Jungle Life!!!

This is us in Nueva York at the Vacation Bible School we were doing. This is one of our peruvian friends Gustavo, and then the niños! The kids learned about going and making disciples of all nations...and this is there craft. It´s the world, with a cross in the middle and people on the outside from all nations!

This is a little bird on my shoulder....I freaked out and couldnt put it on my hand so Sarah put it on my shoulder!

This is a huge iguana that someone found....we also found a little alligator ...which is probably what we bathed with! haha oooo my

This is us on the boat the night before we left....we slept in our hammocks and left early the next morning!

Well guys, Sarah and I successfully made it back to Nauta. We went down river to two different villages doing work alongside the American team that has been here in Nauta for the last 3 weeks. I can not even begin to tell you all how Christ moved in mine and Sarah´s life while gone. These villages are very different from Nauta, and much smaller. I´ll try to do my best to explain, but I probably will not do these stories justice

To start off on a light note.....jungle bugs are HORRENDOUS!! The first night we got there, there were 4 huge torantulas on the side of the building, and as soon as you look down there are 50 million mosquitoes surrounding you. Sarah and I would go to bed every night knowing that a massacre was about to take place. I really do not know how the mosquitoes got in our net, but they did. We would have to kill them by clapping our hands......blooooddddd everywhere! One night Sarah and I crawled into our bed and realized that there were about 4 HUGE bugs in our bedding. We were screaming, laughing, mortified....and we were somehow trying to find the good in the situation. We got those bugs out, but then realized that there were MORE. We killed them and stuck them underneath my bedding...sooo I slept with dead bugs underneath my mat....comforting feeling. The bathroom was amazing......total sarcasm. Everytime we went to the bathroom...we left with bug bites all over our but. Bathing was pretty cool. We would all go down to the river...go down the huge mud slide, and then bathe with the kids from the village.

Now on a more serious note, I want to share a few things that I learned and saw in these two different villages. The first night in the village, we sat outside with the real life team...another team in the jungle associated with the team we were working with...and we sat around and sung worship songs. There were no lights in this village....soo I just sat there looking up at the HUGE sky and all the stars singing praises to Jesus. It´s in those moments where I feel so close to Christ. Even though bugs were biting me through my clothes...I sat there and recognized the greatness of God, and how he desires every man to know Christ.

The first day in Nueva York, we went house to house visiting the people and sharing the gospel. As We sat own with one of the women from the village, we began to ask her if she believed in Christ. She said of of course and that she went to church and her husband was a leader in the church. As we began talking to her, she did not believe that there was a hell or that Jesus even rose again from the grave...which is what Christianity hinges on. I recognized that this town was simply full of religion, but the people really did not know who Christ was. I was heart broken at the fact that we were leaving, and nobody was left there to teach these people about who Jesus really is. How are these people ever supposd to know who God really is, and what the Bible says unless we go and tell them. It´s a whole village probably dying without the gospel...and without knowing truth. They go to church for an experience, not because they really want to know God.

The second village we went to was probably my favorite. This was another tiny little village, where everyone literally knows everyone. The first day we were there, we went visiting once again. We wanted to visit a drunk man that we saw fall off his porch, but when we went to his house he was not there. So, we kept on walking and ran into a house that had guinea pigs. A girl on the team wanted to stop and look. We looked up in the house and there was an elderly man sitting in his hammock. We asked if we could come and talk with him and he said of course. Sarah opened up her Bible and began to share with him about salvation. She asked if he believed in God and he said of course. She asked if he knew where he would go when he died, and he said ...no one can really know where there going. Sarah opened the Bible and began to share with Him about who Jesus was, and how He came and died for our sins, and how we can know that we are going to Heaven when we die. When sarah would ask him Questions about Jesus, he would just stare at her coldly, and give no response. This man had never been taught anything abuot the God, he had never owned a Bible, and he was to the point where his eyesight was so bad he couldn´t read anymore. We left that house without this man knowing Jesus. As Sarah and I began to talk...she just began to cry because her heart was so broken over this man. We realized that if that village was truly teaching about Jesus, the whole town could know him. We knew that we were leaving and nobody was there to talk to this man or teach him about Christ. Heaven and hell really did become a reality at that moment to Sarah and I. We knew that we would leave, not ever seeing that man again...knowing that it would literally take a miracle for that man to know Jesus. This again really hit me hard. Whole villages..practically....dying without Jesus...but who is going to tell them? We spent two days in this village....barely enough time to truly make an impact. I think I realized that in order to reach these people.....we have to be willing to go and live among them. We have to be willing to spend years there building a foundation that is based on truth...and discipling people. Whats the point of going in, giving the salvation message...people accept Christ...and then we leave??? How are they supposed to grow?? And how are they really supposed to know who Jesus is, without making it simply a religion??

I keep thinking back on Paul, and his missionary journeys. Paul would go into different villages and start a church. He would build a foundation based on the Word of God, and would disciple the people in the village until he thought that they were established enough for him to leave. He would leave and go do the same thing in another village. You have to understand....it´s not a easy life, and it´s not always comfortable. Paul suffered so much on his journeys, but he did it all in the name of Jesus...he even rejoiced in his sufferings. When we finally realize the reality of eternity, the reality of heaven and hell....comfort no longer matters. What length are you willing to go to so you can win people to Christ? When talking to another Peruvian here, he was heart broken over the same things. I would hear him say....The church has no love for the lost, no love for the people. A lot of times we think we can just give money and pray, and thats our only duty as the body of Christ. Thats not the life that God has called any Christian to. What if the Christians started going, and I don´t mean just international missions, but also in America. If were not helping and pouring everything we are into the lost, poor and needy and sharing the love of Jesus with them....then we really are not fulfilling the Great Commission. What would it look like if we all went, and started doing our part.....how much faster people would come to know Christ, and how much faster people in unreached people groups would finally be able to hear the name of Jesus. We really need to pray and ask God to break our hearts for the things that break His.....and Jesus is heart broken over the lost.