Culture Shock
We didn't get out of Iquitos today. Didn't get a permit to travel up river until 3pm. Our goal is to leave at 8am and run to Santa Rita tomorrow. ---No Plans Survive The Jungle---- We managed to finish all the shopping. Paint, parts, more food, plastic plates on and on. Pray as we had a clash of wills already. We ended up recognizing the enemy at work and prayed through it. I think all is well.
This is our plan..... run to Santa Rita, start work come back on Friday to Nauta. Saturday at 6 am I will take a taxi to the Airport and get the first group, we hired a bus to take us to Nauta, I will then run up river with the group drop them off and get them settled, head back to Nauta. Do it again, then again......
I'm not sure when I can post again, I will be in Nauta for a few nights waiting for groups and I'm not sure if they have an internet connection there......
Preparing for the Festival - Day 3-
The first day we were here here was mostly getting some further loose ends pulled together on the boat, we fixed a vent issue, serviced the engine and purchased spare parts. Its a constant struggle to force myself to spend money on "just in case" issues, things like a spare propeller. We don't need it but if we did we would be in a world of hurt if we didn't have it. We bought the prop.
We also arranged for a carpenter to build bunk-beds. He was to have a sample for us to view the next day, we went by his shop and he had the first one done, so we made a deal with him to finish all 10 of the beds and he will deliver them to Santa Rita and assemble them for us by Friday.
We also managed to order cushions for the boat and those were finished today.
The big issue was buying food, we at last decided to get our cook, Felix, to help us shop. After 8 hours and stops at the Peruvian version of Costco and its antithesis in the farmers market, we purchased 1000 lbs of rice, 200 lbs of beans, 100 lbs of sugar, 100 lbs of dried fish, 50 lbs of noodles, 100 boxes of fruit juice 50 lbs of potatoes, on and on and on..........
The greatest frustrations come from dealing in the culture; they wouldn't consider stopping at the next closest place to get an item. No; its almost like as we are going down the list we travel from one side of town to the other, getting the stuff in the order on our shopping list without reading down and seeing what the next item is. Without exaggeration we must have put 250 miles in today and the same yesterday. Lucho even joked, "I need to plan ahead like a gringo.." Its really hard to get anything done here......
Our current plan is to head up river tomorrow.....we'll see...
Be praying.. we had wished to buy food as gifts but we are killing our budget. Pastor Javier would rather purchase gasoline as gifts. Still have a lot done. Got to go, this internet connection stinks, about every 10 minutes I have to walk down the hall and reboot the router.......
The first day we were here here was mostly getting some further loose ends pulled together on the boat, we fixed a vent issue, serviced the engine and purchased spare parts. Its a constant struggle to force myself to spend money on "just in case" issues, things like a spare propeller. We don't need it but if we did we would be in a world of hurt if we didn't have it. We bought the prop.
We also arranged for a carpenter to build bunk-beds. He was to have a sample for us to view the next day, we went by his shop and he had the first one done, so we made a deal with him to finish all 10 of the beds and he will deliver them to Santa Rita and assemble them for us by Friday.
We also managed to order cushions for the boat and those were finished today.
The big issue was buying food, we at last decided to get our cook, Felix, to help us shop. After 8 hours and stops at the Peruvian version of Costco and its antithesis in the farmers market, we purchased 1000 lbs of rice, 200 lbs of beans, 100 lbs of sugar, 100 lbs of dried fish, 50 lbs of noodles, 100 boxes of fruit juice 50 lbs of potatoes, on and on and on..........
The greatest frustrations come from dealing in the culture; they wouldn't consider stopping at the next closest place to get an item. No; its almost like as we are going down the list we travel from one side of town to the other, getting the stuff in the order on our shopping list without reading down and seeing what the next item is. Without exaggeration we must have put 250 miles in today and the same yesterday. Lucho even joked, "I need to plan ahead like a gringo.." Its really hard to get anything done here......
Our current plan is to head up river tomorrow.....we'll see...
Be praying.. we had wished to buy food as gifts but we are killing our budget. Pastor Javier would rather purchase gasoline as gifts. Still have a lot done. Got to go, this internet connection stinks, about every 10 minutes I have to walk down the hall and reboot the router.......
The Amazon Mission Festival Adventure Begins
You don't understand spiritual warfare until you embark on a quest to take ground from the enemy. Our day to day lives don't normally produce any resistance from satan because for the most part we aren't any threat to him. Once we get out of our crazy lives long enough to attempt something for God, then we experience the enemy pushing back. From personal experience I know that for the most part I can live out my life without too much problem, its only when we chase after one of these adventures for God do we see the enemies hand.
Recently I had to ask myself if these things that happen are really from the enemy....Is it possible that God is just cleaning the slate so all things are in the open, or is it that its the enemy trying to clean my clock and knock me down?
I write this as I sit waiting for my flight to leave Seattle. We have experienced my back going out last week, some family revelations that caused us deep concern, there was a fire in Miami that canceled our flight to Lima, on and on.
In Seattle going through the security I had made the obvious mistake of taking a thermal mug in my carry on. That set off a chain of events that allowed me to see what all the pat-down fuss was about and getting my hands swabbed, then the swab was run through a flux-capacitor, registering the possibilities that either I had been building explosives or using hand moisturizer......
Once through security, I had to follow up on what Ed Alm told me. Ed called and said that his flight was canceled. It concerned me because his flight was my flight from Miami on... Ed said there was a fuel depot fire and they weren't running flights through Miami, I asked in Seattle and they said "no problem", I asked again in Miami and they said "no problem" when I landed in Miami, I asked again, "no problem". It wasn't until the flight did the anounce. "due to a fuel problem we will be running a little late." Oh well....
We do these things in complete trust in God or we would be fools, its His mission, His responsibility and under His protection that we proceed.
Keep checking here to see whats up, I will update this as we go. Follow us also at
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=07oeV4hSciRRlGCK5nBm3bz00xfJBiVQX
Or on Facebook.
Mostly be praying.......................................
You don't understand spiritual warfare until you embark on a quest to take ground from the enemy. Our day to day lives don't normally produce any resistance from satan because for the most part we aren't any threat to him. Once we get out of our crazy lives long enough to attempt something for God, then we experience the enemy pushing back. From personal experience I know that for the most part I can live out my life without too much problem, its only when we chase after one of these adventures for God do we see the enemies hand.
Recently I had to ask myself if these things that happen are really from the enemy....Is it possible that God is just cleaning the slate so all things are in the open, or is it that its the enemy trying to clean my clock and knock me down?
I write this as I sit waiting for my flight to leave Seattle. We have experienced my back going out last week, some family revelations that caused us deep concern, there was a fire in Miami that canceled our flight to Lima, on and on.
In Seattle going through the security I had made the obvious mistake of taking a thermal mug in my carry on. That set off a chain of events that allowed me to see what all the pat-down fuss was about and getting my hands swabbed, then the swab was run through a flux-capacitor, registering the possibilities that either I had been building explosives or using hand moisturizer......
Once through security, I had to follow up on what Ed Alm told me. Ed called and said that his flight was canceled. It concerned me because his flight was my flight from Miami on... Ed said there was a fuel depot fire and they weren't running flights through Miami, I asked in Seattle and they said "no problem", I asked again in Miami and they said "no problem" when I landed in Miami, I asked again, "no problem". It wasn't until the flight did the anounce. "due to a fuel problem we will be running a little late." Oh well....
We do these things in complete trust in God or we would be fools, its His mission, His responsibility and under His protection that we proceed.
Keep checking here to see whats up, I will update this as we go. Follow us also at
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=07oeV4hSciRRlGCK5nBm3bz00xfJBiVQX
Or on Facebook.
Mostly be praying.......................................
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