From Iquitos with Love

The apostle Paul said, "If I have not love, I am nothing." To those of you who have followed my work here and stood in the gap for us in prayer, I send my heartfelt thanks and brotherly love.
The Tigre trip wrapped up, Levi and I are in Iquitos looking for a site for the xtreme training that will take place here in May. The trip was mostly uneventful; we spent many days with absolutely nothing to do. We returned to Paiche Playa, where we stayed for the duration of the trip, and tried to pick up where we left off in our story track.
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For the first two weeks, we got nowhere. We offered repeatedly to tell stories to anyone willing to listen, but no one volunteered. It seemed to us that every time the people got together, they got drunk. The group we heard about that met together to pray and read the Bible did not exist, and the believer, Lapíz, who had fallen but once again returned to the faith, seemed once again to be on a down-hill slide.

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Lapíz and I working in the field

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Things began to turn around, however, during our third week when Lapíz asked us if we could meet together several times a day to pray for his community. We readily agreed, and from that day until just before we left, we met twice a day to pray and encourage one another. We quickly realized that Lapíz, who is not Quichua but has lived among them for many years, had valuable information about their culture that would help us find the best time to tell stories.
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The first evening we met, Lapíz had the idea of teaching the stories when they drink their concho, which is hot masato left over from the minga the day before (masato is a fermented drink made from cassava (yucca) which is always provided at a minga, a minga is a communal work held by a member of the community who provides the workers with plenty of masato and sometimes food). He also recommended that to get their attention, I bring the violin to the gathering that we had brought. The people had never seen a violin before, and always asked me to play. The next morning, we tried his idea, and it worked like a charm.
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I nearly lost a finger catching this guy.

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From that day on, we never missed a morning when they served concho. Interest gradually, began to fade once again, until a "curandero," which means healer, came down from a community up-river and stayed a week. We had met him before, he claims he was a Pentecostal pastor who fell into sin and now practices white magic to cure people in exchange for money, liquor, transportation, or whatever else he might need. He drank heavily inspiring the people to do likewise, told vulgar stories, and of course, "cured" people. While he was there, we found it almost impossible to continue our work.
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We did plant the seed, however, and Lapíz tells everyone how important it is that they give their lives to Jesus every chance he gets. Please continue to pray for Lapíz and the people of Paiche Playa.
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--At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ… that I may make it clear.
Colossians 4:3-4