Another trip to the jungle was successful. Mike Hyatt and Kyle Brown from Calvary
Baptist church in Helena, Montana joined me on this trip to the village of
Mayapo. We flew to Lima and made our way
to the church in Barranco to meet friends and pass the time getting a few
supplies and eating our last good meal before we caught the night bus to Tarma.
In Lima we picked up our friend Ronaldo, who
would translate for Mike. Ronaldo is
from Lima and is a very good translator.
We took a cab to the bus stop, which is in a very bad part of Lima, and
we waited for our bus to arrive. A guy
selling dirty magazines, while proclaiming to be a Christian, took up a lot of
our time while waiting. We talked to him
for a long time and we shared the gospel with him. He loved to talk so I was suspicious of him
being a distraction for someone to rob us.
We jumped on the bus at 9:30 and drove all night to Tarma. The bus stopped once in the middle of the
night for a bathroom break and it almost left with Ronaldo still in the
bathroom. A lady yelled at the bus
driver to stop, and Ronaldo made a mad dash to the bus as it was leaving. The bus travels from Lima at sea level,
ascends to one of the highest drivable passes in the world at 14,500 feet above
sea level, and then back down to about 800 feet above sea level in Satipo.
We arrived in Tarma at about 5:00am and found two Moto taxis, which we overloaded with gear to drive us to our hotel. We checked in and tried to sleep, but a hotel worker awakened us at 9:00am to tell us it was time for breakfast. We ate bread and eggs with bologna in it, and drank bad coffee and pineapple juice.
We met with Pastor Carlos at the little church
at 3:00pm. The little church in Tarma is
suffering. All the “churches” in town
got together to form an alliance against the little church, calling it a
cult. The members are shunned and
harassed in the little town. They said
they are very alone and long for fellowship.
They were very grateful that we came and wanted us to teach for 4 hours
that day. We gave Carlos some books from
the Gospel Coalition, for which he was so happy. Mike preached first on the nine marks of a
healthy church, and then we had a question and answer time, which went very
well.
We took a coffee break at 5:00pm
and then continued again at 7:00pm. I
taught on the mission of the church and what a healthy church member should
seek. We again had a time of questions
and answers, which went on for over an hour.
There were a lot of questions about church discipline, unqualified
pastors, persecution, and various others.
Before we left we prayed over a young couple with two little babies. It is so great to be with Christians that are
hungry for the Word of God.
We left Tarma early the next morning. We contracted a car to drive us to the jungle
city of Pichanacki. The trip went by
fast as we descended from the Sierras to the jungle. We arrived in three hours and met up with
Pastor Roric and Freddy. We had a good
lunch with them, gave them some books, and then headed to Satipo in another
car. Roric is a very solid brother who
is well educated and has one of the most biblical churches in this area of Peru. He decided to join us on our trip to the
villages and would meet us the next day in Satipo.
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| Roric of Pichanaki |
We arrived to Satipo in an hour, checked into
our hotel, and rested for a bit. Pastor
Miguel soon came to the hotel to tell us the change in plans. A man always has his own ideas and plans, but
God often changes them for His perfect plan.
Wilder, the pastor of the church in Nazaret, said we couldn’t hike the
20 kilometers to his village because a storm destroyed the trail. He did arrange for all the teachings to be
done in the village of Mayapo, on the Tambo River. This was God’s providence because we have
wanted to teach in Mayapo for years, but they were against us doing so. Now the door was wide open. Wilder even invited other Ashaninkas from
other villages, so now there should be three villages represented. This turn of events reminded of Paul’s call
to Macedonia. Acts 16:6-10 tells us:
“And they went through the region of Phrygia
and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in
Asia. 7 And when
they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit
of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So,
passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And
a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there,
urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had
seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that
God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
God had a different plan for Paul, and for us
as well on our trip. We were very
excited to see what was about to unfold for us.
Mike preached very well at Miguel’s church that
night. We had good fellowship with the
brothers and then went to Miguel’s house for the first of many bowls of hot
soup we would eat over the next week. We
talked until late and then went to bed.
The next morning we met Roric and Ivan (A young
man from Miguel’s church who decided to go with us). The power went out in Satipo early in the
morning, which prevented our ride from showing up. Miguel went and found a truck to take the
seven of us. We piled in the truck and
drove to Puerto Ocopa in 1½ hours.
Puerto Ocopa is a dumpy river town that resembles a toilet more than a
town. We ate at a shady “restaurant”
before getting on the boat. Kyle and I
chose a dish called Lomo Saltado, while the rest of the crew was inclined to
eat jungle rat. It seemed like a bizarre
world as we ate strange food in a strange town as we watched an episode of
Bonanza in Spanish that was playing on TV.
With our bellies full, which is not a good
thing before a 5 hour boat ride with no bathroom, we boarded our vessel. The boat was filled with over 50 people and
an innumerable amount of cargo. The
seats went from gunnel to gunnel, so to get in your seat you had to walk a thin
rail on either side of the boat. It is
hard to do this balancing act while holding gear, so some people opt to have
their gear passed from person to person.
We had a good laugh at Kyle when a baby was being passed from the bow to
the stern. Ronaldo took the kid and
turned to hand it to Kyle, saying, “Take the baby. You must take the baby.” Now Kyle had it in his mind that he would be
responsible for taking care of the baby for the next five hours, so he told
Ronaldo to take care of the baby himself.
After further explanation, I told him to pass the baby back behind
him. We all laughed.
We stopped at a military checkpoint, which is the
last form of law for the next 1000 miles of jungle. The military man checked the names on the
list and found there were more people in the boat than names on the list. This started a long inspection of each person. Mike used his passport to buy his passage,
but then put it in his backpack, which was now at the bottom of the innumerable
cargo. The man came to us and asked Mike
for his passport. Mike gave him his
temporary Montana drivers license, which meant nothing to the Peruvian military
man. With some careful talking, we
talked the guy into letting us go. Close
call.
After about an hour down the river, the young,
inexperienced pilot got the boat stuck on a shallow spot in the river. After being unable to get the boat unstuck,
he received many new nicknames from the passengers. Several men jumped into the river and pushed
the boat out to save the day.
At the next stop, to the dismay of all the
current passengers, many new passengers squeezed on the boat.
One lady, balancing on the narrow bar, was
carrying a small dog upside down, by its back legs. As she passed over Kyle, we noticed she also
had a full grown, live chicken under her shirt.
We had another good laugh as we continued down the river.
We arrived to Mayapo after five long
hours. We me the pastor of the church
and Wilder, talked for a while, and then were escorted to our place of
lodging. It was a tin roof with an elevated
wood floor, and no walls, which was perfect.
We hung our hammocks. Before we
went to sleep we gathered around the table in the dark and ate hot water with a
few grains of oatmeal, crackers, boiled green bananas, and yucca.
