Remember in 2 Corinthians when Paul is, as the title would say, "encouraging generosity" to the church in Corinth? Yeah, I couldn't seem to pull those 10 or so verses out from memory either until I had two weeks to think about it and just happened to read the verses while sitting in a hammock on the Amazon. So, I've taken the initiative and saved you two weeks of time and a trip to the Amazon:
2 Corinthians 9:6-15 says...
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:
"They have scattered abroad their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever."
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, people will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Part I (the one you're reading...) (out of an undetermined number of parts) is about the 3-5 days we spent in Pucallpa. *NOTE: if you're interested in why I said 3-5 days, knowing this is not an itinerary, but rather, an account of what actually happened..keep reading*
The verses from Paul's letter that I wrote above describe so perfectly the people we met in Pucallpa. We were welcomed and very well taken care of by Carolina's (a fellow intern) family and an incredible group of Christian Peruvian women involved in a really cool ministry in Pucallpa. These friends we made sowed more than generously. They were such cheerful givers. They were generous on every occasion and thankful to God always. They supplied more than our needs. They were true servants of the Lord. Carolina, Heather, and myself were blessed enough to be the ones receiving their generosity! Now we (I am confidently speaking for the other 2) are the people praising God for their obedience, for their sharing, for their blessings, and for their confession of the gospel, because we have not only been blessed, encouraged and refreshed by those things, but have seen the impact our friends/family are making in Pucallpa. To that we say, "Thank you, God, for your indescribable gift!"
We arrived in Pucallpa on about 3 hours of sleep on Monday, after having all 9 bottles of bug repellent removed from our checked bags by security in the Lima airport. Dreading the bug bites that were to come, we walked out of the terminal in Pucallpa and our attitudes immediately changed because of the crowd of sweet, sweet people there to greet us!
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| L to R: Heather, Co-Madre, little kid, grandma, Carolina's "abuela", Carolina, myself, Mark We hung out and ate some birthday cake for Carolina's 23rd birthday! |
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| Not even joking...I caught this, later killed it, and we ate it! Notice....I nearly choked this rooster to death first, oops! |
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| We rode around in the back of a truck - can't do that in Lima! As well, nobody thought to inform me that it was ok to put down the rooster, so I carried this filthy, stinky thing around for quite a while, as his "stank"/odor little by little rubbed off on me. Gross, I know. |
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| We rode around in mototaxis alot. Eric, Co-Madre's son, served as our personal mototaxi driver the whole week! |
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| Hung out with the super awesome Co-Madre after getting separated from the rest of the group! I would hang out with this lady any day of the week! One of my favorite memories of her is her showing us how she dances/worships the Lord in church. She can't move one of her legs (lost it in an accident and has a prosthetic), but I know the Lord smiles down on her when she starts "dancing" |
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| Bought hammocks to sleep in for S/. 28, which is about $10 |
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| We spent time at the church we were staying at and hung out with the kids in the neighborhood. Is this girl not the most beautiful girl you've ever seen?! |
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| Heather, Carolina and I were walking to buy a coke and invited Andrés along. Andrés (I'm pretty sure that was his name) wants to be a preacher and was so fun to hang out with us! He quoted some of his favorite scriptures, and we attempted to quote some of ours back in Spanish (probably one of the hardest things about learning Spanish is not being able to literally translate Scripture). We had a coke together and sang a few worship songs together. What a precious moment with a sweet little kid! |
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| Took a boat ride out to a nearby village where we hoped to see native tribal garb, but instead saw people playing soccer in Adidas shorts and t-shirts. We had a great time just relaxing and enjoying the scenery and company! |
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| A fruit called "sapote" that we ate often! This fruit should be sold with a string of dental floss, but is delicious! |
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| Posing for a picture in the village under a gazebo made into the form of a turtle |
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| We took naps |
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| We prayed. As well, as the Tuesday night service for the church we sang a couple of songs for the church, as requested. |
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| On night #3 we went to eat ice cream with the ladies from the church to celebrate Valentine's Day, which is better-known as "The Day of Friendship" in Peru |
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| Shirley was another awesome and super fun lady we had the privilege to hang out with all week! "Chevere" |
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| Us with Jennifer, the missionary in Pucallpa, who generously let us stay at their church house and fed us and helped us out with anything and everything! This woman is the real deal and is someone I can look at and say, "I want to have a faith like hers" |
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| We learned, thanks to an exhaust-pipe burn (Carolina), that lime is the Windex of the jungle. Lime fixes everything. I will admit to being skeptical at first, but when I had a massive canker sore inside my mouth and held a lime on it for a while it no longer hurt and was healed within 48 hours! In case you're wondering, lime also works to eliminate the "itch" of a mosquito/bug bite |
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| "The Henry 9" is the boat we took from Pucallpa to Iquitos and it was rather large! The entire bottom floor was for cargo, the second for people, the third for people, and the fourth was the captains' area. |
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| We thought we were going to have SO much space. This was Wednesday, the first day we got on the boat/the day the boat was supposed to leave |
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| The boat was delayed for a day because of rain, so we went and checked out a zoo |
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| Lookin' like true missionaries! |
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| More of an accurate picture of the lack of space we had on the boat...this was the day we actually left Pucallpa, on Friday, after having slept on the boat for 2 nights thinking it was going to leave at any moment! |
We completely enjoyed our time in Pucallpa and really felt so blessed by the people we met and hung out with. We paid S/.180 for our entire trip to Iquitos on the Henry 9, which included 3 meals a day, a place to hang our hammocks, as well as a private room/bathroom to store our stuff so it wouldn't get stolen. Part 2 is soon to come, so check back later for how life was on the boat for a week! As a sneak preview... part 2 will include a video involving lice and Peruvians that you won't want to miss!
