Happy John the Baptist Day!

Juanes: (essentials for the skimmers)

• 2 weekends ago Latin America celebrated John the Baptist Day. It's kind of a 36 hour party. Also, happy US Independence Day! 231 years ain't too bad.
• Futbol, known as "soccer" to the untraveled people of the States, made for good laughs for us and the Tigre Quichuas.
• We left 28 de Julio and are back in Alfonso Ugarte, staying next to Brother Mario.
• We learned of 6 evangelical churches among the Tigre Quichua!
• I got robbed again. Like $35 this time.
• We are leaving the Tigre River this Saturday and headed back to base camp.

More masato: (extras for the non-skimmers)

Dear Church,

Caution: The faint at heart should skip to the next paragraph. Ever heard of a píque? Me neither 'til i got to Peru. It's a small white worm, about the size of a BB pellet, that digs into the pads of your feet and live. I had one on the boat ride here. Drew had two. But two weeks ago, we found two more in the same hole along with a nest of teeny tiny eggs in Drew's pinkie toe! I did the honors of removing all remaining uninvited animals from Drew's feet last week with a sterilized sewing needle. Drew whined in pain. I marveled at the size of the worms and puss that came out. If you come to the jungle, don't walk around barefoot, for crying out loud!

OK, gross part over.

This past weekend we celebrated John the Baptist's birthday (according to Roman Catholic tradition). I hate to say it, but i think it's just another excuse to get passed-out-drunk as the nationals didn't seem to have a lot of accurate information on John the Baptist (aka. Saint John the Baptist the Apostle... as some explained), but they knew they were supposed to celebrate his life by making and eating Juanes ("Johns"), yellow rice, a scrap of some random chicken part, and olives packed together in a sphere shape, wrapped in leaves into a package, and boiled. They look kind of like a decapitated head, hence the name. I ate many. The weekend kind of feels like St. Patrick's Day in the States. On that day people celebrate Christendom coming to the island of Ireland by...getting crazy drunk and wearing green in order not to be pinched by others under the influence. Thanks, Patrick. Props, John.

Last update, i forgot to tell yall a funny story. It happened again two weeks ago in 28 de Julio, so i felt obliged to include it now. A few weeks ago we rode up to Yarinal, a Quichua town on the Tigre via canoe to their town's anniversary festival. A futbol tournament and hundreds of gallons of masato were the main attractions. We were staying in the community Alfonso Ugarte and, therefore, were eligible players for their team. Drew, having played much more organized soccer than i, did much better. The people were rolling, laughing. If we did well, the people laughed in surprise. If we screwed up, they laughed 'cause...it was just funny. Someone kicked me the ball and like an idiot, i went to kick it out of it's air-born path. I barely nicked the ball, and the momentum of my leg made me come off my feet and fall on my side in the mud. The people roared in laughter, especially as i quickly threw up my hands in victory and gave out high fives to my teammates. We sure made a lot of friends that day. People were talking about it all through Intuto and the surrounding areas for days.

Now something very unexpected happened during our study of the culture of the Tigre Quichua people. We thought there had been very little evangelism on the river and in the Spanish language instead of Quichua, making it hard to understand, but we've been informed that all 13 communities in the upper Tigre have heard the Gospel in Quichua by Peruvians! What more, there are 6 churches in the 13 communities boasting just under 200 believers! Granted, these numbers of believers can be off, but it is the best we can estimate without looking at the Lamb's Book of Life, itself. This puts the evangelized percentage of the Tigre Quichua at over 10%! Whoa! Praise God! I must apologize for informing yall before that they were unevangelized and unreached. Thanks for praying, anywho.

I found my wallet a couple nights ago short some money. It's always discouraging. I have a good idea who did it. When asked about it he told me he didn't, but today when i caught him in an unrelated lie, he told me he could trick anyone... just a boy too. [sigh] Please pray for Roy.

PrayeRequests:

• Pray the many weak believers among the Tigre Quichua would be discipled.
• 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.
• Pray as i study the Quichua language.
• Levi is still in Ecuador trying to gather funds and support from friends and his church to be able to come back ASAP.
• Drew and i will leave, Lord willing, this Saturday morning for a two day journey to Iquitos. From there we will continue the path we traveled when we came here unless we can't go through Pucallpa. Pucallpa is closed right now with riots and protests in the streets due to a political controversy. Pray for opportunities to share with other travelers and decision making as we choose our path.

Quote of the Week(s):

After we learned of the high numbers of Tigre Quichua believers... "Eat your heart out, Satan, and while you're at it, PEEL YOUR FACE OFF!" -Drew Grumbles

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