Last Thoughts on Bellavista Nanay

Planting a church in Bellavista Nanay got off to a very rocky start. In our first week starting this church plant we did some impact work playing with children and showing the Jesus Film. My partner Dalila and I were encouraged by the fact that at the Jesus Film showing we were able to take down names and addresses of about 15 people who seemed interested in having us visit them so that they could learn more about who God is and the plan He has for their lives. We began trying to find these houses and visit with these people but did not have very good results. After a couple of weeks of not having good luck, we wound up only making 2 new contacts, a young couple who lived in a lower part of Bellavista. We tried knocking on doors and evangelizing across the street from where we had our one house to visit. Again with more frustration and zero results. We enlisted the help of some of the brothers and sisters of one of the established churches to help us evangelize on the one main street in Bellavista. We had many doors closed in our face and negative reactions from those we tried to evangelize to. From the few names we did get, when we went back to visit with these people we got the same negative reactions and once again wound up with zero results.

And then a miracle happened.

Even though we were at the point of being extremely discouraged, we continued to pray over Bellavista and ask God’s direction for what our next step should be. We were even at the point of wondering if maybe we were not supposed to start a church in Bellavista Nanay. We still had our one couple, our only contacts, that lived down in a lower part of Bellavista, where for 3 months out of the year the Amazon river floods about 10 feet below the houses that are built on stilts. As what we felt like might be a last effort, we decided to show the Jesus Film in this area, even though the first time we didn’t have much luck with showing the movie.

We prayed over this night in faith that God would work through the Jesus Film to spread his love in Bellavista. Many people came to the movie and we were able to take down 15 new names and later actually find all 15 of these people! Little did we know at the time, but we showed the film right outside of the house that is now where we hold church services three times a week!

God’s faithfulness has been an amazing thing to see and experience in this part of Bellavista Nanay. We met Antonio, a man who was a Christian many years ago but fell away in 1991. He wanted to reconcile his life to Christ and he has been on fire for Christ and eager to help the church in Bellavista grow ever since. He opened up our house to hold church services on Friday nights. At our first service we had over 20 people attend, a number unheard of for a first service! Many of the people who came and have continued to come to services were not even people we had been visiting and discipling at the time. But they respected Antonio and came because he invited them.

At every service for the first few months we consistently had about 20 people attending. That number has now grown to 30. In fact the truth is, we barely fit into Antonio’s house anymore. Praise God! We began holding Sunday School for both children and adult’s on Sunday mornings. It has been such a joy to teach a group of about 20 kids who are so full of love and who are eager and willing to learn more about who God is. And to watch their parents who also have a hunger and thirst to build on their relationships with God.

Two months ago we decided to also begin holding a service for the youth on Thursday nights. At our first service we expected to maybe have 3-5 teenagers come. We ended up having 25 youth between the ages of 10 and 22! We’ve continued to be blown away by God’s work in Bellavista. Consistently we have had that same number of youth come to the services. Every week they invite their friends and we see new faces. About half of them are also now coming to our regular church services on Friday nights. In a culture where many youth by this age are out partying and drinking, often getting into more serious trouble such as stealing, these youth have found the right path. They respect each other, and are eager to learn as they ask deep questions about who God is.

We have complete faith that this church in Bellavista will continue to grow with God’s blessing. I can’t help feeling that the work here has just begun, even though we already have such a great and strong number of Christians. We have a leader named Miluska who is from Iquitos and worked with me for a couple of months after my partner Dalila had to go back home. She is currently studying to be a pastor and has agreed to continue working in Bellavista Nanay. I look forward to continuing to hear how this church and her members are growing. Praise God for his continuing faithfulness in Bellavista! My life has been changed as I was blessed to be a part of watching God change other people’s lives in Bellavista. It has been an amazing experience to get to watch Him work. One that I know I will never forget.

- Laura Benson, Dalila Bustamante Rimarachin, Miluska Muñoz Flores

Seemingly Against All Odds

On Friday we had scheduled to show the Jesus Film in the lower part of Bellavista. We invited Letty and her friends to come pass out invitations with us and they eagerly came to help. When we began passing out invitations we were dismayed to find that since we had been there on Tuesday, the water from the river had risen and started to flood this area, literally cutting off most of the street.

You see, for about 3 months of every year during the rainy season, there are parts of Iquitos (the poorer areas) where the houses are built up on stilts because the water from the river rises, literally flooding everything and making it difficult to get around. Our plan to reach a large amount of people seemed to no longer be a reality. Dalila and I still felt strongly that in this area we were supposed to be showing the Jesus Film that night. And so, with our 4 eager helpers, we began climbing scary bridges made of scrap pieces of wood to pass out invitations to those whose houses were now above a river. A little ways down we reached more dry ground and continued on. We were able to pass out 250 invitations in all.

My partner and I were so encouraged by Letty and her friends. They could easily be future leaders in the church plant in Bellavista Nanay. What we didn't expect, was how moving of an experience this would be for them. Three of the women are from the capital city of Lima and have lived fairly comfortable lives. Because I am working in it every day, I think I sometimes forget that even in Peru, there are people who have never seen real poverty. After we finished with the invitations most of the women were choked up in the realization of how blessed and lucky they are. That they have running water, enough food to eat every day, kids who know comfort and safety. They also were full of ideas of how we could help people here. They told us how they want to help in any way that they can, and that they want us to teach them to evangelize so that they can share the greatest gift, God's love and hope.

We finished and the ladies left a little after 5. Dalila and I still had a little over an hour before we needed to start getting ready for the film, and so we decided to spend that time in prayer for the night. We prayed over the houses and for God's anointing of the night. We prayed in faith, that even though it seemed unlikely we'd be able to reach many people, that we knew this was no real obstacle for God.

When we first started setting up the equipment there was literally no one around. But we had faith. We played a short 10 minute kids video to try to attract some more people and announced over loud speakers that we would start the film. By the time we started the movie we had only a handful of kids, and one of our contacts. Slowly however, people began coming out of their houses. Many watched from windows and distances from far away. About halfway through I looked around and the numbers had greatly grown. Almost every house had people sitting in the doorway, and there were about 15 adults and 20 kids sitting closer to the screen. More people than we could have imagined were there watching. We paused the movie with the scene of Jesus on the cross and one of my team mates gave an invitation. I had chills as I could feel the Holy Spirit moving. I love seeing answered prayer.

There were 6 of us there who went around taking down names of people who wanted visits from us so that we could continue to share with them. After having so many doors shut to us previously I was a little nervous about this. But the people were open and also eager for us to come visit them. We walked away with 15 names to come and visit. This is a huge number for us!

God worked against all that we saw as "obstacles" on Friday night. It was an amazing and encouraging day and night and my heart is soaring with the possibilities and opportunities that are still to come with sharing God in Bellavista Nanay.

Multiple Blessings

I have had a hard time updating this blog for one of our church plants in Bellavista Nanay because, to be honest, we have really been struggling with our work here. There have been many closed doors, many hostile faces, and just in general a feeling of being unwelcome in Bellavista. My partner and I have been constantly praying and working on figuring out what to do next, how to reach those who still don't know Christ in this area.

This past week brought hope and a renewed energy to both of us as we began to see some answered prayers.

On Tuesday we were invited to the house of Letty, one of the members of the Central Nazarene Church here in Iquitos. She actually lives very close to Bellavista, on a Navy Base. She had started a prayer group with 3 of her friends and wanted to go deeper with them in studying the Bible, but she felt like she didn't know how to do that. So Tuesday afternoon Dalila and I went to Letty's house, not really knowing what to expect or exactly what we should do with this group of women. We met Jaquelina, who has been a Christian for 12 years and attends a Pentecostal church faithfully, Lily, a devoted Catholic, and Doris, who didn't yet know Christ.

We "hit it off" really well with this group of women and had a good time of deep discussion, laughing, and eventually tears. That day Doris accepted Christ and Lily proclaimed that she wants to live a life for Christ as well. We had an amazing time of praying out loud together before we left and the women were all moved to tears. We're now going to be visiting them every week and doing discipleship lessons with them. They also want to attend our church services once we are able to start them (we are still looking for a house to start having services). Praise God!

Please join us in prayer as we continue to work with these women, and search for more contacts in Bellavista Nanay.

Impact Day

We jump started our church plant work in Bellavista Nanay with a full day of Impact work. Our team of 10 missionaries decided to help each other out and work together on 10 days of impact in our 10 new church plant locations. It was intense and we were all exhausted by the end of it, but it was a great way to start and make some contacts.

For our day in Bellavista Nanay we almost decided not to go out because the sky really looked like it was threatening to rain. After some deliberation we decided to just go out anyway in faith and pray that it wouldn't rain that day or night.

There aren't very many good locations to play with kids in this area. We finally decided just to set up in the very small Plaza and we were a little discouraged because we didn't think many kids would come. However before we knew it we had more kids than any other day of impact! About 80-100 in all came out to play games and get balloon animals. My heart was soaring as I led some of the games. Many parents came to watch and they were laughing and joking with us while their kids played.

Afterwards we passed out invitations to the surrounding areas for a showing of the Jesus Film that night. Again, even with the small plaza, and the threatening rain, we still wound up with a great turn out. Praise God! There were about 80 adults and kids that came that night to watch the film.

We now have 12 new contacts to start with for our new church plant. God is so amazing. It was a great day! Even though it looked the entire time like it would start pouring down rain at any minute, it never did. In fact, in all of our 10 days of impact it never rained once. A miracle considering right now it is the rainy season in Iquitos and it should be raining every day.

Pray for these new contacts as we get to know them and share God's love with them. That they would begin to grow in their faith. Also that soon someone will open their house up to hold church services so that we can start holding services in Bellavista Nanay.