sings in the Shawi language and the people understand. He loves his keyboard and had built a red wooden box to store it in while traveling. The box floated downriver and at a community farther down a fellow believer saw the box, recognized it as the pastor’s keyboard, and fished it out of the river. He then flagged him down when he passed and by the grace of God he got his keyboard back, unharmed. Even farther down river they found the other pastor’s clothes, but they never found the speaker.

He told me about the rest of his trip and then we began to discuss what is next. He kept saying, “There are so many needs and it is urgent that we help.” We talked about discipleship and church planting and how we can help these new believers. Then Jennifer asked, “Do they have a Bible?” “Not one,” he replied. Not in Spanish nor in Shawi.

We can not get any more Shawi Bibles. They are in the process of changing it because the Shawi alphabet has changed and they are revising the Bible. We bought all the rest of the first edition Bibles and they say they will not reprint until the revision and the remainder of the Bible is translated into Shawi which could take years. We only have five Bibles left. We can give a Bible to the village to share and we can give them a Spanish Bible.  We can work at getting them audio Bibles and a way to listen to them.  I just counted and I have 5 Bibles for my personal use sitting on my desk.

Today we had a nice Thanksgiving Day meal with the other missionaries here in town. We enjoyed fellowship and companionship with our missionary family. There is a lot for which to be thankful. Today, I am thankful for access to a Bible in my language that I can read and understand. 

I am thankful for the Bible. 

Your word is a lamp for my feet, 

a light on my path. 

Psalm 119:105

Yanayacu River Visit

I put together this short video from my most recent trip upriver. We visited 4 Shawi communities in 6 days. We had church service 5 times and Sunday School class with the children 3 times.  It was an amazing time of fellowship and they blessed us with large meals of turtle soup and offerings of sugar cane and pineapple. 
God is stirring up a desire for children's ministry among the churches of the Yanayacu River. The first church we visited had no children's ministry whatsoever. We were not there long when one of the young men came to me and told me he had a desire to teach the children. Then he asked me, "How do I teach the children?" He has a desire but has never seen children's ministry in his life; he has never attended Sunday School or Vacation Bible School or summer camp. He has no idea where to begin. 
In another community after the evening service three people came forward and said they wanted to start a children's ministry as well. God has placed this desire in their hearts and they see the importance of investing in the children, but again they have no training, no background and no idea how to start.
Please join us in praying for these brand new teachers. We believe that God is at work in the hearts and minds of these people and we are trying to figure out how we can be a part of the work and effectively encourage and equip these new teachers for the important task that God has called them to do. 

The Battle

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12

This is a verse in the Bible that most people know and have read. But have you really thought about it? Do you believe it? So many times we have struggles in this world and we see the difficulties. We see relationships failing and financial problems and marital difficulties but we are just seeing the physical manifestation of a much deeper problem. Our battle is not against people or political parties. Our battle is in the spiritual realm. This battle is hard to see when living in a first world country where we often rely on our physical comforts, but take those comforts away and we strip bare the deception of the enemy and begin to see the spiritual battle at hand.

I know that some of those reading this are not Christian and do not believe in the spiritual realm. Our culture teaches us to believe only what we see and experience. And we draw a distinct line between the spiritual world and the physical world. The truth is that that is a uniquely western culture point of view. The rest of the world does not draw a line between the two but views them as constantly blending and mixing. We see rain and believe it comes from a low pressure system. They see the rain and believe it is the hand of God. Both are truth. It is a low pressure system but something long ago set into motion a set of events that caused that system to be right over your location at that specific time.

On a recent trip upriver I visited the church of Jesus de Nazaret. It is remote location about two days’ travel from Yurimaguas by river. It is an active church with over 120 members because it is strategically located between two communities. They have a nearby heath clinic but it is poorly staffed and lacks basic medicine. Upon visiting I met a man with worms in his leg. He told me the mother worm lays eggs and the babies feed on the flesh and then eventually crawl out. He could barely walk and said already two worms have crawled out. I asked him if he visited the clinic and he said yes but they had no treatment for him. He said he knows many people with the same ailment and no hope of treatment. As a result, for generations the people have relied on the witch doctor. The witch doctor is powerful. He can heal and he can kill. This may seem unbelievable but it is real. He can enter the spiritual world and kill someone many miles away. It happens.

The witch doctor is rich. He charges for his power and charges a lot. The people are poor and barely have food to eat but will pay handsomely for the healing of the witch doctor. 

The church in Jesus de Nazaret

On the first night we had a beautiful church service. People walked from all around and even though it was an impromptu service on a Tuesday night over 100 people came. They didn’t fit in the small building and many had to stand outside. After worship and a message, a man approached the front of the church. He wanted to repent, saying that he had walked away from God. He repented to the whole church and declared that he wanted to return to God. Then he asked for prayer as he was sick and had a lot of pain. We prayed for him and then returned to worship. I was traveling with Pastor Alberto and he is a talented worship leader. Normally they listen to music on a USB for worship and the words are in Spanish and many do not understand. Alberto brought his keyboard which we hooked up to the generator and he began to sing in Shawi. As a result, all could understand, except me of course, and they did not want to stop worship. It went on for another hour after the message. Then the man returned back up front. He explained to all that he had been visiting the witch doctor. That was what he had been repenting of earlier in the evening. He had paid the witch doctor a large amount of money and had not received healing. Now he had returned to God and had received healing. During the prayer, all the pain left his body and he was healed. For the first time in months he was pain free. Everyone rejoiced giving praise to God.

The service ended and we finally crawled into bed around 11:30. Exhausted. But our night was just beginning. 

The house where we stayed the night

A few minutes later we heard a commotion and there was loud talking in the dark. Alberto said that a child was at the point of death and they were taking her to the church. We jumped out of bed and ran to the church to find a young girl around 10-years-old laying on a bench. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and was surrounded by the pastors and leaders of the church praying. I had no idea what was happening and wanted to ask but then I came to a realization. It is the middle of the night. We are in the middle of the jungle two days’ travel from mediocre health care. I have no health care experience. If I know her problem or not there is nothing I can do, except pray. So I joined the men and we prayed.

The screaming lasted about ten minutes and finally she fell asleep. The women kept sticking their fingers under her nose to feel for her breath. The men talked quietly. I asked Alberto what her problem was and he said it was something about her breath that I didn’t understand. Then he said, “It doesn’t matter, she is healed now.” I didn’t push him because he was right. It didn’t matter what was the problem. I have never felt so helpless and reliant on God.

In the states we would have called 911. She would have been rushed to the emergency room and hook up to meds and monitors. We might not even have prayed but trusted the medical system. It appears that God is not necessary.

But I would argue the opposite. God is necessary. The enemy’s greatest deception is to make us believe we are self reliant. We do our best to live in safety and comfort and to control the situations around us. We do not need God. But that is a lie. We are not in control. We do not know the date or hour of our death or even what tomorrow will bring.

We were a helpless people in the hands of a sovereign God.

God is our refuge and strength, not the government, not the church, not our friends or family, not the healthcare system and definitely not ourselves.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

Some of my new friends

 

My new friend Irma Luz with her pet monkey

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

Obstacles

I was headed for what I thought would be an easy journey. Relatively close compared to my last few trips, I was bound for Campo Verde, only an hour and a half in the back of a pickup truck and a three hour walk. I was planning on going in on Saturday and returning on Sunday.

It is hard to imagine that this type of trip seams normal to me these days. As we bumped along the rain soaked road passing through holes the size of a Volkswagen, I do not even bat an eye. I have traveled the road enough that it doesn’t scare me anymore so I enjoy watching the faces of the other 12 passengers standing in the back of the truck with me as we approach the bad parts of the road. I am amused to watch their eyes grow large and their jaws drop as the hold on for dear life. In one particularly bad part the driver made us get out and walk about a half mile as he was worried that the truck could roll over.

After an hour and a half, we arrived in the community of Nueva Yurimaguas. First we had to cross the Armanayacu River. It was flowing fast from some recent rains and the raft we had to cross on was nothing more then four logs loosely tied together. As a result, I stepped in the water up to my knee filling my rubber boots with water. What a great way to start a three-hour hike, with wet socks.  Little did I know that was only the beginning.

On the other side of the river we met up with Orlando, a Shawi pastor and our guide for the walk.

The first half of the walk was uneventful. Traipsing through the mud in dense jungle, passing trees as tall as 10 story buildings, breathing in the sweltering humidity. Then we came to a particularly difficult stream. It had a log across like most of the streams on the trail but this log was smaller then most and with my muddy boots I became worried. I asked Orlando how deep is the water and he replied, “not too deep.” Well I soon found out as I slipped and fell in. I don’t know what his definition of deep is, but I was glad I was close to the edge as I did not touch the bottom. The water was fresh and cool so beside the phone in my pocket I was no worse for wear.

As we continued on we came to a low lying area and the trail was flooded. “Only 300 yards,” said Orlando as we plunged into the knee deep water. He was correct but the problem was that at the end of 300 yards we came to a flooded stream. It had a log to cross but the log was under a foot of quickly flowing water. “Be careful, it is deep,” said Orlando. This worried me as I was still unsure of how deep is deep. After a short prayer I shuffled across and finally reached dry land.

Then Orlando said, “that was only a little water, the next one is much bigger.” And boy was he right. Soon we came to another section of knee to waist deep water that was at least a half mile long. The rest of the journey was more water than land but we finally arrived in Campo Verde.

The people welcomed us warmly and declared I was the first white person to ever visit their community. I had come to see their building project as they are constructing a new church. I had also come to get to know them better and encourage the believers.

Later that evening after church service I sat around with some of the men drinking chicha in the dark. We retold the story of the difficult walk and they all got a good laugh at the part when I fell in the water. Then we talked more metaphorically about the dangers of the journey and how every journey has obstacles. Some of the obstacles are put there by Satan to block our road but the obstacles always make us stronger. We discussed the story of Job and how God allows the obstacles in our life to strengthen our faith.

Sunday after church service they fed us a big meal and sent us on our way. The walk back to the road was worse as it had rained all night causing the waters to rise more and the rain continued during the walk. The three-hour walk felt like a whole day but finally we arrived in Nueva Yurimaguas. “I should be home for supper,” I thought but I was very wrong as my day was just beginning. We sat by the road and waited for a truck but there was no traffic on the road, a bad sign. After three hours of waiting a truck finally passed but it was full to capacity. We only had one option, stand on the back bumper and hang on for dear life. We arrived back at the particularly bad section and the driver told us to get out and walk. He said that the reason there was no other trucks on the road was because they could not pass this section but he was going to try it. He didn’t make it.

He somehow got stuck with one side so buried in mud that the tire on the other side did not even touch the ground. I don’t know how he didn’t roll it. The 16 passengers were soon pushing and shoveling and doing everything we could. At 9:00pm I gave up. We were only a few miles from the small town of Munichis and I know someone who lives there. I decided to walk to his house to see if I could spend the night. So there I was walking again in the deep mud but this time in the dark.  It gave me time to think and I could not help but think of what God said to Ananias about the conversion of Paul.  “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” Acts 9:16. I was hungry, wet, alone and exhausted, I was suffering for His name but there was no other place I would rather be.

I spent the night on the floor of my friend’s house with two other passengers that had came into town as well after me. At 6:00am I walked outside and just down the street I saw a truck, and not just any truck but the same truck from the night before. It was backed up to a house loading a pig. The driver explained that he had work almost all night in the mud to get the truck out. I was feeling bad because I had no more dry clothes and had slept in my muddy wet clothes from the day before but I felt better when I saw the driver. He was naked, except for his underwear. Covered in mud he had stripped and threw his clothes on the floor of the truck. His hair and face was still covered in mud. Most of the passengers had deserted him in the night so I was able to sit inside the truck for the ride back to Yurimaguas. After getting stuck twice more I finally arrived home at 8:00am, more than twelve hours late.

The point of this story is to encourage. I know that many reading this are facing obstacles as well, financial obstacles, work obstacles, health obstacles, family obstacles, addiction obstacles, faith obstacles. These obstacles are bigger than what we face here in Yurimaguas but you can overcome. There were times on my journey that I was suffering but I was joyful, filled with the knowledge that I was on the right path despite the obstacles. If you are suffering today, know that your obstacles will make you stronger. 

“Because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”  Romans 5:3-4