Jair and Pool: Part 3

I hope to catch you all up briefly on the last few times that I’ve been able to hang out with Jair and Pool. Our next planned meeting was going to be Thursday night around 9:00 at our apartment. If either of them chose not to show up that could very well be the end. I would have no way of getting a hold of them, because neither of them had a cell or house phones for that matter. I was excited to have them over to our house even though I wasn’t 100% sure of their intentions. Either way I wanted them to know that I meant what I said; “that I’d be here for them.” I was surprised but they were right on time, which is generally not the case with Peruvians. They came in ate up some food and hung out with Kai and Tracy and shoot the old Spanish breeze.
I had seen in a local restaurant a series of oars on the wall that had Amazon Raft Race written on them. So I inquired more and found out that this event would actually be taking place on one of the last weeks that we’d be living in Iquitos. So knowing no more information than Andrew and I wanted to do it and it required 4 people, I asked them if they would want to join us. At that point I knew my language skills were not strong enough to just have a relationship that is solely verbal and knowing they were guys excited about physical exercise I figured this would be a great opportunity to quality time with them.
Okay, back to Thursday; I gave them a Bible that I had gotten for Jair (not considering they would both show up) and I highlighted scripture to read on their own. We then read the 10 Commandments that they were familiar with and talked about the importance they hold in our society regarding law and order. And we then read about the consequences of breaking those Commandments as well as what Jesus had to say about hating a brother and thinking lustful thoughts about a woman. So pretty much they were in agreement that they were guilty as am I of breaking God’s Commandments. At this point as I should I felt the tension building so figured I figured I’d leave the “consequences of sin is death for later.” We left and decided to inquire more about the raft race together in a few days.
A few days had past and all three of us were going to head to walk to the center of town to inquire more and only Pool showed up. I didn’t receive a sufficient reason why which I wasn’t too concerned about. Anyway, we went downtown and the office was closed but it was a good chance for me to connect with Pool like I was able to with Jair. I found out that Pool likes to write poetry and in fact writes love notes for his friends who aren’t gifted with poetic words. He’s the Shakespeare behind the letters and gets no credit, I told him he needs to charge. Anyways, we talked about showing me some of his poems which he has since done and I would show him some of mine. So we were able to connect on this level and Pool is interested in playing the guitar which I hope to follow up on and spend more time with him. Pool has the potential to be a very powerful leader, please pray for his salvation.
So about a week and a half passed by and I hadn’t seen Jair or Pool at this point and I was beginning to get a bit discouraged, but more prayerful for the two. Then out of the blue on a Saturday afternoon we got a ring at the door bell. It was Jair with a concerned look on his face. His mother had come to visit about a week earlier from the jungle and had come down ill with a stomach issue. Jair said he wanted to help his mother and needed 20 soles to buy her medicine. Again, at this point I wasn’t sure of his motives so I was a bit hesitant. I wanted to help but I didn’t want to give him money. Coincidentally, the church property of Extreme was in the process of getting some new paint in the guys and girls dorm rooms and I had noticed the grass outside the church needed mowing. This was the perfect opportunity to have him put in a little sweat and investment of time and energy on the church property, spend time with him and in turn help out his mother. So we got in the mototaxi and went to the church. He joined the whole team for a good lunch and then we started working. We started out cutting pastors lawn with machetes which is quite difficult on the back and following began painting the guys room. I wanted him to have to work hard for his reward, but I didn’t want to send him out to do it alone so we worked side by side in the hot hot sun until we finished what we could in the guys’ room. He was able to meet all the pastors and our entire team which was very important for him to get to know those people who I pray will begin to invest in his life, knowing that my time here is short. I just hope that his investment at the property will allow him to be more comfortable with the church and the pastors. More to come soon. God is so Good. Please continue to pray for them both.