2018: ENCOURAGING AND BEING ENCOURAGED

December 2018                                                                                                              by Joel McGee

Amy, Carmen, and I were off-site for much of the year, but God was still at work advancing JungleMaster’s ministry of encouragement and support for the jungle pastors and for other missions and missionaries. At the same time, He used others to encourage us.

While we were at language school in Arequipa, Amy, Carmen, and I were able to make one trip back to the jungle together: a trip home to Nauta for Christmas. While we were there, we had the opportunity to receive a team of engineers from George Fox University that had come to help Laura, a missionary from the Baptist Mission School. This team had been developing a water project for the neighborhood where that mission’s training center is located, the same training center where our pastors and leaders attend seminary classes.

Celebrating Christmas in Nauta in 2017

With the Geoge Fox University team

During a trip I made back to Nauta in February, a trusted friend and mentor came down from Bellingham to help build a church in the remote village of Dos de Mayo. JungleMaster tries to make the 16 hour boat ride to this village once a year, during the season when the river is high enough to be passable with our boat. But February’s scheduled trip had to be postponed because the river was too low. What we initially considered a disappointment turned out to be a blessing, as the local pastors of the co-fraternity decided to make the 5-day trip by peque peque boat themselves, fulfilling JungleMaster’s vision of inspiring the local pastors to do the work. These pastors not only encouraged and built up their brothers and sisters in Christ; they also got the church built! In addition to that, the change of plans allowed a chance for me to be encouraged and filled and mentored by my trusted friend. God was at work; He knew what the ministry needed. He knew what I needed. It turned out to be an awesome blessing on all ends.

Building the church in Dos de Mayo

The completed church

Getting to know the language better was a huge and continuing blessing, and our language school experience led to some great connections, as well. These connections have, in turn, led to various ministry opportunities, such as additional training for our pastors and more resources to help them and their villages. For example, we met two accountants from the Netherlands who work in southern Peru. When our pastors recently requested help learning how to handle church and personal finances in a biblical way, JungleMaster invited these accountants to come to Santa Rita to give a two day course on biblical finances. The pastors who attended were very encouraged by this training and asked for follow up classes. We are now in the process of developing training manuals for the pastors. Another connection from language school was a pastor from Texas who is with a ministry that works with and encourages local missionaries throughout the world. Through this man JungleMaster had the opportunity to help a team minister to, and share the gospel with, some village communities upriver.

The biblical finances class in progress

The team from Texas ministering to a village upriver

I also had the chance to provide transportation for a second team, one I had transported the year before. It is very encouraging to assist short term missions that want to work alongside longer term, local, “on-the-ground” missionaries, especially when the goal of these teams is to learn the needs of the local missionaries and what they can do to encourage them.

The work in the jungle has continued to be busy and blessed. We have seen growth in the pastors and have witnessed the amazing work they are doing. The partnerships and relationships JungleMaster has built with other missions and pastors here have continued to help spread the gospel and to provide the education that is so needed. I have partnered with a Peruvian missionary who is working in Nauta, and together we are helping the co-fraternity to become more focused on, and stronger in, their biblical practices. Since I returned to the jungle, we have led several meetings and small trainings with the co-fraternity. 

Joel pastors with Pastor William to train the co-fraternity in biblical practices

Pastors at Joel and Amy's house

This year JungleMaster was able to help take teens from a local church in Nauta upriver to put on a children’s program in another village. Being able to encourage and help the local churches to start doing missions and outreach on their own is such a blessing, as well as a way that JungleMaster can use the gifts that your support has provided.

Amy has started doing purity training for teen girls from the church in Santa Rita using content she learned at a conference two years ago. She is enjoying this ministry and is hoping to continue building strong bonds with the girls in order to help them grow in their understanding of their value and love in the Lord. Amy was invited to attend a second training conference in the Dominican Republic in November in order to continue learning how to teach and encourage the girls to walk in their faith and also to help bring healing to the many who are suffering from their broken pasts.

The team from Nauta interacting with kids in the village of Jose Olayo

We at JungleMaster are encouraged by the progress made in the jungle this year. And we continue to be thankful for your continual support and encouragement to us, through your prayers and financial gifts.

Please pray with us regarding the following things:

• For the local pastors and communities
• For the opportunities God is opening up for JungleMaster
• For Joel to be able to continue to provide the education that is so needed in this area
• For continued partnering with local missions in order to further the gospel.
• For Amy as she is seeks to gain trust and build confidence in the girls she is working with
• For Joel as he juggles the two roles of directing the ministry and doing the missionary work
• For encouragement and blessing for the JungleMaster board as they continue to help encourage and bless JungleMaster
• For encouragement and support for the McGee family as they continue to navigate their family life and the mission life. And, that God would bring others alongside to help mentor and encourage them.

Thank you so much!