Missions Update: The Dovers to Peru

Dear Pastors and praying friends,

    Well, we are back! I can not tell you all how grateful I am just to be able to say that! It was a very long trip! (6 weeks) Even though we did not find the Mashco-Piro there is still so much to tell of all we went through and all the Lord did to glorify His name, but first of all I would like for all of you to hear from my brother-in-law, and long time fellowservant, Josh Martyn. Josh and I have been friends, prayer partners, and preaching/witnessing partners for ten years now and it has been a great joy and blessing for me that he has been able to come down here and travel with me in the Lord’s service. God has laid a call and burden on his heart for the lost sheep in Peru just as He has mine. I know Josh longs to be here and find these people just as much as I do and I am so grateful to the Lord for giving me a like-hearted co-laborer in this matter. I have asked Josh to write to you all in his own words.

It has been good to be back in my hearts ´home away from home.´ This years efforts have proven to be a far more successful thrust into the kingdom of darkness and its habitations of cruelty than ever before. Once again the Lord has pushed us significantly deeper into the devils domain, seemingly right under the noses of many enemies, and given us favor with far more officials than ever before.

   At every step throughout our journey we have seen Gods hand either opening up doors, sliding us through cracks in the devils walls, or guiding us securely along dark paths behind enemy lines. Again and again, being faced with intimidating road blocks that halted us along the way, we would find a  place to pray, sow in tears, and sing; and then watch Him sneak us around another new barrier. 

   For example, we might be suddenly faced with the absence of all Christian help we´d received the year before, being left alone in a village port full of suspicious eyes and ears—only to seek the Lord, walk straight down to the river, and be invited to come and preach (without the need for paper work) by an official of the exact village we felt led to get shipping to… later finding out that same official had been having dreams that were pressing him toward salvation for the whole previous month.

   Over and over little signs and confirmations were slid under the stronghold walls to us—preparing tables before us in the presence of our enemies—and proving we were right on track in patiently waiting here or pressing into danger there.

   Aside from our days living alone in the jungle, and the nights of singing out into the darkness to let the Mashco-Piro know that we were near—a weary season through which we received great assurance in our hearts that these people ´will´ undoubtedly be reached for the glory of Christ—the greatest blessing has been seeing the miracle that my sister Rory has mentioned, and that Jason will further tell you of.

   I have watched and prayed while he faithfully preached to native souls even through times of great weakness and illness; and together we have seen victories, miraculous favor, and mighty assurance for the future….

   We have learned a great deal more this year about just how tightly protected this group of lost sheep are, and are even coming back this time with several professional maps of the territory that were practically handed over to us by the governmental leadership. We have learned that this particular preserved area is the largest and most wild territory left in Peru; and I can tell you, there were nights when, in my half asleep state, I sensed we were encamped about and guarded. The Mashcos are strongly tucked away within borders even they themselves are obviously unaware of; and this year, having once again been brought safely through many new jungle trials, we’ve had a commitment for the long-haul, that quite possibly may be needed, further embedded into us. Reaching these hidden uncontacted people will by no means be easy, and we must be willing to press on with the message of the Gospel until they have been given it. Please continue to pray for them here at the end of all things…. (1 Pe. 4:7)      -Joshua Martyn

   There is so much that it is hard to know where to start and what all to include. If I tried to tell the whole story of the last six weeks, it would literally be a book! Indeed, Josh kept a detailed journal during the trip and nearly filled the entire book with small handwriting! We flew to Pucallpa from Lima for the first leg of the trip. In Pucallpa we experienced many delays, as well as many blessings. While there I was invited to preach at the deaf ministry Efata, a branch of the ministry in Lima that has always been such a blessing to us. It is really an experience to stand and preach in Spanish to a silent group of people, seeing some one interpret into sign-language! We also had a chance to minister to a homeless, retarded man on the streets of that city. He was completely naked and Josh and I kept seeing him as we wandered around the streets. I had the scripture come to mind "I was naked and ye clothed me" and Josh had a similar verse about putting shoes on his feet. We split the cost of buying a complete set of clothes. We had to look like fools when we bought the underwear! Here are two white guys both stretching a large pair of underwear and looking down inside them as we discussed in English whether they would fit the man or not before we split the price to buy them. We had a good laugh as we walked away, talking about what the sales person must have thought about us! Crazy gringos! It was a blessing to see him put the clothes on, obviously anxious to cover himself. In asking around we found he had been wondering the streets of Pucallpa naked for two years. We never saw him again.

   While in Pucallpa we met with the Brother that runs Monterrey. Monterrey is the village of Christian indians who want to reach the Mashcos for Christ. We were told that the Mashcos had been very close to Monterrey and had stolen yucca from their gardens, but there had been no contact yet. We were also forbidden to go to Monterrey for fear that our presence would cause a stir among the officials in the area. The Monterrey brethren feel that a contact is very close after almost ten years of waiting and were unwilling to do any thing that could risk messing everything up at the end. The officials of the area are very much against contacting the Mashcos for any reason and have given Monterrey a hard time in the past when it was suspected that efforts were being made for such a contact. We did not know what to do because our plan had been to return to Monterrey and head into the jungle from there looking for the Mashcos. We prayed and poured over our maps and we believed that we needed to get to the village called Guacamayo. Guacamayo is the last village before you get to Monterrey. We planned on asking a Christian man we had met the year before and who had taken us upriver in his canoe, to take us now to Guacamayo.

   When we finally arrived in Puerta Esperanza after many delays in flying out of Pucallpa, we were disappointed to find our Christian friend from the year before was not around, but back in Pucallpa! On top of that we were told that we were in for more delays as the officials that could give us permission to go up river were out of town and were not expected back for several more days. We were discouraged at these setbacks as we saw our time for searching steadily whittled away. We prayed even more and trusted God to open the doors before us and simply waited on Him. Suddenly we received a macedonian call! A man recognized us from the year before and asked if we were going up to Monterrey again. We said no, only to Guacamayo. He smiled and told us that he was the deputy chief of that village and asked if we were preachers. (Some of you will remember that last year on our way back we were able to lead a 12 year old boy to the Lord named Julio. That was in the village of Guacamayo. This man named Sergio remembered that we had lead that boy to the Lord and given him a Bible. He told us that Julio had moved away two days after we had met him. The village was once again without a single Christian or Bible.) This village was known for drunken parties and fighting, and Sergio told me that he and some others were tired of living this way, but could not change. They had agreed that what they needed was a preacher! So, he was very happy to offer us a ride up to the very place we had wanted to reach! He also told us that he could give us permission to go up river so we need not wait for the other officials to arrive. This turned out to be incorrect and we endured many a sermon from many officials later. However, it still saved us some extra days of waiting in Puerta Esperanza, and we were able to get permission on the way up.

   Sergio was the first to get saved. It was he that had been prepared by dreams to search for the Truth. He had told his wife that he had to straiten out his life , but knew he couldn’t. He had thought that what he needed was baptism and had decided to go up to Monterrey to be baptized by the Christians there, but was prevented by weather and ended up down river where he met us! After listening to me preach he realized that it was Salvation he needed, not baptism. Andy, the Chief of the village was next to receive Christ and many others followed. In all twelve were saved and baptized!

   I preached there for a week as we waited and watched and prayed for an opportunity to go alone into the jungle to search for the Mashcos. We knew they were close for they had been seen by the people of Guacamayo and had robbed yucca from them as well less than a month before we arrived. Our chance came when a group of officials arrived to do conservation work gathering mahogany seeds. The entire village left to gather seeds and we were left with no one to preach to. After helping some with their conservation work and proving to them we could menuver their trails, we gained the respect to be allowed to camp in the jungle directly from the newly saved Chief. We told him we wanted to go in to the wild to be alone with God and fast and pray. We had only eight days.

   We hiked many miles out, fasted three days for the Mashcos and searched for them. We saw signs of them like hunting trails and old foot prints, but we did not find the precious souls we sought. I can not tell you all we suffered in dissapointment and physacle discomfort, but a short list would be: ¨spider bites, ant stings, mosquitos & blood sucking gnats, thorn piercings, scratches & cuts, hunger ( I lost 16.5 lbs in about three weeks), thirst, cramps, vomiting, fevers, rashes, burns, a week of unexpected freezing, passing blood, diahrea, extreme weakness and dizyness.¨ All worth it for the joy set before us of the twelve souls saved and the future assurance of Mashcos being saved! Christs sufferings on the cross were more than suffuciant to save all, but there is a payment of suffering due to get the Gospel to some. Josh and I are willing to pay this price, we feel we have put a big down payment towards this account. Our suffering, fasting and prayers were by no means in vain, we trust the Lord will use them to the reaching of these lost sheep. We will continue to travail in labor as long as is needed.

   For now we comfort ourselves in the knowledge that where there was not one soul saved, nor one Bible, there are now twelve saved and baptized and four Bibles! The village of Guamayo is a very small one of less than thirty, so nearly half the village received Christ! Some one was saved from almost every household and some entire homes were saved. This is a great victory for the Kingdom of Heaven! Rejoice with us and join us in prayer for these new born Christians, as well as continuing in prayer for the salvation of the Mashco-Piro. While there is so much more to tell, such as the foudation of trust with the oficialls and possabilties for our future attempt, we were given, I must close for now. I now must turn my attention and efforts back to the ministry here in the Pichanaki area. I want to deeply thank all who wrote and encouaged Rory during my absence. I can not express the sacrifice it has been for her (and me) for us to be apart; you see we REALLY like each other, and hate to be apart for any time at all. I am so grateful to have the wife I have, she is wonderful, the perfect help meet for me. So I am so glad for the encouagement she received from many of you, it means a lot to me.

–God bless you all, your fellowservants in Christ, Jason, Rory, Grace, Jonathan, Joshua, and Eliana the Dovers, and Josh Martyn       

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