Nuevo Triunfo, Santa Ana, Tamshiyacu

June 11, 2010

Hi All,

Hope this email finds you all well. Lucy and I returned today from visiting 3 churches along the Amazon and Tahuayo rivers and I wanted to send an update about these villages. (Some children in Nuevo Triunfo)

We first traveled to Nuevo Triunfo. I had never been to this village before so I was excited to get to see a new place. The pastor from the village came to the conference in Amazonas last October and expressed interest in affiliating with the Wesleyan Church. We left on a boat from Iquitos at 9 a.m. and pulled up to an empty bank at around 3 p.m. We then had to walk about a mile and a half over logs and up hill to the tiny village. We were, as usual met by the children and taken up into the town. As soon as we got there, we found out that we had missed the pastor as he had gone into Iquitos to say goodbye to his son as his son is moving to Cuzco and would be leaving the next day. We had a children’s service with about 25 children attending then held services at night. There is no really good water source in this village. We bathed in about 6 inches of water which is also the drinking water, the water for washing dishes and clothes and where the cows, pigs and ducks drink. It also had noticeable worms in it so I was glad that Lucy had convinced me to bring bottled water this trip. She said she didn’t even feel comfortable drinking this water and she usually doesn’t complain about that type of thing. Here is a picture of the waterhole at the bottom of the hill.

We left the next morning for Santa Ana where the team built a church last year. When we got there, we found out the pastor had gone in a boat to get his daughter but would be back later that day so we washed our clothes and bathed in a stream and had a children’s service. The pastor arrived about 8 and we had a night service announcing a meeting with the church board the next morning at 7 am. Lucy was nervous as she had to discuss some difficult issues with the church but thankfully everything worked out well and we left from there to Tamshiyacu.

We planned to have a service that night in Tamshiyacu but it began to rain and I have been sick with bronchitis and ended up having to go get an injection and nebulizer treatment. We had a service the next evening with over 60 children and a few adults. We do not have a pastor at this church at this time but have a few people that have been keeping it going until the pastor graduates in December. They are all excited that he will be coming and the missions’ team in August will be putting in a cement floor in the church and building a parsonage. We will be returning to Tamshiyacu on June 26^thto have a children’s outreach so we began to make arrangements for that.

All in all it was a fruitful trip. We are going to try to have a class in Iquitosto train the Sunday School teachers from the rivers as many of the villages have been requesting this.

Lucy and I will be headed to Amazonas on Monday where I am going to be teaching a computer class as I said in my last letter, the government gave the children laptops but no one knows how to use them so I am excited that I will be able to help in that area. Please continue to keep the churches in prayer as they continue on in adverse circumstances and please pray for me to be used how God wants me to be. Thanks for all your support.

In Christ

Kayleen