In the Jungle: San Juan, Pucallpa

Well, hello blog of mine! Yes, yes...No need to remind me that my last post was over a month ago. Things have been crazy busy around here between Christmas and our trip to the jungle. It's possible I will get pics up from Christmas at some point, but first things first. Jungle pics!!!

On December 26 we boarded a flight for Pucallpa! Since we had been planning this trip for a while, we were all very excited to be on our way. We flew with Mark, Anna and their 3 boys. The rest of our team had ventured out earlier on a bus! As much as I love road trips, we weren't adventurous enough to brave the 18+ hour bus ride through the mountains. I was much happier with our 50 minute flight. The boys did SO well and we arrived safely in Pucallpa around 9:30pm. The shuttle from our hotel picked us up and took us right to Los Gavilanes Hotel. 

We spent the first week in San Juan, a community right outside of Pucallpa. Our biggest focus of the trip was to continue building relationships with the church there. Mark and Anna had been previously and our hope is to spend a little more time there in the future. We had split up into groups to make things easier. Mark and Shaun met with the men/leaders; Anna and I met with the women; Haseena worked with the kids and Nancy, Ronald and Jessica were with the young adults.

It was so interesting because most of the people speak Shipibo, a jungle language! So not only was it being translated in my mind from English into Spanish, but then once more in Shipibo. Yikes! It was a little wearing sometimes, but certainly an experience. It's a very neat language to listen to!

Over all it was a great week! Since pictures speak louder than words,  I will post lots of pics so you can see for yourself :) Enjoy!

On our way!

Kaleb's first flight!

Joely didn't last long :)

First team dinner together (minus Anna and the boys)

View from our hotel room.

The church in San Juan.

Shaun and Mark meeting with the men for the first time.

Praying for a woman with severe arthritis.

Me with some of the kids.

Our women's group was so much fun. They were very interested and participated in everything. Here Rosa is translating for Anna.

We used a seed to define our relationship with God. When a seed is planted, it starts to grow roots. The roots signify the depth of our relationship. But sometimes we come across "stones" or obstacles. One day we focused on the obstacles. Each of the women took a paper "stone" and drew what their obstacles were. We talked about how to overcome those obstacles in order to continue growing deep. The next day we talked about the "fruit" of our relationship. Each woman took a paper "fruit" and drew about the good fruits that are grown from a healthy relationship with God. It sounds very simple, but the women really connected with it!

Drawing.

Sharing.

The completed plant!

Rain clouds! A beautiful site for those of us who live in Lima where it NEVER rains! It rained many days in Pucallpa and we were very excited!

Enjoying the refreshing rain! If you notice behind her, it looks like a river..but it was only the platform outside of the church that was flooded from so much rain!

I love this picture for 2 reasons...1) the men are all very focused on what's being said. 2) Look to the far left. Shaun's "writing board" is a table hung in a tree!

This is Nancy. She is driving a mototaxi for the first time. I was in the back...Praying.

Traditional Jungle Dress.

Coming up...More pictures from Pucallpa and our trip up the Amazon River to Calleria!