We have arrived! We landed down in Iquitos, Peru on March 17th. It has been a wild 3 week ride for us here serving in the Amazon basin. We are very excited to see what the Lord has in store as He has already given us great opportunities to minister in Iquitos and on the Amazon river.

Two days after we arrived in Iquitos, a Calvary Chapel from Colorado held a conference for over 200 pastors from the river communities. Some of these pastors spent days on small boats to get to the conference, it was amazing. The conference was a great encouragement for the pastors and we were able to share briefly about the “Rios de Refugio” ministry the Lord has given us for the river communities. We had over 150 pastors sign up from 40 different regions, asking us to come and teach the inductive Bible study method, identity in Christ and teach through 1 Timothy. Very overwhelming and we know to temper expectations, but praise God, it’s a start.

During the conference week we went to a local store to do some shopping.  We ran into an American missionary who started sharing with us about his ministry and the 9 years he has been serving in Iquitos.  His ministry is feeding kids from the local river communities.  After talking with him, we were invited to go with a group of Peruvian missionaries to Colombia and Brazil to teach the word in some indigenous areas.  It would be a ten day trip and their pastor was sick with dengue fever, so they needed someone to teach.  On the spot we committed and the next day at the end of the conference we were on our way with a group of strangers to some foreign countries to share God’s word, exciting!

     On our way up river on an 18 hour ferry ride, we met Cam Anderson whose parents had recently finished translating the Ticuna Bible after 70 years. He shared it with us and we were able to share with the pastors we ministered to in the river communities. It was a great blessing because the pastors only had the complete New Testament. Talk about God’s providence. We also met a tourist from France who was atheist and Ryan was able to share the gospel with him. Praise God for opportunities to share the love of Christ! 

Our first stop was in Brazil where we took a small boat, a “peke peke”, about an hour down a small tributary to a village that was called “Tierra de Paz”. It was a small village of indigenous people who are called the Ticunas. They have their own tribal language but some spoke Portuguese as well. After spending 2 days in that area we went to another place called Philadelphia, this was another small town of Ticunas as well. We had a conference, were able to teach on multiple occasions, and did some programs for the kids. It was probably the toughest 10 days of our lives, everything in the jungle wants to eat you.

We returned to Iquitos and have made many great contacts. Pastor Manaces and Pastor Julio have been a great blessing. We are currently scheduled to start the inductive Bible study training with 2 separate groups of 15 pastors and leaders. We are starting on May 5th and are hoping by then we will have more pastors scheduled as well. We are going to be teaching at a couple churches this week and sharing on a local radio station. I don’t know how the Lord does it, but He does. We have started a website called “Rios de Refugio”, “Rivers of Refuge”. You can check out some of the pictures and stories we will be posting in the future. It is new, so there is not much there yet, but it will be a place you can stay updated throughout the month.

Please pray for:

1. Future purchase of property. We would like to purchase a small piece of ground to start a base for a school of ministry and for missionaries who would come down to minister.
2. A vehicle for ministry.  A ministry truck will probably be in our future, as well as a boat.
3. Missionaries who would like to come down and help in the labor.
4. For the Lord to magnify himself through the ministry and teaching of His word.