Jungle Stories

Well, I made it in one piece back from the jungle! It was an amazing trip, and I already miss being out there. I really love the jungle - the people, the atmosphere, all of it!
So I think I mentioned before that was going with two Caseys (boy and girl Casey) and translator Luis. His son ended up going as well. We went to the village of Nueva Atalaya on the Nanay River in the Amazon Rainforest. God is doing some great things there in that village!
Each day girl Kaci and I held a Bible study for the women. We shared some stories of how God used women in the Bible, including Ester and Hannah. We also studied the book of 1 John. I feel like it went really well and that the women enjoyed it. I was a little nervous before hand, cause I was going to be doing the translating into Spanish; but God heard my prayers, and we were able to communicate what we needed to! There was one lady in particular, Doris, who came to the Bible study every single day. She is a Christian, but very eager to learn everything she can about God's Word. Of all the women, I think we became closer to her than any other. We encouraged her that she can reach the other women of her community. She admitted she wants to, but she feels inadequate. But she an amazing women, and she can do it! We prayed for her, and I am still praying for her. I would ask that you continue to pray for her, that she would have the strength and direction to follow God and reach others in her community.
A few days, I went out to work with some of the families in their fields. One day, we planted 100 plaintain trees, harvested yucca, and harvested some sort of fruit...that was an exhausting day! Another day we spent hours harvesting yucca, and that is no joke! It's very tough work. We spent several other days working out in the fields as well. I don't think I've every been so filthy in my life! But it was worth it!
ok, so some random stuff we did....
We ate monkey (the boys shot and killed it, and we all ate it!), wild boar, majas (a large jungle rat), and a lot of fried fish and yucca! Believe it or not, the monkey and wild boar were really good! The majas - not so much, not a huge fan. But I'm glad I tried it. Sadly, of all the fish we caught, I only caught one, and it was too small to eat. It turned into bait for catching other fish. We learned how to make baskets out of chambira leaves. It's very popular for the women to make them and sell them. They are beautiful plate like baskets, and I really enjoyed that. I love the little plate I made!
Spiders...I probably saw 100 spiders on this trip. Large (like the size of my face), poisonous spiders were all over! I freaked out when I saw the first one, but I've been praying hard, and I think after the 1st one, I handled things very well. I would see one, and just call the guys, and they would come shoot it for me. I did say shoot; these spiders were far too large to be stepped on and killed. And since there was no electricity, the guys were do a spider check in our room and bathroom every night before bed - so sweet of them. So by the grace of God, I survived the spiders with composure.
One thing I will ask prayer for. Somewhere around 20% of the village had malaria, and the number was growing daily. Please pray that none of us get malaria! That would not be fun...
One reason, I loved this trip so much, was I got to spend a solid two weeks with the same families, investing in them, learning from them, ministering with them. I got pretty attached to a few of them, and I'm praying that I will get the opportunity to visit that same village again in the future!
Pics to come!