Front row left to right: Dr. Ted Beam-pastor, Anaclare Cobb,
Joyce Hudson, Amy Smith
Back row left to right: Amanda Anderson, Jason Anderson,
Marc Travis
We will be going to the mountains of Ecuador around the Cuenca area, just up from the Amazon Basin. We will be connecting with Jim and Sue Smith from Somerset, 20 year veteran missionaries to Ecuador with OMS International. We will encourage the missionaries and Saraguro Christians, light construction on their clinic and church, participate in home Bible services, participate in prayer walks, work with the children and youth, some leadership development. We will be participating in a church where Marshall Cavit ministered years ago---Marshall pastored Sardis in the early 1940's then went to Bolivia and Ecuador for 35 years. Jim and Sue Smith, members of Sardis have been in Ecuador for 20 years. We at Sardis have a long time connection with these dear people of Ecuador.
I woke up and checked my watch, 11:38 PM. The cramps in my legs had awakened me from exhaustion. I straightened out my legs and began to give myself the old pep talk, "All right now, fix the attitude. Let's go back over the facts. I am lying in a hammock in the Amazon Jungle of Peru. The stars outshine any trace of clouds. I passed that line where no "white man" has walked. I have asked for this experience for thirty years. God has handed me my dreams. Ahhhhh, lying in a hammock in the Amazon. I wonder if I can hear a jaguar if one gets close."God had answered so many prayers on that mission trip this past January. Several of us from Pulaski county went on this particular trip along with others around the country and from Australia. We went with GO InterNational out of Wilmore led by Larry Cochran. We flew into Lima, took another smaller flight to Tarapoto, then a five and one-half hour truck ride to Saposoa (pop. about 20,000) where we held a medical clinic, VBS each afternoon for the children, and we participated in a worship service on the city square each evening. We then took a one and one-half hour truck ride to Passarraya (pop. about 1,500) and did the same thing. From there, we walked twenty-one miles into the jungle to Los Olivos, passing the line where no outsider had ever traveled.
While at Los Olivos, I realized how God had answered many prayers. I have wanted to travel into the Amazon Jungle, using no tent just sleeping in a hammock. I wanted to go to the front line where no "white man" had ever gone. I wanted to swim, bathe, and gather drinking water from a river inhabited by piranhas. While at Los Olivos we all signed the government documents as witnesses establishing this jungle village as a Peruvian community. One thing happened on this trip however, that took me by complete surprise.
About an hour before dark, Darryl Petrey and I were resting our weary bones on a bench in the town square of Passarraya just watching the children play and trying out our very limited Spanish with those who stood around. One man rode up on a bicycle and began to talk to us, very slowly. He was determined to get a message through.
For over thirty minutes, the young man used basic words and a lot of gestures and motions to communicate to us that he had been in the city soon after September 11. While in the city, he had seen television footage of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He explained to us how sad he had become. He and his village had heard over a year earlier that men and women from America were scheduled to come to his village. The Christians had been praying for us. Their prayers had intensified since September 11, fearing that we would not come. And looking upon us, he wanted to give thanks to God for our courage and willingness to come such a far distance at our own expense just to encourage his village and help them for a few days.
Do you know what it's like to find out you are an answer to someone's prayer? Do you know what it's like to hear how someone has been praying for your safety for over a year without ever seeing your face? An old Chinese proverb states, "When the foot has a thorn in it, the whole body must bend down to pull it out." The Apostle Paul uses the imagery of a human body in his first letter to the Corinthian church to explain how we are to treat one another in the Church. I thought I went there to help them. But to hear this young man tell how hurt he was for us and how he had been praying that we would not lose heart, I learned something wonderful from my Peruvian friend that night. I learned that the Apostle Paul was exactly right. When one part of the body hurts, every part reaches out to help. I learned some things about myself as a result of that night.
First, I learned that I do not hurt and grieve when my fellow Christians are enduring persecution all over the world. The statistics reveal that thousands of Christians die every year around the world because of their faith. Second, I learned that I look the other way many times when my fellow Christians (or fellow human beings) are in need in my own community. Just like many of you, I pretend I don't see them. I pretend that if they don't ask me directly for help that I am excused somehow. I pretend I'm too busy. I tell myself the whole time that their laziness got them into this mess. In other words, I lie to myself and hope that it will all be okay. I've repented quite a bit since that night in the Peruvian wilderness, but I've still got a long way to go.
