Jesús and Ronald Move On!

Last week I had the pleasure of returning one more time to the Peruvian Amazon with a small group from Boston. The group came to see the different construction projects as they try to seek God's will for a possible short term trip from their church. On the day that we planned to go and visit Puerto Alegria (Scripture Union's Girasoles boys' home near Iquitos) we got to see a whole lot more than construction!

It just happened to be the day that two of the boys, Jesús and Ronald, were graduating from the program and moving back to Iquitos. We had the pleasure of attending the goodbye party for the two guys. They both graduated from high school last December, and now they are moving back to Iquitos--about a 20 minute boat ride down the river--so that they can continue onto technical school. The party was a blast. Gene, the house father, went and bought cakes and a bunch of other special treats for everyone to share. We played games, sang songs, and just had fun. We also had a time of prayer for the two boys, asking God to guide them and protect them as they move back to the big city. It was really great to see and reflect on how far God has brought them from the streets of Iquitos. Only He is responsible for the changes in their lives!

The goodbye party for Jesús and Ronald

Jesús will be studying computer systems while Ronald will be studying industrial welding. Ronald also has a paid internship that goes hand in hand with his industrial welding courses! Their move back to Iquitos marks another important point in Scripture Union's ministry in the jungle. The two boys will not just be back on their own. Instead, they will be moving into our Casa de los Tigres, meaning "House of Tigers." In their culture, calling a man a tiger is a high compliment. It means they are strong and able people. Scripture Union owns a house that eventually will have a capacity to house up to 20 young men as they graduate from our boys' program and move on to higher studies. They will be given significantly more freedom at the Casa de los Tigres, but the house will still have a Scripture Union staff worker to supervise them and to maintain a Christ-centered atmosphere. This is an exciting time for us because Jesús and Ronald are the first two people who have graduated from Puerto Alegria to Casa de los Tigres!

Please keep the two of them in your prayers as they begin their classes this week. They have both already given their lives to Christ. Pray that God would protect them as they take this big step back into the city. Pray for good friends and good community to surround them. They are both excited to begin their new life in the city, but at the same time it was difficult for them to say goodbye to the life that they have gotten used to in our Girasoles home in Puerto Alegria. Jesús has lived there for nine years and Ronald has lived there for 4 years. Pray for their adjustment, and pray that they would apply themselves as they study. These are exciting times for these two boys, and I can't wait to see how God continues to work in their lives!

Jesús and Ronald taking the boat ride to move into Iquitos for good!

Bethlehem in the Jungle

Twice so far this month (soon to be three times) I have had to opportunity to travel to Peru's largest city in the jungle--Iquitos. With a population somewhere between 350,000 and 400,000 Iquitos is also the largest city in the world that is inaccessible by road. It is so isolated that the only way to reach the city is by air or by a VERY long boat ride down the Amazon River. The city is completely different from the rest of Peru. The people are different, the culture is different, the Spanish accent is different, and there are many other indigenous languages spoken in and around Iquitos as well. Rather than the usual taxis that one expects to see on the streets, the town of Iquitos is dominated by three wheeled moto-taxis and motorcycles. Cars are much heavier and more expensive to ship into such an isolated place. Even I found myself buzzing around the city on the back of a friend's motorcycle (I will save the story of getting stopped by the police for another time)!

Traffic in Iquitos

Scripture Union Peru also has many different ministries in and around Iquitos. I have mentioned some of them in my previous blog posts. We operate a Casa Girasoles for abandoned boys on the Itaya River just 20 minutes by boat from the city. We have a number of programs for children at risk or in the streets of Iquitos including a night shelter. We also have two medical ships the move up and down the Amazon River providing medical care to local indigenous communities that have little or no access to standard government health care. What I really want to focus on, though, is the ministry that Scripture Union has in a small neighborhood of Iquitos called Belen.

If you translate the word "Belen" into English, then you get "Bethlehem." Obviously it is far from the Bethlehem that you had in your mind. This neighborhood is actually one of the poorest neighborhoods among all of the urban centers in Peru. It sits right at the edge of the river, and during rainy season most of the area floods. Some of the homes and businesses are built on stilts in order to stay above the flood waters, but many of the houses just float. They are called balsas because they are built on top of large buoyant logs. The river in this area is used for everything--swimming, fishing, defecating, washing clothes, showering, and dumping garbage. Belen actually lies right in the area where one of Iquitos' main sewage drains empties out into the river. When the river is low, the sewage runs through the muddy streets of the town, and when the river is high, it empties directly into the water that the community depends on. The community is constantly dealing with many different infirmities including malaria and constant infections from different parasites. There are many single parent homes and many other cases of domestic violence and child abuse. No wonder that about half of all of the boys that end up in our home have come from this one specific neighborhood.

At one point the government of Peru tried to create a program that would help the people of Belen relocate so that they wouldn't have to deal with the filth and sewage any longer. The problem, though, is that many of the people in the community decided to stay. A great number of people make a living by rowing people around the town in small dugout canoes. If they were relocated away from the river, then they would have no income.

 Overlooking the town of Belen

On my way into Belen

 The sewage and garbage that pours into the water

Children walking through the river

Scripture Union's work in Belen is mainly preventative. We work with children in the local schools and their families to educate them, provide for their basic needs, and share the Gospel with them. We actually own and operate a medical clinic in the town. The idea is not to compete with the government health system, but to help provide care to the community where the government programs fall short--especially right now in the area of dentistry. We work hard to use the clinic as a home base for community education programs. Many people do not know the importance of drinking clean, potable water. Mothers don't know how or why they should brush their babies' teeth. Malaria, Dengue Fever, and other diseases are existent in part because of a lack of education. I have enjoyed becoming familiar with a different aspect of Scripture Union's ministry here that I had never gotten to see before. This ministry is growing in exciting ways. Scripture Union has just hired new directors of the medical programs in Iquitos. Oscar and his wife Rosana are both great people who love God. They are well qualified doctors, and I wait anxiously to see what God will do through them. Pray for them as they adjust to life in Iquitos, and as they seek God's will for the ministry there.

 Scripture Union's clinic in Belen (The yellow building in the center)

Business Trip, Amazon Hope, and Update on Cusco

We have officially started work team season here at Scripture Union Peru. Last week I had the opportunity to host a small group of businessmen from Scotland who were potentially interested in supporting our ministry. It was a very different type of group than any that I have previously experienced. Rather than coming to do medical ministry or construction, this group came to simply become acquainted with all of our programs around the country. They had the opportunity to see three of Scripture Union's boys' homes in addition to our school for the deaf in Lima and our Amazon Hope medical ministry in the Amazon River near Iquitos. I really enjoyed the group, and I was very excited for the opportunity to go and see one of our medical boats in action for the first time.

Our medical ministry in Iquitos is centered around two medical ships that Scripture Union acquired through our relationship with the Vine Trust in Scotland. Our ships include full time Peruvian crews and doctors, but we also receive a number of medical teams each year from the United States and the United Kingdom. I have been coming to Peru with Scripture Union since 2001, but this week was my first opportunity to see the medical program first hand.

The day began at 6:45am as we boarded a small speed boat and prepared ourselves for a four hour ride down the Amazon River to catch up with the big boat. We met up with an American team who was on the boat attending to patients needs and sharing the message of Christ's love with them. Any of you who know me know that I am quite nervous around anything that has to do with blood or needles, but I kept my distance from the doctors while they were with the patients, and I really enjoyed the day. The small jungle towns that we reach have no other form of medical care available to them. We are able to do dentistry, ultrasounds, prescribe antibiotics and other important medications, and even preform minor eye surgery. Our medical program has changed many lives, and through the work that we do attending to peoples' physical needs, the door is also opened for us to minister to them spiritually!

We were welcomed at the village, and the local people painted our faces as they showed us their traditional dancing and artwork. Honestly, I kept thinking to myself that the entire day seemed like a program off of the Discovery Channel. After the dancing we had to get back onto the speed boat in order to make it back upriver to Iquitos before dark. It is rainy season right now, and that means there are a lot of logs and driftwood floating throughout the river. Definitely not a journey one wants to have to take after dark!It was a beautiful day, and a great week in general!

 Flying past Huascaran (Peru's tallest mountain)

 

 On the Amazon River

 

Little boy in a canoe

 The locals showing their traditional dances

 

Scripture Union's Amazon Hope 2

 

At the helm (I forgot I was wearing face paint still!)

Please Keep Praying for Cusco

I have really been encouraged by hearing how many of you are praying for our boys' home in Cusco. I continue to praise God that everybody is safe. For now, the kids from Cusco are still at our campsite on the beach, but we are in the process of identifying new land so that we can reconstruct our home. Thankfully, a very generous man has already volunteered to cover all of the construction costs, and we will be able to begin the project as soon as we acquire the right piece of land.

I know that a number of you have asked how you can donate to Scripture Union in support of the Cusco boys. While the construction is covered, we lost a number of clothes, materials, and equipment. Your donations are more than welcome. Anyone interested in making a donation can make a wire transfer to us using the following bank account information:

BANK: BANCO CONTINENTAL BBVA 

 ACCOUNT NUMBER: 0011-0154-01-00012667   

 SWIFT: BCONPEPL

PHONE: 511 4332671

After you make the wire transfer, you MUST send a confirmation email to me (bgreenman@latinamericamission.org) and to my boss (peruworkteams@gmail.com).

I have embedded a video below showing the destruction of our home. If you can't see it for some reason, then click here.