Xtreme Home

2008-12-01T22:18:00.012-05:00

I have been in Texas for just over a month now. That's long enough to tell a hundred stories, and I still have hundreds more to tell! I have seen the Lord provide just what we needed when we needed it more times than I can count, whether it be a child knocking on our door with a plate of food after a long day with nothing to eat, a friendly voice calling out to us offering her house for us to stay in when passing through a place where we knew no one, or a kind word of encouragement during a hard day. The Lord is indeed a good Father. Whenever we showed up not knowing where to go or who to talk to, He always took us to the right place.

Have a bowl of masato!

To those of you who stood in the gap for us in prayer, thank you. I am proud to have served with you. Please continue praying for those who are still in the jungle, pressing on in the work. José and Enoc recently returned from a successful trip on the Unini River. At the end of the trip, the boys were forced to leave by a group that has always opposed outsiders entering Cascada. They say that leaving was so hard, that they do not want to go back.
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They were able to stay in Cascada for the duration of their trip, however, which is a huge step forward, as well as tell stories there, and baptize four new believers! One of these, a young single mother from Cascada named Dulce, has since faced persecution from her family, none of whom are believers. Her sister, Gaby, has also shown interest in the stories Jose and Enoc told, but their parents refuse to allow her to be baptized. Please remember these two young women in your prayers.

Gaby holding Dulce's son while her mother and sister make a traditional treat

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Please also remember Lapiz from Paiche Playa. He is now alone there with no other believers to encourage him and hold him accountable or help him witness to his neighbors. He is a recovering alcoholic in a place where fermented beverages are the only ones available. We are his only support, if we pray for him.

Lapiz

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Finally, a young man from Pucallpa who recently trained with us there, Nick, was in trouble with the law before he surrendered his life to Jesus just a few years ago. He has been brought back to court to face charges for which he had already been tried. He was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Obviously, his fiancee is devastated. Please pray for his release, his fiancee and her young boy, his physical needs while in prison (in Peru, a prisoner may have to pay for basic things), and that he would be a witness for the Lord while serving his time. Already, he has told several stories and has found a group of other believers.

Nick

These are only a few prayer needs that remain in the places where I worked. If you would like to know more, e-mail me, call me, or ask in person. I would be glad to tell you more. As for me, I plan to attend seminary starting in January and look forward to seeing where the Lord takes me next!
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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

From Iquitos with Love

2008-10-28T13:24:00.010-05:00

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.

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.

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

Changes

2008-08-24T13:25:00.006-05:00

Ever since a conversation I had with Jesús (the Chayahuita, not the Son of God) in February, I prayed that God would send Enoc, one of the Chayahuita who passed through our training, to join the team and take my place as Jose's partner. I knew the job was perfect for him. So, when we walked in the door of the house for the first time after our trip, I was overjoyed to find Enoc sitting on the couch. He had only come to help out with the training, but after some discussion we agreed that he should take my place.

Levi, Jose
Enoc, Javier

Levi, who has taken over the work on the Tigre, still needed a partner for his next trip, and since I have no other committments, I will join him. The four of us will teach the trainees for a week starting Thursday, and then head out for our respective assignments. We still have not worked out the details of our next trip, so I will post more information before we leave.

By the way, I have added a new feature to the blog. If you look to the left of the posts section, you will see lists of prayer requests and praises. I will update these lists whenever possible.
--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

Knocking Down Barriers

2008-08-18T16:19:00.008-05:00

So, we came back early. They did not run us out, however, and health had almost nothing to do with it. After reevaluating our situation, we decided it would be best to come back to Pucallpa so that José could renew his visa. It also seemed to be in the best interest of the work.
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That being said, this trip was hands down the hardest that I have yet taken. We told no stories, worked our hands raw (see picture), and still had excessive free time with nothing to do. We watched all of our friends drink themselves into a stupor during a festival that is popular in the jungle. I set a new personal record for making a fool of myself at other people's expense; though, by far the hardest part of the trip was the intense feelings of isolation. In spite of these difficulties, we did see the work advance, though slowly, and the Lord grew me more than ever before.
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In Cascada, after so many months visiting and working with the people there, they only recently have begun to realize that we are not like any of the other outsiders who have passed through and are starting to listen to us when we explain why. We told them many times before that our interests are to teach them the stories of the Bible in Asheninca so that they can know God and have an Asheninca church, but they did not listen. Now they have seen it with their own eyes. Mistrust and cultural stereotypes are the most difficult barriers between us and the people on this river. By working alongside them and letting them get to know us, we are slowly winning their confidence and, therefore, felt that the time has arrived to ask permission to enter once again. These advances encouraged us.
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All of the groups to which we had told stories, however, fell apart. The old man in Misión went to Atalaya for medical treatment, and the other two groups lost half their members to travel while the other half put us off week after week. We know that God works through a process and that "one sows and another reaps," so we did not worry. In this Jose and I were of the same mind. In just about everything else, though, we are so different that we only related to one another with much difficulty.
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With all of the things in life in which I find satisfaction taken away, and no one to relate to, I began to dispair. I have always found things that I really enjoy in each place that I have been. It is one of my keys to surviving in places far from home. This time, however, I found nothing and suffered. The last day, the Lord showed me why. I have always looked for my satisfaction and joy in whatever I could find: food, companionship, work, sports, or various forms of entertainment, but not in Him. In Him, I found peace, my purpose in life, and my source of guidance and wisdom, but not joy. I did not realize that fact until He stripped all of those insufficient sources of satisfaction away.
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I have been taught from a very early age to "rejoice in the Lord always" without really understanding how or why it is so important, so I ignored it. I wondered at how it would be possible to "rejoice in our sufferings," and always failed in my attempts to do so. Through these difficulties, however, the Lord taught me its importance, and began to teach me what it means to rejoice in Him. He said "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." If we truly rejoice in Him and He will never leave us, then our joy is never far away, nor out of reach.
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Many of you heard of our struggles, and committed to pray for us. I want you all to know that in spite of the difficulty, I knew you all were praying for me. I could see the effects in everything I said and did. I know my limits, and I passed them long ago. Words of encouragement and wisdom came out of my mouth that I cannot take credit for. Those of you who know me well, know that I say very little without having thought it out in advance, but on several occasions I gave voice to thoughts that had never before entered my head and then afterwards learned from them. Perhaps that is normal, but for me it is extraordinary.
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Please continue to pray for the Asheninca in Cascada, in Misión, and the other communities upriver. We knocked down a lot of barriers, but still have a long way to go. Also, thank God for the blessings He has provided for us through the people in Diamante Azul. They recieved us into their community and their homes and gave us everything we needed because we came in the name of the Lord. Pray that the Lord would bless them and open their eyes to see Him.

Sowing Seeds

--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

Last Trip

2008-06-07T18:23:00.009-05:00

José and I are once again in Atalaya for what should be my last and longest trip. God willing, we will leave tomorrow and not return until early to late October. Our mission is still the same: to reach the Asheninca of the upper Unini River in their own dialect. We will continue working on language and developing relationships hoping to be welcomed into a community up river where there is no access to the Gospel. Meanwhile, we hope to continue our storying with the large family in Diamante Azul with which we began on our last trip.

Please Continue to Pray:

That God will send us someone to introduce us in one or more of the communities up-river.
That as we will once again be dependent on the people to provide our food and shelter, God would provide.
That God would provide for our spiritual needs as well.
And finally, that we would proclaim the Word boldy!

Lastly, I thoroughly enjoyed having my parents come and visit. For more pictures of their trip, see my pictures website.

--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

The Ringing in My Ears

2008-05-16T11:56:00.005-05:00

As we rode in a crowded little car between two jungle towns, a familiar sound, made foreign by the time that had passed since I last heard it, broke the monotony of the trip. I honestly did not believe my ears, but I quickly looked around to see if I could find some clue as the source of that strangely familiar electronic chirping. "Is that ..." I thought, "a cellphone!?" It couldn't be. As the driver reached down and and looked at the little device I once thought so necessary, I slowly realized that I had not heard one all year. For that matter, the car we were riding in was the first I had seen in two and a half months. I still had not tasted beef or pork and was another week away from a face to face conversation in English since leaving for this last trip. Such is life in the jungle.

Praise God (and thanks for your prayers!):

We never heard anything else about the rumor.
The infection in my leg disappeared almost overnight.
We continued telling stories to our two groups and added a third in Cascada. All three got to at least the story of Abraham and Isaac.

We spent the remainder of our time in Diamante Azul much as we had spent the first part: weeding crops, clearing new fields, and planting corn and beans. We also did a little fishing (I actually speared one before falling out of the canoe!) and visiting soccer tournaments once in a while. José and I get along great, which is surprising considering that it would be hard to put together a pair of personalities more opposite than ours.

We arrived in Lima last Saturday, and have enjoyed all the comforts of a truly modern, if ugly, city. José left this morning with Leví, another Ecuadorian, to renew their visas, while I anxiously await the arrival of my parents tomorrow! We'll take a couple of weeks of vacation to see Peru: costa, sierra, and selva. Afterwards, I´ll meet with Joe and José in Pucallpa to discuss our next trip.

I'll have more info to post then, and hopefully new pictures. It seems that my camera finally gave up the battle against the very humid and sandy atmosphere here, and its cable is in Pucallpa anyway.

¡Dios les bendiga!

--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

Macaw Worm and Invitations

2008-04-14T18:28:00.004-05:00

José and I are in Atalaya for the night so that I can have an infection in my leg treated that was caused by a macaw worm. "What on earth is a macaw worm?" you might ask. I'm not really sure myself, except to say that it was about half an inch long and that they say it comes from a mosquito bite. Anyway, it seems to be healing fine.
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The good news is that we have been telling stories to a family in Diamante Azul every Sunday and another one in Misión Unini on Saturdays! Since I could not walk well because of the infection in my leg, José went to Misión alone this weekend where two women from an Asheninca community upriver called Shenontiari came to hear the story. Afterwards, they invited us to go to their community next week to tell another one! He also began telling stories to several different groups in Cascada and was invited to play soccer for Corintoni in a tournament in one of the other communities. After all this time, we are finally seeing the door crack open!
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A friend of ours who has a wife from Corintoni confided to José that a rumor is spreading in Corintoni that we are conspiring with our friend Luis Cushi Mariano to kill a woman with a knife. We are not sure when this rumor started or how, but if it was recently, it could cause us major problems upriver.
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Please intercede for us that:

This rumor would amount to nothing.
This infection would heal rapidly so that I can go with José to fulfill these invitations.
God would fill our mouths with praises for him and words of wisdom and love for the people.

Praise God for our invitations!

Sorry, no pictures to post yet. I'm sure that most of you would just as soon pass on any pictures related to the worm, anyhow.

Rejected

2008-03-05T11:03:00.002-05:00

Less than half an hour after speaking with the President of the indigenous ourganization representing Corintoni, the leader of the community himself arrived with several others from Corintoni to tell him that the people had had a meeting after inviting us to come back and decided that they did not want us to come. Though we are not surprised at the chnage of heart, it nonetheless hurts to look these people in the eye and know that they have rejected us, not because I personally feel rejected, but because in rejecting us as the royal ambassadors of the only living God, they have rejected their only means of salvation. Please continue to pray for these people with me, that they would once again have a change of heart.

In the meantime Jose and I are in the process of asking permission to return to Cascada where we hope to meet more Asheninca and hopefully visit their communities.

From Arequipa to Atalaya to the Asheninca

2008-02-29T14:38:00.012-05:00

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for Jose and me. By the time we finally had an opportunity to speak with the leader of Cascada, it was not worth the time to move. We found ways to do every thing we needed to from the abandoned house in Diamante Azul. After the first week or so, the Lord provided at least one meal a day everyday, which I am convinced is due in large part to your prayers. This trip is truly a testimony of God's provision and the power of prayer!
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When we arrived we did not know anybody in this area, which is known for not welcoming outsiders. Few people would even greet us as we passed by, and some even went out of their way to make us feel unwelcome. After three weeks, however, we had made many friends and nearly everybody would not greet us with a smile. We also learned many words and phrases in Asheninca, and the people in Cascada and Diamante Azul are mostly Asheninca by blood. In spite of all this, we also realized that this is not the area we want to reach. After decades of influence from the Spanish-speaking culture of Peru, most have adopted their language and have regular contact with believers.
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We heard from Joe that we needed to leave early because of a mudslide that shut down one of the main roads. Since we did not have an invitation to come back, we began to wonder what we would do for our return trip to the Unine. The day before we left, God answered our concerns. The leader of one of the communities upriver, Corientoni, which has a reputation for being hostile after rejecting the Adventist and Catholic missionaries at arrow point, passed through Diamante Azul while we were visiting with Luis Cushi Mariano, our "man of peace." Luis introduced us in Asheninca and explained that we would like to work and stay in Corientoni on our next trip. He agreed and invited us to come! Praise the Lord!
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Without a doubt the Lord guided us every step of the way while I had no clue how we would succeed.
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Prayer Requests:

The people of Corientoni would honor their invitation to us.
The Lord would provide us a man of peace in Corientoni.
Very few people in Corientoni speak Spanish, making communication difficult. Pray that God would teach our tongues to speak Asheninca (I know, this is the third time I have requested this for a new indigenous language).
Jose loves to talk and has never been in an environment in which he cannot communicate. Pray that the Lord would give him peace and comfort during this trip.
Pray that we would proclaim the Word boldly!

Praises:

We have an invitation to a community that is difficult to reach!
The Lord provided everything we needed on our last trip.
We had an amazing week of testimonies and fellowship with all of the members of the xtreme team at our general meeting in Arequipa.

Leaving Atalaya

2008-01-22T21:06:00.000-05:00

Contact with the Rio Unini is looking good! We arrived yesterday and with the few names of people who might be helpful, have secured permission and transportation to a community on the Unini called Diamante Azul. We met the president of the local indigenous organization today. He is on his way to a neighboring community this afternoon and we will meet him there to get the documents that should help us gain entrance into the community. He is from Diamante Azul and still has a house there that he offered to us. All of this should make for a smooth first contact! Please continue praying for the other requests mentioned in my previous post; we're still just getting started.

From Jeff's parents:
Jeff started this update on January 14,2008 but didn't have the opportunity to post it before leaving. We spoke with him this morning. Diamante Azul is a colony instead of the indigenous community they were expecting. He and Jose are staying in an abandoned house in Azul and make a fifteen minute walk to Cascada, a nearby an indigenous communiity, where they are making contacts and hoping for permission to live. Cascada had an election of a new president yesterday who seems to be more in favor of them staying. They have been visiting with a local man, Luis, who has been very open and receptive. However, he has a small house and seven children which would make it difficult for them to stay with him. If they are unable to stay with a local family they may continue to walk there each day. This is not ideal as they will not be able to share a home and meals while they work beside the local people.

Please pray:
for Jeff and Jose to receive permission to stay in Cascada
a family to stay with in Cascada
a steady supply of food

To the Unini!

2007-12-31T17:43:00.000-05:00

Out with the old, in with the new! To kick off the New Year, I have got a new partner and a new assignment. Corey and his new partner, Fausto, will continue the work we started on the Tigre, while José and I take on a group of Asheninca who live on or near the Unini River. The change came as an unexpected surprise when José and Fausto, two Ecuadorians who just finished training, decided to stay on the team.

That being said, José and I will hopefully leave sometime this week. It will be another short trip since we have to be back for our Xtreme General Meeting (XGM) at the end of February. We will take a lancha to Atalaya and look for contacts and a way up the Unini from there.

Prayer Requests:

Please pray that God will send us someone to introduce us in one or more of the communities there and that we find acceptance among the people.
We have no way of choosing a specific community until we arrive in Atalaya, so pray that God would guide us to the people He has been preparing.
Also, we will once again be dependent on the people to provide our food and shelter.
Finally, staying for long periods of time where there are no other believers can be spiritually taxing. Please pray that God would provide for our spiritual needs as well.

--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

Ok, This is What Happened

2007-12-19T15:38:00.002-05:00

The lancha finally left for Intuto, where we spent the next 8 days waiting for another one that would take us further up-river. By the time the boat finally arrived, we were about stir-crazy. We had been travelling 25 days, waiting to share the stories that were burning in our hearts with people who had never heard. We had decided to go to Paiche Playa, because all of our sources said that there had never been anyone there to share the good news. After so much waiting and praying, the last day of the trip seemed surreal. Would the apu (chief, more or less) reject us? Would we find a "man of peace" to share his home with us? Would we see a whole community come to Christ with joyful celebration like what we had heard about in other places?

All of these questions raced through our minds as we stepped off the boat. Some friendly people from the lancha offered to help us carry our bags, but we politely turned them down. A man from the community approached us. "This is it," I thought. "This is the moment we've been waiting for and training for for so long." Before either of us could say anything, however, one of the men from the boat quickly explained for us that we were missionaries and were going to stay there for a month. My eyes, I am sure, turned into saucers. I just knew that this man's bluntness would get us rejected. One of us quickly explained that we would like to speak with the apu to ask permission.

"The apu went out to tend his crops," the man told us, "but you can stay in Giovani's house until he comes back." He showed us the way and introduced us to Giovani, who had recently cut himself in the foot with a machete and couldn't go out to his crops. We settled down in a corner to wait as the pressure slowly lifted off of us for the time being. We tried to occupy ourselves for the rest of the afternoon while watching Giovani whittle some paddles out of boards that he had laying around.

Carlos (who met us at the boat) and Giovani

As the sun was setting, the people began returning from their fields, so we set off to find the apu. He greeted us in the darkness as we climbed the steps to his house. We sat down and explained why we had come and how long we planned to stay. "That's great," he said. "We've been waiting for someone to come and preach to us. All of the other preachers always just pass by on their way up river."

I couldn't believe my ears! They had been waiting for someone to come and preach to them! It seemed like a dream come true. The next morning they had a community meeting, and at the end we explained to everyone why we were there. They decided to have meetings 4 times a week to learn stories, starting the next day. They also decided that we should continue staying at Giovani's house and have the meetings there.

About thirty people showed up for the first two stories. After that, interest began to fade. One week, no one showed up. Then, we had a handful renew interest, and went the last two weeks without telling a single story. We left Paiche Playa December 1 a bit frustrated that we could not tell all of the stories we wanted to, but nonetheless hopeful for our next trip. We found what appears to be good soil. Blessed be the Lord of the harvest!

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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

Post Paiche Playa Prayer Petitions

2007-12-14T12:35:00.000-05:00

Look for a more complete update soon!

Prayers Answered:

Upon arrival in Paiche Playa, a well respected man named Giovani welcomed us into his home and fed us until we left. Praise God for His "man of peace!"

We found churches in 6 of the 12 TQ communities!

Nearly all of the TQ´s speak Spanish as well as either of us, which means they were able to understand our stories without waiting for us to learn their dialect.

We survived our trip without any major illnesses or injuries.

Prayer Requests:

The people of Paiche Playa live their lives enslaved to alcohol and materialism. Pray that God would break the hold these desires have on them.

Carlos and Giovani showed up and actively participated in all of our stories. Pray that God would grow the seed that was planted.

Some of the existing churches on the Tigre mistrust each other and fight over territory spreading a bad testimony among unbelievers. Pray that these believers would open the lines of communication and humbly seek to work together in love to reach their communities.

Our future plans are still very unclear. Pray that God would grant us the foresight to know how we can best serve Him.

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

Waiting in Iquitos

2007-10-19T14:45:00.000-05:00

We´ve made it as far as Iquitos, but are waiting for a launch to take us to the Rio Tigre. One of the first things we did when we arrived Sunday was to check the port to find out when the boat would leave. They said Tuesday at 7:00pm. Tuesday afternoon we decided it would be a good idea to check again before we showed up with our luggage after dark. They said tomorrow (Wed.) at 7:30pm. We checked again Wednesday, and once again they told us tomorrow at 6:30pm. By now we were starting to catch on.

Yesterday, we got a good rainforest soaking all afternoon and decided that there was no way the boat would be ready. Nonetheless, we thought it wise to check. We walked to the boat in the rain, and they told us it would leave "today, without fail." Finally we were leaving! We got our stuff ready, went down to the boat, and hung our hammocks. Corey went out and bought some water for the trip, and we settled in. Thirty minutes later, they told us tomorrow at 7:00pm.

So, your guess is as good as mine as to when we will leave. The good news is that we are both in good health (thanks for all of your prayers) and have all of our Christmas shopping done!

Moving to Pucallpa

2007-10-03T21:30:00.001-05:00

Corey, Jesús, and I returned to Puerto Maldonado Saturday and have hardly had a moment to rest since (see my flickr site for pictures). I was informed on arriving that I am now on a new team based in Pucallpa. Corey is also on the new team and has already begun the process of moving. Corey will be my partner most likely for the rest of his term. In that time barring complete rejection by the people, we will live and work among the Tigre Quichua. Corey has already made one trip to the Rio Tigre where they live to form relationships and begin learning the language. We have moved into our new house in Pucallpa and will leave in a few days for a two month stay amongst them to learn language and tell stories leading to salvation.

The Quichua people are descendants of the Incas who now live in Ecuador, but this group left the mountains and moved into the jungle on the Tigre River in Peru many years ago. They now speak their own dialect of Quichua, which we will hopefully be able to speak well enough to converse and tell stories within six months. Few speak Spanish, and the Quichua Bible they have is written in a different dialect making it difficult to understand. There are a few Spanish-speaking churches downriver, but little is being done in their language.

Prayer Requests:
· Corey and I would find men of peace to welcome us into their homes.
· God would open the hearts of the people to receive His Word and strengthen the people to overcome the grip of alcoholism and shamanism.
· God would grant us the Quichua tongue so that we can begin telling stories in their language as soon as possible
· Local believers who will partner with us to reach this group.
· We have to wait for some minor health issues to clear up before we can head out (my infected toe, intestinal infection)

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

Exploring the Chayahuita Territory

2007-10-03T19:42:00.000-05:00

That´s Los Angeles in the background

We visisted many Chayahuita villages on this last trip and were pleased to discover many churches. We spent most of the trip, therefore, encouraging the believers and telling stories. Of course, so many belivers rules out the possibility of an xtreme engagement, but we did find opportunities for Jesús and his team of Chayahuita missionaries. Please keep them in your prayers.

Us and the people of Miraflor

Chayahuita Part 2

2007-08-12T14:08:00.000-05:00

After three weeks of doing odds and ends in Puerto Maldonado, we are finally on our way to Nueva Vida again! Corey and I (Graham is currently in training in Pto. Maldonado) should arrive their in a few days to gather more information about the Chayahuita and help them in anyway that we can. I have updated my blog and picture sites with accounts of my last trips.

Here is how you can pray for us:
-The Chayahuita missionary movement
Many Chayahuita want to take the gospel to their people and other people groups similar to their own. Some are currently in training in Pto. Maldonado while others will learn by example with Jesús. Pray that God would send these new missionaries to people ready to accept a new life in Christ.

-Our health
On our last trip, we were delayed in the work by illness. Please pray that we stay healthy enough to do the work God has prepared for us.

-Praise God: Jesús has shared with us that the people he and his co-laborers have begun forming a church in he trips they have made since we left them!

Taken on the road to Tarapoto from Lima

Samán

2007-07-27T11:16:00.000-05:00

Since there was no room on the plane Jeremy and Susan took from Lima to Pucallpa, Graham and I took the first one out the next day. That same day we all got on a launch bound for Iquitos on the Ucayali River that would stop in Samán. On the launch, we found our place and strung up our hammocks for the three day voyage. In Samán, we met with two men who had been through our training the session before mine, and taught classes on storying and Biblical churches. Although the teachings challenged them, they received them well.

The Saturday after we arrived, a few of the men and I went out into the country to gather some leaves for a local dish they were preparing. On the way we met a man in a motocar. Javier, one of the guys I was with, stopped to talk to him. He asked me if I wanted to play soccer later that afternoon. I told them I was not very good, but would be willing to play. He then asked me for 5 soles (about $1.50) and wrote my name on a clipboard, which I thought was strange for a pick-up game. After collecting the leaves, we met several soccer players in jerseys and cleats heading for the soccer field. I asked Javier who they were. He told me they were with the club I was going to play against.

"A club! You signed me up to play with a club! I barely know how to play!" I said. He groaned and apologized while I made up my mind I just would not show up. We arrived at the place Jeremy and Susan were staying, and watched as a steady stream of people passed by heading for the soccer field. Their host told me they were all going to watch me play! I asked him how he knew, and he told me they had made an announcement in the center of town!

Well, could not just not go if the entire town knew about it, but I did not even have any shoes to wear. All I had brought were sandals, and nobody sold shoes in my size. We tossed around a few options, decided I had to go, and hoped for the best. We arrived about halftime (I had been in no hurry while deliberating what to do). They gave me a jersey and shorts, but none of their shoes would even come up over my heel. I thought I was off the hook until a boy rode up on a bicycle with a pair of cleats I could just squeeze into.

So, I went to the sideline and awaited the moment of my humiliation. The coach said he would put me in for the last twenty minutes, which is what they do with their star players. I streched, tried to learn by watching the various positions, and prayed. Finally, the ref blew his whistle, and the players started to walk off the field.

"What´s going on?" I asked. The coach told me the game was over; they had tied. So I did not have to play! I did not even try to hide my relief. They apologized, explained that there was a mix-up, and promised I would get the chance the next week. The next week was election week-end, and since voting is mandatory in Peru, everyone had to travel to one of the voting towns. No one was around, therefore, to play. What a shame!

The week we were supposed to leave Samán, both Pucallpa and Iquitos went on strike, so there were no launches. We only had to wait a few days, however, and traveled back to Lima. In Lima we learned that Cusco went on strike, which held us up for a few more days since we had to pass through there to get back to Pto. Maldonado.

Teaching through stories

Nueva Vida

2007-07-23T20:35:00.000-05:00

The trip was only two months altogether, but the effects will last a lifetime. The final leg of our journey to Nueva Vida was as I had feared, grueling. We spent 40 solid hours in crowded canoes, one about 50 ft. long and the other closer to 30, accompanied by the constant drone of their un-muffled engines in pouring rain and blazing sun. Nonetheless, our excitement and high hopes for our stay in Jesús hometown buoyed our spirits.

We arrived at midnight and were warmly welcomed before quickly going to bed. The next day, we saw for the first time the natural beauty of this place which would keep us in constant awe throughout our stay.

Jesús took Graham and me around to meet the rest of the village that evening. As we walked from hut to hut, I felt like I was in a dream. We greeted them in the broken Chayahuita Jesús had just taught us and drank their masato (which was hard to swallow to say the least) while Jesús talked about us and the training in Pto. Maldonado. Everyone was excited and fascinated by the two gringos. They had seen gringos before, but they rarely had spoke to them in their language and never drank their masato. The only words I understood that these smiling people said were the greeting and a few Spanish words they used that were lacking in their language, but their joy was written all over their faces. Graham and I went to bed that night so excited we could hardly sleep!

When we woke up, we noticed the men heading towards the center of the village with machetes, and I asked Jesús where they were going. "It´s community work day," he told me.

"Well, can we help?" I asked.
"I guess if you want to..." he replied.

It was clear that as far as they were concerned we were their guests and were not in the least expected to work. We wanted to help out in whatever way we could, so we put on our rubber boots and headed out. All of the men were in a line stretching all the way across the village to cut the grass. Some had started to work, so we took our positions and started cutting. After a few moments, I realized that it was very quiet for a work day. I looked up and saw that every single man there had stopped to watch Graham and I work!

Graham was still hacking away and I said, "Graham, If you don´t like being the center of attention, don´t look up." He didn´t. I later asked Jesús if they had ever seen gringos working with them before. He grinned from ear to ear and said, "Never!"

After a few days, Graham contracted one of the tropical illnesses we were to face, delaying our plans to take some of the Chayahuita young men on a trip to another community. We spent all of that week in our room. He was too sick to leave, and I could not leave him to go work with the men. It became obvious that there often was not enough food to go around. We felt worthless, and it weighed on us heavily that we could not contribute anything.

That weekend two men died of malaria. One was a teenager, and the other an older man who had helped found the town. We visited the families Saturday, and buried the older man Sunday morning. I had chills when I went to bed that night.

I woke up with a headache and a fever. The man in the clinic tested my blood and told me I had malaria. I had never before so directly faced my own mortality. We decided it was time to leave Nueva Vida. Even if the disease was not so serious, we would only continue to postpone the work that our Chayahuita brothers wanted to do. I told Jesús we needed to leave and why, but he told us no boats would be able to leave until it rained and the river rose.

So we prayed for rain. It rained all night long, and we woke up sure that we would be leaving that day. The river did indeed rise, but the entire city of Yurimaguas, which was our destination, was on strike. No one had any reason to go down river, and even if they did, we would not find the help we needed. They could not even buy food there.

So we prayed for the strike to end. The next day they told us it was over, but there was no one going downriver. So we prayed for someone to take us downriver. Later that day, Jesús told us a man wanted to go, but had no boat. So we prayed for a boat. Finally, the next day everything lined up and we left.

Through it all, God spoke to me and revealed things I will never forget. In spite of our illnesses, we were able to encourage Jesús in his plans (he has since visited two communities and reports the start of a new church) and collect valuable information for later trips.

We met Jeremy and Susan in Lima a few days later. They were leaving for Samán later that day, and asked if we were well enough to go. Within 24 hours, we were off again for the next adventure.
(For a daily account of this trip, see Graham´s Blog)

In Yurimaguas

2007-05-29T14:06:00.000-05:00

Graham and I have finally arrived in Yurimaguas! The bad news is that we now have to wait on a boat to Nueva Vida. At least we have internet here. The bus ride from Lima to Tarapoto took 33 hours, which got us there at 3:00 in the morning. We waited until 6:00 for an overloaded pickup truck to take us to Yurimaguas and arrived at 10:00 (it would have been sooner, but we had some issues with the suspension, which they repaired with some rubber tubbing and a stick). We are staying with some friends of Jesús here in Yurimaguas, and hopefully will leave tomorrow morning, God willing!

Chayahuita Trip

2007-05-24T22:57:00.000-05:00

Graham and I will head out today at 6:00pm for Yurimaguas, which is in the province of Loreto in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, and from there up-river two days on the Paranapura to Jesús´ home town of Nueva Vida. They said that the bus ride will take 30 hours, but that usually means in the best conditions assuming nothing goes wrong. Needless to say, we´re expecting a longer trip than that. In Yurimaguas we will meet a pastor friend of Jesús who will show us which boat to get on.

Our records show the Chayahuita to be 10-12% evangelized, which matches Jesús description of life there. Our team usually only focuses on groups that are less than 2%, but our purpose is a bit different for this trip. Our job is to support Jesús train other Chayahuita young men to take the gospel to areas of their own culture and surrounding cousin cultures and how to plant churches. While there, we will also investigate the area for groups that we might engage in the future.

Between the three of us, Graham, Jesús, and I, our experience is limited to our training and trips to Jorge Chavez. The task, therefore, seems a bit overwhelming, but nonetheless seems like a great first assignment. The community there will probably be very supportive of us and teach Graham and I much more in depth how to live in the "selva."

There have been missionaries among the Chayahuita for several decades, which means the people will have many expectations that may make our work more difficult such as that we will be there to preach to their churches, build them churches or other buildings, or give them material things. Since that is not our purpose, the first impression will be very important. Please be praying for this. Also, our understanding of Biblical church could clash with theirs. Please pray for this also.

Jesús working on top to the casa de hombres

Xtreme Training Summary

2007-05-24T22:55:00.000-05:00

February 19, we woke up at the crack of dawn, shouldered our packs and headed down the road for our 26km march to the camp that would be our new home. I had stayed up late the night before packing my gear, no surprise to those who know me. We carried all of the gear we would need along with a week´s worth of food, probably the most I´ve had to carry on a march such as this.

We arrived mid-afternoon to what was little more than an overgrown banana field with a mud-hole in the middle, exhausted and craving lunch. The grass was at least three feet tall, so before we could eat we first had to clear out places for our tents and fires with our machettes. Then we could look for firewood and begin the process of starting a fire to cook on.

We finally ate supper sometime after dark, and went to bed immediately afterwards. That is, immediately after we set up our tents and situated our gear. The next morning we once again woke up at dawn for exercise! This consisted of a two mile run, push-ups, and sit-ups.

That more or less set the pace for the next month and a half of training. We exercised every Mon., Wed., Fri. at 6:00am and spent the rest of the mornings doing manual labor such as clearing land by machette or building our houses out of materials we took from the forest. For this we had the instruction of Manuel, a Harakumbet man who had worked with the team before in his home village, Bocanambari. In the afternoons, we had class with Jeremy. In our classes we learned about worldview, medicine, and storying.

On the weekends starting the second week, we went to various communities in the area in pairs to tell the stories we were learning and to learn about culture from them. After about a month and a half, we went for a full week to our communities. My partner was originally Alex, a fifteen year-old son of a missionary who was also in training with us, but he left the week before our long trip to the community and never came back. From that point on, I worked with Jesús. Jesús is Chayahuita from the northern province of Loreto, which consists almost entirely of Amazon rainforest.

For the last month, we focused heavily on memorizing stories, the early church, and how to plant Biblical churches. We also had Alfonso, an older man who suffers from various disabilities, teach us how to make hammocks during the last week of training so that those who do not have the financial support of churches can support their own ministries. It also gave Alfonso, who had felt useless for years, a purpose within the kingdom of God. Many of the guys learned the trade very quickly.

During this last month, all of the Yine realized that they needed to be baptized. So, we went down to the Río Tambopata and in front of the whole team in Puerto as well as some local men who were waiting for a boat, and baptized them all. Jeremy and Corey baptized Edgar who then baptized his brothers and sister in Christ, each one helping those who followed.

We also learned some hard lessons about how the church should function when the same Yine disobeyed the rules and slipped off to town in the middle of the night. Later, some money came up missing, and one of the Yine confessed to stealing it. Through the very painful process of dealing with these issues, the lessons of the Bible came alive to us in a very real way. Please pray for this group as they deal with these temptations that are ingrained in their culture.

Monday, May 14, we walked back to camp by a shorter route, 12km without packs, took our written, oral, and physical tests, and celebrated our graduation the next day. Praise the Lord, we can finally move on!

Finally Finished!

2007-05-18T15:20:00.000-05:00

Our training in the wilderness now finished, we we have returned from our camp 12km outside of town and are now enjoying such conveniences as electricity, running water (most of the time), walls, toilets, restaurants, and a kitchen. I included kitchen in that list even though we technically had one:

All these luxuries, however, do come at a cost. We watched our friends, many of whom we had been with since arriving, take off Wednesday for their various communities. Life here just isn´t the same without my hermanos, especially the Yine; however, as Edgar, one of the best friends I have from this training, said, this is not a time to be sad. We each have our work ahead of us:

-The Yine plan to work through the schools in their communities to teach the stories of the Bible and what a Biblical church looks like;
-Caleb has a vision to plant churches among his people, Quechua, first in Sicuani and then in the surrounding countryside;
-Vicente plans to plant churches in his hometown of Arequipa;
-María is staying to work with the women´s team;
-Corey will leave next week for Rio Tigre to investigate the Tigre Quichua people that he and Levi will work with for probably their entire terms with the team;
-Levi is returning to his home in Quito, Ecuador to raise funds for the term he will spend with the team.

As for me and Jesús, we will train young men among his people, the Chayahuitas, how to be missionaries among their own people and groups with similar cultures! He left Wed., and Graham, a journeyman fresh from the states, and I will leave next week. Look for more details of that trip and a more complete summary of training in later blogs. May God bless the work that He has given us!

Puerto Maldonado

2007-03-24T19:59:00.000-05:00

Since Jeff is still in the jungle without computer access, he's asked us (his parents) to update his blog from the letters we receive. He writes:

March 13, 2007
We have just started the third week of training and yes, I can receive letters and packages, so please send them. It actually seems strange to think in English again. All of our communication is in Spanish (5 push-ups for every English word). Once again, there is so much to tell, I don't even know were to start.
We are living in the jungle 12 kilometers from Puerto Maldonado in tents. Hopefully that should change in a few weeks. We are in the process of building our houses. The first is a big community house we've been working on for a week or so, but we've still got a lot of work to do on it before we can start the houses we will live in. I am really looking forward to getting those built, because it rains often, and there are few dry spots. By few, I mean one, and that is my backpack covered by my pancho. The work is hard; we can't go to the lumber yard and buy materials. First, we go into the "monte", which is basically the word for wilderness, and find trees to use for the frame. We chop those down using axes and machetes and carry them back through the mud to the construction site. Some of these are 6 & 7 inches in diameter, no easy task. Then, we dig holes for them with our machetes (36 holes so far) and attach the poles or logs together with nails and with rope made from the bark of one of the trees here. Then, we search for the right type of leaves for the roof, chop down these trees and carry the leaves back, which weigh a lot. I was given 8 to carry back and couldn't do it. I have no idea what the process looks like for making these into a roof, because we haven't done it yet. There are several steps after this I have yet to learn and I forgot to mention clearing the ground before hand by machete (no lawn mowers here). We put in the floor to the house today. We cut down 6 or 7 of the trees we used for the frame, the big ones 6-7 inches in diameter, and, I'm not sure how to describe this process, but split them down the middle with an axe, not all the way through, just enough to crack it. We did this over and over until it was basically in strips all connected and then spread it out flat. After striping out the pulp, we carried them back and laid them on the frame we made yesterday.

We cook all of our meals over an open fire, which means we have to start it for every meal and are constantly looking for firewood. I have learned to start a fire with wet wood. We get 50 soles (3.19 soles = 1 dollar) for each group of four for more or less a week. There is not really a schedule for this but once a week or so, two from each group go to the market in Puerto to buy groceries. 50 soles is cheap even here, so we stick mostly to the basics: rice, beans, potatoes, eggs, powdered milk, onion, tomatoes, salt and sugar. We could buy other things, but with the money we have and no refrigerator, that is usually about it. We’ve not eaten monkey yet, but we did kill and eat a snake a few nights ago. It didn’t have much meat, but it was all the meat we’ve had since we got here. We all agreed it was pretty good.

We have started going out to communities. My partner (we go in pairs) Alex, is 15. He's the son of a missionary who has been in Peru for 2 years, and they are both going through training together. The name of our community is Jorge Chavez. There are 36 families who work in their fields near a creek that runs through the area. They grow rice and castanas, which is a brazil nut. It is a mestizo community, which means the people are a mixture of different places and have little native influence in their culture.
We have only gone once and will go back for 2 or 3 day every weekend and once or twice for a week. We started at 9:00am Friday, walked into town because all the cars used for public transportation were full. We then took a boat across the Tambopata River and walked to the community. By the time we arrived, it was 5:30pm because we just missed the boat to cross the river and had to wait three and a half hours for the next one. When we finally arrived, we asked for the president because we are always supposed to ask permission before we stay in a community. They told us he lived back down the road we had just traveled about a kilometer or so. When we got to his house, he wasn't there, so we waited another 2 hours or so. By this time it was dark, and we were not going to find another family to stay with. He agreed to let us stay with him and his family. We talked with him for a few hours, and the next day went with him to the community meeting. We explained that we are training to be missionaries and would like their help, as we had been instructed to say. We had to assure them that were not here to preach to them; only as students to learn and work alongside them. They agreed and a woman named Rosa Barrientos volunteered to allow us to stay with her family. We stayed around for a part of the rest of the meeting and returned. Altogether, I figure we walked about 27 kilometers. I hope the next trip will be as successful as the first; I am really looking forward to going back.

The bugs are not too bad here. There are a lot of flies in the area near the road where we cook, and tiny gnats that bite, but not many mosquitoes. Farther back where our house will be, there are few flies, but lost of mosquitoes. It’s kind of like our backyard at dusk. They say that the girl’s camp is a lot worse as far as the bugs are concerned. We didn’t have a whole lot of sympathy for them because they also say they have so many fruit trees that it is like they’re living in the Garden of Eden. They also have houses already built. We have some banana trees without ripe bananas and a fruit they call pijuayo. It is small and red and not sweet at all, but its not bad when boiled.

A week has passed and we went back to Jorge Chavez and stayed with Rosa Barrientos’ family. We told the president we would be there early, so we woke up at 4:30 and ended up walking again. They live on a farm not much different from what you would find in the States, but much more rustic. They have pigs, cows, chickens, and ducks, grow yucca and rice in their fields. They also cultivate castanas, but I’m not sure how this is done. We worked in the field pulling weeds by hand both days alongside their hired workers, Daniel and Raul, who live with them on the farm. Senor Barrientos, who we have yet to meet, was in Cusco, and his sons, Alein and another whose name I don’t know, worked in another field. They have a TV and a light that ran on a battery charged by a solar panel, which is very expensive. They also have a daughter who has a son.
I told the story of the creation to Daniel, who was not much interested. These stories are how we teach people about God, but it is hard to compete with the TV and radio in this house. While we were there, they killed a pig to sell in the market. When we left, Rosa gave us a sack of yucca and some lemons. We were very impressed by how kind and generous they are.

I appreciate all your prayers and ask you would pray for the following:
-For our health – I couldn’t even count the number of times I’ve been hurt and it healed rapidly. By hurt, I mean cuts and blisters; nothing serious yet.
-Life can be hard here and it is easy to get depressed. We all get tired of being wet, constantly walking through the mud, the bugs, and just working hard everyday, eating the same things.
-That the communities we visit will be blessed because of us. Pray that our stories and manner of living would touch their hearts.
-Continue to pray for our relationships within the team. We have had our share of cultural and personal clashes, but so far we’ve been able to work them all out.
-Patience and dedication to learn.

The names of those in training: Edgar, Levi, Alex, Vincente, Martin, Alex, Corey, Marshall Caleb, Jesus. Lucio, Arminda, Marili and Maria.

Made it!

2007-01-19T15:02:00.000-05:00

After 50+ hours in airports and planes, I finally made it to Puerto Maldonado, Peru at 12:30 today. It really should have been much less, but I forgot that in Atlanta, my watch was an hour behind. So, I missed my flight, and there is only one per day. That was the only hitch I had. Customs was a breeze, and I didn´t lose any luggage.

FYI: it is hot and humid, we are on Eastern Standard Time, and everyone rides motorcycles. I have discovered this while on my first assignment here, which is to do various tasks to become more familiar with the town.

Later today, I will meet the family that I will stay with before and during training, which starts in a few weeks and move in. I still don´t have much information about the training.

Please pray:
-For the relationships within the team and with our hosts
-We would be quick learners of the language and methods the team uses
-That our prayer lives and scripture knowledge would deepen so that we can effectively model it for new believers
-God would begin raising up laborers among the harvest so that the work will continue after we have gone

Thank you for your prayers concerning my travel. In spite of the long stays in airports, I was able to maintain a postive attitude and met several people who I hope were positively influenced by the encounter. Please continue to remember us in your prayers even though I will be out of touch for up to four months.

Training

2007-01-15T11:29:00.000-05:00

The following is taken from the xtreme team website describing the training I will start in just a few days.

Every new arrival to the Xtreme Team goes through four months of training at our Xtreme training camp. No cushy facilities here, we simply rent some acres of jungle alongside a river and pitch our tents. The first month is dedicated to learning Spanish, because our Latin missionaries arrive the second month and all classes are taught in Spanish from that point on. We teach indigenous missions strategies, church-planting, orality, Chronological Bible Storytelling, how to live in an indigenous community, first-aid, and camp-cooking. However, our focus is on prayer and building up the Body of Christ, for how can we teach these things if we don't first learn and practice them for ourselves? After training, each new Xtremer is assigned a team and people group whom they will engage for remainder of their term while working under the guidance of a strategy coordinator.

The training is difficult and long, but the Xtremers leave ready to begin an even more difficult work and function as part of the Body of Christ.

Truck for Sale

2007-01-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

If anyone is interested in buying a '97 Chevy, I've got one for sale. You can read all about it in my ad. Just click here.

Leaving for Peru!

2007-01-13T14:32:00.000-05:00

The day is almost here! I leave Wednesday morning for Lima, Peru. When I arrive late that night, one of my supervisors, Jeremy, will pick me up at the airport, and early the next morning we will go to Puerto Maldonado where my training will start. For the next three or four months, he said that I will be “at his disposal,” away from phones, computers, and post offices and therefore out of contact.

Please pray that:
~my trip goes as planned so that we can start training as soon as possible.
~we would find the groups of people who need to hear the message we bring
~God would raise men/women of peace who will welcome us into their communities
~more latins would be willing to train to do the job that we do
~my truck would sell

FPO Summary

2007-01-12T18:32:00.000-05:00

I left Texas Oct. 24 for the Field Personnel Orientation (FPO) in Rockville, Virginia. While there, I met hundreds of great people, learned new methods of evangelism and discipleship, and gained a new perspective on the goals and functions of the IMB. Every week, we met in small groups of about 10 (not including children) for worship on Sunday mornings and during the week as well.

You can see pictures of the families in my small group on my pictures page. Most days we had five or six hours of lecture style sessions, including some Saturdays. It took a lot of coffee, but I made it through. Subjects ranged from Church Planting Movements, medical and legal advice, spiritual warfare (Jerry Rankin), and the Persecuted Church (Ken Perkins).

Overall, I had a great time and learned a lot. The orientation wrapped up with a commissioning ceremony Dec. 13.

2006-12-14T16:18:00.000-05:00

If you would like a prayer card, just ask!

First Entry

2006-10-25T19:58:00.000-05:00

I never thought I would ever publish a blog. What have I got to write about, and who would want to read it anyway? Well, true to form, God has once again taken me places I never thought I would go to do things I never thought I would do. I can't promise frequent updates (this will come as quite a shock to those of you who know me well), but I will post new entries as often as the nature of my work will allow. So, enjoy bloggers, and thank you so much for your support!