Days 1 – 2, Saturday and Sunday, June 9-10.
Travel. We met at the church at 2 p.m. and drove to Sarasota and then Miami in a bus borrowed from First Baptist Church Bradenton. It went by faster than I expected, probably because of all the conversations as we got to know one another better. The rest of the day was spent traveling. Our flight from Miami to Lima went from midnight to 4:30 a.m. We went to the Hotel Melodia and were able to rest until noon. Then we went caught a flight to Iquitos and landed at about 5:30 p.m.
Driving in Peru is always interesting. The lines in the road are mere suggestions, as are stop signs. Motorcycles are everywhere, as are the 125cc three-wheeled moto taxis. The rest are buses and an occasional small SUV or truck carrying a load of whatever. At one intersection, when the light turned red, a shirtless guy on a six-foot unicycle thought it would be a great opportunity to zip into a hillside intersection in front of all the traffic and juggle machetes. It was so funny because it seemed so random. It became an epic fail as the light turned green just as he dropped two machetes and now had to choose to lay down his unicycle in the street and scramble to pick up machetes as traffic began to move forward or flee for safety and let the cars run over his machetes. Our bus quickly proceeded before we could see how he dealt with that dilemma.
The Chosen Vessel II was nicer than we imagined. They had no pictures on the Internet of the new boat. It cost $900,000 and was the vessel for Amazon Medical Missions, headed by Mike Dempsey, and had been sent out by Jentzen Franklin’s church in Jacksonville. The room had three bunks, all metal framed and welded into the boat’s structure. There was a small bathroom with no hot water. That was a complaint on the first morning, but after working all day in the moist heat, everyone loved it.
We were told that we were going eight hours down the Amazon to a community called Santa Anna. It had about 50 to 60 homes. The story we got was that the Wesleyan church had built a church for the local pastor – the only one in the community. As he began to do outreach into other areas, for some reason the Wesleyan leadership got angry at him for doing outreach instead of indoctrinating the village into Wesleyanism, so they shut down the church. We were going to build him a church. It turns out that he has been praying for twenty months for a church building, not knowing how God was going to come through. Then one day he ran into the guys from Amazon Medical Missions in the market and the rest is history (more accurately, the rest is His story!). We were also going to go from house to house (or hut to hut) to do a census, provide basic medical care, give packets of seeds, share the gospel, and invite them to the Tuesday afternoon children’s program, Wednesday sandal giveaway and the Thursday church dedication where we would be handing out machetes and stuffed animals.
Day 3 – Monday, June 11.
Ministry begins. After a great breakfast, we had a devotional, with Dr. Joe completely catching Robert off guard and asking him to share. He balked and passed to me, and I shared a word about being nervous and pummeling Joe with questions, and then realizing that in my fear I was trying to have him fill in all the blanks, instead of walking by faith.
The team split up into the construction team and the children’s team and the medical/evangelistic team. Jonathan and Austin sorted out planks of wood by width, so the construction team could readily grab the sizes they needed. Amazon Medial Missions had already had the framing and foundation done. There was no roof or sides and the floor consisted of boards that had been laid but not nailed. The boys measured each one, wrote the size on them, then stacked them. They had about six different sizes in all.
Robert and I went with Dr. Joe and a nurse and a couple of translators who also wrote down detailed information on who lived at each house. We tagged along with Joe to see how it is done, then we split up and took different sections to cover. Before I caught up with the initial group, Dr. Joe and Robert had already gone to the most remote part of the village, where they went up to some steep hills and across a covered bridge and came to a platform home with floors so thin they had to be careful not to fall through. All the other homes had either dirt floors of wood planks.
After we split up, we found favor with a young woman named Juana. She was very sweet and friendly and led us up into the hills where she and a few other families lived. We crossed a rickety covered foot bridge and crossed a stream on a log bridge. Our translator was Elmer, who was a keyboardist and quite a character. Our leader was Karyna, a young personal trainer from Texas and Sally, a nurse from our church.
We would come to a home, let them know we were in the village to help the people and that we were building a church for them. We would ask if they had any medical ailments we could help them with and asked if the nurse could check their heart and lungs. This was more about providing a compassionate touch. We would provide Ibuprofen, or write a prescription, which we advised they could come by later to pick up. We would then give them a packet of seeds, including lettuce and tomato seeds, for a garden. Some really liked that a lot.
We would then ask if they knew Jesus Christ as their Savior, and many of them did. We asked if there were any spiritual needs they would like prayer for, and we would close with a prayer and blessing over them, and let them know that there was a kids program later that day, and that on Wednesday we would be giving away sandals, and that on Thursday there would be a church dedication where we would be giving some gifts, like machetes.
One of the funniest moments was at a home in that section, where a villager named Marlon lived with his family and his father Milton. They had caught a tiny monkey and used strips of rags for a rope. We did not see him in the low rafters, and while Karyna was speaking, this little monkey jumps from the rafters to swing around and try to land on her head. She bobbed and weaved, as did I. About the time she got her composure back, it would happen again. Four times in all.
Another moment happened when I found a stick that I thought was a snake when I first saw it. So I put it behind my back and walked up to Sally Porrier who was sitting on a bench and trying to communicate with a young girl whom she had just befriended. I pulled the stick from behind my back and asked if she had seen the stick snake. She screamed at the top of her lungs three full times. Not only was I dying of laughter, so was the girl who had been sitting next to her. Sally is such a good sport.
When the kids got out of school around 1 p.m., the children’s program main draw was Mike, the videographer, making balloon animals and Julie and Karyna from Texas teaching sign language and some songs. It was a tremendous hit and the parents really seemed to enjoy watching it. Karyna also used the colorful J316 soccer ball to share the gospel. The kids were very responsive.
We came back to the boat for lunch and dinner and were blown away by how good the food was. Several of us hoped to drop a few pounds on the trip, but with food like this it wasn’t likely.
God’s favor was evident to all.
Day 4 – Tuesday, June 12.
Today Robert Balais, Clara Hanson, Jonathan, Austin, Mike and Charles (with Amazon Medical Missions) went from house to house. Robert led a man named Marco to Christ. While Marco was fairly non-expressive for most of the time, he said that he wanted to accept Jesus as his Savior, and he seemed really happy afterwards. Immediately after the prayer, he asked if we had any Bibles. That was a good sign for sure. I gave him an NIV in Spanish I picked up before we came.
God was really at work. We all found favor and were welcomed in almost every home, except one, but when Robert gave the man the seeds, he opened up about his rice paddy down the hill and smiled. Dr. Joe’s team found the same favor of God at work and led a man and his brother-in-law to Christ.
Later, when I was no longer with Robert and the boys, they were visiting a home of a woman. When we would arrive at a home, the villager would immediately offer a bench. Sometimes it was the only piece of furniture they had. At this home, they all three shared a bench. When Robert stood up, the bench collapsed under the two boys and the lady laughed.
About the same time, I was making the rounds with Joe. Some boys who were playing nearby with a J316 soccer ball kicked it and it ended up in front of the porch where we were visiting. I took the ball to the boys and Joe said to ask them what the colors meant. They shouted each color and the meaning of the black -sin, red-Jesus’ sacrifice for sin, white – having sins washed away by Jesus, green – growing in faith, and yellow for heaven’s streets of gold.
The church-building team was making great progress and it was clear that we might be able to complete the church a day early.
We walked past the schoolhouse every day when we walked to the church site. The doors were left wide open and often the kids did their work on the front porch. They had uniforms. We could hear the teacher speaking and often we could see and hear the kids reciting things as a class.
We did not know it, but the school was going to be celebrating its 17th anniversary the next day. In preparation, it was amazing and alarming to see about 30 elementary-school children cutting the grass of their playground by swinging machetes. Yikes.
After school and a quick change of clothes, the children’s team had an afternoon of gathering the kids, teaching them songs and sign language. The kids really love Karyna and Julie and it’s apparent that they are gaining quite a following.
It was a great day. I thanked God for letting me be here.
Day 5 – Wednesday, June 13.
Today started at 4:40 a.m. since we could not pass up an invitation to go piranha fishing. At 5:30 we set out up river and found a tributary that came off the main tributary we were in. We are on an offshoot of the Amazon River called Thuayo and this tributary has a shallow and narrow entryway into a lake that seemed to be a couple miles long and about one quarter mile wide. The boat was a wide, steel flat bottom boat that was very sturdy and very stable, especially with eight Americans and the two Peruvian handlers. At first, one of the Peruvians caught fish and the rest of us just seemed to be feeding the fish. At one point, someone said, “Peru four, United States zero.” We all laughed, especially the Peruvians. At first we were very frustrated, but we learned to catch on as we watched how our guides did it. It turns out that a stick pole with a fixed line and small hook were far more effective than the telescoping poles we brought. The action required a faster and firmer hook set, plus our hooks seemed a little too big. In the end, Jonathan caught about six piranha, including a variety that did not have a red belly, but rather was silver grey. I caught about the same, my last being the biggest – that’s the one we took a photo of.
One the way back, I was handing Jonathan a Coke from my backpack as we exited the lake and a small silver fish, about seven inches long, jumped out of the water and nailed me just below the right armpit as I extended my arm. We all got a kick out of that. When I tried to grab it, it wriggled under the floor boards that lined to bottom of our steel boat. I hope the boards are removable! They cooked the piranha for lunch by gutting them, removing the heads, scoring the bodies and then deep frying them. They were tasty, but too many bones. The best way to eat them was to just focus on eating around the spine where most of the meat was.
The wild and natural beauty of the Amazon rain forest is astounding. The morning fog gave a mystical feel, and the variety of bird calls only added to the magic. I thanked God for letting me come with Jonathan.
After breakfast we went back into the village and I spent most of the morning at the church project. Just before starting the climb up the hill into the village, I found a doll’s head with its hair sticking straight up. It fit in my front pocket, and when I arrived at the church I looked for Sally Porrier. She was standing by Piero, one of the construction workers, and while he looked on I asked if she had heard about the head hunter that we encountered on our piranha excursion that morning. Before she could answer I pulled the doll’s head out of my shirt pocket and she screamed. It’s going to be a good day.
Jonathan and Robert carried scraps of wood from around the back of the church and made a pile of scraps. Since the pews were done, we decided to take some of the larger boards and make them into benches so we could give them away to the community. I took a few pics of them carrying the scraps. What you can’t tell is that since it had rained, it seemed like the mud smelled heavily of animal feces. It was nasty, but nobody complained. I pretty much sat there and watched. I was so tired from not getting any sleep before the piranha trip, that I was mostly useless.
We got the idea of making a replacement bench for the lady whose bench broke the day before. Robert took Jonathan and Austin and they totally surprised the woman with a brand new bench. That was a real blessing.
After lunch I had to lie down. I passed out and later Jonathan told me that he came to the room to find me and I was snoring. I woke up after an hour or so and everyone was already in the village and it had poured rain. I missed all that. I grabbed the video camera and headed into the village. The trail was dangerously slick going up the hill into the village. Later, I found out that two team members slipped and fallen on their way up.
As the afternoon wore on it got much more muggy. Jonathan and Robert made two trips back to the boat, which was about a 1/2 mile away, and brought back bottles of soft drinks. I snapped a quick picture, just as Piero, one of the young, muscular builders, yelled to Jonathan, “Hey, all right!”
Under the palm tree Sparky and his team made a large cross for the inside of the church and one for the outside. Robert was a big help for that. Robert shared that he did not realize what they were making until about half way through, then the emotional impact caught him off guard once he realized what it was he and Sparky were making. Since Mike, our budding young videographer got sick, I used Mike’s camera to video the installation of both crosses. We did the interior cross before lunch, and the exterior cross capped off an amazing day. It was very moving.
Another moving moment was when the team making benches to give away also made a platform for the pastor to stand on behind the pulpit. Pastor Hildebrand was only about five feet tall and though we had used the shortest person on the team as our way of estimating how tall to make the pulpit, and without knowing who the pastor was at that time, they made it too tall. By now we found out that he was one of the church building team and when they had him stand on the platform behind the pulpit, in his new church, his eyes welled up and he beamed as he looked out over the 16 empty eight foot benches. It was as though he was envisioning his flock.
Afterwards, Dr. Joe had all the kids join him on the church steps and I snapped some pics of them while making silly faces to make them smile. The church was done. All along, one of the great blessings was seeing how the community took ownership of the church. None of the wood or benches had to be secured over night. Nobody took anything. When we would clean up, women and children would jump in and help. When a child was asked to go and get a broom, he came back with a small army of women with hand-woven brooms and they swept all the sawdust out of the church. Kids would pick up nails and hand them to us. Ironically, Sparky was cleaning up nails by kicking them through the floorboards of the church, not knowing that children would go under the church to pick up nails and hand them to us. It was funny when we realized how they kept finding so many nails.
While all that was going on, the rest of the team was at the schoolhouse. There, a foot washing was taking place. During our home visits, we took a census and included asking about all the family members and sandal sizes. At the foot washing, new sandals were given to all the villagers. Everyone seemed to be so happy. Lots of smiles and laughter, and at one point, I watched a man of about 50 years hopping from one foot to the other and laughing as he enjoyed the thick, rubbery padding. Jonathan and Robert had the job of asking what size they wore and handing them the proper size. In all, 285 pairs of shoes were given away and 250 people had their feet washed. The love of God permeated the school. Instead of triggering shame in people, they seemed to genuinely receive the whole business with great joy. I think that was also in large part because Karyna had everyone listen quietly as she explained how Jesus washed the disciples’ feet to teach them to love one another and to show the full extent of His love.
The trip back wasn’t as dangerous because the AMM guys had put lots of sawdust/mulch on the trail that was found nearby.
As Karyna and Julie descended down the hill and were coming toward the boat, there was a small entourage of little boys following them. They ladies had reached superstar status.
At the end of each day we shared highlights after dinner.
With each day, the spiritual momentum only seems to build. Each new day has been more amazing than the previous day. All this was capped off as we retired to the rear upper deck, where there were about 12 hammocks. From there we watched in amazement as a summer rain came upon the village as the sun set behind us. There was a full rainbow over the village. I can’t remember ever seeing one end to end and it was so close that it seemed that both ends were right in front of us and ended at the base of the trees about 200 yards away.
It was the first full rainbow Jonathan ever witnessed. Several of us took pictures, but you could not get all of it in one frame. We took it as a wink from God that His favor and blessing was upon the village, which we had already sensed. It only made us look forward to Thursday even more.
Day 6 – Thursday, June 14
Our last day in Santa Anna. I have been up for several hours typing this out. Jonathan just left to go piranha fishing again.
All week has been building up to today. Today we will dedicate the church, serve a chicken and rice lunch to the entire village, give away machetes, furniture we made with the leftover wood, and stuffed animals, and say our goodbyes. We have grown to love these people very much and I already want to come back next year or two to see how they are doing. The weather has been quite mild, with some days in the upper 70s to low 80s. It would peak into the upper 80s at times, but that wouldn’t last long.
We took an early lunch. Then we served lunch to the entire village. The construction team built two heavy-duty picnic tables for the community center, which consisted of a large circular patio with a large conical thatch roof. The pastor’s family cooked about four very large pots of rice, one equally large pot of beans filled almost to the rim, and a very large pot of chicken. It smelled like the mojo-style chicken of Cuba. Everyone was told to get their own plates from home. Some people complained that the children went first, and then the parents showed up with their own pots and said they needed to feed their family of four when their children had gone through the line already. There was so much food that there was no problem whatsoever. We carried the pots back to the pastor’s house, turning our arms charcoal black from the wood it had been cooked over.
We had a brief tour of the pastor’s house. It was about 15×20 and had been subdivided into about four or five rooms. I am guessing that about six lived there. The entire house leaned to the left. His wife Socorro was beaming. They have some of the most beautiful children I have ever seen – deep brown eyes and so radiant.
From there we marched up to the church for the dedication. It was packed to standing room only. The praise was in Spanish and their hearts were full of joy. Applause broke out when Pastor “Brando” Hildebrand stepped onto his little step behind the pulpit, he grabbed the top sides of that pulpit like he was taking hold of the reins of a team of mighty horses. He never looked taller. We were already standing on the platform and lined the front wall behind him under the cross. He turned and looked at each of us on the team in the eyes and said thank you. He looked out over the crowd and told them to never give up, because with God anything was possible. The ladies on our team started crying. And then they held up the keys to the church, and had each of us, one by one, take the keys, come forward and speak. All of us, including Austin and Jonathan spoke.
Austin spoke before Jonathan, but all I remember was looking at his dad and seeing the gratitude and pride in his eyes as Austin spoke. I don’t remember what anyone said except Jonathan. He said that it was his first time out of the country and thanked the Peruvians for being so warm and welcoming and allowing us to see them and how they lived. He did great. Karyna and Julie led the kids in praise and sign language. Afterwards the boys handed out mosquito nets and machetes. The kids also got stuffed animals. As soon as the last item was given away, the locals spread blankets and began to sell their wares. Too tired to barter, I headed off to the boat.
I gave my last Frisbee to little Gerily, a little boy who just a few days earlier had the flu and therefore missed the kids programs. We had given medication a few days earlier and wanted to see how he was doing. This time he came out and he had a smile. And now at the machete and stuffed animal giveaway (what a great combination), Gerily and I went to the adjacent school playground and I found out that he could really throw the Frisbee! The “Jesus te ama!” that I had written on the bottom of the Frisbee was already wearing off, but I am confident that it had been written on his heart in permanent ink.
So at the end of our time in Santa Anna, by God’s grace, we ministered in 60 homes, handed out two hundred eighty-five pairs of sandals, fed the entire village and helped to build and dedicate a church. It has been an amazing time in the Amazon with Jonathan, Robert and Austin Balais, Clara Hanson, Sally Porrier, Robert Sparks and Joe Pecoraro from The Bridge. The others from around the USA included Jamie, a pharmacist from Valrico, Florida and his in-laws Clarita and Art, Julie and Karyna from Austin, Texas, Jaime from Oregon, Joe from Franklin, Tennessee, David, and Mike, our videographer.
Thank you Jesus for allowing me to serve You. May you be honored and praised for all that we did with you!
Day 7 – Friday, June 15 – The trip back
We had pushed off from Santa Anna very soon after our work was done. I did not see it, but I heard some of the kids that had become Julie and Karyna’s fan club came to wave goodbye. That had to be hard. As we made our way down the Amazon and the sun went down, the storms in a distance provided a majestic tapestry of dramatic, billowing thunderclouds. On the Amazon, since there is no light pollution, the stars jump out of the sky and seem to drape over you like a tightly woven blanket of lights.
In the morning we got a tour of the Amazon Medical Missions compound where they have built a school and hospital. The school is closed for now, and the government has not yet granted permission for them to use the clinic. The clinic is so well appointed that apparently there is fear that it would take business away from the local doctors, even though the clinic is set up to bring in people from the river. The whole compound is impressive and done with excellence.
From there we set out to go to see snakes and some monkeys on a small island. On the way we drove through Belen, a crowded part of the city that came with a warning about not leaning out of the bus to take pictures because people will snatch the camera from you if they can. Within five minutes, we heard a yell and discovered that while the bus was moving about 15 mph in city traffic, a man reached into the open window and snatched the sunglasses off the top of Karyna’s head! The protective instincts of some of the guys kicked in and Austin said he should have brought a machete to see what happens when that guy reaches in to grab it.
Once we got to the island, Jonathan held a sloth and giant anaconda there. There was an unruly monkey who loved to climb on people and sit on their heads and get in their faces. Thankfully, he seemed to go for the tallest people, so he didn’t bother with most of us. He did manage to get to Dr. Joe early, but he shook off the monkey and there were enough people on the team who seemed friendly enough, or nervous enough, that he could terrorize them instead. Note to self – monkeys make bad pets.
From there we ate at El Pollon (pollo means chicken, so I assume this means “the Chicken Guy). While the food was good overall, we figured that they must look at pictures of other foods, use the name and then try to make something that looks like the picture, recipes not included. Ken’s lasagna indeed looked lasagna-ish when it arrived. A layer of cheese laying across the top of a baking dish. Pressing through the cheesy layer revealed a soup-like dish that did not appear to have any pasta. The “American Burger” had a large bun, small patty, bacon (Peru speak for a slice of smoky ham) and an egg. Austin could not bon his appetit enough to eat it. There were enough things shared to take care of everyone since the portions of fries, etc were generous and good.
We said goodbye to Elmer and Luis from Amazon Medical Missions at the Iquitos airport and flew to Lima. Those guys were wonderful. Elmer Apagueno shared how his dad had been a raging alcoholic. He would come to church because his wife nagged him, but he would bring three bottles of beer to the service. He would get into fights often and was feared. When Elmer was five years old, there was one Sunday at church, when his dad realized that if he did not change, he was going to be remembered as nothing more than a drunk and a bad man. He asked God to forgive him and to come into his life. He was radically changed and instantly gave up alcohol for good. Now he is a pastor.
We then took the bus to Miraflores, an upscale part of Lima. We stayed at the Casa Andina Select, a modern boutique hotel that was about as far removed from the life we had been living, just a few hours earlier, as you could get. Kudos to whomever made that decision. We will rest in comfort, get gifts at the market, meet with the rest of the team at dinner, then grab our luggage at the hotel to head to the Lima Airport to catch the dark-thirty flight to Miami. Unless something amazing happens at the market or dinner, this is probably my last entry.
I am a little sad that our time together is coming to an end, but also looking forward to getting back home. Overall, I am thankful to Jesus for several things.
1. Being here with my son Jonathan and watching how he embraced the time here, and being a part of impacting a village with God’s love.
2. Being here with the Robert and Austin Balais, Sally Porrier, Clara Hanson, Robert Sparks and Joe, and sharing this experience together and always being able to have that gift from God to share.
3. Knowing that we made a difference in an entire community with Jesus Christ. It was done right – with genuine and practical love, not just a message. Knowing that Jesus was lifted up and lives were changed forever.
4. Seeing God take people from diverse backgrounds – born again Catholics, Baptist, non-denominational and others in spiritual transition, and bring us together as a team to accomplish so much in such a short period of time.
Divine efficiency is a beautiful thing that comes when great people follow great leaders and great organizations like Hearts Afire and Amazon Medical Missions work together under Christ’s leading. All glory and honor belongs to our Great God and Savior – Jesus Christ.
By Pastor Mark Alt
