We arrived in Nauta, Peru, a town about two hours from Iquitos, last Monday afternoon to find that many of our expectations of our Amazonian adventure were a little off and many of our negative expectations were met with surprisingly good conditions. We were surprised to find that the Amazonian jungle town we were to minister in is actually not really on the Amazon River but the Maranon River(still really wide like a lake none the less), one of it’s tributaries. We also found out that it’s not a small jungle village we were originally expecting either, Nauta is about 18,000 people. I think in general we were pleasantly surprised to find that the boat we are staying on is a three-story boat that the missionary we are working with, Jorge, built himself. I would venture to say it’s one of the Hilton’s of the Amazonian rivers. There are no alligators or crocodiles on our boat and only a few of us have seen one. The pink dolphins are supposedly real, some of our team has seen some of these fresh water dolphins, I’m still waiting for my sighting of these pink creatures. The mosquitoes are definitely real but not as treacherous as previously explained to us, PRAISE THE LORD! We do have many friends that are spiders, some much larger than others but overall they are not very welcome on our boat. Our mosquito nets are pretty decent and the Peruvian bug spray works pretty well but the 100% DEET does not. To top it all off we have about six Peruvian helpers on our boat. The four ladies cooking for us are amazing servants that make awesome food, right now they are jamming out to Christian music in Spanish, a lot of times they are songs we know in English. It is so sweet to be able to worship together despite the language barrier. Overall, our living conditions are pretty nice, God has definitely exceeded our expectations.
Our ministry here has been right up my alley. We were told coming in that the pastor of the 35 person church has a great vision for youth and children, both of which I love. We were then told that we were expected to entertain the kids with something everyday at 3pm. So the first day we went out without a plan to check out the situation and we ended up putting on an impromptu VBS, the planners on the team didn’t enjoy that too much, so we decided we would put together a committee to organize a Vacation Bible School. Unfortunately many people on our squad have had a bad experience with VBS. Last month some of our squad put on a VBS in Tambo de Mora and many of us ended up backing out as we found other things we enjoyed doing, leaving only a few running VBS. So after a squad meeting we decided that we had to push past how we felt and what we want to do and unify to do what the pastor of the church wants us to do. After a morning of wrestling with God I decided that I needed to step up and lead the VBS, and my first line of business was to not call it the taboo name of VBS anymore so now it’s called Fiesta Con Dios, in English, Party with God. It was a hard decision for me to want to head this up because I really have a heart for the youth ministry. However, I figured I needed to sacrifice what I wanted for what the pastor wants and for what our team needs.
God has been reminding me how he has prepared me for this all of my life. He reminded me of my amazing mom that rocks out with children’s ministry. And to mix all that I have learned from her in with my new found love of Extreme Day Camp at The River, my favorite church in Forsyth, Missouri, I did my best to find a way to do Fiesta Con Dios in a way that we can MAX OUT for Peruvian kids. I definitely have thought a lot about how Brenda Stuck and Cynthia Deaton would go all out for kids all over the world. God has definitely blessed us this week in this ministry. The first day of Fiesta con Dios was a BLAST! We painted their team colors on their faces at the beginning and that led way to a lot of great chants and battle cries. Half way through the first day the rain began to pour down (it’s the rainy season right now and it has literally rained/poured everyday) on the three groups meeting in the park, and it was amazing to see the team leaders and kids embrace the rain with open arms. There were many rain dances and yells and a lot of GREAT SMILES from Peruvians and North Americans. It was awesome to see how God had bigger plans for the day than we did. There were probably close to 150 kids in the park towards the end of the time when the fourth group joined us in the rain. Once we were all together the battle cries of the teams began more as a competition and I know people could hear the chants for many blocks away. It was AWESOME!
Loving kids can often be so wonderful and simple and many times we can over complicate it as well. Really it takes us looking outside of ourselves to what God wants. We often base much of what we do off of our feelings, if we don’t feel like doing something we don’t. If we don’t feel God pushing us in a certain direction we don’t go that way. Our feelings often over-complicate what God wants. Many times we must choose to look past our feelings and really press into what God has for us. This week God had it set up for my squad to love on kids despite our feelings. I had to choose to do what the Lord had set up for us, and because of it I have been blessed. It’s so awesome to know that as we walk through the streets we are seeing kids that we have been able to love on for God. Many times we feel like Jesus with large crowds of Peruvian children hanging on our arms and shirt tails as we walk the streets. I can only hope that by them hanging on to me or through my high fives or smiles that their hearts are being changed and healed for the GLORY OF GOD!
I am excited to see how the Lord will use us this next week. Please pray for unity amongst our team, we must choose to unify for the sake of loving on kids despite our feelings. When the body of Christ works together it is an AMAZING unit. Unity is essential!!! We must choose to unify and seek first the Kingdom of God! Despite where you are and what you are doing, seek first His Kingdom, look for ways that you can unify your family, co-workers, friends, or whatever group you are in. Christ is the perfection of unity.
