South America Mission had their annual Peru field conference in Lima (the capital of Peru) for a week in the beginning of March. It was a great time for all the missionaries to get away from the work, relax, fellowship and get refreshed in the Lord. The speaker was Mark Upton, the pastor of Hope Community Church in south Charlotte, NC. The message that stood out most to me was that society changes from top down, not the bottom up. Yes, it is important that we as missionaries pour into the lives of individuals, discipling them helping them meet their needs, but if we really want to see a societal and generational change, we need to seek out those individuals who have the potential to become leaders in society and disciple them. Poor people will always show up at your door because they are aware they need help. But the ones who will one day lead the poor need to be sought out. With the U.S. presidential elections coming up this year, renewing my interest in politics and increasing my concern for, not only my nation, but for the world, this message really spoke to me and has been stirring my heart. Peru needs to see some change, and I want to have a hand in that.
The week after conference was a week of spring break vacation for SAM Academy. I had originally planned to travel during this time and see more of Peru, but because of lack of extra cash and the need to relax a little bit and take it easy, I opted to come back to Pucallpa and hang out here instead. We had a short term mission team from Alabama here that week, so I helped prepare and clean up for all the meals (so much for relaxing, getting up at 6:00 every morning). But it was nice to be "home" without having to worry about "work". During this week I got the opportunity to go out to the air base 15 km down the road and fly in a float plane (one that takes off from the water) over the jungle. Below are some pictures. (Click on the pictures if you'd like to see them larger)
Me with retired pilot and SAM Peru field director Dave Simmons (left),
and the director of the SAM Air base and my pilot for the day, Jonathan Schmidt (right)
in front of the plane I got to fly in.
I got to fly with a fellow teacher at SAM Academy, Halie (left) and a Peruvian friend
who's been a part of the missions community for years, Walter (center).
Here's an overhead view of a village in the jungle that's been flooded during rainy season (November-March). It's a pretty normal yearly occurance, but this year and last year the water levels have been record-breaking. The people don't mind sleeping in hammocks hung over the lakes in their living rooms, but what gets to them is when their crops have been flooded and destroyed leaving them income-less for 2 years in a row.
People (not to mention all the other creeping, crawling creatures) live among those trees.
Pretty crazy, huh? Also pretty beautiful, though.
Just before landing, I snapped a shot of the SAM Air base from the air. This little peninsula is where over 50% of our SAM missionaries in Peru live...I am not one them, unfortunately.
In other news, I have recently completely my 8 hour training course to be an official volunteer at Latidos de Esperanza (Heartbeats of Hope) Crisis Pregnancy Center! I learned not only how to answer the phone and do the necessary paperwork with our clients, but was instructed on how to counsel a woman in crisis whether she has already made a decision she regrets or is trying to decide the next step. I was especially given lots of material on abortion to share with the clients as it's such a common occurance in Peru. I think the statistic was that there are 1000 abortions a day in Peru, even though it is technically illegal. Seventeen percent of these abortions result in the death of the mother as well as child and even more result in permanent infertility for the mother. The women whose fertility is not affected by the abortions often have up to 3 abortions before seeking couseling. Wow! A couple weeks ago a client came in while I was on duty. She just turned 16 and was about to have a baby. She had already had 5 sexual partners and even had an abortion at age 13! This is shocking to me and to probably everyone reading this, but this is normal in Pucallpa. Praise God that there are now 10 more volunteers who just completed training with me so we will have more workers to keep the pregnancy center open more hours. And praise God for the existing volunteers who spent an entire day training to go to the public schools to give seminars in abstinence--something that has never really been taught in Pucallpa before.
The uniform shirt I was issued to wear while working at the pregnancy center along with my certificate of completion of the training. The tiny silver pin on the right collar (left side of picture) is to scale baby feet at 10 weeks gestation. The baby is already a tiny little person.
That's all I've got for you this month. I'll probably write one more blog (maybe two) before I'm home for the summer. Currently, I'm scheduled to be home June 12. I hope to see many of you for the few weeks I'm in the States before coming back to Peru for a second year. I love you all! God bless!
