this was our sleeping area for the fourteen hour boatride

making tacacho (or something like that)-basically a mushed up banana with other stuff-one of the most popular dishes in this area

the Amazon River

Wow!! What a trip! We flew out to Iquitos on March 8th, spent the night and then traveled down the river for 14 hours on a boat. We were able to sleep in hammocks, and the stars were brilliant. It was the first time that I ever saw the Southern Cross. We got to Grau, a small jungle village of just over 1,000 people early in the morning in the rain. I was so thankful for my rubber boots!! We set up our tents in the church where we slept every night.
Our goal in going: to encourage the believers in the churches, to train the leaders, and to witness to those who did not yet know Christ as their Savior.
How we did it: We held kid’s clubs every day while we were in Grau, also Ladies meetings, and Pastor Evelio and Pastor Christopher Cardenoso met with the leaders and pastor in order to help them learn to study their Bibles correctly. We also stopped by a couple of other villages and towns to visit the pastors and encourage them.
We usually had around 120 to 130 kids in every kid’s club. We also had a service every night, by candlelight because there was no electricity. There was also no running water so we bathed in the muddy Amazon River to get clean, or at least to cool off. It was very hot. The bugs were everywhere, and I was basically a walking bug repellent I put so much of the stuff on! We stayed in Grau for a week where we saw interesting animals and even caught a chamaleon!

Stick you finger in there

This is how the Crocodile Hunter started out, catch the little ones

And then move to the bigger ones

Look what I found under my sleeping bag!

Me and a bird

Upon returning to the main city of Iquitos in the Amazon jungle, we participated in several different ministries. We stayed at Calvary Baptist Church of Iquitos and helped in their other church works. Each night we preached and sang in various church works, and Saturday was filled with a sports day for the community, a special evangelistic program, and then another service at night.
During the day, we were able to see some different sights and animals of the jungle, and had some time for studying. One of the most interesting things to do was to walk around their open air market each morning and buy interesting foods. We ate aligator, piranna, monkey, turtle, and tree bark. (It all tastes like chicken)
This trip was an amazing experience!