October Newsletter

October 16, 2010

Can you pronounce Jandaiyacu? It took me awhile. Try (Hon-di-YA-ku). It is a little community of Zápora people. Although they speak the Pastaza dialect of Quichua, they are descendants of the Zápora people. Very few people remain who speak the Zápora language. It is estimated that only 5 are left.

The community of Jandaiyacu is made up of about 7 families. It was established about 20 years ago and has a small landing strip, is near a river navigable by dugout canoe and also near two small streams. For a long time, the Zápora in Jandaiyacu have been closed to the Word of God and wanted nothing to do with any missionary influence. Only recently, they have invited Alas de Socorro to enter with teachers of the Word of God.

In the words of the President of the community, “We are also brothers and we want to learn more about the Bible so we can live in peace.” What an exciting invitation! Several months ago, a small group from Alas de Socorro went in to share with them and teach the Word. The community of Jandaiyacu enjoyed the visit and asked for Alas de Socorro to send more people. When there was an opportunity to volunteer for one of the trips, I jumped at the chance.

We were to go in the morning of the 30^th of September, spend the night and return after noon on the 1^st of October. We went in by plane; it was about a thirty minute flight. Upon arriving, we were greeted formally by the community and were invited to play some sports with them to get to know each other.

After getting sweaty playing volleyball and soccer, we were invited up to see the potable water project under construction by a volunteer named Todd. They are working on having a potable water system pressured by the gravity feed from a stream up hill from the village. Hopefully, that will be done in the next few months. Also, hopefully, there will be a desire from the community to take ownership of the project and maintain it.

We took a refreshing shower near the water project (did I mention it was really hot out in the jungle!) and returned to spend some time with the community singing praise songs, sharing in the Word a bit and showing a couple of films about the stories of some people who found their way to living right with God.

The next day we enjoyed some breakfast with the family of the President of the community and spent more time with singing and sharing in the Word. I spent time with the smaller children talking about how great and wonderful our God is and how he created the perfect world. It was fun listening to their questions and talking about God’s creation. Following that time, we enjoyed some more sports while waiting for the airplane to pick us up.

Overall it was a very enjoyable time getting to know these people and see how the desire to learn about God stirred in them. In the coming months, we hope to make another few trips to continue this relationship. Our hope and prayer is that the leaders of the community will take it upon themselves to take charge of the spiritual matters of the community and that God will raise up a gathering of believers for himself!

I am very honored to be part of the team that went out to share the faith we have with this community that knows very little about God or the Bible. Their desire to learn is very exciting, but we know that there will attacks from the enemy on this community as this desire blossoms. Please pray for the Zápora people in Jandaiyacu that they will be protected from the enemy, that they will take responsibility for their own spiritual growth and that they will continue to grow in their relationship with Jesus.

We commit everything we do to God,

David, Maggy, Joni Karina, Joshua, Jonathan, Jennifer