When we first got to Peru, we joined a church in Lima and set off on an adventure in the Peruvian jungle. Our destination was a village called Matzuriniari home to the Ashaninka people. A few years back the pastor first introduced the gospel to these people but have been visiting them ever since. They now have an Ashaninka pastor and pastor’s assistant. They are learning more and more with every trip but just like every new and longtime believer there is still a lot of work to do.
This mission trip within a mission if you will reminded me of a mission trip I went on a few moons ago when I was in 10th grade. It consisted of well meaning, very energized, and loving people coming to an unknown place and taking pictures of literally everything.
Our arrival to the village brought excitement to the people who rarely see outsiders and many goodies and novelties. It also brought about the question of the true impact of mission trips. To some, all that was done was absolutely impactful and to some maybe it was a bit of harm. Did we leave a lasting impact by bringing them things? Did we enable dependency?
Traveling around the world and seeing different churches carry out the Bible in different ways has been eye opening to say the least. I’ve seen things I want to now help implement at my church when I get home and I’ve seen things I’ve had to pray to the Lord to help me see how He is working even within something I don’t agree with.
There is always room for improvement and a little education goes a long way. There are definitely areas that one must be aware of such as taking away from their traditions, or not leaving anything to sustain them once the missionaries leave. Then there are other areas where change is the primary concern such as advocating for the women of the village and young girls of 12 or 14 years old that are forced to marry men nearly in their 30s. One example is a girl of 14 years old that was pregnant and when asked if she was happy to have a child she burst into tears saying she didn’t want a baby.
Throughout the few days we were there we did lots of songs with the kids, visited some people a couple hours into the jungle, there were preachings, temple painting, physical therapy sessions, medical clinic, hygiene lessons, baptism, Bible were given out, and lots of hugs and smiles.
Hard topics were addressed, fathers were scolded for giving their daughters into marriage too young, they were encouraged to protect them and love them. A man that already chose to follow the Lord a few trips back explained some of the misconceptions and how he had done a lot out of ignorance. He explained how fathers couldn’t hug their daughters because it had sexual connotations, he told the rest of the people listening that now they knew better. A beautiful example was given when the pastor from the church leading the trip called a young girl from the crowd and gave her a loving and fatherly hug showing how it doesn’t have to be that way.
Some may have left with desires to help more, to be there longer, and with good reason. We were there and in a blink of an eye we were gone. The pastor later said in a Sunday message however, how he thought he was done with the village because they had heard the gospel and now had an established church and pastors, but he said the Lord has made it clear in his heart how much more work there was to do. How there was discipleship to be done, and how full time ministry opportunities were opening up there with other missionaries feeling the tug of Matzuriniari on their hearts. Needless to say, this was a relief and I look forward to seeing many more trip updates in the future. Who knows, maybe YOU reading this right now will join me in returning one day!
