The four days I (Mark) spent in Pucallpa, a town in the jungle, felt like two weeks and also just a day. I learned so much about myself, my spirituality and how different people do Christianity. We arrived on the Monday and rested as our 'guide' Oseas (brother of Richard, one of the guys we disciple here in Lima) thought we would be tired as people normally travel for 24 hours or more on the bus from Lima to Pucallpa, but due to time restraints we got the plane and it took an hour so we were ready to start work straight away.(3-4 times more expensive, 24 times quicker). Due to this nothing had been planned for us to do the first afternoon, so we went to the zoo and then the city centre to eat pollo a la braza (rotissiere chicken), with fresh guanabana and camu camu juice (jungle fruits).
The latest hair accessory in Pucallpa
The church at kilometre 47, nearly built!
The latest hair accessory in PucallpaI preached on the Monday night, at the church, Luz Divina (Divine Light) it has 8 services a week, every night at 7.30 and twice on Sunday. I thought 2 services a week was to many!
The church service times!!
Jennifer the lovely American missionary who works there explained to me that, the options are either to go to church or watch TV, so they have services every night. After my sermon was the 1st time I realised how hungry these people were for God, and how much they loved to pray. An example for us all. After my sermon I asked people to respond to the message and all but 3 people in the church responded, and wanted to be prayed for. The service was followed by a prayer meeting. 
The church in Pucallpa, paid for by the church and American donations
We were amazed at the church building when we first saw it, as it was located in a shanty town. They had saved and prayed for 4 years for this site and the money to build it.
The church in Pucallpa, paid for by the church and American donationsWe were amazed at the church building when we first saw it, as it was located in a shanty town. They had saved and prayed for 4 years for this site and the money to build it.
The next day the commitment to prayer was emphasised again as members of the church, 17 of whom were fasting until 3pm, all week, met for the early morning prayer meeting. This was before we went out to pray at 3 church plants that had just been started. These were up to 50 kilometres away from the mother church. What is amazing is that these guys were praying for 30 minutes on their knees, at each place, on top of their normal 3 times of prayer a day. Both Ian and I realised how much our prayer life lacked, and we have been inspired to increase this area of our spiritual life.
At each church we visited, we prayed and gave thanks for the leaders, as well as praying for new people for the churches. The 1st church building was still being built when we arrived and the leader of the church didn’t know we were coming, and the whole village was in a meeting. (remember this is in the jungle and communication is normally by word of mouth)
At each church we visited, we prayed and gave thanks for the leaders, as well as praying for new people for the churches. The 1st church building was still being built when we arrived and the leader of the church didn’t know we were coming, and the whole village was in a meeting. (remember this is in the jungle and communication is normally by word of mouth)
The church at kilometre 47, nearly built! The 2nd church was where we supposed to be having lunch, but this is easier said than done, especially cooking for more than 20 people. We were having cockerel soup for lunch, a speciality here (Caldo de Gallina). Normally this dish is fairly easy to prepare if you live near a supermarket. However they first had to find the 2 cockerels, then kill them, then cook them. What happened was that dinner took about 2.30 hours to make, an hour to find the first cockerel, and then another hour to find the second one, and then we had to find the owner of the cockerel and pay them. We then ate at about 4.30pm. It was very nice though.
Praying in the rain in the second church at km 43
Following dinner, we had to go to see the church before moving onto the final one. This plan was thrown some what however as is the case in the jungle in the winter the rains started to fall, and I mean fall. We managed to get to the church before the rain really started to fall, but we had to leave before it stopped, therefore everyone got very wet.
Vital protection equipment
Vital protection equipmentWe then walked from about 2km from one church to another, in the pouring rain, to find no one in the church. We then got a taxi back to the church in Pucallpa. Interestingly there was no church service that night as, I was informed when it rains here, no one goes to church. So like cricket, rain stops play. They still had a prayer meeting though!!!
All the outreach team, guess which one is Ian?
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