I (Mark) had the privilege to go to the jungle again last week. It again was a time that really blessed me. This time I went with two American missionary friends, Wes and John Mark. 
Wes with two of his Shipibo friends.
John Mark, myself and many Shipibo children and young adults.
My trip had 3 main aims; to visit and teach the church in Nueva San Juan (New St John), who would like to be overseen by our church and myself, to visit the river community that we visited in June, and to do research for the medical mission/campaign in April 2011.
This is where they grow!!!
The trip was a real success and I felt that God is growing my passion for the jungle people, and especially the jungle tribe of the Shipibo people. We set off on Monday night. It was incredible that I was able to take Bibles with me as I had forgotten/didn’t have time to buy them before Monday, which was a public holiday and all the shops were shut. However I went to Miraflores (tourist destination) with the boys on Monday morning and there was a book fete there, and I was able to buy both Bibles and Sunday school materials fairly cheaply. Isn’t God good!
Bernado, a Shipibo pastor and his wife, our hosts for the 2nd day, with Wes
We arrived after our 45 minute flight, expecting the normal 10-15 degrees difference in temperature from grey polluted miserable Lima, but we actually arrived in the rain, having missed the very strong thunder storm earlier in the day. It was cold for Pucallpa, only mid 20s (mid 70s)!!
Whilst being greeted by our Shipibo contacts, our free airport pick up decided we hadn’t arrived and went back to the hotel. It must have been difficult to stop 3 large tall white men in the crowd of 30 or so dark skinned Peruvians. We took a moto taxi and got to the hotel Las Gavilanes (which we will be staying at in April), which was very pleasant and received the apologies for being missed. We slept well ready for our river trip the next day.
Typical Shipibo smiling faces.
We finished our time in San Juan by having a tour of the village in the hot baking sun. (I remember noticing the temperature increase several degrees while preaching in the morning). We saw all the different things going on, business teaching, free hair cutting, and also fruit picking, It was amazing to have fruit picked off the tree and eat it there and then. 
One interesting observation I made was that all the people there that were teaching were not Shibipos. This is something that needs to be addressed. It is great and really important to help those in need and the Shibipo people are certainly a poor, disadvantaged people, but they also need to be equipped to sustain themselves. At the moment they have a very dependent mentality, which I do not believe is God’s plan for them. Therefore we need to be helping them as much as possible to help themselves. As the Arab proverb says, and as the charity Oxfam has shown in their adverts in the UK ‘if you give a man a fish he can feed his family for a day, but if you give him a net, he can feed his family for a lifetime’. This is my desire to give people tools that means they are not relying on outside support, but are relying on their own resources, and more importantly God’s resources. I want to be a facilitator and not the answer. Too many times I have seen indigenous people who rely on missionaries, or other NGOs which I don’t think is a healthy or sustainable model. 
I also heard of tribes that still have yet to be reached in the jungle and are still very wild and not used to other human contact. The Shibipos are starting to realise that they are called to be missionaries as well to other peoples. What is our role in this? We will see in time. I have a fondness for the Shibipo people, people who were reached with the gospel only 40 years ago. What is God calling us to do in the future?
