Up at 5 a.m to pray and read with the guys.  We read from Psalms 119 thru 150.  Awesome God!  After breakfast we went to pray for sister Patricia, she was in a lot of pain (everyone thinks it is appendicitis).  I could only urge the family to get her to the hospital in Tarapoto as soon as possible.

At about 10 a.m we headed up river in a peke peke (boat with a motor, the sound the motor makes sounds like 'peke-peke') to the next village.  Along the way, the propeller shaft hit a submerged log and the whole motor came flying out of its socket, flipped over and landed on Pablo's leg.  He had a pretty good gash and lost plenty of blood.  In the end he was alright, but the peke peke was busted and we were stranded on the banks of the river a few miles from the village.  There was nothing else to do but to set out hacking through the jungle with machetes until we found a trail.

After an exciting trek slogging through mud, eating a variety of jungle fruits and avoiding the many poisonous critters we finally made it to Puerto Mercedes, where we promptly began our regular hut to hut evangelistic visits.  After giving out N.T's and tracts to a lot of people one family gave us a fine dinner of rice, beans and majaz which was muy rico (very yummy).  That night the normally abandoned church building was so packed out I thought the elevated rotting wood floor was going to cave in (by some miracle it didn't).  I preached from Mark 14:66-72 and everyone was very attentive.  I was able to deal with several souls for a good amount of time afterward and I think the Lord was really working.  Many people begged us to return and help resurrect this church that no longer meets together at all.  If only there were 40 dedicated available men to serve in 40 different villages that all have a similar story.

At about midnight we said our good-byes, got into our canoe (the motor had been re-secured and brought up to the village by that time) and we headed into the pitch dark to sail the mighty Huallaga river.  Despite the tremendous darkness, Pablo our peke peke driver, had no problems guiding us back to Papa Playa where we happily retired to our tents (in the company of rats).