Do you trust Me?

We are back from our last trip. I would have to say this was our best trip, but most challenging of them all.

I´ll start by telling you how the unexpected changed so many things.

We were due to leave for our trip down the river on a large boat on a Tuesday evening (the 30th I think it was). Everyone was all packed up and waiting for the truck to come pick us up and take us to the boat. Suddenly Julio, our team leader from the Peru base, gets to the base and tells us that the boat would not be leaving that night due to repairs and that we would be leaving the next day, Wednesday, in the evening.

Wednesday morning after breakfast two of my team members call me over, Katie and Rebecca. Rebecca, who had gone to EMT school, looked at me concerned and told me that Katie was showing all the symptoms for having high blood sugar and that we should take her into the hospital asap. We headed to the hospital and prayed that God would make it really clear what should happen. After some tests and meeting with the doctor, he told us that Katie´s blood sugar level was 5 times higher that normal and that she had to immediatly be hospitalized. Also, that after her hospitilization, the best option would be to send her back the U.S.

This was a hard hit for all of us. We were due to leave that evening for our 2 week long river trip and didn´t know what to do. Amy, my co-leader, decided to stay back with Katie while the rest of us left for the trip, so she could take care of her, work out the insurance stuff, and possibly go back with her to the U.S if needed. This was even more heart wrenching for me. Not only was one of our team-mates really ill, and wouldn´t be with us the rest of the outreach, but my co-leader may not be able to make it back to spend the rest of the outreach with us also.

The rest of us got on the boat to take off that evening. We began to realize God´s amazing goodness in the fact that if we wouldn´t have left a day later, Katie could have gone into a diabetic shock and her life really risked. We all believed God had delayed the boat just for Katie.

We headed South down the amazing engulfing Amazon towards the Tigre River. It was a 31 hour boat ride. On our way there our team member Terra had a huge allergic reaction to something and began to break out in rashes all over her body, ran a high fever, and her throat started to swell. At this point I was not the most optimistic. I knew that on the river it was really hard to rush back to the city. I was so frustrated at why all this was happening all at once. I began to be afraid for Terra as I had been for Katie.

We arrived in Monte Verde at 3am Friday morning. We ended up spending the whole outreach in that one village, with the expection for one day. The first 2 days of our arrival we started doing ministry, with a church service that Friday night. Yet, it was a really hard time. Terra was showing hardly any signs of getting better. We prayed but we didn´t see any really strong results. I felt alone. Amy was gone, and had no idea what to do. That Saturday our leader Julio from the YWAM base in Iquitos, along with another pastor, called a fast. The fast was for Terra and for the open air evangelistic service we would be holding that night in the soccer field. They really believed that God wanted to heal Terra, but He wasn´t because of lack of faith on our part. It was probably one of the most humbling times for me, yet really rewarding in the end. God really showed me that I had to trust Him, to really ask Him what to do and obey what He says, even if the circumstances tell me something different. I was worried that we would risk Terra´s health, maybe life, if we kept her back and just "prayed". Yet the truth is, I never really asked God what we should do, because I was afraid it would be a decision that would be risky.

That afternoon from the fast, something changed...I KNEW that I KNEW that Terra was going to be ok. I can´t explain it, but something in my heart told me so. Not only that, but I also felt in my heart that Amy would be meeting us on the river soon, even though that didn´t look hopeful either.

That Saturday afternoon we did a kids program, then that evening our open air service. It was amazing because we all felt that God was doing something that we couldn´t see, because we all had awesome peace. The next day we did Sunday school for the whole church and Rebecca, the girl you see preaching, taught on the "Father Heart of God", and the Holy Spirit spoke incredibly through her. We continued on and that weariness that some of us felt, was gone. It was as if God´s GRACE LIKE RAIN had come down over us and we began to see results of prayer.

Monday morning, 3am. We knew that the boat would arrive while we were sleeping, and if Amy was able to come, she would be on it with another missionary from the Iquitos base. We were all asleep in our hammocks. I woke up to the sound of the boat, and heard Amy´s voice. I knew it. God worked and she was able to stay in Peru and come and meet up with us. Katie was able to go back to the U.S. on her own. AND, when we all woke up again later that morning, Terra was totally healed!

The rest of the outreach was amazing. We were able to truck through the jungle for a day off. Then we took a boat for a day to a village nearby called Piura where we did a whole day of evangelism. We arrived there and went door to door inviting people to the service and sharing our faith with them. The village´s churches had dwindled in members and most of them had fallen back into sin and walked away from their relationship with Christ because they were so hurt by the church. The day we were there many people decided to recommit their lives to Jesus, and some even decided to recieve Him for the first time. The people were so hungry to know more about God. When we did our service, the community building was packed, people squished on all the benches, others crowded outside looking through the windows and door, all hearing that amazing news that God destined them and created them for a relationship with Him. It was powerful. It seemed like every eye and ear was captivated by this Good News. We left that night in our motorized canoe under the starts back to Monte Verde, amazed at how hungry these people were for God, and how He met them in such an awesome way. We were also excited that the church from Monte Verde decided to start meeting with the leaders of the churches in Piura and pray with them for their community, helping them in any way possible.

We spent our last days doing services, kids programs, and workshops with the people of Monte Verde. It was so awesome to stay there for the majority of our time because we saw how the people, who were shy at first, really opened up towards the end. We were able to teach them a lot from God´s Word, encourage and pray for them, and even leave them our team guitar so that youth in the church could learn how to play.

Yet the hightlight of this last trip included a celebration we had on our team. Krystal and Kevin, two of our team members, got baptized with a few others from the community, there in the Tigre River. It was amazing to see them both make the declaration that they were chosing to follow Jesus for the rest of their lives, and there would be no turning back.

I could go on. But I would have to say that this was our best trip. The team stepped up, even when things got tough. They didn´t give up. They sought God and gave Him their all. We saw God PROTECT Katie, HEAL Terra, ANSWER our prayer to get Amy back on the trip, and USE us in ways that we still may not understand to tell people about God´s intense love pursual for their lives.

Thank you all again for all your prayers, and for reading these very long blogs. I know I am not a women with few words, it´s hard to summarize such incredible experiences.

Sad to say, this is it. Tomorrow, Tuesday the 13th, we fly to Lima to spend 4 days meeting up with the other team that has been in the Western side of Peru for outreach. On the 18th we all head back to the U.S.

I just want to end this blog by saying my God is good. I praise Him that He is so gentle and patient, yet firm. God wants us to trust Him and really TRUST Him, even when everything else says- THAT´S CRAZY!!! He wants us to really listen to His voice, even if it means that we have to make a hard decision. My life wouldn´t make sense without Him. Where would I go without my Jesus, my best friend? I thank Jesus for His intense love for me and for every living being.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." -Jesus

God bless you all!

I will try and post one more blog at the very end of this outreach for any final pics or stories.