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.......................................
"Buenos Tacos" is our standard greeting when Lucho (our Junglemaster director in Peru) and I phone each other...its a code for "all is well"....This time, what I heard was, "Tomas, I need to tell you something....... (my heart sank, I knew something was wrong)............... "Leandro is in the hospital, he is very sick."
"Oh no, please Jesus no", I prayed..........you see; I felt like I let Leandro down.....Leandro is 11 years old and the son of one of our staff members in Peru. Leandro is very small for 11 because has a hole in his heart from a birth defect.
Last year I started to look into getting him help but ran up against walls and down dead ends. By May we were suffering from our own financial issues and I was scrambling to find ways to fix our own problems, The fact is I just plain dropped the ball.
I was Praying hard, "Lord strengthen him so we can get him help, I won't let him down again. please Jesus get him through this".....I told Lucho to do whatever he had to do to help, somehow God will provide, its the right thing to do and God will honor that...... but we can't let Leandro down.
For three days, Leandro struggled to survive, the Doctors were doing everything a jungle hospital could do, I called Lucho twice a day to check on Leandro. On Sunday I got word, Leandro was better. Lucho called it a miracle, the Doctors weren't sure why he was getting better. If you have ever been in a hospital in Iquitos you would agree it had to be the hand of God that made Leandro better.
Today Leandro is back home. I sent Lucho to Lima to ask if they can fix the problem there and how much it would cost. The social medicine in Peru doesn't cover heart operations..Lima has McDonalds and Burger kings, they must have heart surgeons...
Then... think of who you know, what connections you have and how we can save Leandros life. I decided the moment that I heard he was in the hospital that all the Missions Conferences, mission trips, outboard motors, buildings and stuff didn't make any difference if we didn't do everything possible to help Leandro...........
Little guys like Leandro is why we do missions, its not just the core of what we do, its the heart of all we do.
Thank You, Thank Jesus, Be Praying....................
Tom and Janet Clark
JungleMaster USA
"Oh no, please Jesus no", I prayed..........you see; I felt like I let Leandro down.....Leandro is 11 years old and the son of one of our staff members in Peru. Leandro is very small for 11 because has a hole in his heart from a birth defect.
Last year I started to look into getting him help but ran up against walls and down dead ends. By May we were suffering from our own financial issues and I was scrambling to find ways to fix our own problems, The fact is I just plain dropped the ball.
I was Praying hard, "Lord strengthen him so we can get him help, I won't let him down again. please Jesus get him through this".....I told Lucho to do whatever he had to do to help, somehow God will provide, its the right thing to do and God will honor that...... but we can't let Leandro down.
For three days, Leandro struggled to survive, the Doctors were doing everything a jungle hospital could do, I called Lucho twice a day to check on Leandro. On Sunday I got word, Leandro was better. Lucho called it a miracle, the Doctors weren't sure why he was getting better. If you have ever been in a hospital in Iquitos you would agree it had to be the hand of God that made Leandro better.
Today Leandro is back home. I sent Lucho to Lima to ask if they can fix the problem there and how much it would cost. The social medicine in Peru doesn't cover heart operations..Lima has McDonalds and Burger kings, they must have heart surgeons...
Then... think of who you know, what connections you have and how we can save Leandros life. I decided the moment that I heard he was in the hospital that all the Missions Conferences, mission trips, outboard motors, buildings and stuff didn't make any difference if we didn't do everything possible to help Leandro...........
Little guys like Leandro is why we do missions, its not just the core of what we do, its the heart of all we do.
Thank You, Thank Jesus, Be Praying....................
Tom and Janet Clark
JungleMaster USA
No Chrome................
JungleMaster doesn't have any "Chrome". I think we're made out of something more like cast Iron. A Canadian friend of mine says Cast Iron is, "The American Wonder Metal". Maybe that's not a great analogy, but what we don't have is anything that tears at the heart of the average North American Christian. Sad to say, but for the most part all we do is church plants and leadership training.
Deep in the jungle there isn't any orphans; families take care of extended members. People aren't starving; in the jungle everything you need to survive is either growing in your back yard, swims by in the river or walks by in the jungle. These are the things that cause us to jump in and throw our resources to fix the problem.
Training a 50 year old jungle pastor to become a missionary is not very glamorous, (unless your a 50 year old widower). Self-sustaining mission centers only are exciting to book keepers and economists.
with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." Revelation 5:9
Yet what we're doing will produce missionaries to extend into the deepest reaches of the Amazon. Its estimated that there are at least 150 unreached and un-contacted people groups in the Amazon. So who is it that will reach these people? It won't be you or me; we don't do well in the jungle. It has to be them; those that live there now. So how will we ensure that those tribes are represented? We need to empower and send. Thats what we do, not too shiny....but solid, like cast iron.
JungleMaster doesn't have any "Chrome". I think we're made out of something more like cast Iron. A Canadian friend of mine says Cast Iron is, "The American Wonder Metal". Maybe that's not a great analogy, but what we don't have is anything that tears at the heart of the average North American Christian. Sad to say, but for the most part all we do is church plants and leadership training.
Deep in the jungle there isn't any orphans; families take care of extended members. People aren't starving; in the jungle everything you need to survive is either growing in your back yard, swims by in the river or walks by in the jungle. These are the things that cause us to jump in and throw our resources to fix the problem.
Training a 50 year old jungle pastor to become a missionary is not very glamorous, (unless your a 50 year old widower). Self-sustaining mission centers only are exciting to book keepers and economists.
with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." Revelation 5:9
Yet what we're doing will produce missionaries to extend into the deepest reaches of the Amazon. Its estimated that there are at least 150 unreached and un-contacted people groups in the Amazon. So who is it that will reach these people? It won't be you or me; we don't do well in the jungle. It has to be them; those that live there now. So how will we ensure that those tribes are represented? We need to empower and send. Thats what we do, not too shiny....but solid, like cast iron.
I haven't given up, I'm now working at a manufacturer of aluminum boats, doing ministry in the jungle, and busting my hump taking whatever extra project I can to make a buck.
 | |
| Tom |
The other issue we have is designated funding. I don't know if you can really call it a problem, but its an issue. We made a commitment in March that we would never borrow from, or use funds from one account to another to make the budget in Peru or support us. So as we have funds in the bank ear marked for projects we can't use them to fund the monthly operations of JungleMaster. That's great but we're running the risk of bankrupting the ministry with cash still in the bank. That's why I had to go out and find a job, the only solution was for us to give up our support to fund the work in the jungle. Is that still borrowing from one fund to keep another going? Yes, but its the only fund that I have discretion over, so what do we do? To those of you that send money for us as support, please bear with us and have patience and when giving increases we will transition back to "fuller-time ministry".
 |
| In San Jose |
Mostly though I need to say how much I appreciate everyone that has hung in there and supported us and this mission through the years. The steadfast friends that have sent funds year after year, the brother in Oklahoma that saved up and sent a cashiers check for $1:00, the 10 year old that saved his lawn mowing money all summer long and sent it to us.....these are sacred dollars.........We often pray through each name as we send out our prayer letters; as we put on the labels its a reminder of a name, a family and a relationship, its just a small way we can make an offering back to those that support us.
Last Friday, I had talked to an on-fire supporter of ours, I told him of our need to find ways to get the budget straightened around; he shared it with his wife who proceeded to drop to her knees to ask God to help. Their little girl listened into mom, ran upstairs and grabbed her piggy bank and came down and said, "Here mom, give this to the people in the jungle"...my oh my....that makes me tear up.
You still can help....there is the seemingly "not so obvious idea" of giving, also... how about hooking us up with someone in your church. Having an opportunity to speak before a congregation and let the Holy Spirit touch hearts bears amazing fruit. One Sunday can literally change our economic future. We went to a small community church of 25 people and in two Sundays raised one time gifts of over $3,000.00.
We also want your stuff. Everyone has something of value that has been just sitting around collecting dust that they don't want. It maybe too much of a hassle or just not worth your time to sell, ship and deal with. We have a team of people ready to come get it and clean it up to sell it for JungleMaster. We have had lots of weird stuff that we have been able to move,... give me a call at 360.510.1563I'm also working on writing a book, its title is, "The JungleMaster" following God in the Amazon. One day when you read about all of the stuff we've been through it will blow you away. Its not a "Jim Elliot" story, more of a "Annie" meets "Godzilla".............................
Thanks...Tom and Janet
Jimmy was just doin the Lords work....
Today Janet and I are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary, last week we began to think we should do something special but there were a lot of obstacles in our way. Over the week God took our "Perfect Storm" and created a "Perfect Calm" .....Our daughter Tessa had cheer camp from Thursday to Saturday, I finished a bunch of projects on Wednesday that allowed us to pay our bills, one customer gave me an extra $200.00..that gave us a bit of extra cash, we owned a tent and we guessed that we could go camping for the same amount of money as staying home plus a bit of fuel and 8 bucks a night at the National Park. So that was it; we went camping for two nights for our 30th and we went to Mazama (as it sounded a little like Mazatlan, it was a bit exotic too).
As we were loading the truck, Janet and I decided to make this a ministry trip too and we prepared some of our handouts and committed to stop at every church we spotted along the freeway. Our first Church was the Valley Baptist Church in Sedro Wooley. We pulled into an empty parking lot and I jumped out secretly hopeful that no one was there and I could just drop the stuff off and run. I grabbed the handle of the door but it opened so unexpectedly that I found myself standing in the office area of the church. Within a couple of seconds a frazzled guy with a cell phone stepped into the hall and gave me this really skeptical look.
"Hi, my name is Tom Clark and I'm a missionary in the Amazon, I know you get a lot of this....." I was cut off by Pastor Mike,
"Yes we do and I'm really busy now, could you drop your stuff off, I'm in the middle of a problem right now could you please?..."
"Sure no problem" I said, "Tell you what brother, we'll be praying for you as we drive east too"
I left him with our stuff and didn't get a mile down the road before I realized that God had called us to make this a ministry opportunity too. It wasn't about us dropping our stuff off but about us seeking the needs of these guys that served in the small churches in rural communities. We prayed for Pastor Mike as we pulled into the various churches we saw, some were empty, some had VBS going, when we reached Concrete we found the "Community Bible Church",... Pastor Rob was outside helping his daughter get the lawn mower going. I stopped and introduced Janet and myself and even offered to help him fix his mower. He graciously declined yet we drove off realizing that these guys serving in the community churches were the heroes of the faith. Without big staffs and lots of help they did the preaching, mowing and painting all on their own.
Janet and I continued to stop and leave our information packet and we stopped at 12 churches over the two days to Mazama and back. The second day we realized that on one of the stops my cell phone must have fell out of the truck, after thinking it through I realized that I lost it in Marblemount. The phone has all my contact information and it would be another huge loss to us, second only to the computer that was stolen out of our house two weeks before. We were heading to Winthrop when Janet noticed she had a voice message, "Hi, my name is Jimmy and I found your phone at the Marblemount Chapel, I'm bikin to Idaho and I........(we were cut off)
Janet and I figured that Jimmy must be coming through Winthrop and if he was making time he should be there about the same time we were. We went to town looking for someone that looked like a Jimmy with a southern accent, everyone looked like Jimmy at that point...........
On the way back to Mazama Jans cell phone rang again, "Hi, my name is Jimmy and I'm just doing the Lords work. I have your cell phone and I need to get it back to you"
We spent several minutes making arrangements for Jimmy to leave the phone at the Shell station in Marblemount and thanking him for helping us out. We explained to him how he was helping a brother in ministry and how he was being used by God.
When we lost our phone God had one of our brothers who was committed to doing "His work", ready to cover our backs. When we were we pulling out of Marblemount, God had His man Jimmy peddling in....
I guess that whether we're on vacation celebrating an anniversary or biking across the State of Washington, we can be doing "ministry" every moment, its an eternal perspective that I need to be thinking about or I just get lost in my busyness....But that's what we are called to do...., No?
Yes, Jimmy was doing the Lords work, Thanks Brother!
As we were loading the truck, Janet and I decided to make this a ministry trip too and we prepared some of our handouts and committed to stop at every church we spotted along the freeway. Our first Church was the Valley Baptist Church in Sedro Wooley. We pulled into an empty parking lot and I jumped out secretly hopeful that no one was there and I could just drop the stuff off and run. I grabbed the handle of the door but it opened so unexpectedly that I found myself standing in the office area of the church. Within a couple of seconds a frazzled guy with a cell phone stepped into the hall and gave me this really skeptical look.
"Hi, my name is Tom Clark and I'm a missionary in the Amazon, I know you get a lot of this....." I was cut off by Pastor Mike,
"Yes we do and I'm really busy now, could you drop your stuff off, I'm in the middle of a problem right now could you please?..."
"Sure no problem" I said, "Tell you what brother, we'll be praying for you as we drive east too"
I left him with our stuff and didn't get a mile down the road before I realized that God had called us to make this a ministry opportunity too. It wasn't about us dropping our stuff off but about us seeking the needs of these guys that served in the small churches in rural communities. We prayed for Pastor Mike as we pulled into the various churches we saw, some were empty, some had VBS going, when we reached Concrete we found the "Community Bible Church",... Pastor Rob was outside helping his daughter get the lawn mower going. I stopped and introduced Janet and myself and even offered to help him fix his mower. He graciously declined yet we drove off realizing that these guys serving in the community churches were the heroes of the faith. Without big staffs and lots of help they did the preaching, mowing and painting all on their own.Janet and I continued to stop and leave our information packet and we stopped at 12 churches over the two days to Mazama and back. The second day we realized that on one of the stops my cell phone must have fell out of the truck, after thinking it through I realized that I lost it in Marblemount. The phone has all my contact information and it would be another huge loss to us, second only to the computer that was stolen out of our house two weeks before. We were heading to Winthrop when Janet noticed she had a voice message, "Hi, my name is Jimmy and I found your phone at the Marblemount Chapel, I'm bikin to Idaho and I........(we were cut off)
Janet and I figured that Jimmy must be coming through Winthrop and if he was making time he should be there about the same time we were. We went to town looking for someone that looked like a Jimmy with a southern accent, everyone looked like Jimmy at that point...........
On the way back to Mazama Jans cell phone rang again, "Hi, my name is Jimmy and I'm just doing the Lords work. I have your cell phone and I need to get it back to you"
When we lost our phone God had one of our brothers who was committed to doing "His work", ready to cover our backs. When we were we pulling out of Marblemount, God had His man Jimmy peddling in....
I guess that whether we're on vacation celebrating an anniversary or biking across the State of Washington, we can be doing "ministry" every moment, its an eternal perspective that I need to be thinking about or I just get lost in my busyness....But that's what we are called to do...., No?
Yes, Jimmy was doing the Lords work, Thanks Brother!
Medical Mission
The team set up the church as a clinic and had stations for check-in, pharmacy, triage and consultation. The church turned out to be a solar cooker and even with the huge amount of stress working in the heat for two days, plus the massive amounts of bugs that attacked from the dirt floor, not even a single breath of displeasure was voiced. In total our team saw 116 people over two days. What a huge blessing for the people of Dos de Mayo and a huge blessing for us.
The one relief was the late afternoon swim in the little river that flowed by the village.. (And a bunch of bug repellent) ....
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