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Well, we all made it back safe and sound. On December 10th, we arrived back in the states to begin our Christmas break. The trip to Peru was life-changing. Our trip began the day after Thanksgiving and lasted for about 12 days. The main missionary we worked with was Tim Chapman, an evangelist living in Lima. Adventure began the moment we tried to fly from Charlotte, NC to Atlanta, GA. Most of the team was on that flight, and it ended up being cancelled. The new flight was a different airline, and it took us through the night to arrive at 5 am into Lima. Every one received their luggage except for Misha and myself. This posed a small problem for the connecting flight to Puerto Maldonado, the jungle city. We flew to the jungle city realizing that we would have no change of clothes, no extra tracts, no bedding for the jungle, etc. This made it harder on Misha, because of the fact she is 7 months pregnant (a little hard to find maternity clothes in the jungle towns!). The flight was rough, and I lost my cookies, if you know what I mean! Buddy Fitzgerald, a missionary to the unreached people of Peru, met us at the airport along with another missionary friend named Gary Greenwood. These two men have a burning heart to reach the unreached. At first Buddy’s truck would not start, but after some time they got it started. We looked hilarious traveling down the road with 11 people, including luggage, packed inside and out of a midsized truck. As we traveled to the negative 3 star hotel (no ac during the coolest part of the night being about 93 degrees, and not even a toilet seat), it was evident that most people traveled on motorcycles and moto-taxies (a three wheeled motorcycle), which seemed to never obey traffic laws. Oops! Did I say traffic laws? It makes me laugh every time I think about it.

Saturday night was a big evangelistic outreach at the town plaza. The plan was to do a Tae Kwon Do demonstration and preach the gospel. The problem was that we needed a sound system, wood and bricks to break, and oh yeah, a karate outfit (mine was lost in the luggage). We had a couple of hours to get the supplies and begin the outreach. Buddy and I drove around the city on rented motorcycles looking for supplies. We made do just in time with super thick wood and cinderblocks on the back of the motorcycles. I bought a white tee shirt and some red pants at the market that looked karate-like and we went to the plaza to perform. The event drew a huge crowd and that night many heard the clear gospel for the first time. We handed out hundreds of tracts. It was amazing! God gave grace to our team that was running on over 24 hours without sleep.

Sunday morning we ministered in a small Baptist church that ran about 10 people. This is the only Bible believing church in a town of about 90 thousand people. Joe taught Sunday School and I did the morning service. God poured out His blessing during the invitation. Quite literally! The rain showers were so quick and heavy that I was yelling at the top of my lungs and I still couldn’t be heard. After church and lunch, we made our way back to rest up for the evening outdoor concert in the plaza. When the time came for the concert, we were all thankful for Reba Snyder who came with us. Remember the luggage problem? Well, all of our music was in the luggage. Reba played by ear during the whole concert. The concert would have been a disaster without her. God blessed and all the team guys got to preach at some point and the girls gave testimony of God’s saving grace. What a great day!

Monday was the travel day to get to the interior of the jungle, to a village called Boca Inambari. We dropped Misha and Reba off at the airport so they could fly to Lima and spend time with Cheryl (Tim’s wife) and Amy Schlarb (a former Pettit team member teaching at a missionary School called Fetzer) while the rest of the team traveled to the jungle. The first part was a taxi trip that lasted about an hour. It took us to a small town next to the river where we got the rest of the supplies for the jungle. We loaded up on a small boat and traveled over an hour up river to the village. The tribal people were not overly excited about us coming, but they soon warmed up to us while Joe and Jon took on the native kids in soccer. The tribe gave us an old school room to set up our two tents for sleeping. Meanwhile, we started to play the villagers in volleyball. Can you believe it? They beat us. Even with a team full of “star players”, we had so many errors. I don’t want to name any names, BEN LARSON!! Just kidding! I believe this gave us a great rapport with the people. Later that night, after eating snacks, we sat down and had our first teaching time. We sang and they seemed to enjoy the music. Joe preached a message beginning with creation and leading to the cross. Afterwards they asked so many questions that showed a great hunger for the Word of God. After the service concluded we got ready for bed in the school room. It was so funny that night because Carrie and Amanda were about five feet from us in their own tent so they could hear all the conversations. We could not stop telling stories and laughing.

Tuesday morning we were awakened by the villagers ringing a bell at about 5 am to gather for some work. They had machetes and they were cutting the grass. Later, we all helped pick up trash and haul branches. This reminded us of camp at Northland. While Tim prepared some breakfast for our group, some tribal members cut up some coconuts for us to enjoy. For entertainment while we ate coconuts, I did a Tae Kwon Do demonstration. One of the tribal elders wanted me to be his body guard. All this happened before 8 am. That morning Ben Larson preached a message about the importance of being grounded in the Bible. During the message, a villager spoke out and said that only two people in the village had Bibles, one was only a New Testament. She asked, “How do we read the Bible if we don’t have any?” This shocked and sobered us all. Our hearts were relieved to hear that Buddy plans on moving to Puerto Maldonado in January. He will be taking frequent trips to visit and establish a church with this tribe. Think about this: these people are hungry for the Bible, but they don’t have any, and we have so many and are not hungry. What a rebuke! During that teaching time, I began to explain how to grow in your spiritual life and we were interrupted by a school group who came from Puerto to give gifts and spend time with the tribe. They had video cameras constantly running while they played authentic Peruvian music, sang, and danced. It was enjoyable, but it lasted all afternoon. After giving so many gifts away, they departed back down river. Meanwhile, most of us decided to go swimming or wading in the river. The current almost took us all down stream, but it was so refreshing and relaxing. That night we had an evening service that had only a handful of villagers due to government satellite television. For some, the soap operas were more important than the Bible, while others came hungering for the Word. We spent a lot of time teaching about how the Bible will change you if you obey it. They seemed very grateful and responsive to the teaching. Later that night, Tim told us a scary story as we got ready for bed. The living conditions in the jungle were not quite as good as the first hotel we stayed in. The bathroom consisted of a fly-infested outhouse. The sleeping conditions were hard and hot the first night, but the second night was quite the opposite. That night, I slept outside in a hammock that was under a pavilion. The weather changed drastically due to a sudden storm. I literally froze almost all night. We woke up to a major storm and our boat driver arriving to take us back to the city. Eventually we made it back to the city to fly back to Lima.

At noon on Wednesday, our team flew into Lima. We spent time eating and fellowshipping with the Chapman’s. That night we sang and gave testimonies of what God was teaching us so far on this trip. The next two days were spent around Lima resting and gearing up for the big soccer tournament that weekend. It is a huge outreach to the community surrounding Tim’s home church.

The tournament on Saturday went great with at least 6 teams in attendance. It lasted almost all day with a meal and a message for lunch. God blessed the efforts with 10 people, teens and adults, responding for Christ. What a great opportunity for the Gospel.

Sunday was a busy day with the team hard at work. Joe taught teen Sunday School while Jon spoke to the adults. I spoke for the morning service while Amanda told a story to the children about the wordless book in Spanish. The kids made bracelets and learned the gospel. Later that day the team sang in Spanish and English with a concert that lasted about one hour. There were at least 10 visiting family members for the concert and afterward we preached the gospel. No visible response, but we could tell that God was working in hearts.

On Monday we traveled south to Nasca, Peru. At first only Misha and Reba wanted to see the Nasca lines by air, but after a short time of considering the small plane flight, the whole team jumped into the small planes for a 35 minute flight that would never be forgotten. On the way back, we visited with a pastor and his family that were hit with a 7.9 earthquake about 18 months ago. It was amazing to see the devastation that wreaked havoc on the landscape. Tim also took us to visit a pastor friend who was in a nearby area with the same devastation. One town he took us to see was around 100,000 people with no church at all. Praise God we were able to pass out over 100 tracks in about 5 minutes during a quick stop. Tim informed us of a man trying to start a church in this community.

As we got back to Lima and packed our bags, the same thought occurred to all of us: “The harvest is plenteous and the laborers are few.” Praise God for the Chapman family and others who are laboring fervently for the Gospel in Peru. As we left Peru and headed back to the states, it was evident that Peru will never leave us. Going on a mission’s trip is something that every believer can do. Some make excuses like, “I have no money,” or, “I can’t get off work,” or, “maybe I am too old”. The reality is that going on a mission’s trip is as easy as leaving your home each day by faith, praying that God will use you to reach others with the gospel. May God continue to increase your burden for the lost.

In Christ,

Jeremy Frazor