They’re Back! 

Amazonian Wednesdays 🌴

This was a report I wrote on how our Missions School was going, back when it was brand new
June 2004
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Our missions school has been in session since the beginning of May. Israel and I took some time to both meet with the new students and ask the returning students about their six months of practicum. Here is the latest: 

• We have ten returning students. They did their practicum in seven different jungle locations: Lagunas, San Lorenzo, Campo Verde, Ushpayacu, Por Venir, Santa María, and Iquitos. This included travel along the following rivers: The Amazon, the Nanay, the Huallaga, the Marañon, and the Pastaza. 
• Several of these students interned with churches that we have established in those areas. They participated in a variety of activities, including preaching, teaching, evangelizing, discipling, visiting house to house, training new leaders, ministering physical and emotional healing and deliverance, praying for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, baptizing new believers, starting a new discipleship program, raising up a cell group, helping build a large boat for river missions travel, raising up a praise and worship team, and holding a leadership conference. 
• Between these ten returning students, they led 67 souls to the Lord. Considering that they were ministering in relatively small communities and villages, and that many of them are relatively young in the Lord, this is a substantial number. 
• Three new churches have been born this year as a result of our missions school students’ work! They are located in Lagunas, Ushpayacu, and along the Pastaza River. 
• Thank you for your prayers that these students would return safely to our school from their practicum. One of them stayed back to keep nurturing the church he planted, but almost all of the rest returned! 
• This year, we did not advertise the missions school among our jungle church association (ASIEL). Israel’s father, Jose, who founded the Association, was afraid that we would not have enough money this year due to focusing most of our finances on the construction of the Iquitos church. In spite of the lack of promotion, 14 new students came knocking on our doors, asking to study for this new term. This is the biggest class yet. 
• They are full of hunger for the Lord and are spending three or four hours a day in prayer, and several more hours reading the Bible. And of course, God is providing all we need to take care of them! 
• This year we have our first native tribal student, named Noé (“Noah”). (The rest of the students are mestizo, with Spanish being their first language).  Noe comes from an area of the jungle that takes over a week to travel to. He is about 18 years old, and full of zeal. He told Israel, “I am going to learn everything I can here, get a team together, and then I am going to preach to everyone in my tribe!” All told, that includes a population of about ten or fifteen thousand indigenous people!