A Shipibo jungle Wedding

JUNGLE NOVEMBER 2012: PART 3

We were really honoured as a team to have Dennis and Charmian helping us.  They are leaders of church in another part of Lima and it was great to draw on their ministry experience. 

They did a wonderful talk on covenant with your spouse and also covenant with your kids, focusing on their spiritual walk. This was a real needed area in the life of these Shipibo people. I was so blessed to be part of a team helping to lead these guys into a new deeper experience of love for our God and in their marriages and families. 

Traditional Shipibo dancing at the wedding.

We heard testimonies from men and women, lay leaders and church leaders about how their spiritual eyes were being opened.  They talked of scales being removed from their eyes and closed or immature beliefs being changed. Some realised for the first time that it was ok to include your family in your mission and ministry.  A pastor realised that the church was less important than his relationship with his 16 year old son. It was a revelation that the family is more important than the church, but not God and that loving God is not the same as loving the church at the neglect of your family.  

Erling and Maritza in their traditional outfits 

Following the times of confession, many pastors and leaders saw bright futures for their marriages. This is wonderful in a culture where most marriages are functional (often arranged) and made for protection, provision, and child bearing and not always love. This I know will now begin to change.

Mark, his kushma, and Marcial

This was massively highlighted by the wedding of Erling and Maritza on the Friday night. Starting at 7pm sharp, the 10 people present were calling all the attendees by microphone. At 7.20 incredibly there was over 200 people there celebrating the first Shipibo religious wedding in this village. What a honour to be presiding over it.

With the happy couple

We started with the short (very)cultural section and it was wonderful to see both Erling and Maritza, and many other women dressed in traditional costume. I was lent a kushma or traditional male outfit and far too small traditional headwear. Very few people own these outfits due to the cost and so there was only 3 at the whole wedding. Following more singing and the traditional Shipibo dance section I was asked to lead the modern marriage vows. 

Here comes the bride with her Dad.

The whole event was very emotional and a real pioneering step towards seeing a more united God loving church and people. It is so amazing to be involved with the Shipibo church and especially with Oikos Selva.

Starting next year I plan to be there once a month to really start to intensively train our leaders.  We also hope to lead some short term teams there and carry on the learning community conferences we have started. 

Pucallpa May 2012: Shipibo Women

AnnaLou with Ana one of the leaders in San Juan

AnnaLou said to me in our lunch time meeting on Wednesday ´you are starting a feminist revolution with the Shipibo women´. What she was saying is that I was beginning to help a process of empowering women, especially in ministry.

I  have been learning recently about leadership in covenant, and how when we use discipleship as our operating system, and not church the leader of the church is two in one and not just one man (as is the norm). This means that Anna and I are the leaders, not just myself on my own. We have been very blessed in this area as we have done this from the beginning of our ministry here in Peru, mainly due to the fact that until recently it has only been Anna and I in our team, and as an extrovert I have needed Anna´s wisdom and counsel. 
 I was sharing this with all the Shipibo leaders  at most potential opportunities and I could see that  God was doing something special.

The Leaders from Calleria with Vilma in pink.

 He was changing a culture. Normally the Shipibo culture is a male dominated structure where the man is the dominant leader. He has been the hunter gatherer  and the women have had to follow. This actually happens physically as well as the women follows behind the man when they are walking to a destination, and never to the side.  Added to this men receive education and their wives rarely receive the same opportunities. This is now changing but it means that female leaders over thirty are reticient in general to speak in Spanish, only Shipibo, not the case with male leadersIn addition the men have thought that a woman has no role in ministry as they are uneducated and have no giftings. This has now begun to change since this community experience. Nearly every single female leader in the learning community was speaking 10 times more by the end of our time together than at the beginning.

Cazilda sharing her testimony about how God is showing her new things



Doria being prayed for by Nancy



Doria, Cazilda, and Vilma know they have a role now, one that will help not just their lives, and their family´s live, but many other families and Shipibo women, as well as non Shipibo tribeswomen, and even men.

This can be easily highlighted by a testimony from Doria sharing how she now knows she can now teach the women how to love Jesus better. Even though it has been a real struggle for her to even understand the teaching,and especially trying to understand the discipleship mentality of covenant partnership. Her fears have been replaced by faith. She says that she now know what she is called to do for the rest of her life, in her words, ´until she dies´.

Pucallpa May 2012: Background

Rosa and her mum Vilma

Last month Shaun, Nancy, AnnaLou, Rosa (her first time flying) and I (Mark) went to the jungle again, this time to do what is called a learning community. We went from Sunday night to Friday night and taught 2 sessions a day Monday to Thursday, and did consultations on Friday morning.

This was an amazing time, and I can honestly say my best trip to Pucallpa, and the Amazon jungle out of the 10 visits i have done. It may not have been the most exotic visit as we were inside 4 walls of a church building for the majority of our time. (Thank you to our friends at Luz Divina church for the provision of their building). However it was the beginning of something really special.

Marcial

However let me backtrack to give you a few more details so this makes more sense.  In January of this year a small team from Oikos went to the jungle for 2 weeks.  This was a time to identify what was the next step for our ministry in the jungle. We had 2 kairos moments (in our language these are moments that define our lives and we have a choice to grow from them or ignore them). The first was that there was an enormous need for supporting and equipping Shipibo jungle churches, and especially their unsupported leaders, in and around Pucallpa. Secondly this would not be even vaguely possible if we did not have a team of Shipibo leaders managing and running this process. We also knew that this team needed to be run by Marcial and his wife Doria.
Therefore when we got back to Lima we started to think and pray about the way forward, and we felt that the correct direction was to start to huddle (in otherwords to coach and/or equip) Marcia and Doria, firstly face to face as they were in Lima, and then by internet as they moved back to Pucallpa, as they had felt the call of God to do exactly what we wanted to support them in. Anyway to try and keep the story short(ish) Maricial formed a team of 3 people with their wives, and 2 young single men.

Erling with Kaleb

The aim in the beginning was that Miguel, and his wife Vilma (Rosa´s parents) would oversee the church in Calleria, Marcial and Doria would oversee San Juan, and Florienzo and Cazilda would oversee the planting of the church in Egypt (yes that really is the name), Erling and Rafael, the two single guys would help with this process. Well this was the idea before we arrived in Pucallpa for the Learning Community.

Miguel being lunch preperation!!!

Catch the Fire in Pucallpa

Astra showing how she loves the young ones no matter where she is.

The traditional dance and dress of the Shipibo women welcoming us.

After the ILSOM conference we went to the jungle with the Catch the Fire team. This was Mark's eighth visit to the jungle, and third to the Shipibo village of Nuevo san Juan where we are supporting the church. We had an amazing time there even though we arrived Sunday night and returned to Lima on the Wednesday morning. Pucallpa's weather welcomed us on Monday as it rained like only happens in tropical climates until about 2-3pm.

Angela, part of our church leadership, being the joker that she is.

Following the rain the blessings began. Our intern Haseena, who is a doctor, when not in Peru was able to visit some of the houses in the village.

Haseena with a small proportion of the kids in the village.

We also had a few of the team praying for the people who received medical attention. In this first house we saw our first healing, as the founding pastor's wife, who was partially deaf in one ear, and completely deaf in the other was able to hear better than some of the Catch the Fire team who were testing that this lady wasn't just trying to make us feel better, and was really supernaturally healed. God is good.

Praying for the church members and visitors, just before we left.

We also were able to give out 6 suitcases of donations that the team had brought with them, shoes, clothes, toys, and toiletries. This took nearly 2 hours to finish doing, and again was a real blessing to me, seeing kids without shoes, having shoes for the first time.

Tuesday was also an amazing day of blessing, as we were able to serve food to the whole village. Over 450 people were present. Some people had a stable meal for that day. Also we saw over 250 people when we set up our makeshift medical clinic. Photos to follow.

We also finished with an amazing church service with over 200 people present and many recommitting their lives to God and the church. We also got to pray for every person in the church.

I am already awaiting my 9th visit which are going to do just after Christmas.

It is such a blessing to work with people who are so hungry and needy.

Pucallpa November 2010 Part 4 Observations and Thoughts

One of the other interesting conversations that we had while in Nuevo San Juan was when Wes was asking some of the men about marriage, and two of the men said they were ‘brought’ a wife at 17. Their spouses were younger. The third man didn’t remember how old he was. They all said that they were still with their spouses today. Traditions however are now changing and becoming more similar to the western tradition. Is this better, I do not know because even though we choose our bride or bridegroom, it is still a choice to work through the problems and the trials.
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?

Pucallpa November 2010 Part 3

Having a tour of Nuevo San Juan including eating fruit of the trees.

Day 3 was a later start at 9 o clock, and we took a moto taxi to a Shibipo settlement 13.5 kilometres outside of Pucallpa to Nuevo San Juan. The church in Nuevo San Juan which is falling down!

We spent 2 days there teaching, sharing, eating, and doing community. Mark teaching

This was a really blessed time as we received a very warm welcome and it felt like we had a new family. Free hair cutting.

At the end of our time there the leadership confirmed that they wanted to work with us and be advised and overseen by myself, and our church. The busy main street in Nuevo San Juan!

This is an exciting prospect as we have a large heart for the jungle. There is great need, financially, emotionally and spiritually in Lima, and the needs are even greater in the jungle and the Andean mountains, which make up most of Peru's landmass. We are now in a process with the church in Nuevo San Juan to discover whether it is God’s will that they are part of us. We finished our two days by trying out restaurants that we may well use in the medical campaign in April. The food we ate was really good and certainly a possibility for April. Are you called to come on this trip? Please let us know as soon as possible.

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.

Bushmead Team Week 2: Jungle Part 2

The guys outside Luz Divina church.

Wednesday was a very similar day to Tuesday as we went to another Shipibo community called San Francisco. Arriving there was done by very beaten up taxis which could crash at any point, as I have witnessed. We shared the same messages in covenant and kingdom, identity and obedience to our Father, and the authority and power of the King. The Shipibo ladies singing and dancing for us.

To an untrained eye the Shipibos didn’t seem to be connecting with the message as they were not reacting in any way, and appeared to be unemotional. However we were again showered with gifts, their livelihood, as a way of thanking us. Another message I am learning about different cultures, and their reactions. Lili with one of the Shipibo girls in their stall of Shipibo crafts.

Again we seemed to offer so little to them but we were received with an amazing welcome and thanked for being there.

Daniel and the Shipibo children in San Fransisco

Thursday was more of the same but in the wonderful church where we had been sleeping and eating, Luz Divina, and again we had the chance of sharing and then ministered, which was wonderful as we saw God showing his people how he loved them, and wants to heal them.

Anna translating for Dan on covenant, and Peck, Dale and Stuart making a human 'triangle'.

We finished our time in Pucallpa on Friday which involved a trip to the Lagoon Yarinacoha and the Jungla Zoo, which was a wonderful time to relax and meditate on our jungle trip. The two highlights for me were firstly were the big cat who decided Peck was on his territory and took matters into his own hands and let him know who was boss by marking his territory in the feline way!! Peck's best friend!!

The second highlight was taking a walk with Dan and Daniel in the jungle and seeing the trees, the butterflies, experiencing the smells and the sounds that you see on David Attenborough’s films.

The afternoon was spent treasure hunting. In treasure hunting you pray for clues about people and places and then in teams you find these clues. Well my team was myself, Jude, Peck and Colin. We had many strange clues including market, centre of town, Pocahontas, blue tree, blue door, rudder on a ship, mermaid, and many others. Well we set off for the central square, but when we arrived after passing the markets nearby, we found that the central square was closed for renovation. Well we looked around for a cafe to stop and reanalyse where we supposed to go next. The cafe we found was called centre of town, round the corner from the market. We thought ‘we’re in the right place’. Well we sat down and ordered drinks and saw the massive life-size wooden carving next to the table which was a jungle lady in tribal costume!! We then saw a picture on the wall with a house with a blue door, next to the wooden ship next to the mermaid. I then saw the man on the table next to us with is blue t-shirt with a tree on it. Who says God doesn’t speak today?

Bushmead Team Week 2: Jungle Part 1

I love my mummy!

Week 2 began with the Sunday services, Spanish, as usual, in the morning and English in the evening for the visit of the team.

Monday started with last preparations for our jungle trip. We arrived in Pucallpa with our team of 14, including Daniel and Joel, and we spent our first day in the jungle relaxing, the boys enjoying it in the pool, and we all got an early night ready for the boat trip on Tuesday.

Jude and Elizabeth at our impromptu toilet stop in the 'back garden' of an unsuspecting landowner

Tuesday was a dawn start, getting to the boat and travelling down a tributary of the Amazon, the river Ucayali (the name of the province as well) and we arrived in a small river port about three and half hours later. Hey what's happening?

We arrived to a bustling port filled with moto-taxis waiting to take us the ‘twenty Shipibo minutes’ to the church awaiting us. After a forty-five minute journey we arrived to the amazing Shipibo welcome, this again blew me away.

Nuevo (New) Ceylan was a place that will stay with me for many years as we were received as family and treated as that. Huts in Nuevo Ceylan

These people had had no white visitors in 36 years and felt very honoured for us to be there. This gave a real openness to a message of covenant and kingdom that Dan and I shared, which was illustrated by using two triangles of the Father and the King, using branches from the Amazon jungle, when in Rome!!

The beautiful Shipibo children.

Following ministry we donated the suitcase of clothes that we had gathered from various people, and this was received with the most grateful tears I have ever seen. To me it was a old battered suitcase full of used donated clothes. To them it was love from foreigners, and clothes that are so desperately needed.

Preaching in the Amazon Jungle

Following prayers of thanksgiving, they gave us lots of gifts to say how much they appreciated us being here.

They have so little but they give from their hearts. Do we do this in the West?