Nothing Changes in The Jungle, Except those that Pass through it... True, in fact the jungle seems to be a huge mass of organisms in some kind of a symbiotic relationship. The problem is, as North Americans we become the parasitic infection and the jungle works to expel you the moment you arrive. The secret is to act like a good parasite, imitate something that the organism recognizes.....Imitate the locals...

The local people don't try to change the jungle to meet their needs, they adapt to it. North Americans lather on the deet, slap bugs, bring fans, hide in nets and alter their immediate environment to be like home. The locals slow down, don't overheat, bathe in the river and meet their environment as immutable.

The jungle is no Pandora from Avatar fame, there is a big group of folks now that want some type of utopia in the Amazon,... not going to happen.

Here's the bright side, You can have a great trip to the Amazon, you just need to slow down and be wise, don't let the bugs and heat get ahead of you. Never run when you can walk, never walk when you can sit or sit when you can lay down, never be awake when you can sleep. Eat when its available, always get dry if you have the opportunity. Go with the jungle, not against it. Don't make stupid mistakes and don't get over-confident. Simple Huh?
Ready, Set, Go..
This will be the shortest turn around that I've ever had. 18 days from return to departure. Praise God that this time I'm not as tired as I normally am and I can see going again as a real possibility. (Really Real) When we leave on May 2nd, I will be accompanied by 6 Bellingham'ers...This will be a medical mission to Dos de Mayo, deep in the Amazon.

I've been to Dos de Mayo before and its so deep in the jungle that they like to say that they have been forgotten by the government and the world. We expect about 400 people from the local jungles to start to gather in the village soon, word is out up river and they are coming to meet us.

We have needs too, we have to purchase medical supplies and medicines and expect to spend 1000 dollars on vaccines. If you want to help where there is no help, contact me or go to www.junglemasterusa.com and hit the "Donate" link.
Buy a Horse, Give a Chicken...

We did manage to purchase over 40 chicken and take them upriver to give to local families. If you remember we did a fund raiser that offered to give a chicken away in exchange for your purchasing one of 115 horsepower, so we could get a new motor on our boat in the Amazon. It was funny trying to explain to the folks up river the concept and why we wanted to take a photo of them holding a chicken. The first few folks came up and gave their names, held the chicken and got their picture taken; then promptly put the chicken back. I realized that they were being gratious in following our wishes but didn't understand that they got to keep the chicken.

I had Bob Vance explain again that they were to keep the chicken and take it home and the happy mood we had going even became more joyful. Once things got straightened out it went really well as there was a new motivation for getting a photo taken with a chicken for the gringos.

Soon I'll get photos out to supporters, so if you partisipated, your "family" photos will be coming soon.

Follow Me on this blog and you'll know when there are up dates..plus send the link to others.
So overall, this team did a fantastic job. Everything we wanted to accomplished was done, not just done, but done really well. From the seminar to the well and everything in between, this group blew it out of the park! But the enemy knows just where to hit us when someone is taking ground for the kingdom.

We had three different issues with health of family members while we were gone, Lucho had issues at home with his family, we were attacked from every angle and every weakness. But we came together each and every time stronger than than we started. We kept to our times together at night to decompress and our devotion times in the morning, we prayed for each other and showed grace to one another.
I really learned a lot about myself and areas that I need to change and give up to God. I hope my leadership will improve and each team will benefit from the experience gained from all the trips before them.

This will be the fastest turn around for me that I've ever had as I go back with another team in May. But, God is good and I'm not as tired as usual, I feel that I'm actually ready to go.  Stay tuned as I'm working to get my Sat Phone working and hope to post from the deepest parts of the Amazon....
A friend said that, "God has called me and He has a support team out there for me, but it's my job to find it."

How do I know that this is a call? There is no way that this can be done part-time any longer... To quote a phrase that everyone uses when they listen to what JungleMaster is doing or comes down here and sees the mission, "This is WAY bigger than we had imagined".

This last week in the jungle is proof, We did a seminar for the local pastors that brought out 200 people, 26 leaders from 22 Churches in 19 local communities. To these men this conference was a "Willow Creek Leadership Conference" times two. We are uniting the local churches with the only jungle based missionary sending church in the upper Amazon. Just ask those that where here; it was huge, transformational, uniting and Blessed.....Next year we expect 1000 brothers there and we will have and three days of teaching and a community outreach for the second annual "Missionary Festival of the Amazon"

We also completed a well that is deep and clear, we now CAN produce water projects in the Amazon using the brothers in the church, keeping the funds in the church.

Jorge Arevelo, The pastor from Lima was there.. his quote, "I have been involved in missions in the Amazon for over 15 years, to see what you are doing is amazing and not been done before, your level of accountability and the quality of the work your doing has never been seen here, God will prosper this far more that you can believe, it will double or triple."

We are going to Dos de Mayo for a medical mission, right now they don't have any medicine there, they take their sick to the church for healing.....Two years ago, when we did the Church plant there they had not had the word of God. Last week the Pastor from Dos de Mayo said that, "We used to only hear the cries of the drunk at night, now we hear the songs of Jesus.

What part of this would God not bless?
Yet, I may be at the point of not only the longest transition to missions in history, but also the shortest ministry recorded.

To get all of these group trips planned and completed, then trying to finish up my boat repair projects; all I have done is shoot myself in the foot. I have not been able to do the one-on-one sit downs that is required to raise the funds to sustain full-time ministry. My issues with being reluctant to directly ask for money has made it difficult to be pro-active enough to raise the funds we need to sustain this and we are now out of time. God needs to pour Himself into this thing,.

"So, Tom cut to the chase".You might be saying now...... Even with whats been added over the last couple of months we are still almost 5000 per month short. That includes our support, the increases in staffing in Peru, the softer dollar and completion of projects there. Most of what we have been able to raise for support is getting chewed up with ministry in the jungle.

Am I trusting God if I go get a job next week?
Or do I need to make my needs known and see if He blesses? Both?

Just Pray...the funds to do these things come from the least expected places, but God Knows. He's ramping things up exponentially and I know He has a way out..........................
Sunday we were at Jorge Arevalos church in Barranco, and outskirt of Lima, and attending worship there. The music was amazing and electric, afterward there was testimonies from some of the new 40 believers that came to Christ as a result of a Wednesday rally. The guest speaker was a Pastor from Iquitos. After she was done she came up to greet us and thank us for our service to her country and the people in the jungle. She then looked at me in the eye and said that she had noticed that I was tired. Right at that Carl Angell walked by and said to her "this man needs a word from you" pointing to me. She looked at me deep in my eyes and without loosing eye contact for several minutes she proceeded to tell me, "The work you do is very hard and you are the type of person who won't give up..... God has much more for you to do, all of what you are going through is to make you stronger and to make your family stronger, but I want to tell you something......you are not alone, God has been walking with you from the beginning. The work will get harder and you need to be prepared. God will bless your effort and your ministry is about to multiply." I know she said much more than that but she had me blown away and I didn't hear much more than that. She has never met me, nor did she know anything more that that I was a missionary from the US. But she spoke right through me......
Well, after several days of no contact with the outside world I need to continue to update you on our time in the jungle......The well drilling went great, the first thing I noticed was that the guys we had knew what they were doing. We have been training Wilder and Wilter to operate the equipment and we also brought along a friend of ours named Chavo. This is the first time I met Chavo and I instantly liked him. He is a tough guy; here they say, "He is a pussycat that looks like a Lion on the outside". When he shakes your had he's testing to see what your made of.........Joel, Chavo, Wilder and Wilter worked all of the first day in the jungle to get the hole bored. Joel worked his rear off with the Peruvians move by move. By the end of the day they all were covered head to toe with mud, dirt and sweat in 85 degrees and 90% humidity. But; they got it done, hole in the ground 27.5 meters deep and the casing in. We had an issue with not enough gravel and had to call Iquitos and have more gravel sent in by ferry, that meant that we had to arrange for the supplier to send the gravel up river on a promise to pay. Praise God we have a reputation here that opens doors even with credit. Two days later the ferry off loaded the gravel and the guys finished the well, mixed concret and sealed it. After flushing the well, we had clear water. We still need to test it but we are well on our way.

The other thing Joel worked on, was the generator at the mission center. He found at least 5 issues that made it not run well, the major one was a broken flywheel key. Joel fashioned one from a key from another but different motor; with some filling and modification, the last day had a victory!.

All in all Joel really bonded with the Peruvian drilling staff, Joel worked so hard the the team gave him an ovation at the end of his day...it was really cool to watch......

The last day of the seminar we had all the Pastors gather up front and everyone in the church came forward for a hug and greeting, (jungle tradition) when Pastor Javier came forward and began greeting the leaders from 19 local communities, he was completely overwhelmed. For him it was the answer to a 15 year long prayer to unite the local churches as a missionary sending team. Our goal from the beginning with JungleMaster has been to unite all the tiny local churches to produce a powerful force to change this part of the Amazon, for two days in the seminar we talked about this union and now it was happening......to see that joy from answered prayer pour from Javiers heart was an amazing blessing to me...man, I love that guy.....

The Group from Dos de Mayo made the 120 mile trip to the seminar in canoe and by paddle, it took them over a week to make the trip. When we heard this we knew that we had to do something...as a group we collected an offering and purchased them a Peci-Peci outboard motor and 20 gallons of gas to make the return trip.One night we were invited to the area where they were staying and they treated us to a song...it was tribal and a bit primal but a recognizable local christian tune. We were all blown away.....all of our group watched and talked about how just two years ago no one in that village knew Christ and today the children were singing about Jesus. The Pastor of Dos de Mayo said, "we used to hear only the cries of the drunk in the village at night now we hear the songs of Jesus". This broke me and I had to turn and walk out as I was crying like a baby, only to find Larry outside with big tears running down his face too. .....Thank You Jesus for letting us be a part of that change through this ministry.....

Lastly for today....Lucho and I had a meeting today with the Doctor from Santa Rita. I have been really reluctant and apprehensive about next months medical mission to Dos de Mayo. But after this meeting I'm pumped. The doctor is a great guy with a huge heart for the people of the jungle, he is really tuned into what they need there and he was excited about having our team of paramedics and a nurse come with us. We wrote out shopping lists of equipment and drugs and now have a plan in place.

The people of Dos de Mayo said that they don't have any medicine in the village and so when someone gets sick they come to the new church there to pray over them.........

As I was posting this I checked E-Mail and had more issues that need prayer with my son. The enemy is really having a lot of fun with this, he knows our weaknesses. There has been so many different odd, wild and unexpected things this last two weeks with most all of our leadership that it makes me excited to see the results of our victory....But Pray please...
God bless...Tom
7 days in the jungle now and we leave on Thursday AM aboard the Zucker….40 feet of jungle hardwood fashioned into the general shape of a boat.

I tried everything possible to get my satellite phone to work as a modem as it should and could'nt connect so this report is several days of our trip..

You just never know how these trips will go, group dynamics are the source of lots of studies, “no one returns from the jungle the same as they entered it”. This group has seen that come true, to the person they have found new strengths and insights, or discovered that they were much stronger than they had realized.

The well has been completed and we have a new source of water that is much cleaner and not affected by surface water.

We have about 30 Pastors and Leaders and 180 people attending the seminars here. People have been arriving all night, some as late as 1:00 am. The people from Dos de Mayo paddled a canoe for over a week to get to the seminar…..that’s a 10 hours a day for 10 days ….to learn more of God! We have 19 Villages and 22 churches represented at the seminar. 

Pastor Jorge and Ruth Arevalo, Pastor Javier, Lucho Rios, Pastor Bob Vance, Carl Angell and myself got together to plan the two days of the seminar, I quickly stepped out of the way and let them go. We ended up with two sessions each morning and afternoon and a service in the evenings. Ruth spoke on women of the bible and sung for us, Jorge cast vision and encouraged the Pastors to new levels of integrity. We had sessions on inductive bible study and the Biblical view of equality in marriage. The evenings were worship and praying for healing. 

Terry Hunt had all of these jungle Pastors praying for healing over him, as I stood behind Terry touching his back, I prayed with my eyes closed, at one point I’d opened my eyes to look over Terry’s shoulder to see the 26 jungle pastors, arms raised toward Terry, as if the were holding up a wall and shouting to the Lord; interceding for Terry’s health. It was such a powerful image and I could only thank God for these men and feel as if I was in the presence of giants. 

The Holy Spirit was not “just” there, but moving in a powerful way, for Terry and in worship. The second night I came into the church just as the second song had started and the power of God was flowing. How can you explain the presence of God? Electric, primal, humbling, mesmerized, powerful, intense, joyful, moving, phenomenal, active, alive, love, expectant; all would have to be in the description but I would still fall short. God was there.

All in all; the seminar went amazingly well. The Church served over 1,200 meals, housed 250 people and each member of the Missionary Church of JungleMaster was involved in some way. We ended by honoring the attending leaders and their communities by bringing them forward, taking photos of their attendees and presenting them with a bible. The seminar went so well that we committed to next year doing a Second Annual “Missionary Festival of the Amazon”  The brothers in the jungle where pumped!

The team is well and without medical issues, the bugs are still biting in the Amazon though. When we arrive in Nauta we will get a bus for the two hour ride to Iquitos and there we will have a much needed real bed.
The Jungle does tend to wear you down bit by bit, almost as if it’s trying to kill you slowly. Nerves begin to fray a bit too. I called my wife Janet on my satellite phone in the midst of one of those moments. All she had to do was hear my voice and she said, “just show grace”. I didn’t need to explain or describe what was going on, she could hear it in my voice.

Its interesting two hours after I wrote this; we were in Iquitos and trying to get our rooms sorted out, we were here a day early and the Hotel was having issues with no rooms, I had figured out rooming arrangements ahead of time but with the issues at the hotel I couldn’t get the rooms needed. Now I had to rearrange rooms based on all the various issues of who snores, male and female, and who’s getting along with whom. I had several people standing over me making various requests, I was dealing with the hotel staff, while surrounded with stacks of luggage, I hadn’t slept much in the last week because I had given up my tent and been sleeping in a hammock because of various issues,…..and I popped of.... Woops, the enemy won and I had forgotten to “just show grace”. A confession or an apology means nothing if you finish it with a “but I..” so I’m sorry, no excuses.

This trip has been challenging for many reasons, Joel and I were talking tonight about how much ground we took for His Kingdom this trip and the enemy won’t give it up easily.

There is so much to tell you, I'll add stories to this tomorrow...
continue to pray….

Tom Clark