BACK IN IQUITOS 24 YEARS LATER….
Being in Iquitos, Peru again was magical to me, because the last time I was there I was 18 years old, and was now returning at 42 with 3 kids and my husband! When I went for the first time, I was a teenager with YWAM, and it had been a place of learning to hear the voice of God, doing Evangelism, and going deeper with God than ever before in my life! To this day when I hear rain, it reminds me of that phenomenal time in the rainforest town, Iquitos! This time we all got to help my dad prepare a place where Bible translations would take place in native dialects for unreached people groups deep in the jungle. It was such a privilege to help!
Then we traveled for THREE days way back into the jungle. It was the coolest thing… I felt like I was Indiana Jones when we turned our canoe through this opening in the huge rock walls into a hidden, little tributary and headed to a village called “Inca Roca.” Sooo cool! Now when the chiggers (or red bugs they call “isango”) got a hold of our “fresh meat,” it was hell to pay, but well worth what was about to happen in Inca Roca!
On the canoe to Inca Roca
We led a missionary conference in the tribe’s thatched-roofed, open-air village meeting place. We all shared a message, a testimony, and some songs we tried to wrangle up. Even Cayden shared about Jesus up in front of all the observing natives! By the end of the few days, over 60 people rededicated or for the first time gave their lives to Christ! Over 25 people got baptized by James and a Peruvian missionary pastor!
Baptisms in the jungle
To our great joy and surprise, Cayden lined up at the end of the big line of people to be baptized in that murky little Amazon River tributary! He asked what all those people were doing, and when we said they wanted to publically show they chose to follow Jesus, he excitedly said, “WHAT??? I want to do that too! Where’s the end of the line???” So Cayden got baptised in the jungle, and we were so proud of his decision!
After sleeping on the floor under a mosquito net with my three littles for three days, and my legs were a hug MESS of merciless chigger bites, we were ready to head back to Lima and head to Houston. We sweated our faces off, were bitten up, sleep deprived, and a little beat up over all from the difficulty of jungle life, but what an amazing worthwhile adventure we had, to see people come to know Jesus personally and experience so much HAPPINESS and JOY! Wooohooo!
Inca Roca: Amazon Jungle, Peru
It took a week to get over the chiggers, but our hearts were so full of passion and the nearness of God! When I got back to the U.S. I knew what Moses must have felt when he knew that glow of his face would soon fade when he left the mountain of God… and alas, the intense intimacy and nearness of God soon subsided as we became busy in Houston again. But we will never forget, and never stop pursuing HIM, HIS WORK and HIS PASSIONATE LOVE FOR THE UNREACHED!
What a privilege to be a part of that!
Worn out at the little airport!
Our team in Iquitos, Peru: Naomi, Loretta (from the DJT School) and the Doherty Family