In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle

Well I survived the jungle. There were times where I thought it was touch and go, but alas here I am, with all my limbs, able to share the awesome experience it was with you guys.

Our journey started with a 2hour bus ride to another river city named Nauta. We stayed there for four days at the camp/school/church place. We did some impact ministries, which in YWAM terms means that we did dramas on the street. Before we did these impact ministries we would walk around and invite people to them. That was really cool, going around to all these houses. We would also walk back and there would be this huge open area where there was like another little village. The houses that were closer to the river were built on stilts for when the river was higher. Going around house to house was my favorite thing about Nauta. People were unbelievably friendly and hospitable. We were welcomed into their homes and they would want us to sit down. If I am being completely honest, I didn’t find our impact ministries to impactful. I really just wanted to hang out with the people and share with them, but we needed to move along to the next house and invite them to the impact ministry we were having. Sometimes there would be time to share with the people after we did our little dramas and testimony but most of the time we would have to hurry off and do the next thing. Which was a little frustrating at times.

However, the river is a different story….

I loved the river and the experiences we had there. Looking back it’s a little funny cause I was really nervous about being on the river for 9 days, but it turned out to be awesome. From Nauta we took a 7hr boat ride to arrive in the river village of Nueva York. I was super surprised by how beautiful this village was and we were greeted by so many smiling faces. It was so awesome because we did some “impact” ministries, but a lot of the time we just got to hang out with the people. Go to their houses and visit them, fish with the kids and just share our lives with each other. I tried monkey for the 1^st time. I also got to hold 3 different monkeys, one was only a week old. I got to old a baby crocodile, this family had a bunch of them that they would sell for food. Our bathing facilities was the river, at first it wasn’t so bad, but then the fish started to bite, which I could handle if I jumped in fast and got out fast, but then a guy on our team caught a sting ray and another girl was fishing and out came a crocodile, came up to the side walk and then a guy walked up with a machete and cut off his head. We also saw two wild snakes, well one was just a baby snake so it was more like a giant worm.

I just had so much fun with these people, just laughing with them and living life like they lived life, bathing and washing clothes in the river. I also met two really cool old people. Petronia and Zaul. Petronia was the town gossip and I walked around with her one day and she told me all the happenings of town. She also told me that she was 60 yrs old but born in 1933. She was so sweet and would just keep telling me the same stories and ask me the same questions. Her husband Zaul was in a wheel chair and rarely left his house, the houses are built on stilts for when the river is high and it is just to hard for him to get in and out. The last night we were there we had a party and we each got to invite someone, so me and another girl invited Petronia and Zaul, we had a couple of boys come and lift him down from his house. He couldn’t stop smiling the whole night. We were also only suppose to have 30 people come and only had food for 30 people, but we fed over 100 people and the food just kept on coming, just like the feeding of the 5000, but on a little of a smaller scale. We didn’t have enough plates for everyone so people were eating out of cups and sharing forks, but it was so awesome. It was just a wonderful night. I feel super blessed by last week, it was just so awesome sharing our lives with these beautiful people. Sure there were mosquito’s and crazy grosshoppers that would come out like a plague at night, sure we bathed in a fish biting river but it was a once and a life time experience and like my sweet old friend Zaul said, what joy its going to me when we meet again in heaven. So if any of you have the opportunity ever in your life time, go to a river village, its like your living a real life novel.

Tuesday we start a five day outreach here in Iquitos and then we fly to Lima on the 14^th and then catch a bus to Chiclayo.

Thanks so much for the prayers