Peru Trip - Part 1

Nueve de Octubre

A summary of 24 intense days in Peru seems a bit overwhelming!  How can I capture the sights, sounds, feel, taste and smell of the trip?  

Well maybe not the smells, but I want to lay out for you in the next couple of blog posts, the work being done in Peru, the great need there, and what we (Trevor, Dustin and I) were able to accomplish in these 24 days.
 

The two overarching themes of this trip were:

• Syncretism (the blending of two religions to make a third distinct religion)  
• Answered prayer.  

Everywhere we went we saw these two themes.
 

The first leg of our trip

We started the trip with an uneventful flight from Lima to Iquitos. Iquitos is in the Amazon River Basin and is the largest city in the world that can't be accessed by vehicles.  The only way to get there is by boat or flying. So the major highways of this area are not asphalt roads but mighty rivers.  

The taxi of the Amazon!

The "low water" of the Rio Marañon

 We connected with Brandon Carroll in Iquitos.  He is a missionary in Iquitos who is training men who will be leaders, pastors, and missionaries in Iquitos.  The amount of syncretism in this area is staggering!

Brandon recounted to us that he recently struck up a conversation with a lady in the city.  They started talking about Jesus and who he was.  It turned to the supreme power and authority of Jesus and the evil of witchcraft.  This woman laughed at him.  She said that she was a tarot card reader and almost half of her business comes from "pastors" who want to know the future.    
  
He also shared that last year a group of "pastors" brought a prophetess in to Iquitos who did some incantations with blood and animal sacrifices to bring more people into the churches!  He said this blending of animism (all created things are gods and we need to appease them) and Christianity is rampant.  Brandon pleaded with us, "there needs to be training and discipling in this city!"   

A picture perfect scene as we depart to see the start of the Amazon River! 

We also met with some of the missionaries that are going into the villages along the Amazon River and its tributaries.  They are spreading the gospel in these remote areas.  The cost to travel up and down these rivers makes it difficult to travel and really isolates these villages from the gospel and discipleship.
        

Me, Dustin, David, Pedro,Saelo, Brandon, and Trevor

Pedro (pictured above center right) was a wealth of information on the work that he does in this area and the great need for missionaries to train and go with him into the villages along the Amazon and it's tributaries.  


He recounted a story of being deep in the jungle with his brother. He didn't like the jungle work because it was so hard (and 

The massive headwaters of the Amazon River!

Pedro was no wimp; he had been in the Peruvian marines and a fisherman on the Amazon most of his life).   Getting there, he said, is difficult.  It takes many boats, canoes and days of hiking to get to these remote villages that want to hear about Jesus.  In fact, Pedro almost gave up going into the jungle at all because of this.  But his brother persuaded him to continue the work with him.  Pedro remembers his brother reminding him that this work is critical!  These villages have no access to the message or any way to be taught about who Jesus is and what it means to be a follower of Christ.  Who is going there?  So they continued the work.   

A girl looks out at us as we step into the village Nueve de Octubre

As they were sharing the gospel in one village deep in the Amazon, Pedro's brother was stung by something and became very sick.  Pedro then set off with his brother on his back to get to a hospital.  He marched with his brother on his back for 17 days to get to a speedboat!  His brother died three days later in a hospital.  As Pedro was telling this he paused at this point, we could all see that he was remembering his brother as if it were yesterday.  Just before his brother died he pleaded with Pedro to continue the work in the jungle.  They need the message of Jesus, and they need to be taught.  Feed them!

One of the kids of Nueve de Octubre

He paused, then said it has been a joy to continue this work.  "Even when I was in the jungle and my daughter was very sick and died at 22, I was confident in the sure hope of the gospel.  My daughter always encouraged me to go!  

We then asked him if there is a need for missionaries like us to come?  "Yes!"  There is a great need for people to come and labor with us!  No one is going into the jungles, no one.  He pleaded for us to come and train missionaries and go with him into these villages.  

A Peke-Peke.  Most common way to travel along the river

So Pedro continues the work along with Brandon, to reach and teach the people along the Amazon River!  I'm humbled to see men like this, men who you will never hear about in a book or on tv, but who are faithfully doing the work God called them to.  This was a direct answer to our prayers- to see the need in Peru and the work being done by those laborers who love Jesus. 

We were also able to go to a village with Brandon that he is building to train others to go with Pedro.  The village is named after the day it was founded; Nueve de Octubre (which is common along the Amazon).  Click here to see its location on google maps.

Neuve de Octubre

This village is about 30-40 minutes from Nauta and is getting more modernized every year.  It is a strategic point between the city and the unengaged tribes along these rivers.  The village is begging for this training facility and Brandon is also begging for missionaries to come and train these men who want to go into the heart of the Amazon, but have no training.

Some of our entourage in the village :) 

Last fall, Brandon and Pedro went up river towards the border of Ecuador.  It took 2 days of travel with two huge outboard motors running constantly to get to the start of a set of villages that are completely unengaged.  There is no way to fly there effectively and the cost for that trip was over $4,000 to get there and back.  It was fruitful but again the barriers of the hard-to-reach are unengaged for a reason!

The reality is that there is so much to do!  Please pray with me that the Lord of the harvest would indeed send laborers into this field! Pray that God would move hearts to pray, go, and give for those who have little to no access to the truth and want to know and be taught! 

There is so much more I could say!  Hopefully we can tell you more of this work face to face.  We would love to do that!

The next post will be on the second leg of our trip, Huanuco, Peru! 

My "classic missionary" picture :)