IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE!
As we wrap up 2023 and begin to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we want to invite you, our partners, to join us in celebrating what God has been doing through JungleMaster Ministries. As I spent time in prayer and reflection of what God has been doing here in the jungle, I couldn’t help but hear the voice of JungleMaster’s founder, Tom Clark, saying, “If at some point we fail to put the ministry into the local leaders’ hands, we will have failed at our mission.” As the current President and leader of JungleMaster Ministries, these words from Tom are cemented in my mind and are always at the forefront of my thoughts as we develop projects and look for local ministries to partner with.
It is abundantly clear that through the focused vision and strong leadership of Abraham, who is shepherding the church Monte De Sinai in Santa Rita, that the church is becoming focused on servant mission and that “church” doesn’t just happen within the four walls of a building. Over the last two years, with the financial support of JungleMaster, they have built small “missionary” houses in two river villages, and they are now sending missionaries from their church to start developing leaders in those villages. This is exactly what Tom was talking about! We are getting to see his vision come to fruition! What a time to celebrate and thank God for what is happening on the river!
Many of you may be aware of the Global Leadership Summit, a high caliber leadership conference held every year in Chicago and broadcast through hundreds of churches. Attendees always glean a ton from the speakers. When I began the planning phases for the first conference in 2022, I had no idea if anyone was even going to come. I was praying about it, and God spoke to me saying, “Why do you worry about how many will come? I prompted you to bring the conference to the jungle, and you have faithfully done that. Now it is my turn to bring the people who need to be there.” I felt like God was saying to me in a God way, “Stay in your lane, son. I’ve got this”. Hearing this really gave me the freedom to focus on my part of the conference. I can remember having peace, thinking, “Well, if it’s just me sitting in this conference watching the speakers, well, I guess I know who God really thought needed it.”
In that first year we had 35 attendees. The next year, in February of 2023, 100 people came from the river, Nauta, and Iquitos to attend a GSL in Iquitos. We are already in the planning stages for our 3rd conference, to be held at one of the larger churches in Iquitos in February of 2024. The pastor of that church, a past conference attendee, will be partnering with us on that event, and believes the event could have attendance as high as 1000! Praise God!
2023 brought us into a very important planning phase at the “El Faro” (translated “The Lighthouse”) training school project. This phase, although very exciting for me, has been time-consuming. There have been lots of meetings with engineers and architects, as well as soil studies, to create plans for building structures, water systems, and electrical distribution. We know that to have a successful project, we must have a clear, well-developed plan. We have a solid plan in our hands at this point that is undergoing review.
Though busy with meetings and planning, I did have some time to sit with God and reflect on the progress we had made over the last two years. I’m so thankful for this time, as God revealed a few things to me. As we began developing the property in 2021, I was thinking in a logical sense and had broken the development into two sequential parts. First would be the construction phase. Following that would be the “teaching and discipling” part. It all made perfect sense in my mind. But I’d missed one crucial truth, and God very gently reminded me of this. The “teaching and discipling” part began the very first day we put a shovel in the ground. I had hired a small team to help me start the development. Working with this team, I realized that God wasn’t going to allow me to wait until the buildings were done and I was ready. No, the discipling started when the team began working together. In the short 2 ó years we have been developing the project, the opportunities I’ve had to share, discuss, and model the life of Christ have been incredible.
When we purchased a small excavator to help with the construction, I took Alex, one of our workers, with me to Lima for the initial negotiation and inspection of the machine, as he is interested in business administration. When it came time for the final negotiation in Iquitos, I let Alex do the negotiating. He got nervous and made some errors, but nothing that I couldn’t repair, as I was sitting by his side. Wow, though, what an opportunity to be beside Alex while he executed his first equipment purchase! Of course, afterwards I was able to joke with him and talk to him about what an opportunity God had given both of us to learn together. When we left that office, you could clearly see by the smile on his face the confidence he felt.
I saw early on that I was the only one qualified to operate this new small excavator, and I recognized it as another opportunity that could be shared with the construction team that we were developing. I found an operator’s class in Iquitos, and two of our team members decided that they would love to take it. Now we have two new guys operating the excavator, something they told me that, even in their wildest dreams, they never imagined they would do! This gives me an opening to share with them about God, how He gives us opportunities, and how we have the responsibility to walk, by faith, through those doors of opportunity.
As we look back on what God has accomplished in 2023 through your prayers and through your generous contributions to JungleMaster Ministries, we are so very grateful. We humbly ask for your continued partnership with us in 2024 as we take more steps toward our goal of putting the ministry into the hands of the locals. And if you have a desire to participate in the work we are doing here, please reach out to us!
Thank you so much!
A blessed Christmas to all
From Joel, Amy, and Carmen McGee