Love Extreme 2 - June 23, 2010 in IquitosPosted: 06/26/10

We took a boat ride to a small island off the Amazon today.  This is where Drew is planting his church.  We were not immediately swarmed like we were yesterday but children and adults did start to gather around us slowly. Several of the women wanted to sell us their things and Heather explained to them why we were there.  We had a great turn out for the children´s festival.  We started with sidewalk chalk as they had great sidewalks leading up to the center of town.  We also had face painting that the children loved.  Several of them wanted to paint things on the group members and I have caught this on film.  One girl drew a broken heart with tears.  When Drew translated for us why she drew tears she simply stated that it was because the heart was broken.  She did not go into more detail, but in my gut I felt that there was more behind that story and it made my heart hurt.  We also had a bookless story for the children about God´s love and some of the miracles he has done in the world.  Ruth, one of the group members talked with the children while Jasmine translated.  After we made bracelets with the various colors to help the remember that God died for them to take away their sins.  We also had a puppet show with music and sing alongs.  The children really got into the drama.  It was great to see their faces and see they were listening intently.  Of course we also made them balloon animals.  They really love to have these things, but many would take them apart and try to reconstruct them again.  We did not do the Jesus Film in this location as we had orignally hoped, but Drew and Kevin left us early to show it in another location of Iquitos. Kevin reported that they had a good turn out and several were saved.  One story that I want to share from our time today is when several group members needed to use the bathroom.  While using a residents home, they witnessed to the person and talked to her about the church that is being started in her town and how wonderful God is and why we were there today.  The group members reported that she asked to know God in a more intimate way and accepted him as her Lord and savior right then and there.  Praise the Lord!!