We travel by plane, a one-hour flight from Lima, arriving on a warm Sunday evening. As we descend the stairs of the tiny plane, the warm tropical air blows in our faces, welcoming us to the relaxed atmosphere of true jungle life. We are greeted at the airport by Erling, who is part of the Shipibo tribe. Erling spent a few months living with us in Lima, and a few of his family members (including Rosa, his sister who lives with us currently) that also have either lived or visited us in Lima.
After the warm welcome, we head to our hotel and get settled for the night, praying and finishing the last-minute details for the week ahead.
Our objective: our first ever learning community. By learning community, we mean that we are teaching a group of people how to come together as couples, families and churches and begin to disciple and be discipled as we follow Christ together.
This means five different tribes sending their church leaders to a central location to learn about vision, problem solving in their churches, pastoral care, cell groups, teaching, and several other topics.
Some of them have little idea what the conference is about when they arrive. They just know it will be about Jesus, and they want to be there. One particular tribe travelled 24 hours by boat to be at this conference. They have left wives, children, work, houses, and many other things. All for one thing: to learn more about God.
Monday morning comes bright and early. There are still a lot of questions.
How many people will come?
What will they eat?
Will they be able to pay the seven dollar fee we have charged them to attend the conference?
So many questions, and so many answers. Little do we know that before the week is over, we will see miracles happen before our eyes.
Monday morning, in the mototaxi, on the way to the church where the conference will be held.
The church where the conference will be held.
We arrive on Monday morning and begin with worship.
There seemed to be limited participation from the leaders, however, Anna Lu and I who were up on the stage leading worship heard a host of voices singing with us during worship. There is no way that number of voices could be coming from the people that were there. I know there were angels in the room singing with us.
Getting ready to hear the first session of the day: Our personal relationship with God.
Anna Lu giving an illustration of Jesus (Shuan), arms wide open, being with us where ever we go, but many times we are too busy to take notice.
We broke up into small groups (once in the morning and once in the afternoon) to talk about how to apply practically what we had learned.
There were three groups, each including leaders from one to three different churches.
Each leader had a Shipibo translator. In the picture above, I am teaching, and Erling is translating. This made things even more interesting, because each of us were already teaching in our second language, and then it was being translated into Shipibo so that everyone could understand. Most Shipibo men speak both Spanish and Shipibo, and the women can usually understand at least some Spanish, but might not be able to speak it.
Lunchtime! The Sipibo diet consists mostly of fish and an occasional banana. We were blessed to be able to eat fish and rice with soup and either boiled or fried bananas.
The fish are normally cleaned, salted, and laid in the sun to dry before they are prepared.
Rosa, (left) enjoying lunch with her cousin, Doria and Anna Lu. Rosa translated most of the week for us. The sermons come to life for the Shipibo people when Rosa translates. We are so blessed to work on this team with her.
At the end of every meal, we are served some type of juice (barley or corn juice usually). The juice is served in plastic bowls, and is drunk as pictured above :)
Tuesday, Mark talked about vision within a church. The leaders we able to sit down and list out all of the strengths and weaknesses within their churches. This was a emotionally difficult for some because of the sheer weight and amount of the weaknesses the leaders identified within their churches.
Listening. There were people of all ages at the conference. Children, young people, young couples, old couples, and many who came leaving spouses, family and work behind for the week as their desire to learn more about God outweighed anything else.
Tuesday, the music group, which was composed of some of the leaders who were at the conference, wanted to bless us with a piece they had prepared. It was truly beautiful.
On Tuesday, Shaun spoke about the teaching in the churches.
During the small group time, there was such a strong spirit of repentance that hit the room, and there was a time when people were kneeled down in couples or by themselves, asking God to forgive them for being like the Sadducess and Pharisees. For trying to teach something they haven´t lived. Wednesday, God gave us the realization that we can´t have successful churches if our families are a total disaster. God started doing a healing work between couples, between fathers and children, between mother-in-laws and son-in-laws. It was truly beautiful.
Anna was a precious woman who had lived much of her life in the inner jungle. She was a part of my small group. Her story (from what I hear) was incredible, and Anna Lu got to share part of an afternoon with her.
Wednesday evening, we were able to go out and enjoy some time as a team together.
Thursday morning worship.
Thursday, I taught on pastoral care (discipline within the church, doing house visits, and inner healing). In the picture above, I am giving an example of how to confront someone in love using the ¨praise sandwich.¨
After the teaching, we had a time of group ministry. Anna Lu led worship, and we all prayed for God to do a work in these leaders lives.
Shaun praying for a few of the leaders.
People united like we had never seen before.
There were two things I felt God say to me during the ministry time. That he was restoring families and that he was multiplying money.
Food had been a problem that week. The people had come, some of them spending all or most of what they had on the cost of arriving at the conference. There was no money for food or even for some of them to return back to their tribes.
I saw families restored before my eyes. I saw husbands and wives paying together. I saw parents praying with their children. I also heard afterwards that God had indeed multiplied the money. Somehow, all of the people were eating several times a day with money that should have only lasted for one meal.
God also did incredible miracles during this week. We saw deep emotional wounds begin to be healed. We saw deaf ears opened. Literally. A paralyzed boy being healed. These are just some of the things that happened.
Friday, we had a time in the morning for consultations over the different themes of the week. This time as well was incredible as we got to hear the thoughts and questions of the Shipibo leaders.
Please continue to pray for the Shipibo people. We are planning on going back in August and September to spend more time with them. If you would like support financially what God is doing in the jungle, please check out
