Pucallpa November 2010 Part 2

Day 2. Early set off on the river. This time we used a quicker boat than previous times, so this time we arrived in just over an hour, rather than between 3-4 hours. What a difference! We split the morning into 2 sessions, I taught the first session on how our Christian life should be balanced UP (our relationship with God), IN (our relationship with the church at large) and OUT (our relationship with those who are not yet in the church). Mark speaking with Antonio translating. I spoke for 15 minutes, the preach was 1 hour 10 minutes!!

This was well received, as were the small groups where we gave the people chance to share about their lives. We finished our time with them by sharing a humble meal of fried plantains and rice.

Following our return to the port John Mark and I wanted to buy a small snack and after asking the lady what was for sale she asked me if I wanted to buy a monkey. The 'friendly' Monkey

My response was ‘how much’? She said ‘120 soles’ about 40 dollars or 25 pounds. I’m sure I could have bartered her down, if I’d actually wanted to buy it. The lady then showed us the monkey, which was allegedly friendly, but did start to growl at us when we approached it. Following the monkey jumping and dancing, we returned back to Pucallpa and our hotel. We had a wonderful meal in the evening at the La Rueda restaurant which I have visited each time I have been, and was pleasantly full, which cannot be said for my American friends who ordered too much. Unfortunately we split the bill three ways!!

Pucallpa November 2010 Part 1

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.