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Dear Friends
and
Family,
We
arrived back at the Pucallpa missions base from the jungle a few days
ago. Our time in Puerto Paz (jungle base) was fantastic, though it is
nice to be out of reach of all of the wretched bugs!
Our first week away from Chicago was spent in Orlando, Florida at the Pioneers
missions agency headquarters. There we attended the Candidate
Orientation Program. This was to introduce us to the nitty gritty of Pioneers.
We learned about everything from the different work going on around the
world to health insurance, making newsletters, and retirement funds. It
was a lot of fun for both of us to get a chance to meet so many of the
people we have been in contact with for months. We also enjoyed the 37
other missionary candidates who were with us. It was almost like being
at a big kid Bible camp! We were both very impressed with everyone that
we met in Orlando. They were incredibly kind and caring. We both felt
the sincerity in their desire to get to know us and adopt our ministry
and vision as their own. By the end of the week we were offered
appointment as missionaries with Pioneers,
and we happily accepted. I guess that makes us official now! During the
next couple of years we will be working with our pre-field advisor Doug
Hill to jump across all the hurdles of actually making it to the field.
If anyone is curious or has questions about Pioneers
or the process before us, please let us know!
After our time in Florida we made it safely into Peru. We spent about 3
days at the Pucallpa base packing and preparing to head out to the
jungle. It was also a fun time to get to know the team here a little
better.
Anyway, after buying all of our food and supplies we headed off for
Puerto Paz. It was a 45 minute car drive followed by a 2 ˝ hour plane
trip followed by a 2 ˝ hour canoe ride up the river before we made it to
the camp. Talk about a long day! We met up with the Estelles who had
left the day before and the four Indian missionary families living in
Puerto Paz. The Indians were wonderful from day one and made us feel
very welcome and a part of the team. It was interesting that in our
little camp of 28 people, four languages were spoken: English for us
gringos, Shapibo (the language of 2 of the families), Cachinaua (the
language of the other 2 families), and Spanish (the common team
language).
We did not have very many plans for
the month in the jungle. Dan would be doing a little preaching and
teaching an emergency aid class, and I would be tutoring Shawn in his
reading. Mostly we planned to help out any way we could and learn what
jungle ministry was all about.
In the beginning of our time in the
jungle, Danny and I struggled a lot with the difficulties of simply
living in the conditions we were in. Our 2 room house was made of palm
bark with a palm leaf ceiling. There was no plumbing or electricity. To
get water, it had to be hauled from the spring down the hill. We bathed
either at the spring or in the river. The outhouse was also down the
hill, so night time trips were a pain. All of our food came from the
non-perishable food we brought or from the hunting and fishing trips.
Wood had to be cut by chainsaw and hauled a quarter mile to the smoke
house. Meat had to be cleaned and salted. Water had to be purified.
Clothes had to be washed by hand. And then there were the bugs. Within
about 2 hours of arriving in the jungle I had already changed into jeans
and a long sleeved shirt. There was dirt everywhere and roosters crowing
underneath the house when we tried to sleep on our terrible, lumpy
mattress. Needless to say, our spirits dipped within a week.
One day I (Dalaina) was washing
about 4 loads of laundry. After hauling up water, scrubbing until I got
blisters, and promptly dropping clean laundry into the dirt, I began to
cry. I told God that there was no way that I could be a missionary in
the jungle. I could not hand wash my family's clothes for the rest of my
life. I heard God quietly respond, "But would you do it for me?"
"God, I don't think you understand.
It's not just that I don't want to. I can't. This will kill me.:
"You told me that you were willing
to die for me in this ministry."
"God, are you saying that you would
have me die over laundry?"
"If that is what I called you to
do, would you do it?"
It sounds kind of funny looking
back, but it was absolutely God working. I hate housework about as much
as possible, and I had to come to the place that I could say that if it
was the best way to serve God, I would literally die doing housework. He
is worth it. That night Danny and I talked about it for a long time. We
were both reminded that missions is not about our pleasure or adventure,
nor is it even about the people that we serve, in fact it is not even
about seeing people come to Christ. Missions is all about God's glory.
John Piper said, "Missions exists because worship doesn't." And it's
true. God is honored and glorified when people call Him Father. He is
worthy of the worship of every nation, tribe, and tongue. This is what
must be our motivation if we are to be able to do jungle ministry long
term. I also realized that the catalyst for all of this is simply
devotion to and relationship with Jesus. The most important thing that I
can do to get ready to be a missionary is spend quality and quantity
time with Jesus, not more schooling or cross-cultural experience.
Interestingly, when we finally came
to understand this, we began to truly enjoy being in the jungle. Instead
of focusing on the hard things, we were able to focus on blessing Christ
by blessing those around us. It became a joy to endure the difficulties
for the privilege of being where God was working.
We did have a lot of adventures.
Food, for one thing, was exciting. While in the jungle we ate Amazon
catfish, wild pigs, alligator (which is seriously good!), mountain lion,
capybara (world's largest rodent), turtle, majás (another huge rodent),
and spider monkey. Danny shot (among other things) a wild boar and a
spider monkey while I can proudly report that I caught a 115 pound
catfish with a fishing line. (Of course, it took 4 people to get the
beast out of the water!) Danny also learned to play a Peruvian
instrument which is like a cross between a ukalali and a guitar, and I
got my face painted by the women.
We came to Peru with 4 goals in
mind as prayer requests.
First we prayed for confirmation
that this is the team and place to which we are called to minister. We
both feel like, although jungle life is not all that we expected, this
is where we want to return.
Secondly, we prayed that we would
grow closer together as a couple spiritually. We have been able to pray
together daily and really share a lot from our hearts with each other. I
know that the process has had a great start this summer.
Third, we have been praying that we
would be a blessing to the team here. I think that this was accomplished
by things we have been able to do like teaching Shawn, bringing Dr.
Pepper and coloring books, and giving the women facials, but I think
that they were blessed just by our company. I know that growing up
overseas that was one thing we liked the best about having US visitors.
Last, we prayed that we would
develop relationships with the team and have a chance to share with them
and hear their hearts as well. We have been able to spend a lot of time
in conversation with the missionaries here. I think that they are
looking forward to us coming back almost as much as we are.
So I can say with great joy and
thankfulness that this summer has been all that we and God wanted it to
be. We have learned so, so much and we are so thankful. Thank you all
for your prayers, thoughts, love and support. You have been our backbone
during this trip.
Our schedule for the next several
weeks is a little scattered. On the 24th of July we fly back
to the USA. On the 27th we will leave Chicago with the rest
of our belongings as we are moving to California for the next couple of
years. We will be stopping to visit family and celebrate our anniversary
before arriving in California on the 5th of August. Danny
will begin working as a sales rep soon after, while I start my last year
at Biola and look for a job. We will be house-sitting for a while, and
then looking for an apartment to move into (hopefully by September), so
if anyone has any good tips please let us know!
We are also able to send and
receive e-mail now, so by all means drop us a line. We would love to
hear from you!
With much, much love,
Dalaina and Danny May
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Many
of you have met Dan and Dalaina May. They are a young couple from our church
who have a dream to be full time missionaries to a people who have never heard
the Gospel of Jesus. A few months ago they shared their story here on a Sunday
morning with a short video entitled “Captured by a Dream.” They spent this
summer in Peru working with a mission organization called Pioneers. Here are
some of the emails they sent to family and supporters during that trip.