Hi All,
Hope you are having a blessed time this Thanksgiving. I wanted to write you all a quick update of the past few weeks.
After the confraternidad of the churches, Lucy’s mom arrived in Iquitos. She has been sick this past year and where she lives; there is no good medical care so Lucy has been busy the past few weeks taking her through the medical process here which means arriving at the hospital at 5 a.m. to have a chance of being seen. She is now waiting for the tests to come back to see what is wrong with her.
We have also been buying the materials for the wells that will be put in San Juan de Sinchicuy and to repair the roof in Iquitos. Monday, we took 60 bags of sand on a boat to San Juan de Sinchicuy. We have been waiting for the water to rise to get the materials there and since we had some rain, we tried to take advantage of it. We got half way up the creek and Lucy, Maria (Lucy’s niece) and I had to get out of the boat to walk because the boat would not pass with our weight plus the weight of the sand. We started up a trail where we had no idea where we were. Finally we met a lady who said we were going the wrong way and that we needed to cross the river and go to a trail on the other side. Maria doesn’t know how to swim so I had to swim her across then tried to catch Lucy’s tennis shoes so they would not get wet (no luck there), one started floating down river and Lucy had to swim after it.
Once on the other side of the river, we found another trail which led into a tiny village of 5 houses. After crossing a few log bridges, we came upon a house where the people told us we were once again going the wrong way and pointed us to the trail. This trail led us back to the river where we once again had to cross and finally found the correct trail. I cannot imagine what it was like in earlier days in the jungle when there were no trails. It would be very easy to get lost for days there.
I kept thinking of John 14:6 “ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” when we were walking and will probably use that as the theme of my sermon this Sunday when I have to preach in Iquitos. It is so easy to become lost if we do not have the correct guide.
That night in San Juan de Sinchicuy, we held a church service with a fairly good turnout. This is still a preaching point but the gospel is becoming more widely accepted there which is exciting. I hope someday that we have an actual church there. (Photo of Majas)
Lucy’s
nephew killed a majas which is kind of like a huge rodent and a wallo
which is a large frog for us to eat so we were well fed while we there.We came back to Iquitos yesterday because I had to go to the dentist for an emergency root canal which turned into an extraction. I am very sad to lose that tooth but have to take it in stride.
(Photo of Wallo frog)I can hardly believe that I only have 3 weeks until I will be heading back to Texas. Time has passed so quickly and I know that these 3 weeks will fly by in no time. I am really looking forward to seeing family and friends. I have had a great year here in Peru and will miss the folks here too. I arrive in Austin December 14th at 10:30 a.m. so will have a few days before Christmas to adjust which will be good. It is always a little difficult adjusting back and forth between cultures.
Thank you all so very much for all of your support this year in the Peruvian Amazon whether it was in the form of coming on a mission trip, financial support or prayer support, I am so grateful to the Father for you. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and see you soon.
In Christ,
Kayleen
