We just wrapped up an epic jungle trip along the Huallaga river! The DITP institute from Lubbock Texas joined us as we visited 6 villages in 9 days. Our long week was filled with children's meetings, hut to hut evangelism, plentiful feasting and open air preaching. We suffered thousands of bug bites, a few sunburns, three swollen ankles, two cases of Covid, two poisonous snake encounters and some general exhaustion, but besides that we ended the trip in pretty good shape :)
The second half of our journey required a sixteen mile hike to get from one set of villages to the next... it took us 11 hours.... We crossed two rivers and numerous smaller creeks. The terrain was steep and the trails were extremely muddy. In order to keep hydrated we had to stop and filter water several times out of the sediment clouded streams. Of course the jungle is always hot and the humidity is oppressive, so after hiking for hours on end with heavy backpacks your energy levels really start to drop. We were thankful for a big rainstorm which came at about midday and brought the temperature down while giving us a good soaking.
Cullen and Josiah were way ahead trailblazing the way for everyone else. Amy and Bria carried their own 40lb packs the entire way. Mya gave her backpack to the pack-animal about halfway through, but persevered on her own two legs to the end. Ellia, our seven year old daughter, went on horseback for most of the way until the animal took a scary fall and slipped down a muddy bank into a creek. The horse somehow avoided crushing Elia and she was okay but pretty shook up.... We thank the Lord for His protection!!!
Finally, after about ten hours of slogging down the trail we arrived at the Toasapa river where some brothers were waiting for us with canoes to take us the rest of the way to the village of Vista Alegre. If they hadn't come we would have been walking in the dark..... which is something that you should definitely avoid in the rainforest!
An hour later we came to shore at the village port there were many people eagerly awaiting our arrival. We were greeted with a lot of hugs and backslaps and hearty handshakes. One brother had slaughtered a pig for us and we had a real feast waiting on the table. That night the whole village came out to the open air meeting. Cullen preached the gospel, Percy gave his testimony and I preached on the return of Christ. The Lord really seemed to use it and there was a great response. But I must say that after eight days of preaching at the top of my lungs my head was hurting and my vocal cords were shredded.
At about 3:00 am the next morning one of the villagers went to the pastors house and woke him up, wanting to get right with the Lord. He said that he couldn't sleep all night because he was thinking about Christ's return and how he wasn't ready. At breakfast we ended up having an epic meeting to address the mans concerns. The house was totally packed out and after a message from Revelation 1:6 two people made decisions for Christ. Shortly afterward everyone made their way down to the river where I baptized three new believers. It was a powerful time and very exciting to see the Lord work!
It was amazing to see the few brothers and sisters in this village spring into action as they quickly prepared a meal for us and then found a place for us to set up our tents. In no time at all the brothers were announcing on the loudspeaker that the gringos would be preaching within the hour at the main square and that everyone was invited to come. Several guys from our team immediately decided to started the meeting with a soccer match between us and the young men from the village..... This really got the people to come out! The villagers always love it if they can beat the "gringos".
After a 4-4 tie I ran out on the cement court, jumped up on a table and started preaching. When I had grabbed everyones attention I gave it over to the team.... (All week long and in every village I delegated responsibilities to our team-members about who would be preaching, who would be singing, who would be giving a testimony, who would be working with kids and who would be doing a skit).... Soon villagers were all around the square straining to hear every word that we were preaching. Three different brothers from the team gave short messages while another gave his testimony. After about an hour and a half of preaching, singing and pleading with souls we left it in the Lord's hands and then went to speak with individuals about what they had just heard. We had some great conversations that lasted late into the night. What a life!
Missions quote for the day by J. Howard Edington: "People who don't believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took him at His word and went East, West, North and South."
Micah for the Tuttle's
