God is good!...{Dios es bueno!}

I found out about 2 days before I left for the jungle that I would be going. Good to know. I hadn't taken malaria pills and I asked several of my supervisors if that was okay and they said that I would be fine because this area wasn't affected. There are also a lot of military bases there because Lago Agrio is so close to the Colombian border, where drug trafficking and violence are a big problem, but we didn't feel unsafe at all.

When we got to the church there was about 20 people waiting for us with beautiful fish heads for supper. We didn't know how the meal was prepared and if it was safe to eat, but we ate it anyway so we thanked God for our food and prayed that he would protect us from it. They gave us the best of what they had and it would have been rude to reject what was placed before us.

That evening they invited us to join their worship service and I was asked to lead some songs with my guitar and we all shared our testimonies. Afterwards we visited a man and his family whose son was killed about a week ago. We sang some songs, pastors preached in Spanish and Quichua and one of the brothers of the guy who was killed accepted Christ. God is good! All the time!

The next day we left early because we had to take a canoe across a river and hike through some more dense parts of the jungle, across streams, steep, muddy banks to get to a little school in a tiny village just to bring them a marker board. They welcomed us with open arms along with a few gulps of chicha, a fermented drink that is mixed by chewing yuca, and other plants and spitting them out - buen provecho! It took about all I had in me & a prayer to not gag profusely. The next course was even better. Yuca, nuts, and worms. So now if my dad needs a little help speeding up the process with those worm castings, I've got the skills. But really in all seriousness, it was disgusting. These kind of worms look kind of like shrimp when they are alive, but taste nothing like it. Thankfully the church members there said we didn't have to eat all of it if we didn't like it, but at least try it and pass it on.

Before we left we were each given a necklace hand made by the children with nuts from the jungle which was really touching. That night we crossed another large river but in a barge this time to a different community. There we played with some kids, ate a delicious chicken & rice dinner, played the movie Fireproof with a projector and a bedsheet in a cement block church, and had a worship service. We led some songs again and shared testimonies, sang songs in quichua & spanish, and pastors preached on the importance of godly marriages and relationships. There are quite a few couples in that area living together unmarried. It was an exhausting, yet rewarding couple of days.

Last night I went to a prayer service at a pretty charismatic church. A lot of dancing, singing, and some praying in tongues. It was a neat experience and I could definitely tell God was working in the people there.

Tomorrow I'll be going to an Alliance church in Centro Historico to teach some youth some worship songs of different languages I learned at Urbana for their mission conference in July. I'm looking forward to seeing how this ministry opportunity will unfold.

Todo el tiempo, Dios es bueno!