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

Well its Monday, I think...not much sleep over the last two days..like 3-4 hours. We are all in Iquitos Peru and had an Alligator and Pichee Lunch. We were going to do some shopping in prep for the trip but no one has anything left in them.

We meet a young Mennonite Missionary last night in the airport and we all got together and prayed for Bobby and his little girl...Don't worry brother we will have 200+ Pastors and leaders praying for you in a couple of days......

We had the absolute most hilarious thing happen in security this morning..sorry but every way I could think of wording it, I just couldn't put the two words together and have it sound right. You will just have to ask one of the returning team members to relay the story....Just to tease you it had to do with Mike, Lucho and the possibility of .........

I'm planning on getting this phone to send data from the jungle but haven't got it wired yet..everyone is doing well and blending as a team

Continue to pray
Tom

New day, everyone is getting along great.  The thing that impressed me today is the amazing amount of generosity and compassion is outpouring from this group.  Many people offered to pay for the extra luggage, food and other items.  We are truly working as a great team.

Lucho was MIA until we reached Lima. His phone was down and we had no contact, finally, I looked at Starbucks in Limas Airport....Lucho! He said that "he didn't know when we would get in but he knew that if he hung around Starbucks long enough that I would show up!"

Be praying......We couldn't find one of our team members that was expected to meet us in Lima, we had him paged, no response..finally we went to Continental desk and we found out that he didn't get on the plane. I checked E-mail and found that his daughter is really sick and he had to stay home.....Pray!!!!

More soon... we are really tired and have another 20 hours to stay up.....

First Day on the way to the jungle.

Have you ever tried sticking 5 pounds of stuff in a 3 pound bag? That would be what getting all of our gear into the two vehicles was like for our trip from Bellingham to Seattle. I guess I should have a real limit on what people can bring, I always start out by saying "don't bring more than you can carry" then we end up somewhere nearer to "how may porters do we have?".... But with all of the special needs, we ended up way more bags than I hoped, Not since Orellana traversed the Amazon has so much been taken into the jungle by so few.

In the morning we break at 4am and head to the airport, flight out at 7:10 am, we will meet two more of the team in Houston, then off to Lima.....

Some bumps as the Extroverts out number the Introverts by lots, pray as we continue to grow as a team....

Wow, we are ready (almost) I have just finished our taxes as I won't be home before the "15th". I got a long ways on the wiring job for the new boat I'm helping my friend Pat build. All of the arrangements are finished for this trip and the next. We head for Seattle Sunday afternoon and will be flying out early Monday......Keep in touch as I hope to post from the jungle via my satellite phone......

The enemy is afoot..... whenever you are about to take ground for the Kingdom the enemy of man hates it. If you're not in the midst of a battle your not any threat, and he leaves you alone. Pray for this ministry and this team going to Peru......we leave for the jungle on Sunday.......

I'm not delusional, I don't think people care about what I'm making for dinner or if I ran around lake Padden today...yet I discovered some people are reading this...I think its more about what Gods doing in the Amazon and not about me or what I'm up too....I'll be more careful what I write here though......

Beyond all that, I'm continuing to be blown away at what Gods doing.. we have just found out that there will be 250 Pastors and leaders at the seminar we are holding in the jungle next week. The only other Ministry that was on the river supporting the local church has pulled out....JungleMaster is IT in a 200 mile radius.......WOW.

Secondly we have Pastor Jorge Arevalo going to the jungle with us, Jorge has an amazing background in leadership, he is running for Mayor in Barranco, a district of Lima, and has the connections to get our Bible Institute up and going and accreditation available for local jungle pastors.Double WOW!!....JungleMaster will have a fully operational Mission sending and training center in the remote Amazon really soon...We will train and equip local leaders for ministry in the most remote parts of the jungle.

Even as God is setting up an amazing ministry through JungleMaster; as things are ramping up at an amazing rate, I still don't see the foundational support coming in to allow us to get all of this done. I know He provides where He calls. JungleMaster is an unmistakable miraculous movement of the hand of God. Only God could have pulled all of this together. So....if you have ever wanted to get involved in what Gods doing now is the time and this is the place. (that means you can give $) It may be time to stop thinking and get on board!

Ok....off the soapbox. Great meeting with the team going in May..tomorrow night is the last meeting with the April team, its a fantastic group, lots of type "A's"...Doing a major video project during the trip that 360 productions is putting together for us. Well drilling, clean water and more.

Way too busy, I continue to aim for my feet and pull the trigger...I don't have time for one on ones to raise funds, I have to concentrate on cash projects to pay bills and finish closing my business. By the time I take the April group and the May group we will be out of funds and no job..........sorry if this talk is to raw for a Missionary candidate (?) Maybe I should only talk about all the amazing blessings and out pouring of Gods hand...all true but there is the reality of where my minds at too. We chose to trust in God and His call, that says we know that he will provide.......

Looking forward to sharing our facilities in the jungle with these next two groups, I'm not looking forward to the flights..once in the jungle I'm out of harms way and feel relaxed though...Keep Praying!

Today all I have to do is; Meet with Mike for a video interview, pick-up parts at Redden, drop off pistons at Reed Machine, order parts for the volvo, work on the 32 footer for 8 hours, take checks by Larrys, May team meeting at 7pm. Start assembling the block for the 350 Chev, pick up program for taxes, start taxes, start prayerletter to get sent before I go, notify team of the meeting tonight and on Weds...............Leave for Peru in 6 days.....

I've noticed that its been a long time since I have posted anything. I'll do better.....

In the last few years I've been working towards full-time missions. As of the first of day of 2010 my wife and I decided to pursue full-time ministry....so what does that mean? On one hand its a lot of trusting in God to provide when all else seems to say "this is a stupid idea".....the other side is "why would God have blessed so much of what we have done in the jungle if He didn't intend to provide for its completion?"

We've been killing ourselves working what has been essentially two full time jobs. Fixing boats and doing ministry. So we needed to make a change, but how do we raise funds? How do I "work" to provide for my family, "Work" to raise funds, and still manage the ministry and take groups to the jungle?

Everything I do; I shoot myself in the foot. If I'm turning a wrench to make money I'm not raising the long term support that I need to do this ministry full-time, If I'm raising funds, I'm not paying my bills. If I'm not 100% pursuing ministry, am I really trusting God?

This is my journey, It may be a bit too raw for the weak but is reality....

I leave for the jungle again in a week, before I go I have a 32 foot fishing boat to wire and install the engine, a 350 chev to rebuild and taxes to get done.................

How did I get to this financial black hole? Its a long story..... but between ministry, businesses that have failed and faltered, kids in college and a lot of bad decisions, here we are.

My wife and I are working at getting this all straightened around, we have a plan....God has a plan......its just being faithful.