Joel leading from the front!!

Filmed during the opening ceremony of our time in the Shibipo village of Santa Isabel.



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Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 3

Day 3 was probably the most striking day of our time in Pucallpa as we had to get up at half past four to get a boat at 6 in the morning to take us to a Shibipo settlement 3 or so hours down the river. The Burgess' on a boat on the Amazon.

Travelling in boat was another first for many of the team, and was an amazing experience. The Amazon!!!

We arrived however at about 11 o clock as we got grounded at one place, and we ended up leaving late of course. Watch out for the crocodiles and piranhas Andy!!

When we arrived we got greeted by a tribe of dancers who had been waiting for us, and took us by the arms and led us dancing and singing into the centre of the village, they were singing 'welcome to our village, you are welcome here'. I was very overwhelmed as I have seen this sort of thing many times on films, and documentaries, but never in real life.

The ladies welcoming us to the village.

The women dancing to welcome us to the village

We then had a 30 minute opening ceremony to welcome us to the village, and I spoke on spiritual fathers again, and we handed out gifts of clothes and food that we had brought.

The ladies waiting in line for their donations.

Joel was also entertaining the kids as he clapped and toddled around. Daniel and Joel really showed the gift of leadership that God has put in them.

Daniel and his new friends (human and terrapin)

Later on Daniel was entertaining another group of Shibipo kids when drawing water from the well, and Joel was washing himself, as well as leading about fifty of them in running games.

Not the quickest person to draw water from the well!!

It is wonderful to see how they were thriving in a culture so different from the one Anna and I have come from, and the one they are living in, and growing up in at the moment.
After my talk we broke into 2 groups Juan Carlos with the men and Virna with the women. Following the talk by Juan Carlos, brilliantly delivered 4 times over the four days, his team was praying with some of the men, and this gave me another of my highlights as Joanderlin (JanderLin) the youngest on the team (apart from our boys) was praying and counselling a man probably in his 60s or 70s. This was wonderful when you think that God has no interest in age, only in maturity, and Joanderlin was showing his.

Joanderlin ministering to a Shibipo man

Lili teaching the Sunday school teachers.

We had a second session of talks, followed by lunch, which many of the team struggled with, but for me was fine,I have eaten a lot worse in my time. (Frog porridge in Singapore for example) and we then made tracks back to the boat. The trip back was a lot quicker due to the current, and we got back in time to get showered, changed, and then went out for a night out, and to celebrate my birthday in La Rueda (the wheel) a typically jungle type restaurant. People ate cecina (wild jungle boar) tacacho (banana cooked with chicken, pork, egg, and other things inside), juani (rice in banana) friedfish (with eye, head and tail). We drank camu camu (a jungle fruit), cocona (another jungle fruit), and coca cola!! (Yes I know we went all that way and people still drink that horrible black liquid). Everyone had a good night and went to bed satisfied ready for day 4.

Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 1.

Shibpo kids playing on a mototaxi

Well my 4^th visit to Pucallpa has been and gone. However this time I (Mark) didn’t go alone, or just with 1 or 3 other people. This time I went with 20 other adults as well as Daniel and Joel. This was the 1^st Vision Vida mission trip, and overall went really well. Yes there was the normal hiccups, and errors, but there was no major stomach upsets, no great falling outs or major incidents, and no one resigned to bed on day 3.
We went on Sunday 8^th November in the evening and arrived at about 21.30. We left on the Friday 13^th at 22.15, and arrived back in Lima very happy, but very tired.

Daniel decides how he is going to get to Pucallpa

I have led a few shorty term mission teams before, and I have been a member of 2 large short term mission teams, but I have never led a team of 21 before so this was a challenge, and it certainly turned out to be so, especially in the area of coordination and details, as neither of them are strengths of mine!

The team minus Daniel and Joel

Day 1 started well at the airport, although a few of the team arrived late, arriving in Peruvian timing and not English timing! We managed to get everyone on the plane and to Pucallpa safely, although Ronald one of the first time flyers had his bag sent to Tarapoto, another jungle town instead of Pucallpa. He did get it back 24 hours later.

The first thing many people noticed when we arrived was the heat, which was a running theme throughout our time there, and a classic quote was made by Lili, when she said, it’s not that hot, it’s just the heat from the engines of the plane. It wasn’t just the engines, it really was that hot!

Dolly affected by the heat.

Pucallpa Feb 09- Part 2- Arrival and Day 1

So the plan was set, Monday arrived and Julian and I left with good time to spare. We went to Eduardo and Cecilia’s house to pick them up, and only waited 25 minutes for them, not bad for them!
We arrived at the airport with no problems, as I had already checked us in online. Therefore we had time to have a coffee. No problem as we had plenty of time. This is of course before you send your coffee back because it is lukewarm and have to add so much sugar to make the coffee taste like honey. (Peruvians generally have coffee with their sugar, and not the other way round). Anyway we arrived back with the coffees after an age and then realised we need to board, but couldn’t with more than 100ml of liquid. Drinking piping hot coffee is no problem for Eduardo and Cecilia, and it went in 2 minutes. For me I had a choice leave it or burn my mouth, I went for the latter!
Anyway we landed in Pucallpa without any problems, and went out for dinner with the senior leaders of the main church.

Julian sharing a word, translated by Jen
Jen was our main guide and she took us to the Shipibo church the next morning, to start at 8am. We arrived only 40 minutes late and many people had not arrived at the church. It was a great to be a part of something so unique, for a long time the Shipibos have not wanted to associate with the Spanish speaking Christian church, so this was a great honour. So straight away our plans went up the wall when the pastor introduced us and then passed to his worship leader, and Eduardo had to follow on the keyboard, a lesser man would have really struggled. Eduardo accompaning the enthuastic Shipibo worship leader.

This was followed by one of 3 dances by the Shipibo teenage girls. These girls are amazing examples of Christians as they are persecuted for their faith, as their parents are not Christians and make it very difficult for these girls to follow their faith in Jesus. When we were returning to shower and have dinner before the evening session Jen told me that these girls would have been very happy with lunch, as may have not eaten for 2-3 days. Also I was told by Cecilia it would be great to do a medical campaign with these girls and others like them as they are very affected by parasites, and probably malnourished. How I count my blessings. The Shipibo girls dancing and singing for us
All the sessions went really well, although massively extended due to the pastor summing up each session in Shipibo for some time. Also endless songs and offerings in between each thing we did. The time with these people was a real inspiration, people with nothing, wanting to come and share the little we had to offer. It is amazing how God uses us.

Eduardo leading his worship workshopJulian leading his workshop
The evening session went well, although we arrived more than a hour late, as we stopped at the hospital to pray for someone, had a sleep to recover, and had a wonderful jungle dinner. The hope was that we would miss some of their special bits, and just preach and minister. God has a sense of humour. We still had all of the ‘special bits’ and finished at 10.30 ready for our pick up at 6.45 the next morning. The plan was to continue till midnight, but Jen had a word!
Great start to our 3 days.

Pucallpa Feb 09- Intro- Part 1

I had the privilege to go to Pucallpa for the 3rd time last week, but this time not just with my Father in Law, Julian, but also our senior leaders Eduardo and Cecilia.

Julian, Eduardo and Cecilia on the plane to Pucallpa. (Julian is the white one!)

Again I’m sure I learned more than I taught the people there. I really enjoyed our previous visit there in November last year, and we saw many amazing things happen, and felt we helped many people, and had been a real blessing.

I had suggested to Jen Harris (our contact there, an American missionary) that we could do 3 mini conferences on Praise and Worship and the Holy Spirit, 2 areas I felt that could be helped easily by ourselves.
The plan was that Eduardo and Cecilia would talk on Praise and Worship, as this is a real gifting of theirs, and Julian and I would speak on the Holy Spirit.
The plan was that we would arrive Monday night at 21.40 more or less. The first day we would start by doing a conference at a Shipibo church, and invite several different communities of Shipibo people from around Pucallpa and the surrounding areas.

Some of the Shipibo teenagers in national dress

Day 2 we would travel for about 2 hours to one of the satellite churches of the main Luz Divina (Divine Light) church, in the middle of the jungle and invite several other churches that were surrounding it. The final day we planned to have the conference in the main church of Luz Divina, before leaving to get a plane at 22.15.

Eduardo and I outside the Shipibo church

Each conference would start by Eduardo and Cecilia leading worship, and then Eduardo talking about the heart of worship. Following a break I was due to talk about who is the Holy Spirit and what he does, followed by lunch. After lunch the plan was for the pastors and leaders to go to a workshop with Julian on living and serving in the power of the Holy Spirit, worship leaders and worship band members to go to a workshop by Eduardo on how to lead worship, and the women to go to a workshop about being a woman with Cecilia.
The plan was that we would finish with a final session at 7pm in the evening about the power of the Holy Spirit, followed by a ministry session.
This was the plan, and we kept to it more than has happened with previous agendas on previous visits, however when in the jungle you live with jungle time, organisation and you are flexible!!!

Cool nail painting/varnish of one of the Shipibo girls

Pucallpa Nov 08 Part 2

Following our TV appearance, time for a quick spot of breakfast before off to visit an Indigenous community in the village of San Fransisco. I have a real heart for such people, and would love to be more heavily involved with them. We eventually arrived 2 hours later, after getting lost and the rains starting. (A continuing theme) On our way to San Fransisco

As the rains poured down we walked around the stalls of the Shipibo people, selling their authentic, handmade products. Oseas then said to me 'let's go to the main square and then we need to leave, as we supposed to visit 2 churches this afternoon'. I responded to him 'we must be here for a reason, see if we can find any Christians to encourage, or spend some time with'. We then asked a young lady on the table next to us 'Do you know any churches or Christians here'? 'She responded, 'yes i'm the leader of an Assemblies of God church just round the corner'. What a coincidence, not that I believe in coincidences!

Views of the village of San Fransisco

We went to the church that Judith led and she then announced to her church family that some random weird white people had arrived and were here to share. Well she may not have said all of that.

Judith

Anyway about 20 people of all ages arrived to hear what Julian had to say. Julian preached, I translated into Spanish, and one of the congreagtion translated into Shipibo for those who didn't understand Spanish.Outside the church.

This was the 2nd time I have done this, and it was a great honour again.

Julian preaching, i'm translating, and then Manuel is translating again
These guys really appreciated our visit for several reasons. Firstly I believe it was a divine appointment, which nearly never happened. Secondly, Judith who has been the leader of the church for only a year and is only 21 (I think taking the job over from her Dad because he died a year ago) really needs support, as she recieves no outside support from her denomination and also she is obviously still very unexperienced. Our prayer is that a great team will be formed there and they will continue to see amazing things.
After preaching there we helped the members of the church to learn how to pray for each other and we again saw 2 or 3 healings. God is good. The Shipibo people praying for each other with Oseas and Julian overseeing

Following this time we left and headed back for lunch back at the church 2 hours late according to out itineary. Following lunch we visted another of the 24 church plants in Pucallpa called Las Melinas'. I shared and we then prayed for healing, and 1 old man who could hardly walk was healed and was nearly able to jump around. The joy of Jesus was obvious to see.

We concluded the day by preaching in another of the church plants called Tushmuy. This was a church I visited in March, and it was great to see these young pastors Manuel and his wife Jovannah again, leading their church forward. Again following a sermon (battling against insects of all types) on Stephen we again prayed for healing and the Holy Spirit and we saw the evidence of God's power in action again. Jovannah leading some of the worship at Tushmuy church