Wow! What a mind blowing last two days in the jungle...
We left yesterday morning (through the day since we had 4 hour long flights to get us all there) for Bella Vista, almost directly north of Pucallpa. As we flew in SAM's 6 seater float airplane, we quickly left civilization and for the next 45 minutes flew over virgin jungle with just a couple rivers and NO roads. AS we looked down on the jungle, it looked like the top of a broccoli plant: green for ever! Finally we approached a river and were quick to put down on the water, coming up to the bank just 100 feet from the house where we were staying in Bella Vista.
Bella Vista is a small village of 160 people surrounded by jungle and river. It was started 100 years ago as a logging village, and the first missionary family arrive 5 years ago, taking the boat 10 DAYS from Pucallpa or Iquitos to get to the village for their first 2 years. Then they heard about SAM Air and were just amazed that they could get there in 1 hour!! Presently there is a small church meeting there, and Mil Palmeras has sent a family and a single person out to work with this village.
As we arrived during the day, the Medical group got started working with the villagers who expressed medical needs: with only 160 people, it did not take all day to meet their needs. The construction folks started to work with the church members to paint their new Sunday School structure.
That evening we met with the church for a time of worship and a time where Julio shared from God's word. The vigorous singing and drumming (on a wooden box with a hole - no traditional drum of leather) lasted for half hour and showed a church full of life and connecting with the songs. It was a really wonderful time of connecting with a small church in the middle of the jungle, being supported by another Peruvian Church far away.
That evening as we walked the 100 yards from the church to our home, we saw a shooting star and marveled in the bright stars in the sky as we walked through the moonless night. No machine sounds were heard (the only machines we heard over the two days were the planes and the "peki peki" boats that would go up or two the river): this we a truly quiet place to be!
We slept with the Peruvian missionaries in their wonderful home (ask us the story of this home), which felt like an adult sleep over: guys in one room with all the snoring, and the ladies in another room. It was a rough night of sleep for most of us...
The morning came quickly for the first load to return back to Pucallpa: they needed to be up and on the river by 6 am, going down stream for 45 minutes to where they picked up the plane. The plane could land in the river just in front of our house, but this area was not long enough to take off, so we each got a ride down stream in our "peki Peki" along a river that we did not see any person during the whole trip until we hooked up with the SAM Pilot for our trip home. A couple of the flights actually flew through a rainbow, which we found out wraps around the airplane in a full-circle as you get nearer the rain.
For those of us that were on later flights, we finished painting the exterior of this structure, went on a walk around local farms to visit with some of the church folks doing the preparation of their favorite food which was a dried starch. We also heard the stories of the local present day missionaries and God's calling them to work this this remote village.
Food while we were gone? We had some local boar that was shot and prepared, fish from the river and this local starch. Besides these exciting foods, we also had rice and beans, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and oreo cookies we had brought from Pucallpa.
We were fortunate folks in the village to have solar power lights in the house, the rest were candles of lanterns.
What struck most of us was the amazing time of worship with folks half the way around the world in the remotest part of Peruvian jungle: our God is big enough to work with these extremes and everything in between.
Tomorrow morning, Jeremy and Ashlee, Jerry and Bonnie and Joelle take off to Lima and Cuzco to visit with the Mennonite Mission folks there and to see Machu Picchu on Friday.
Please pray for safety in travel and for all the bug bites that are driving many of us crazy from our time in Bella Vista!
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