Iquitos

Hola!

Sorry it has been so long since we updated, we were in the Amazon rainforest for the past 4 days and they do not have available service or internet there!

So much has happened since we last wrote, it is hard to know where to even start.  We left for the jungle on Monday afternoon; we rode a bus with the students for about an hour and a half to get to Nauta. From Nauta, we got on the peke-peke and headed up the river to the Aurora camp.

The peke peke ride took about an hour and a half, but it was there that we first began to connect with the students. Our Espanol on this team is not the most fluent, so we struggled to remember the phrases that we knew. But we showed pictures of family, asked questions and compared verses in Spanish and English.  The students were very well versed in scripture, which was so encouraging! A few of them also knew a good amount of English, which was a huge help! Upon arriving at Aurora, we spent the evening getting to know one another, and teaching each other cultural games. All of the power at the camp is kept on by a generator, so typically lights go out around 9pm when the generator is turned off, but we extended that every night because we were enjoying our time together. 

Mornings began with breakfast at 7:30am,  and contrary to popular belief, “Peruvian time” was not true for these students. They were always right on time and waiting for us to arrive each morning, probably because they were so ready to eat!  Tuesday morning one of the students named David shared a devotional for everyone, it was powerful and He had some extremely challenging thoughts and words of encouragement for the group, we followed his devotional with a few worship songs in Spanish.

Each day a few of us shared a story from the Bible. The goal in doing this was to teach them the story, and train them in how to retell the story to others.  The story would be told 2 times, then we would ask a student volunteer to come up and share that same story back to everyone. Often we would have the students act out the stories in the first time telling it, and they always were followed up with questions, and group discussion. Colin and Heather shared their Bible stories on Tuesday after worship, and then three of the students shared their testimonies. Hearing these testimonies of God’s goodness and His divine call on their lives was incredible.  The students had such a passion and hunger for the Lord and it was clear that God had a great purpose in calling them. We were so blessed hearing them share! 

Lunch on Tuesday was fish. You would think that fish would not be one of the things that was new and unique for all of us. However… this fish was quite different, it looked like it had just jumped out of the water and onto our plate (minus the fried crumbs on top).  We all paused to watch the students eat it, because we weren’t sure how to even start. It was delicious, but looking at it made it a little difficult to eat. Rebecca did the best job at cleaning her fish completely!

Soccer is a huge sport for the Peruvians. So Tuesday afternoon we gave the students soccer balls that we had brought. We split up into four teams and played a tournament on a small field near the camp.  The field was small and rough, with holes and not much space, I remember thinking, “these kids would LOVE the soccer fields in the states”. It made me realize yet again that these students are thankful for everything they have and things don’t need to be perfect in order to have a good time. We had a blast playing, and they definitely saw how unskilled the white Americans were:) Playing in the heat was the only real challenge, as the sun was beating down and extremely hot. As we were riding back to the camp, it started to downpour, it felt amazing to get cooled off!  We could see the rain coming down the river from a mile away, and almost got caught in the rain while riding back on the peke peke. 

Tuesday evening Anny shared with the students and showed them part of the Jesus film. We had downloaded the audio Bible and The Jesus film onto micro SD cards that could fit into the student’s phones and they could easily access and then share with others. Our prayer is that this makes it much easier for the students to hear the Bible in their language and share the good news with those around them. 

Wednesday morning Rebecca shared a devotional on spending time seeking the Lord. Followed by a time for the students to go off by themselves and seek the Lord. After coming back together, a few of them shared what the Lord had taught them and one of the students sang a song he had wrote during his time. Later that morning Ben shared his parable of the sower and the seeds. Our goal during this time was to allow the indigenous students to talk and share their thoughts. There were five indigenous students and in the large group they were the ones who would keep quiet and just listen. So Ben had each of the indigenous students come up and retell the parable. That was very powerful to hear them retell it and for the rest of the students to hear them share. 

After lunch on Wednesday the students taught us a few more of their favorite cultural games and we taught them “duck duck goose”, they seemed to enjoy it, even if they didn’t quite understand what a goose was :)

Dinner was great, but a combination of things we had never had all together. It included fried rice, a fried egg and spaghetti, all together as the same dish. After dinner we had some time to play a few games and have fun just hanging out. Then Matthias shared a parable about forgiveness.  We had a ministry time praying for the students after the talk and were able to extend an invitation to receive Christ. We were blessed by that time together as a group.  Afterwards we had our celebration since it was our last night together. We had popcorn, and gave them chocolate that we had brought from the States. Our last night with the students was perfect. Everyone seemed to feel comfortable and the Lord’s presence was there. We are praying that those who did not know Christ would continue to be drawn to Him and seek Him. 

Thursday morning we got up, had breakfast and headed on our way back to Iquitos. It was mostly another travel day. We said our goodbyes to the students and stopped at a hotel for the night to shower and get a little rest. We got to try some Peruvian food for lunch and dinner at two different restaurants that Anny recommended and that was delicious! Our favorite thing is their fresh fruit made into an ice drink, we love it! 

Last night we said goodbye to Iquitos and flew to Lima for a brief layover. This morning we are off for the second portion of our trip, working at the orphanage, El Arca, in Cusco.

Pictures and more details to come once we arrive in Cusco (if the internet co-operates)!