Conference in Balsapuerto

We arrived in Yurimaguas and got everything organized to be able to leave on Monday for Balsapuerto. Unfortunatley it rained on Monday and the plane was unable to get to us. Tuesday we hoped for a better chance. We woke up on Tuesday to the same type of weather; rain and low clouds. When all seemed that we would have repeat of Monday the clouds started lifting and the rain stopped. Even though we got off to a later start than usual we all made it into Balsapuerto safely.

The week was one of many challenges and yet as usual God met every one of them. We do have a great God. The women were given their own classroom with their own studies. There was a classroom for the children, one for the new believers (which was the biggest one as far as attendees) and the pastors and older believers met in the church. At night we all were able to come together and sing and worship.

There were 3 other people that came and helped teach. They are all from the Swiss Mission in Pucallpa. Luz and Agusto are interested in teaching on the physical life: hygiene and animal husbandry and farming. Luz is a nurse. She taught the women everyday about hygiene and health. Agusto taught the men a couple of times. The other woman from Swiss Mission, Doris, taught spiritual lessons to the women everyday. Liz and I also had a time for Bible lessons as well as teaching handcrafts.

Suzi had a great time helping teach the kids. There were anywhere from 40 to 75. There were taught Bible stories as well as played games. The kids seemed very content to have had the time and a place for them to learn.

Counting the Many Blessings

How quickly time flies! It seems just like a day or two ago we were talking about leaving Tarapoto to go into the jungle village of Balsapuerto. Thank you all for praying.

For the trip over the mountain the weather was great. No rain, no landslides, no mud! Praise God. However, as we got closer to Yurimaguas there were two incidents. We were only an hour or so out of town when we were approached by several men in the street with rifles. It was unnerving as they approached. Fortunately they were not assaulters, but vigilantes. Somebody had just been assaulted and they wanted our driver to help them find the suspects. They were told no and thankfully accepted that answer. About 10 minutes later we were stopped in the street with an accident between a van and a motorcar (those motorized “rickshaws”). There was blood and glass all over the street. After a few minutes of talking to some of the people in the street we left, however our driver decided to turn around and go back. He had been on the phone with his company and it turns out that the man on the motorcar was killed.

N ow to back up a bit. You see God had all of this in control so obviously. Brent had been sick and was vomiting from the beginning of the trip. We had had to stop a couple of times for him to get out of the van to do just that. If we hadn’t had that issue we could have been smack dab in the middle of all this above mentioned commotion . We could have been the assaulted or the van that hit the motorcar. God knew we needed the delay. AMAZING!

(to be continued)

Off to the Jungle, the mighty Jungle

Church in Balsapuerto where the conference will be.

We are in Tarapoto and in the morning we head over the mountains to Yurimaguas. We ask that you pray for our safety. Also pray for the safety of all the Chayahuita that will be traveling by foot and by boat! They all sacrifice alot to arrive at the annual conference.

We spend the day tomorrow in Yurimaguas and get picked up by Samair on Monday morning weather permitting. Weather is always iffy this time of year. We know that in God's time we will arrive.

We will be out of the jungle on the 12th or the 13th. We will catch you up on all the blessings of that time. Can't wait to pass out the packets from the small groups to the pastors. It will be fun.

Everyone is doing well and acclimating back to the heat. Thank God for heat.....finally!

We're Here!!

Just wanted to catch you up on our travel status. We stayed in Miami overnight (courtesy of American). Our new flight was scheduled for 11:30 PM Sunday night. God had a reason for us being delayed. We were sitting in the terminal when a man asked if he could sit in the chair next to us. We started talking to him and it turns out he is a "completed Jew". He had been having a very rough walk with the Lord lately. He was filled with guilt. We were able to encourage him and talked about 1 or so. To hear him talk about his Messiah was so uplifting for us too.

We boarded the plane on time and even left the gate on time, however, as we readied to take off the pilot came on and said we were going to have to return to the gate and add more fuel because we might have to land at an alternative airport in Peru. We finally got off 1 1/2 hours late. We arrived around 7 AM in Lima w/o incident. When we got to customs there was virtually no wait and our luggage (Praise God) was sitting waiting for us. We even got a green light and by 745 we are in the hotel and now I'm taking a nap. So thank you all for praying!

Have Ticket WON'T Travel

Saturday we were picked up at 5 AM by Barry Gammel (Bless his heart). He was a great chauffer and we arrived at DIA early and got checked in without incident. We arrived in Dallas with a 5 hour layover. It went downhill from there. Just an hour before our flight was due to leave there was a gate change. We had to move from C concourse to D which is on the complete opposite side of the airport. We were told that the airplane was already at the gate so there (in our minds) should be no problem proceeding. However, at 5 PM (when we were due to leave) that maintenance hadn't released the plane to fly yet (obviously not a good sign). We were told that at 5:40 there would be an update on the situation. To fill in the spaces here, we had a scheduled 3 hour layover at Miami, so we figured that even if we left an hour or so late we'd still have plenty of time to make the flight. How naive we were. There were no available replacement planes until one in route from LA arrived and that would be at 8PM. Well, there went our 3 hours. We thought that maybe the plane would wait for us (there were 30 of us trying to catch that plane), but when we finally arrived at Miami at 1AM it had already left.

So, writing this update, we are "stuck" at Miami until 11:30 tonight. American Airlines did put us up in a hotel and provide vouchers for lunch and dinner (that's a whole story in itself). We hope to be in Lima tomorrow morning and get life back on track. Please pray for everything to go as planned tonight and that our luggage will arrive with us since we have nothing but the clothes on our backs.

Finally!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

We also thank you for your continued partnership with us and the Chayahuita. You are all very vital to this ministry. Without you we would not be able to do what we do.

Please keep us in prayer as we finally head back to Peru on December 27th. While you enjoy the snow of winter we will once again be thawing out in the Amazon jungle. The Chayahuita annual conference will be held January 5th to the 12th. Pray for safety for all that will be attending.

We will update you once we get out of the jungle and into Tarapoto. May you have a blessed New Year!

Counting down the days

We apologize for not posting anything in over a month. We are still alive!

The date is fast approaching to return back to the jungle that we love so much. The Chayahuita annual conference is scheduled for January 5-13, so we leave on December 27. This time is one of our favorites since people from many villages converge on the host one allowing us to see lots of people without having to travel so much.

Please pray for the Chayahuita leadership as they prepare all the details of the teaching time coordinating with all the teachers involved. This year things will be done a bit differently. The decision was made to have the women have their own time all week for teaching as well as the new believers and of course the kids will have their own teaching as well. These are very exciting times and there is so much growth happening; both spiritually and in business development. (more on that at a later date)

Pray for the team from Grace that will be teaching:Ron Dalton, Brent Ward, Liz Hanson and Suzi Herbka as well as us. There will also be a couple from the Swiss Mission attending.

Thank you for your constant prayers and care for us and for the Chayahuita. Your partnership is crucial!