Legends of the "Face-Peelers"

Mosquito nets: (essentials for the skimmers)

• I'm including GPS coordinates so those of you with Google Earth or a similar program may see satellite photos of these places. Let me know what yall find!
• I'm finally on the Tigre River! I've been waiting to get to this people group for over 4 years. PTL!
• Avast, we were robbed and have endured several other trials. Like i said, Satan isn't going to let us come without a fight.
• Language is going slow but we're in the best place in the world to study Tigre Quichua with the best resources.
• We're in to 28 de Julio (S 03°28.503', W 074°48245'), a Quichua village, just upriver, since Monday and should stay a couple weeks.

Masato: (extras for the non-skimmers)

Dear "Rosie the Riveters,"

I use that title as most of you who get this are the behind-the-scenes support that keeps soldiers of Christ fighting on the front-lines through your prayer, encouragement, and donations.

Let's see if i can remember all gut-checks so far (My wonderful mother has already posted some of this info from our phone conversation one Friday night on the blog.): Leaving from Iquitos via the the mighty Cuco, a rusty 2-story barge, traveling up the Marañon River and on to the winding Tigre River, 3 days, 2 nights. The first night, as we slumbered in our hammocks like most people, someone decided to make my compression sack, complete with my sleeping bag and mosquito net, and a bag of cookies theirs. I saw some cookie wrappers laying around and thus questioned several of the crew and travelers if they'd seen anyone eating them and got nowhere. As we neared Intuto on the last night, about "dark:30" (as my dad says), i decided to walk back to my hammock in the dark. On the cargo level i was feeling around in the dark when i fell down into the hull of the boat, a good 8-foot plunge, headfirst. Don't worry, i landed on crates of glass beer and coke bottles. My foot only bled a little bit.

When i first set foot on Tigre soil in Intuto (S 03°29.313', W 074°46.802'), the satisfaction was incredible. The sorrows of my gear and blood loss faded in the night. I've been waiting for over 4 years to get to these people that the Lord has sent me to, even though i've only known their name since February. I was worshipping on the inside. A man invited us into his home, where we stayed one night. The following morning he introduced us to Mario Tapui, fluent in Quichua dialect and blood, president of the people group, and down-to-earth, kindhearted, senile, old man.

Mario has been and should continue to be a valuable help in reaching his people group. He organized for us to stay in the school in Alfonso Ugarte (S 03°29.157', W 074°47.371') for the week. He kindly offered me his extra mosquito net, though it's shaped for a bed and is useless with my hammock and is made with coarse netting which allows all the smaller blood sucking insects in. No worries, i found another in town and modified it to fit my hammock. Before then, i used a Thermarest (inflatable mattress) that Drew brought, but it has 3 holes that the best glue in Intuto won't fix. Nevertheless, it beats the concrete floor.

Mario's wife is not a believer. I've come to affectionately call her (behind her back) the Masato Nazi. Masato is a extremely common drink in these parts, made from yuca roots. The locals chew the roots and spit them out, making a concoction and allowing it to ferment! Though most of the drinking is for "strength" (as many have sold their food in order to buy more masato), drunkenness is a horrible problem in every place we've been to on the river. It seems we are constantly offered masato by Mario's wife and many other homes, and it's hard not to be rude when they are so insistent. Even the Tigre Quichua church goers of 28 de Julio were intoxicated to the point they forgot to feed us supper last night.

As i said before, the Tigre Quichua are very suspicious of outsiders of lighter shades of skin. Evidently at some point in "conquistador" history some natives had their faces peeled off by white people. Rumors hundreds of years old still linger. Evidently all white people are out to peel the indigenous' faces off! Who knew? Last week, one evening we purchased new machetes in a corner store in Intuto to be able to work with the people in their fields. We were see walking around with machetes and were reported to be "dangerous" to the town officials. The town had a meeting about us which very few people attended because of the rain, including us (the accusers failed to show), and cleared up misunderstandings with town officials. We have made influential friends like Mario and are thankful. Last night police came from Intuto to 28 de Julio because there was a report from a civilian in Intuto that us "gringos" (white people) had murdered a man in 28 de Julio, peeling his face off with our machetes! Our "man of peace," Samuel, with who we are living in 28 de Julio vouched for us and nothing has come of it...yet. My greatest fear is that rumors like these will quickly travel up river via radio and the people of the upper Tigre will reject our requests for us to stay in with them in their towns to share the Word of God with them. Rumors like these can be reversed, but trust is hard earned and can be lost in a moment. These things can cost valuable time and money.

There seems to be few people in the middle ground. Either they are scared to death of us or are happy to see us. Many of the latter try to accommodate us by using their "English." The problem is there are several English words for the Spanish word señor: sir, mister, lord, senor, etc. They call to us in their Peruvian accents, "Mee-stair! Mee-stair! Gude mornink!" I check the time: 2pm. I explain to them it's the afternoon in Spanish and they reply, "Ah! Gude eevenink!" I give them the thumbs-up. There's no point in correcting them, "Sorry, but we don't call each other 'mister' in English. It's 'sir'" I just wish they'd treat us like people that have come to work with them instead of rich tourists or face-peelers.

PrayeRequests:

• PTL! We have had a surprising blessing of NO BOWEL COMPLAINTS. Coming into a new area with different bugs, we were almost certain to get diarrhea and have not had a bit!
• Drew and i are entering a region that has belonged to Satan for thousands of years. He's secured those souls for Hell and doesn't plan on giving up the present and future Tigre Quichua people without a fight. We expect much more spiritual warfare.
• As we study the culture and worldview we will be forming a Bible story track that will be relevant to their culture. As we can't share every story from the Bible, pray we would select the stories God wants to use to reach this people to help them understand His Message.
• Quichua studies
• Levi is still in Ecuador trying to gather funds and support from friends and his church to be able to come back ASAP.

"I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no powers, no wisdom
But i will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death, and resurrection!"

love yuns,
†il the whole world hears,
corey reid pendergrass