I wanted to share a letter that Cindy wrote about our trip to Pucallpa at the beginning of February. She wrote it at Ray Skaggs request to be included in an email he sent out to his contact list.

Enjoy…

When you head to the jungle, you really need to be physically, mentally, and spiritually prepared. At the beginning of this month, Ray, Martha, Stephanie (Martha’s daughter), my best friend Stephanie, and I headed to Pucallpa in the Amazon region of Peru.

I’ve been there a few times before and was excited to go back and see our friends. We had talked to a pastor there and set up a few trips to different villages and churches in the jungle. The trip and experience really aren’t anything you could ever experience in the States. The constant humidity and heat, the swarming bugs, the lack of a shower and running water, no bed  – all the comforts of “back home” are no where to be found.

But when you know the call that God has placed in your life, these things hardly matter.
Our passion is to help kids. One thing we did on this trip was play with the kids, show movies, sing songs, tell Bible stories, and pass out coloring books, etc. We were in the jungle for about four days. There weren’t too many children in some of the villages. I’ll be honest with you, sometimes I got frustrated because here we were, ready to serve the Lord and pour out His love on all these kids and show them that someone cares – and a few times there were no kids that showed up. Sometimes there were just a few that came.  It’s hard when your passion is to help kids and there are none!

But here’s what I learned during the trip. God didn’t call us to help every single child in Peru. He didn’t call us to go and reach the masses. He simply called us to go and we were obedient. It’s up to Him to change lives, to bring the kids He wants there at that particular time. When I look at those precious children and they are smiling, I know in my heart that we have done what God called us to do. It doesn’t take much to bring joy and hope to the lives of others. Even if it’s just for one kid, we would do it all over again. Because in the midst of sweating, lack of sleep, bugs and more bugs, there is simply an overwhelming peace and happiness that we have when we are living out the call of God.

In His Mighty Grip and Headed Back to the Jungle,

Cindy and Stephanie