The River

Last Friday morning Meredith and I left for La Selva (the Amazon Rainforest) where we were asked to teach a weekend seminar. As we were driving to La Selva I began to feel a little bit puny for the first time in my 5 weeks in Peru. Perhaps it was the winding down the mountains, taking each curve a little bit faster than I would have if I were driving; but I am convinced that my puniness was largely because the music that was accompanying our journey for the first couple of hours was not any kind of beautiful Peruvian melody, but the dissonant sounds of a tea salesman. That’s right… tea. The funny thing about the trip is that I would have probably enjoyed some tea, but the man gave a shpeel that lasted at least an hour before he began to walk up and down the aisle of the bus aggressively and loudly attempting to guilt people into buying his tea. I generally do not react violently to situations, but I was about 1 step away from lurching over my seat, throwing up on him and then shoving his tea in his mouth so as to mute his unnecessarily loud sales pitch. Then, I realized that Jesus probably would not have done that, so neither should I.

The second half of our trip began as a group of 3 musicians boarded the bus. They were funny and friendly, and won my heart as they played the music of the Peruvian Andes that I love. As they were playing, the mountains changed from the dry high mountain ranges to a lower range covered completely in green. We were getting close to La Selva. I opened my window and breathed the air of the Amazon rainforest for the first time in my life. We were almost there.

After a 5 hour bus ride, and a one hour car ride, we arrived in Pucharini. We were greeted by the most beautiful scenery; their names were Moises, Ruth, Sadith, Dan and Brion. This family housed and fed us for three days, and became our friends. We taught our “seminar” Friday and Saturday, relying heavily on Godly Play to tell the stories of the Old Testament. On Saturday after I facilitated my last class, we played, worshipped, had dinner, sang songs in the native language Ashaninka (taught by the children of Pucharini at the dining room table of Moises and Ruth), and slept like babies. When we were awoken early Sunday morning by the rooster crowing and the dog barking, we went to go bath in the river.

Even though, by our North American standard we were filthy, in some ways I have never felt so clean. There was something that I can’t seem to name that changed in my soul in those minutes of washing my face, feet and hair in el Rio Perene. It was as if I was cleansed of the grime of the city, of my life of convenience, of the annoying tea salesman, of my pride, and of my fear. Something about bathing in this river woke me up. Maybe it was the cold water on my face, or the balancing act I did on the rocks, but in those moments when Meredith and I were guided to the river bank by Sadith, our 13 year old hostess, I felt the Spirit of God with me more strongly than I ever have before. (This is Sadith.)

After our last bath in the river on Sunday morning, we were driven up to the church, which is high into the green, jungle-covered mountain. We talked, played and laughed for about an hour before the service started. Moises invited Meredith and I to come into the sanctuary to ask which of us would be preaching. Meredith looked at me and said… “It’s your turn.” She had preached off the cuff on Saturday evening in a time of prayer, singing and praise that we had to end our time of teaching. I sat down on the banco (bench), covered in leaves and probably lots of small bugs after playing in the jungley hillside with the kids and opened to the Psalms. The whole weekend, I had been hearing the words of Psalm 8 play through my mind. So, we prayed the Psalm together and by the grace of God, there was a sermon.

The same God who loves that obnoxious tea salesman, who sings through the traditional music of the Peruvian Andes, who covers the mountains with green, who fills the riverbeds with sparkling water, who shines through the faces of Moises, Ruth, Sadith, Dan and Brion, who leads me to the riverside, who cleanses me of my sins, who guides me with her hand on the steep walk up from the river… I felt that same God with me as I fumbled through my spontaneous Spanish sermon, and remembered that God’s name truly is majestic in ALL the earth.