Family Jungle Trip

Well we had a blast.  I've uploaded lots of pictures to tell the story but we had a few stories that we're captured on film (some were captured on video but our internet is WAY too slow to upload those).  So the story goes:

Not pictured:
1.  The first night out- we spent it sleeping on a sandbar stranded because we broke part of the prop on the motor and couldn't fix it yet (it did get fixed the next day).  We were too far up the river to turn back to the last village but too far away from the village we were trying to make it too!  Oh yeah- the other family we were with didn't bring their tent, so we lent them one of ours.  So Jeremy, me and the girls all slept in a 2 person tent in the pouring down rain. (Well the girls slept at least- J & I tried LOL!)
2.  Crystal was able to have a women's bible study with several ladies.  We studied Proverbs 31 and she taught them 5 questions they can ask themselves when studying the Word.
3.  Jeremy was able to teach as well in each village on Godly Wisdom.  We also were able to distribute several Bibles in Buena Vista.
 4. Crystal learned how to weave baskets/plates!
5.  They had a special service in Atalaya the last night we were there.   At the end folks prayed for our family and said their good-byes.  It was sweet.

All the stories that have pictures:

Addie sleeping ontop of the luggage on the boat ride up the river.

Everyone calls Addie "babydoll" here, but she really does look like one. LOL

The girls killing time in the hammock on the boat ride up the river.

Karis & her favorite friend in Atalaya- Ana!

Jeremy is teaching Luis the "fisherman's tail" way of taking a photo, so that the fish appears much larger.

Actual size of the peacock bass. LOL 

Addie & her favorite Peruvian Uncle Omar playing with dinner before its cut up.

Karis & Alton (Luis' son) playing on the steps of the house while folks play soccer.

Crystal and Karis

Buena Vista

River bank

Location of Bible study in Beuna Vista

Jungle version of a pack-n-play.  The mayor's wife saif this is what she uses for her grandbabies so that they don't have to sit in the dirt to play.  I thought it was sweet of her to get it out for Addie to use during Bible study.

Karis wanting to play in the "boat" as she called it.

Addie taking her morning nap at 6AM!  Jeremy was kind enough to stay in his hammock and let her rest awhile.  So precious how she has her arm resting on his. =)

Nothing like a 10 year old and an 8 year old gutting lunch down on the river bank.  And bringing their little brother down to watch.

Luis & Addie playing on the boat.

Karis is a very good observer.  She noticed that everyone nursing their babies lots in the jungle.  So she was nursing her babydoll and telling us we needed to be quiet, so she could feed! LOL!





Omar and Karis on top of the boat catching some air.  Do you think Karis likes it?



Addie after Daddy lifted her up high enough to feel the breeze.  Not a big fan!  Such a sad face.

Samuel & Alton (Luis' sons)  such precious boys!

God has a plan for Alton's life.  Before he was 2 years old (he is six weeks younger than Karis).  He has had dengue fever twice, dysentry, and a motorcycle fell down on him punturing his skull...he still has a hole in his skull from it.  He is a trooper!!!

Training the "Next" Generation

Jose, Manuel, Elias, Jeremy & Luis
PRAY for these guys are they carry on the torch for us!

Well the title isn't really all that accurate, since most of the "next" generation are actually older than we are...but they are the ones that will be here in our place when we're back in the US and afterwards when we transition to our new assignment (we aren't officially approved yet, but we're fairly sure that we won't be returning to Iquitos).  Thus the training of several key nationals to take our place, so to speak. 

We have been working with these guys since January.  Jeremy has had several trainings with them, most of them have gone through the Prospectives book that contains many missiological priniciples in it and we've also been teaching them the different ways that we provide support and assistance for our REAP partners from the US in way of logistics, organizing team gear, etc...


So this week, we had another meeting and also a debriefing with them to see how things have been going thus far this summer with different teams.  All of these guys are also translators that are committed to the Lord and do an excellant job.  We were missing two of the guys (Maykol and Jose) because they are not in town.  The training went really well but was interupted/cut short because we had a surprise visit from the JUNGLE!  

Alejandro, Sonia, Ana and Abel came by to visit us from Atalaya.  The couple that accetped Christ and was baptized several months ago.  It was a WONDERFUL surprise.   They were only in town for that day and decided to visit.  It was PREFECT timing from the Lord.  It was the first time that they've ever called us when they were in town and all of the translators that were that day, have all worked in the village and know the family well.  So we ended up having 9 adults and 2 kids join us for lunch (all unplanned by the way- training was suppose to last about 3 hours) and everyone stayed until about 3:30pm that afternoon.  We all were laughing, sharing stories and it was a lot of fun.  Its how Jeremy and I pictured ministry being, so it was a wonderful treat for us.  





Alejandro, Sonia(holding Adalyn), Ana (holding Karis) and Abel
PRAY for them, they are new believers and really are seeking the Lord.



God at Work all over the Place

God has done some amazing things during the month of June!





The Iquito people had their first ever Pastor/Leadership training! Jeremy with a team of 3 men from the South Carolina Baptist Convention put on the conference. They went to Buena Vista, a neighboring village that wants to reach out to the Iquito and to Nueva Atalaya (Iquito village). Randy Shaw, SCBC team leader, said the thing that most impressed him was the hunger to know more about Christ and God's Word. He said that everyone that attended spent most of their time with their faces down while the sessions were going on because everyone was busy trying to capture every word that was being taught.


Humble Area Baptist Church came and visited several of the Urarina communities. In total having almost 75 Urarina accept Christ through storying the Gospel message. 40 of those being from the Santa Teresa community, I mentioned in my previous post. We know that this only happened because of prayer- God turned hearts that were entangled in fear and so hostile towards us a year ago and He has opened them up and set many of the free. Join us in praying for those that have accepted Christ this month, that they would have a deeper understanding of God's word and a desire to follow closely after the Father. That they are seeds that are planted in good/deep soil, that won't be choked out, scorched or wither away. (Matthew 13).