This past week my team got to have a once and a lifetime experience. We arrived in Iquitos, Peru by plane on October 1.
Iquitos is the largest city in the world not accessible by land and is located in the Amazon Jungle. The day after we arrived we took a boat for 12 hours to reach a small village of 500 people along the Amazon River.
We slept in hammocks on the boat and rode with the locals as well as chickens, puppies, spiders, and a lot of plantains.
My team arrived in the tiny town of San Jose late at night. We walked along a concrete path through the village to the pastor’s home where we were staying. We set up our hammocks and mosquito nets and immediately fell asleep after a long day of travel.
We finally saw the village the next day.
This is what the typical houses looked like in San Jose.
The village was extremely run down and the people live off of very little. However, the villagers were so kind and generous. They were so content with their lives and with what they had. At first the locals would just stare at us as we walked through the town. The town is so remote that they rarely receive any visitors. However, by the afternoon all of the children in the village were playing and interacting with us. All of the children would swarm around us, hold our hands, hug us and jump all over us. It was extremely overwhelming at times to have literally 20 or 30 children surrounding me and pulling on my hair or tackling me to the ground, yet I kept hearing Jesus say “my kingdom belongs to such as these.” God really opened my eyes to how much he truly loves and cares about each one of his children.
After visiting the school my teammates and I had the sweet opportunity to sit around with some of the children and pray with them as well as teach them the importance of prayer.
This was the little church in the village. We attended church services both nights we were in the village. During the second church service we attended my team got to lead worship songs, share testimonies, and preach a short message.
Although our time in San Jose was short, it was extremely impactful. My eyes were opened to a whole different life and culture from my own. These people live in little huts, sleep in hammocks, deal with extreme heat and multiple bugs. They live a life that seems extremely uncomfortable to me and they way I am used to living, yet they are so full of joy and contentment. I may never get to go back to the little town of San Juan ever again, but I am so grateful for the three days I got to spend loving on the people, swimming in the Amazon River, playing games in the rain, and sharing the good news of the gospel to the remote villagers. I am so incredibly in awe that this is the life God has given me to live and that because I answered his calling I had the opportunity to go to the Amazon Jungle.
