PERU – Amazon Jungle Mission Trip
November 20 – 26, 2008
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
(Isaiah 9:2 NIV)
Greetings to you all in the most precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
The physical darkness in the shepherd field new Bethlehem must have filled the night with a quiet uncertainty that seemed like a metaphor reflecting the spiritual darkness of the age. Sheep wandered under the dim sky while shepherds carried the weight of their difficult circumstances. Bad circumstances, additional taxes, faded memories of David’s golden age, and a silent heaven added to the personal darkness each shepherd felt. The darkness of that time in history made the brightness of the angelic announcement even more pronounced. “Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them…” (Luke 2:9) Light came to their darkness.
It gives me a great pleasure to get in touch with you while sharing with you the exciting mission trip through the dark Amazon jungle from which we just returned from safely. Pastor Jamie Flores, Edgar Garza, Eduardo Marroquin, Gerry Wolfe, Cornel Ianchici and Constantin Lupancu were given the opportunity to travel to the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest/jungle. The light of Jesus Christ spiritually and literally shines over them. They live in the obscure and isolated parts of the jungle, very far from civilization and the modern world. The purpose of this trip to Peru was to do a documentary of the jungle life, bring school supplies and Christmas presents to children of EFATA (death/ mute kids) and the street kids from Iquitos (the nearest city to the jungle). This visit was very productive. I hope this report encourages you because you’ll see how your prayers and financial support are making a difference in the lives of people in Peru and the Amazon Jungle. The Lord also enables us to share the Light of Jesus wherever we went and this makes a big impact in their life.
We left Chicago on Thursday Nov. 20th at 9 a.m. and we arrived in Iquitos, Peru on Friday Nov. 21st at 9 a.m. It took us exactly 24 hours to get to our first stop in the country. We visited EFATA ministry about 4 hours later. The kids greeted us at the door with balloons and escorted us to their church. One of the kids there had a message from God for us. The message was that our heart must be like a sponge to absorb God’s word. We gave the kids everything we had for them. We purchased tables and chairs for their classrooms and we equipped their pastor with a laptop, projector, digital camera and a motorcycle. We played volleyball with the kids and interviewed three of them for our documentary. We left at 6:30 p.m. and went to Iglesia Bautista at 7:30 p.m. We preached the word of God there and many people were delivered from strongholds of the past and received healing. The presence of God was unbelievable.
On Saturday, Nov. 22nd we visited the street kids. We ministered to them and fed them lunch. There were about 65 of them. Their ages ranged from 8 – 13 years. These kids got raped on the street. Some of them are homosexuals, thieves and prostitutes. Our hearts were broken to see how the devil operates in the lives of these kids. They told us that many foreigners go there to have sex with them and the kids do it just for food. Please help us pray for these street kids. We need to build a house where they can be secure and safe. Pray that God will provide resources for them to have food and transportation everyday, not just one day a week. They need to come to the YWAM base to hear the Word of God everyday.
That same afternoon we had a marriage seminar, and about 20 couples came. In this service a missionary pastor was healed from skin cancer pain on her leg. That was confirmed even after we arrived back home. There are too many details to describe in this letter, but allow me to say that the presence of God was Great and awesome!!
That night we preached to a youth group in a church called Remanente. God’s presence was manifested again, and almost every kid came forward to the altar and asked for prayer. Some of them admitted to have been abused in their homes. They felt dirty and unworthy until that night when God healed them. Eduardo Marroquin shared his testimony and God used him in a mighty way. There are no words to express the presence of God that night.
Sunday morning we left by boat to the jungle into a community called San Jose. After a few hours of sailing through the Marion River, we arrived in one village where we built a water well months ago. Now the well needed to be repaired and so we took care of it. Then we sailed onto another village called Leoncio Prado where All for Him Ministry built a church sometime ago called Centro de Vida Cristiana Peru. We ministered at night in that church and three people came to accept the Light of His Word. One of which was delivered from witchcraft. There was a real manifestation of the Light that shined through the darkness that night. The glory of God shined in the church.
Monday morning we went to another community called San Martin. We built another water well and ministered to a group of people with The Proclaimer. The Proclaimer is a solar radio donated by Faith Comes by Hearing Ministry. That night we went back to the island of Iquitos.
On Tuesday we rested after returning from the jungle. The next day we fed 55 kids from the street in the local Christian school. We left Iquitos that night to return to Chicago to our families for Thanksgiving Day.
We are called to minister and give to others in need. Jesus remains the Light of the world and never has the world needed the Light of His Glory to shine more than now. No matter what is happening to the world in this difficult time of crisis, we must remain steady continuing to bring hope to the hopeless and Light of Jesus to those trapped in darkness. I would ask you to pray for us and our ministries and we wish you a joyful and prosperous year in 2009 despite the harsh economic distress of 2008.
God Bless You as You Plant into His Kingdom
Constantin Lupancu
Jamie Flores