Chayahuita Trip

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