Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you so much for praying for my trip to Peru, it was a wonderful time serving in the jungle! We got back to the States on Saturday. Fourteen Americans plus a number of church members from the Pucallpa church and Shapibo believers made up the team of about 35 people on the boat. We spent 10 days on the Ucayali river, visiting 8 different villages among the Shapibo and Shinika people groups. Two of the villages we visited deep upriver in the small boats up some smaller tributaries near the base of the Andes’ foothills. We cared for people with medical, chiropractic, reading glasses, and dental services. The medical folks saw over 900 patients, we in the dental department saw around 115 patients and probably pulled close to 200 teeth! Our Pucallpan and Shapibo teammates, with direction from Blair and Joan McGwire, also installed some new water filters in some of the villages. They also held evangelistic meetings in the evenings and 49 people gave their lives Christ during the trip! Praise the Lord! Further follow up will be done by the Pucallpa church and Shapibo pastors.
It was just a joy to be part of a big team where everyone had their part, and the Lord knit us together in ministering to these remote villages.
We all remained fairly healthy during the trip, though I had a cold and fever for a couple days mid-trip, as well as one other teammate. We didn’t have any personal encounters with piranha, though one patient was seen for a bite! We did see some river dolphins, monkeys, and a snake though!

Thank you for praying for us and for your support for this trip, it’s good to be back with Melissa and the kids!

In Christ,

Jon

Pictures:
1) The Evangelista docked in Pucallpa
2) The jungle along the Ucayali River
3) Posing with some Shapibo women in one of the villages
4) Some of the medical team seeing patients (team leader Blair in the white shirt)
5) Working on one of the boat’s crew who had a gangrenous diabetic ulcer 6) With a dental patient and my fellow teammate and dental assistant, Rodica
7) Cool jungle constrictor!
8) Pulling teeth in one of the villages we visited with the small boats 9) Heading out in the small boats
10) With Mervin, the other ‘dentist’ from Pucallpa