I have labeled my recent trip to Peru one of extremes, and it was a real emotional roller coaster for me. Let me explain. We sleep in a house with thin wooden slats for walls and you can hear everything from the others in the next room. The first two nights we heard a baby and older sibling coughing and having difficulty breathing. Once I realized how bad it was we got the mother to take the 3-month-old baby to the clinic to receive a shot. But unfortunately it was too late and the baby died that night. As the story unfolded it became very sad for me as we discovered that she had taken the baby previously but because she had a different insurance she would have had to pay for the medicine and she could not afford it. Neither could she afford getting to the next town where it was possible to use her insurance. We did the funeral after lunch the next day and I found it very difficult to return to teaching an hour later. What tragic loss of life and what a heart wrenching experience!
Two days later we were asked to perform a baby dedication, which we joyfully did on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. Obviously, life and death in the remote jungle location is very graphic and accents the importance of getting the gospel message to them to bring hope and assurance to their hearts.
On another note the teaching went well. I was teaching on the 10 plagues and also some topics that come from the wandering in the wilderness. Our students turned the 10 plagues into a skit and presented it to the public on our final night of class. They used little kids jumping around on hands and knees to represent the frogs and it was quite humorous. I also had a single page of notes on leadership and authority from events Moses faced in the wilderness that sparked such an interest that we spent the entire day on this subject which morphed into church leadership and qualifications of an elder.
Thank you so much for your prayers and donations that make this possible. God is certainly working among the Shipibo people. We now have plans to begin construction on the donated school grounds. If you are interested in supporting this project please let me know. Lori and I are very grateful we can serve this way.