A couple weeks ago God gave me the opportunity to travel to the jungle of Uracuza, where our Aguaruna brothers and sisters are. One of the other pastors of the church and four of the members joined me on the trip. Through HeartCry Missionary Society the Lord provided us with Bibles for the churches there, as well as needed Study Bibles and books for the pastors. We spent 3 days with the churches in Uracuza, and then we began to travel further into the jungle.
As it turned out, it wasn’t possible for us to reach the community that we had hoped to visit. We traveled many hours after we had left Uracuza, but the pastor that was going to meet us in another village and help us make it down the river wasn’t able to come find us. Some people that own small boats offered to take us, but they wanted a lot of money and they only promised to drop us off, and not to bring us back up the river when we were finished. Also, some of the brothers in that village warned us that we should make sure we have a good guide because it’s dangerous and easy to get lost.
However, while were in that town, waiting two days for the pastor that was supposed to meet us there, I received a call from a pastor nearby asking for our help. There was a group of pastors that needed counsel and they asked if I could come and speak with them. These meetings were not easy because of the challenges they were facing, but it was a great encouragement to have the other pastor and the members of the church along with me to be able to spend time in prayer as we traveled.
In the end, we saw the Lord work through these unexpected meetings. We rejoiced to see how the Lord was giving these brothers grace to respond faithfully to His Word.
After the meetings were finished I understood why it was we were not able to continue traveling downriver to the intended destination. The Lord changed our plans in order to help these brothers, and we worship Him for that. Additionally, we were able to give Bibles to the churches of these pastors, whom we had just met, and we were also able to give the pastors some of the books we had brought.
