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