One of my teammates profoundly stated after we had shortly arrived to the Mojos, “God must REALLY love these people.” For so much work, effort, and planning along with the danger and time commitment, it’s INTENSE to hike out here. The depth of God’s love for these people we had hiked so far and endured so much to see was made very real and relevant to us.
The majority of our time in the Mojos was spent encouraging the church there. Christianity is still relatively new (only about five years old) and they had a lot of questions. With how far removed they are it’s not like they can just download a podcast, pick up a new study Bible, google a pertinent question, or even have a conversation with other believers. We got to sit down at the kitchen table of the local pastor and open up a time of questions and conversations. Where is the passage about David and Goliath found? Tell me more about the importance of the Lord’s supper. Where does it talk about ____? It was an awesome time where they could ask valid questions that they rarely had the opportunity to ask anyone else.
We helped with church! Two services on Sunday where we preached and shared testimonies. Worship in Bolivia was very different than any other worship I’ve encountered. Someone managed to carry a huge keyboard and speaker through the jungle because sure enough their tiny mud church contained one (a solar panel was used to allow it to work). 90’s mix tape tracks would blare as one of the presets on the keyboard while the pastor, also worship leader, would add some synthetic noted keyboard playing. His wife would grab the microphone and sing. (So much amplification for such a tiny room, but it brought them joy). The general style of singing was high and off-key, but it didn’t matter. Whoever got up to sing, sang with all their heart! While it wasn’t specifically pleasing to my ears, it brought my heart joy at how it encouraged the believers there. At some points we sang some a cappella worship and Christmas songs (because yes, we spent Christmas there!) They appreciated our service of singing to them, but I think they preferred their own style of music.
As a passion of mine, I spent the majority of my time in the Mojos playing and interacting with the kids. They are in some ways so shy and reserved, yet they come right up to your tent as soon as they know you’re awake. However, when you first come out to play and talk to them, they run away. I guess it’s fair to be leery of strange white girls who randomly show up one day!
With the limited resources and language barrier, you have to be creative to incite connection among them. Our first activity was drawing shapes, animals, etc in the dirt with rocks or our fingers. We built some trust and tested our communication with few words. As you begin interacting with a few kids, the rest of them see and come running to join. Soon I’m teaching them how to play duck, duck, goose or pato, pato, ganzo. They LOVE it! Calli and I teamed up and taught them all the games we could recall from our childhoods and teach with our limited broken Spanish: tag, relay races, Marco Polo, sharks and minnows, building pyramids, acting like various animals. We had a blast and they were so eager and excited to have new playmates! One rainy morning Calli and I brought the little paper and markers we had to the church to create an indoor activity for the kids. We got a Quechua Bible from the pastor and had them each write out John 3:16 in Quechua. They fear Quechua is a dying language, so the pastor was so pleased to see them all writing out of the Quechua Bible. Soon the pastor brought recycled calendar pages cut up that gave us larger pieces of paper to draw on. We each wrote verses in Spanish and Quechua for them to hang up in the small church. Shannon brought her watercolor palette to leave for the children and they begin to fingerpaint. They all chose to draw the mountains surrounding them with rivers and various animals. It was so beautiful to see their creativity come out!
One of our opportunities to serve the community was to help set up a volleyball court and play volleyball with them! As one of the few sports I actually know the rules for and enjoy, I was totally pumped to play. In such a small village, they generally don’t have enough available people to play a real game. It was such a poignant memory and moment to have such a stellar backdrop of gorgeous mountains while we just played a fun game of volleyball and that was called ministry. You never know what a day on the World Race will look like!
On the last day I ended up ssssiiiiccckkk. I’m not sure if it was the untreated water we had to drink (our water purification options were accidentally lost on the way there) or very oily and sketchy looking soup they prepared for us or something else. But I felt like I had the stomach flu, throwing up and down, sore back and muscles, extreme fatigue, and feverish. On our LAST day of the short time we had in the Mojos I was sick and didn’t have the energy or ability to do anything but lay in my tent. This is where I started to question God a bit. Why the heck are you letting this happen on my last day? You called me out here to serve them! But most concernedly, how on Earth was I going to hike with my pack all the way back?! Especially because we were supposed to shave an entire day off our travel back and make it in two days. It seemed impossible and I wanted to doubt the Lord. But He reminded me of His faithfulness and that He had always provided the strength I needed. Maybe it wasn’t exactly when I wanted it, but He always came through. So I had to let go and release it all to Him. Okay, God, I’m going to trust that You have a plan and You’re going to come through. Sure enough, I wake up the next morning and I’m feeling SO much better! Almost like it was a 24-hour flu bug. Praise the Lord! He shows up and gives us the strength we need right as we need it! Not always much before because He wants us to trust and rely on Him.
After we have breakfast and begin to say our goodbyes, our guide Mowgli tells us that the pastor, his wife and a few others are journeying to our halfway point to visit the town there. They’re happy to take two of our packs on their mules so we don’t have to carry them. WHAT?! Praise the Lord!!! We take all the heavy items out of our packs and cram it into the two packs going on the donkeys. What a huge blessing! Our packs become much lighter and much more manageable to carry.
On our way out of town we stop by a home on the outskirts of the village but still technically part of the Mojos community. One of the daughters of the family here has cerebral palsy. As if living in the remote jungle isn’t hard enough, imagine having a child with such a large special need. We chatted with the family for a bit and prayed over them and their daughter. Sure enough though, the two brothers there were packing up because they were headed to the same place we were! They also offered to take two more of our packs! WHAT again?! We got to lighten our packs even more and carry next to nothing! The provision of the Lord is astounding!
We made it to our halfway point that night and were a little nervous about resuming the next day with the full weight of our packs. Almost comically, God provided again. The brothers were going to journey all the way to Virgen del Rosario with their mules to pick up an order and could carry all our packs the rest of the way there. It just didn’t even seem real that we could be so fortunate! God was so faithful to provide and be our strength when we were weak.
There were many more beautiful moments and aspects of God’s provision throughout the hike that mentioning them all would take forever. But I wanted to take the time to document these testaments specifically. After this hike and journey the faithfulness of the Lord isn’t just theory for me or something I proclaim to get warm fuzzies. It’s a fact that I have lived out and experienced in a huge way. May I never forget or downplay His provision and faithfulness!
