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Location: Amazon River, Peru (Villages: Aysana, Oran, Santa Isabel, Indiana, Mazon )
Dates: June 15, 2006 – June 25, 2006
The following is the trip log of the Peru 2006 mission trip as recorded by various team members on the trip. All times are local.
Thursday, June 15th
by Mike E.
Our 24 hour travel marathon started at 5:00am in Raleigh, NC. We don’t have the ideal flight schedule due to a few flight changes and flight cancellations made by the airlines, but it sure beats driving. We had a layover in Newark until 3pm and then left for Lima. We arrived in Lima at about 10:00pm, cleared customs, checked in for our 5:00am flight, grabbed a quick bite to eat and enjoyed an Inca Cola. It is now after 12:00am and we have staked out a few benches around a fountain within the airport and are attempting to catch a little sleep before our flight to Iquitos in a few hours.
Friday, June 16th
by Mike E.
 A few members of our group were able to get an hour or two of sleep in the airport before our flight departed for Iquitos at 5:00am. I believe all of us caught about an hour nap on the flight into Iquitos.
What a beautiful sight as the plane descended towards Iquitos – sunrise and the early morning rays of light highlighting the top of the endless green canopy of trees that are broken only by the wandering waterways.
We landed at 7:00am, collected our bags and gear and were greeted by our friends and fellow believers, Omar and Lloni.
Omar and Lloni are brothers and live in Iquitos. They both have a ministry working with Pastor Gallardo in many of the Bible believing churches in the villages along the Amazon. They lead singing, play their guitars and conduct
the children services. They also pilot the boat. Their love for the Lord and His work is evident in their lives and their passion to serve Him.
After checking in to our lodging, we divide up into groups and start getting everything ready for our trip down the river. We spend the majority of the
day purchasing supplies, food and water and also cleaning the boat.
By evening everything is ready except for some food that needs to be purchased in the morning. Everyone is exhausted and has been on the go since yesterday morning. We ate a big meal of chicken, rice and Yucca. After dinner, we had devotions and prayer on the rooftop and then went to bed.
Saturday, June 17th
by Jeremy B.
 We spent most of today traveling by boat from Iquitos to Aysana. The
awesome size of the river and vastness of the clouds in the sky made me realize how awesome our God is. Psalms 19:1 states “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”
While traveling on the boat today, the sky suddenly changed and we were caught in a downpour of rain. But as quickly as it started, it was over and the blue appeared again. The same thing applies in our own lives. When bad things happen, we can have the comfort in knowing that if we serve the Lord and trust in Him, everything is going to work out.
In the evening, we arrived safely in Aysana to a welcoming crowd of people from the village. This is my 3rd year serving on this mission trip and visiting Aysana and I am always encouraged to be around people who love the Lord. Even though I don’t speak the same language, I can see the Lord working in their lives. Each year the Lord teaches me something different and I am excited to see what he will teach me this year.
More info from Mike E.:
The early morning was spent in the market buying the remainder of our food and then loading the rest of our supplies onto the boat. There are a total of 14 of us going down the river:
9 from the USA: Pastor Kyle, Pastor Keith, Bernard G., Malcolm D., Scott O., Jeremy B., Jeremy E., Eric J., & Mike E.
5 from Peru: Pastor Gallardo, Omar, Lloni, Alfredo & Pastor Marcial
Pastor Gallardo is a National Pastor who pastors a church in Iquitos, helps oversee and run the Bible Institute in Aysana and has a ministry working with and supporting the Bible believing churches in the villages along the Amazon.
Alfredo lives in Iquitos and Pevas. He and his wife graduated this past February from the Bible Institute in Aysana. Alfredo is one of those people who can do anything. He is a mechanic, boat captain, carpenter, metal worker and the list goes on. More importantly though, he loves to serve the Lord and he closely works with Pastor Gallardo and the churches along the Amazon.
Pastor Marcial Murayari Tecco also graduated from the Bible Institute in Aysana this past February. He currently lives in the village of Santa Isabel, but is preparing to move to the village of Mazon to start a church. There currently isn’t a Bible believing church in Mazon.
 On our way down the river, we stopped in the village of Yanamono to pick up Pastor Marcial’s son and daughter. We then stopped in the village of Santa Isabel to drop off Pastor Marcial and his kids and to pick up bundles of leaves that Pastor Marcial had tied and dried for the roof that we are going to replace on the Bible Institute in Aysana. Everyone received their share of ant and termite bites from carrying the leaves from the village to the boat and Pastor Keith found out why the mud down here is called Amazon ice.
Once we arrived in Aysana, we greeted everyone, unloaded all the leaves onto the bank of the river and set up our bedding and mosquito nets in one of the Bible Institute buildings.
After our devotions and prayer time, we spent some time on the back of the boat looking at the stars. We are about 75 miles down river from Iquitos and any bright lights. The stars are so clear and close – it takes everyone awhile to take it all in. Psalm 147:4 “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.”
Sunday, June 18th
by Mike E.
It was a little rough sleeping in the village last night. Someone in a neighboring house passed out drunk and left their radio/tape player on full volume all night. Unfortunately for us, they had a good set of batteries, and they had a new enough tape player that once the tape finished playing, it would rewind and play again and again and again. 6 songs over and over and over.
 Church though, went much better. Pastor Gallardo preached the message for the morning service at the church in Aysana. Omar and several members of our group ran the childrens' service. The childrens' service lesson was about The Good Samaritan. Both services went very well.
This was the last service for the current Pastor of the church in Aysana. He is leaving to start a new church in the village he grew up in. Pastor Cesar Lopez will be the new Pastor of this church and he arrives tomorrow. He graduated from the Bible Institute in February and has a genuine desire to serve the Lord.
After church, we all ate lunch and then had a couple of hours to fish, take a nap or explore. Around 3:00pm we loaded up the boat and headed down the river for about 30 minutes to the village of Oran. On the way down the river, we went through a heavy rain storm for about 10 minutes. It was a lot of rain in a short amount of time.
 Our plan when we arrived in Oran was to spend about an hour or so visiting houses and inviting everyone to the church services that we were going to hold in the local that evening.
However, when we arrived in Oran, the majority of the village was watching the 6 on 6 pick-up soccer games that were being played on the cement pad in the common area. The games are intense - everyone pays to play and the team that wins the most games, keeps the money.
Now imagine the reaction if we would have walked out in the middle of the game that was going on, and stopped play for a few minutes to invite everyone to the church services that evening. Well, that is what we did, and for about 20 seconds things were really heating up. But then, our toughest and biggest kid in our group, Jeremy E., held out a brand new soccer ball as a gift, and we now had all the time we wanted to announce the service and extend a public invite. 
We then split up and went door to door inviting the rest of the village to the services. We all enjoy doing this because you get to know people and get a glimpse of how they live.
There currently isn't a Bible believing church in the village of Oran. However, Nilo, a 2nd year student at the Bible Institute lives in Oran and Lord willing, he will start a church after he graduates.
On the way back past the soccer games, we found out that we were up next and had about 10 minutes to put a team together. Pastor Kyle scored the first goal and we were looking pretty good for a rag tag
team just off the boat. In the end though, we lost 3 to 2 - which isn't
that bad for only having 2 real soccer players on our team.
The church service was packed out - over 200 attended and there was standing room only. Many adults stayed outside, but watched and listened through the cinder block holes. Pastor Kyle showed eveyone a few of his tricks and Eric J. gave his testimony of what the Lord has done for him and about what the Lord is doing in his life.
  
The childrens' service was to be held outside on the bleachers in the soccer area, but there wasn't any light and it started to rain. We were able to use the future church building that is built and ready for use. In the USA, teachers confiscate ipods and cell phones from the kids when they aren't paying attention - tonight, Omar had to take away a beetle, the size of a tennis ball, that one of the boys had tied to a leash and was using to terrorize several girls. There were almost 100 children and they all listened closely to the lesson utilizing the wordless book. There are many here that are without the Lord and I pray that Nilo is able to start services soon.
As we were loading onto the boat and getting everything ready to head back up river to Aysana, a large collectivo (river taxi) that had pulled in next to us along the bank, clipped the back end of our boat as it was pulling away to go up river. A couple small boards on our back canopy were broken, but nothing major.
We made it back to Aysana without further incident. We then had our devotions and prayer time, thanking the Lord for the day He had given us.
Monday, June 19th
by Malcolm D.
We were awaken again at sunrise by the ever faithful roosters, dogs and the strange noises of the Amazon jungle. After the usual early conversation of how everyone slept, we were treated to breakfast on the Liz Carlitos (name of boat) by Pastor Kyle. We had eggs, cereal, bread and apple juice. It was a great way to begin our morning.
Upon finishing breakfast, everyone began helping to build the casita (little hut) at the Bible Institute in Aysana. We had been brought down to replace an existing roof on one of the classrooms, but surprise, we were going to be building a women's dorm. We were a little shocked that the project was much larger than we expected, but we were excited to be helping in an even larger project. Due to our lack of Peruvian construction on the Amazon, we were primarily "helpers" in this experience. Therefore, the extremely dangerous parts of the construction were done by the Peruvians Omar, Lloni, Alfredo and Pastor Cesar. It was extremely interesting to see how construction was done without modern tools.
  
Time passed quickly and we took a break to eat lunch. We were served Penut Butter & Jelly or spam sandwiches. Work resumed not long afterward and we decided to stop for the day around 4:00pm. Most of the group then decided to play a pick up game of soccer while the rest of us went swimming in the Amazon. Within 10 minutes, a large rainstorm came through - of course, this didn't stop any of us from our activities.
We then washed off in the Amazon, ate a delicious spaghetti supper and then got dressed for the evening service.
The evening service was in the pueblo nearby and we decided to walk. Due to the heavy rain earlier, the paths were extremely muddy and slippery. A few did fall down, but we eventually all made it to the service in the village of Roca Eterna. There were around 40 people in attendance. Pastor Kyle and I were able to pray with 3 individuals who came forward to be stronger witnesses for the Lord. After the long, slippery walk back, we had devotions and then went to bed.
More info from Mike E.:
Even though our plans were to replace the roof on the main classroom of the Bible Institute, we quickly switched gears and everyone jumped right in to build the womens' dorm. The beams, supports, joists and planks had been already cut from a tree, but were still located elsewhere in the village. Several members of our team spent the morning picking them up and carrying them over to the work site and then carrying the bundles of leaves from the river bank to the work site. The bundles of leaves are always good for a few ant and termite bites. Despite the amount of tedious work that had to be done on the building today - nothing is wasted - most of the supporting structure was completed.
The evening soccer game was a classic - a heavy downpour dumped on us for most of the game and all the craters in the field became 2 foot deep water holes. In the end though, we recovered from our loss the day before in Oran and pulled out a 5 to 4 victory.
Roca Eterna is a neighboring village up river from Aysana. The Pastor of the church is Augustine Tecco.
We only had a main service tonight, we will have a children's service tomorrow before the main service. The service was by candle light.
Omar and Lloni played their guitars and sang a few specials - wow! Pastor Gallardo preached. He challenged everyone to bring their unsaved family and friends to tomorrow night's service.
Tuesday, June 20th
by Scott O.
  
Today was another enjoyable and eventful day in the Amazon. We had a real special treat for breakfast today - pancake and eggs. This morning we bought 2 chickens from the Pastor's wife for dinner tonight. Talk about fresh meat. Some of our group spent the morning cleaning the boat and trying to catch that monster fish for dinner, while others worked on the building of the dorm at the Bible Institute. By the end of the day, all of the rafters had been put up and half of the leaves on one side had been nailed in place. The afternoon was also spent cutting grass Peruvian style, with mechetes.
Tonight's services were in the village of Roca Eterna. We had 2 services tonight, one just for the children and one for everybody. We had about 75 children attend the first one and about 120 attend the second. The church services here in Peru are so simple and genuine that I can feel God's
presence even though I can't understand a word that is being said.
More info from Mike E.:
Our group was split up for most of the day working on various projects - building the dorm, clearing stumps, small trees and cutting grass (all with machetes), cleaning and fixing the boat and buying chickens for the evening meal. Everyone stayed safe and healthy for the most part - just a few splinters, cuts and blisters.
By late afternoon, we had wrapped things up for the day. We had enough time to jump in the river to wash up and then eat another great dinner prepared by Pastor Kyle.
On the path from Aysana to Roca Eterna, there is a hill that overlooks the Amazon. On our way to church this evening, we stopped to watch a beautiful sunset and a storm forming on the horizon. The water buffaloe and cows were grazing around the pathway but didn't even notice us as we passed by within a few feet.
After the children's service, we spent about an hour visiting the houses in Roca Eterna and inviting everyone to the main service. We met just about everyone in the village and most everyone we invited came to the service. The service was by candle light. Lloni and Omar sang several specials and then Pastor Gallardo brought the message.
Wednesday, June 21st
by Eric J.
  
I woke up this morning on a half-deflated bed, but it was alright. After a breakfast of cereal and grapefruit (the grapefuit was the best I have ever had), we split into groups to finish working on the building and to clean the boat. I stayed to swab the deck. After finishing cleaning up (and watching Scott lose our only bucket overboard), I had my devotions on the boat and helped with lunch.
When the building work crew returned for a late lunch, we found out that they had finished the roof and that we had time for another soccer game. Our soccer game was a little more serious than Monday''s - the Peruvian's had a new strategy and we had recruited 2 new players from the village. In the end it was all tied up. However, in OT, Pastor Keith made a few more huge saves and then Bernard G. scored the winning goal. 
At the end of the game both teams congratulated each other
with handshakes and hugs. I am always amazed at how a common bond in Christ allows us to enjoy Christian fellowship despite any kind of language or culture barrier. We then returned to the boat to prepare for the evening service.
At 7pm we all headed out to La Iglesia Evangelica Bautista de Aysana for the evening service. Tonight, in a dimly candle lit room, Pastor Gallardo spoke about prayer and what hinders us in our prayer life. Three souls were saved tonight.
We went back to the boat for devotions and then headed off to
bed. Tomorrow we leave Aysana for Santa Isabel. It's hard to
imagine that our trip is nearly done.
More info from Mike E.:
What a day - we finished the building, won another soccer game and best of all, 3 men give their hearts and lives to Christ. Amen!
Before Pastor Gallardo preached the message this evening in the service, Pastor Kyle spoke for a few minutes and showed a few of his tricks, I spoke for a few minutes thanking the people for everything and encouraging the members of the church and Pastor Cesar, Pastor Keith gave his testimony, and Bernard gave his testimony.
This was Pastor Cesar's first service as the new pastor. As I mentioned earlier, Pastor Cesar graduated from the Bible Institute this past February and we were honored to be a part of his first service as Pastor. I am excited for him and we will continue to pray for him as he leads this church.
Thursday, June 22nd
by Mike E.
We were up early today getting ready to leave Aysana and head up river to Santa Isabel. We said our goodbyes to everyone and headed on. Once we were under way, we had breakfast and then everyone settled in to enjoy the time on the river.
We arrived in Santa Isabel in the early afternoon, greeted everyone and then went on a hike into the jungle. We hiked to one of the large Kaypoc trees, which took about an hour to get to. On the way we were able to see several farms and various plants and critters. We also found a few vines to swing around on and several people were able to climb up the roots of the tree which are about 20 feet tall.
It is very hot and humid in the jungle and by the time we hiked back everyone was beat. However, I believe this was part of the villages' plan, because as soon as we returned, we were challenged to a soccer game. The field here is great, it has a slight slant to it and it has 2 or 3 swampy and spongy areas. There definitely is a home field advantage today. The start of the game was delayed until we were able to clear some of the cow patties from in front of the goal - they were everywhere. The game went well, and we were spent, but at the final whistle, we ended in a 2-2 tie with no one wanting to go into overtime. We all had a good time.
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