Preparing the Ground – October 16, 2024

Greetings from San Jose de Cochiquinas. Yes, it is official, we have moved onto the mighty Amazon river into a community of 3,000 people. It is the Centro Poblado of this section of river, which means it is the center of 63 communities and the hub of ministry for us. This is the perfect place to begin to disciple local pastors and plant churches.

We have been here about a month and it has not been an easy adjustment. The people are wonderful, the community leaders are welcoming, but the living ain’t easy. We have a jungle home, now we know it sounds like we are living in a hut with a palm leaf thatched roof, but that isn’t the case. We were beyond blessed to have wonderful missionaries come before us and build a house and church in Cochiquinas. We just installed some more solar panels, so we have power and we have a rain catching system, so we have water but we still need to make a filtration system for the rain water. We live in a beautiful little wooden home with plenty of space for the natives to invade. Now, by natives, we don’t mean the human kind. Bullet ants, mosquitos, a pet rat that we can’t seem to trap, termites that come out at 6pm on the dot in such numbers it is impossible to keep them out of your hair and more bug bites than we can count. It is hot and humid, all day, all night. This is another kind of living, going to take some getting accustomed to but we know the Lord is on the throne!

It is so great to make plans and then watch the Lord throw a changeup. When we came here to Peru, Ryan was confident that he would not be pastoring a church or church planting. We were planning on discipling the existing pastors and that was going to be our focus. However, after coming to Cochiquinas, the Lord has shown us the need to plant a church and pastor it as well. There is a local group of about 15 people that have been meeting. One of them is Pastor Julio, an awesome brother in the Lord. Ryan has sat down and talked with him and another brother from this group and we have decided through much prayer, we will plant a church in March of 2025 and Ryan will Pastor it for one year. Ryan will be training both of these men in biblical teaching, biblical counseling, and biblical leadership. In January of 2026 Ryan will step into a role as an assistant and Pastor Julio will take the lead role. There are quite a few communities around our area that do not have churches, so one of our prayers is for God to bring us men to send out. This brings us to March of 2026.

The 2026 plan is to begin a Discipleship Center in our town. Praise God we were able to purchase a piece of property next to the church on the river and the hope is to raise enough funds to build a dormitory and class room. We are hoping to construct the building in June of ‘25 and have everything set for the following school year. The goal is to have 10 to 15 students the first year and go from there. Please keep these things in prayer as we continue to advance the gospel together.

We have a lot of opportunities to minister in our community. One of the biggest problems in the river communities is clean water. We are talking to community leaders about putting in a system to help alleviate that problem. Also, there is no higher education for the kids who finish school. The kids finish school at 15 or 16 years old. After that, they generally go to the coco fields to plant and harvest. This whole area is controlled by the cartel, and this is not a very bright future for the youth. We are praying for the opportunity to open a technical school that would be connected to the discipleship ministry. Teaching carpentry, agriculture, general construction, and even computer skills. The purpose would be to give the kids a spiritual education as well as teaching them an honest trade to support their future families. Please keep these things in prayer and thank you all once again for your incredible support as we seek the will of the Lord together, here in the Peruvian Amazon Jungle.

Prayer Requests:

Discipleship Center Construction

River Conference Oct 24-28

New Church Plant in Cochiquinas

Pastors and Leaders who Desire to Plant Churches