Another Baptism!!

We were so excited to be a part of another baptism here in Iquitos…but this time it was one of our own team! Callie is committed to following and serving the Lord which is obvious in her day to day life as well as her commitment here in Peru…but had yet to make the decision to be baptized. She had been thinking about it for a while and decided last week that Saturday was the day. We went to a pool down the street from the church and had a mini baptism service. Another one of our team, Olivia, baptized her. It was a blessing to be a part of that day and witness this step in her walk with the Lord. We really can’t say enough about Callie—she is a joy to have on our team. She is our youngest member at 19 but has an amazing maturity and is one of the most positive people I know! We are thankful she is a part of our team and are excited to serve alongside her here in Peru!

The Hunts

A couple weeks ago we were blessed to have the Hunts come stay with us here in Iquitos. They are currently based out of Arequipa--Brad is the logistics coordinator for Extreme and Michelle is the medical coordinator…and their 1 year old Tyler is cute as a button. They have also just recently decided to be the Cluster support family for the Cusco group. It was wonderful to have them stay with us and share our lives together for 10 days;) We had a great time together and had a memorable trip on the river their last day here.

This week we recieved news that Brad is having health problems and the doctors believe he may have had a small stroke. They are currently in Lima having tests done to figure out exactly what is going on. Please join us in prayer for this family—that they would get the answers they need and what treatment needs to be done.

On The River

While the Hunts were here we took a trip on the river. It was a long trip 1 ½ hours each way but we saw many neat things. We went to a native tribe, a animal conservatory and saw lots of jungle along the shore. It was a great opportunity to see life outside of the city. It is amazing to me how people are able to live here. Houses just right out floating on the water. They have so little yet seem so content…it was a very eye opening trip.

Native Tribe

The native tribe was interesting. They put war paint on us, danced for us, had us dance with them and the boys shot the blow dart gun. Then they showed us all of their crafts, jewelry, blow dart guns, etc. that was for sale...they were very talented. We also learned that this tribe was actually from Columbia and had come here for tourism. So literally how they make a living is having people like us come to them, buy their items and pay them to dance. I felt bad in once sense because I'm not a tourist, I live here, I care about these people, I really wanted to know more about how they live and what they do...but this was not the tribe to come to for learning about the Peruvian natives;) I look forward to the chance to meet more people in a less touristy setting...but all in all this was still very interesting.

Jungle Animals

The animal conservatory was pretty cool. There were lots of monkeys all over…not contained by cages…one kept going after Brad…but this little baby monkey was cute and was content to hang out his shoulder. There was a sloth, a weird turtle, parrots, baby crocodiles, a boa constrictor and an anaconda.

Tyson pretending to be Ace Ventura

That's right...its an anaconda...no, I passed on holding or getting near it, thank you very much!

Kai was more brave than I and had no fear touching the baby croc.

This is the cute little friend Brad made...but we saw what it would look like when it got older...not so cute anymore...

On the boat

We spent about 3 hours on this little boat and Kai and Tyler both did wonderful. I again left a greater appreciation of the life so many live here...the hard work and time that is put into living and surviving daily life! I am constantly humbled living here!

Check Tyson's sweet ph0to skills!

Thanks for your prayers!

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Tyson has recovered and is doing well and so is Kai. We are extremely thankful to all of you who are faithful in praying for us! God Bless you all:)
Much love from The Smiths!

Prayers for health...

Tyson has been sick the last 4 days and we went to the clinic yesterday and he has Dengue fever. It is from insect bites and there is really nothing we can do about it. He is taking Tylenol for his fever, resting and taking in lots of liquids but other than that there is no medicine to give him. Kai has been a little sick too with a fever and cough and we are not sure if it is the same thing but he still seems to have lots of energy and is eating and drinking well, and since there is nothing we can do for it anyway we are holding off on taking him to the doctor. All that to ask for your prayers. It was a little scarier when they first told us but now we realize that it is somewhat common here and not life threatening...he just needs to rest. There is a more severe form of it (in case you read up on the Internet) that causes bleeding and it more dangerous but that is not what he had:) Please keep both and he Kai in your prayers and as well as the continued health of the rest of our team. We now know that this is a concern here and will be very diligent about the bug repelent. Thank you all so much for your prayers and we will be in touch when we can!

Baptism

Yesterday we had the privilege of going to a combined baptism service with a few of the churches in Iquitos. It was a full day of baptisms, soccer, lots of kids and food. The baptisms were held in a "pool" back in the jungle a bit. It was a beautiful, serene setting and it was beautiful to see how the Lord is working in the lives of the people in Iquitos. There were about 15-20 people who were baptized and as the one by one got into the pool to be baptized the rest of us were singing. Well, I was trying to sing…I did recognize one of the songs and it was beautiful to hear everyone singing. It was different because I am used to baptisms in the US where we all cheer and rejoice (outloud) after each baptism. This didn't happen here but it was still beautiful. After there were soccer games and kids playing and a picnic. It was wonderful to experience our first baptism in Peru. And it was awesome to see how the Lord is working in Iquitos!