The man had arrived in town suddenly. No one knew from where he came,

or to where he was going. He was quiet, as if he was guarding a

secret, or perhaps pensive, but he was always cheerful. He was average

in height and weight, and there was nothing to really draw attention

to him. He liked to walk… a lot. He walked early in the morning, most

often, but he went for walks at many other times as well. One day, as

he was walking along, he noticed that a house was being constructed,

if one could call it that. Understand, the houses in this part were

not like our houses. Sometimes they were dug into the earth, like an

animal’s burrow. Other times they were twisted together, almost as if

a bird´s nest, among the trees. Or they could be built of left over

scraps of whatever was lying around. The truth is that the houses were

not well constructed at all. While the people readily agreed that it

was important to have a secure home, no one wanted to take the time,

or expend the effort to build something substantial.

As the man was taking his numerous walks, he had noticed the

craftsmanship, or rather, the lack thereof in the local homes. On this

particular day, he could not help but edge closer to a particular

construction site. He noticed that the style of construction was not

only shoddy, but quite dangerous. He asked those working on the house

if they had ever seen a house of this nature collapse or injure

anyone, and they carelessly replied that ¨of course they had seen many

people injured and killed, but that was the nature of housing. ¨

The man, observing the problems, began to help them build, or

actually, to help them demolish. It was because, he explained, the

house was not begun properly and could therefore never be built

solidly. At first, the people balked at his teaching, and at his

correction of their traditions and techniques. They did not appreciate

the intrusion of the outsider, and ¨who was he to contradict their

methods? ¨ Some of the people even left to go complain to the local

building committees about this new teaching. Little by little,

however, many of the people began to see that his practices not only

made sense, but were actually safe and secure. As he patiently taught

them about the steps of preparing the ground, laying a sure

foundation, using proper materials, and doing quality work, the

townspeople could not help noticing the difference in this new house.

As time passed, the first house was finished, and others in the town

began approaching the ¨Master Craftsman¨ as he had begun to be called.

They too realized that their construction techniques had been very

poor, and that their homes were unsafe. The Master Craftsman began

teaching them in large numbers about the proper building methods;

always with an emphasis on a sure foundation. He patiently showed them

how to build from the ground up, and he personally assisted everyone

in town who wanted help with their own situation.

Years went by, and most townspeople laughed to think about their

previous construction techniques. They scorned the way they had

accepted the unsafe and dangerous practices of the past, and they

remembered with great fondness the Master Craftsman who had come and

taught them how to really build. They smiled often, and rejoiced at

length as they raised their children in safe and secure homes, and

taught them as well how a steady home begins with a sure foundation.

This is not to say, however, that everyone enjoyed the security of a

solid home. There were a number of others, who, for one reason or

another would not release the old shoddiness to embrace the available

peace and tranquility of a rock-solid structure. These same people

continued to risk their homes, lives, and families throughout the

storms of time while the others were wisely prepared for any disaster.

The Master Craftsman

Mat 7:24-27  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and

doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house

upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds

blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded

upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth

them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house

upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds

blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of

it.

The last two months have been a whirlwind. It would be nearly impossible to tell all of the stories, and recount what God has done, but I´ll try to share a few things using pictures.

When I wrote last I was teaching two block classes at the Bible college in Cusco.

The day after I returned Jonathan Washer, his son, and our friend Thomas Guidinger arrived to do basketball tournaments and go into the prison. While they were here Steve and Bea Klaich from Alaska arrived to pick up their daughter and assist. What great times!

God really blessed the basketball, allowing us to give the gospel to hundreds!

Loren´s mom arrived just afterwards.

Then Andrew and Christy Snow came to do professional video and photography for us!

A few days later I traveled to another part of the jungle to coordinate a medical campaign for some areas needing medicine, but more importantly, God´s Word.

While I was gone, Jessica Huffman arrived to intern with us for two months. She has been a huge help!

During June we started a parenting class at a local school, which the Lord used to give us more contacts and open doors.

God has been blessing our youth group with a lot of fun and with good discussions.

The Lord also has allowed us to take several trips to a native village upriver and continue to disciple our friend who is leading a group of believers there.

On Sunday, July 14, we celebrated our church anniversary! 10 years is hard to believe!

Then we jumped right into our yearly VBS, inviting and cheering! The Lord brought nearly 150 children out during the week, and we got to speak to many parents as well.

Of course, this is not possible without a lot of volunteers, and God has given us some great folks!

It was so exciting to me to look across our property and see all these groups of kids. Many of these groups were hearing the gospel from someone who just heard the gospel and got saved here in our ministry a few years ago!

The team from the Bible college in Cusco was a huge part of all these activities during their week here. We are glad to be teaching faithful men who will teach others also!

Saturday, July 20th found us awake early preparing for the event: family fair was awesome, with a gigantic blow-up slide, a massive puppet show, and lots of wild games. We had over 200 present, and rejoice that God´s Word will not return void!

Thank you so much for reading, rejoicing, and praying!

 

Thank you to those who prayed for us during my last trip. It seems that things always happen during my travels, but the Lord protected the family, and the week went smoothly here at the ranch. The kids were so sad, but somehow held up… haha

I met Steve Milton in Lima, and we flew together to Pucallpa, where we stayed with our friends, the Shapiamas. Later in Pucallpa we got to see their church´s beautiful boat, which they would like to use for nearby medical campaigns.

Then we caught a small plane out to the jungle town of Sepahua.

We spent the next few days running around trying to make preparations for a medical campaign in October.

What I really enjoyed was catching up with missionaries, old friends, and former church members!

Probably the most encouraging thing about the trip was to see what God has been doing in this part of the world. Wilber and his family have been working in this area for about six years, and he has planted/is planting three churches.

I know only too well how hard a jungle ministry is. They have experienced a lot of sickness, parasites, lack of basic comforts, and economic needs. but they continue serving the Lord. Wilber has had to take a job, because there is not enough financial support coming in.

As we were traveling downriver we saw some crushed and broken pieces of a boat sticking out of the water.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “shipwreck” I immediately think of Robinson Crusoe, or the Swiss Family Robinson Island, or maybe Gulliver´s travels. It is so romanticized in those books, and turns out to be quite the adventure. In real life however, we personally know that there is always a loss of belongings, great danger, and sometimes a loss of life. If your motor quits for just a few seconds, the boat can be turned sideways, catch on a log, and be overturned. Many of the tribal people have lost family members or friends through accidents such as this one.

However, there is an even greater danger: that of spiritual shipwreck. Unfortunately, this is even more common here in the jungle. Men and women, young and old, who seemed to love the Lord and planned to serve him often fall away, turning to sin, dishonoring God´s Word, and causing widespread sorrow.

Paul warned a disciple with these words: “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck” 1 Tim. 1:19-20

May God help us all to be faithful to him, so that we never lose faith, defile the conscience, and fall into ruin.

Parenting is hard work. If you have kids, you would undoubtedly agree. I don’t know anyone who says that being a parent is easy.

Here is one of the texts that most clearly lays out our job as a parent:

Deut 6:4-7 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

If you read this text and despair, you can take comfort that at least other parents are despairing with you!

God wants us to

1. Know Him (v4)
2. Love Him (v5)
3. Meditate on Him (v6)    and…
4. Speak of Him (v7)

I believe that he is not just throwing out a random list of things that should be done, but that  He is actually showing us the proper order for discipleship. We first and foremost must know Him. If we do not know Him truly, we will not love Him deeply. When we love him, we will naturally meditate on him, as anyone who has been smitten by Cupid can attest in their own temporal love relationship. However, God does not want us to stop there. Again, as any truly love-struck person will quickly reveal: one´s passion will be one´s praise. Whether it is sports, grandchildren, 4×4 trucks, or a relationship. We talk about what we love!

This is not meant to be just a quick devotional at breakfast or before bed. The Lord God designed this to be:

1. intensive – with great purpose
2. extensive – at all times.

The words: sitting, walking, lying down, and rising, are not referring to just four moments in the day when we should teach our children (although that would be a big improvement in many cases). Our Father´s wise plan is for us to talk about him all the time. These four words are a figure of speech, much like our phrase “Sun-up till Sun-down” meaning all day long.

Since we live in the jungle, and there is quite a lot of water around us, my boys decided that they wanted to make a tiny boat. There are lots of plans for plywood one sheet boats on the internet (like these). They are not large, but for two little boys, the idea is thrilling!

However, we decided to modify, combine, and adapt several different plans we found to make our own little flat stern canoe.

So here is a pictorial history to date:

We purchase some 6mm plywood (about 1/4 inch)

We marked two lines at 10″ and 20″.

We cut off these pieces, and then trimmed the ends (twice, actually), ending up with a triangle about 4″ on one end down to nothing on the other end.

We cut a small piece of wood at a roughly 45 degree angle, and then sanded it.

We temporarily screwed the angled ends of the 10″ plywood pieces together with a small piece of wood, and then flexed them together at the back, putting stretchers in the middle (there were two more installed after the photo), and then temporarily screwed those there as well.

We flipped the boat over, and then covered the bottom with the piece of leftover plywood (under the boat in the previous picture). We proceeded to trace the outline on that piece, and then cut it out.

Finally we lay the cut out piece back on top of the boats walls to see how it fits.

 

This is as far as we’ve gotten so far. It is possible that the idea will flop, or that the boat won’t float at all. In any case, we will keep you posted.

The point of this work is to do a father-son project (about 90 minutes so far), drawing us closer together, and giving me more opportunities to speak to my boys of my wonderful Lord as we are sitting, walking, lying, and rising.

 

The month of April was truly a month of mixed experiences. We had some tough trials, and we had some wonderful blessings.

We like to focus on the blessings, and not get down because of the difficulties, and we´d like to share some of those blessings with you too!

We were invited to speak at the 74th annual Baptist meeting in Iquitos.

We had a lot of fun and also great fellowship!

Our kids are so much fun (even working on Joseph´s bike for 4 hours at the mechanic)!

May 1st was a great holiday with a household full of folks, several of whom are unsaved.

Good friends for our kids are such a blessing!

Thank you for your prayers and support!

We are all commanded to go to all nations and make disciples.

Whatever nation you live in, and where-ever you go, you are supposed to be making disciples of Jesus Christ.

However, I’m learning that no matter how focused I am on the unreached nations of the world, I must never overlook my main disciples!

 

We live in the jungle, and one of the most common tools here is the machete. Consider the humble machete for a moment. Who is allowed to use it? If a baby tries to touch it, it is completely forbidden. Here in the amazon rain forest, however, many children carry machetes, but… if their parents see them using it badly, being a risk to themselves, or to others, then they would take it away. For a youth or adult, it is normal to carry a machete, and put it to good use. However, if a man uses it to attack another, he would be reported and imprisoned. Notice, however, that at no time did anyone say “the machete is bad or sinful”. It is good and useful when one gives it its legitimate use. The machete is used to bring order to the earth, subjugate it, and rule over the thick jungle plants, as is part of God’s created order. If you were to come to the jungle, you would see people using machetes to dig yucca from the ground, peel their yucca, split it for the cooking pot, and a whole lot more. The uses of a machete are almost endless here! But think for a moment about the people mentioned above, and their ability or permission to use the machete. What can of freedom do they have to use this tool?

The baby – none

The child – maybe

The adult – yes

The criminal – not any more!

Why? Is each machete different? No. It’s because of the differences between people.

The baby does not have enough knowledge or strength. The child may not have training with the machete, or he may not practice caution or have the wisdom to use it well. The adult should have knowledge of the tool, strength to use it, wisdom to know when to use it, and care not to hurt himself or others. The criminal had access to machetes, but because of his bad heart, resulting in harmful actions, he will no longer have access to the tool, and will undoubtedly be limited in many other ways as well.

What is the point? Many times a person wants to do something, and he hears the word “No”. This was not the expected response, so he gets upset or even bitter. But possibly his authority saw that he did not have the training, maturity, or ability to use it well. Our freedom in Christ is perhaps a little like that. Even things that are good and useful are limited for some because it is not the appropriate time, or there was no training to be able to handle it well.

Remember also that this varies from one culture to another. An adult walking down the street, or especially a group of children carrying machetes is completely normal here, but if you saw a person walking in a neighborhood carrying a big machete in the United States you might call the police! Note then, that the way one sees the freedom to use the machete (and many other things) will vary according to the culture.

My dear brother, when you want to do something, but your father, pastor, or authority tells you it would not be good, ask yourself what his motive might be? Maybe it is something that is legitimate but perhaps your leader sees something that motivates him to say “let’s be cautious about that“. Do we have freedom in Christ to enjoy what God has created? Yes, we certainly do (1 Tim. 4:5). However, we need to also have wisdom and skill to use our freedom properly. 

We’re heading up river on Monday, Lord-willing.

God has given us the privilege of leading a small team of medical personnel to serve the tribes and present Christ in some very needy villages.

You can watch a brief video here

Thank you for your prayers!

 

We met and stood in the sun for a while before getting on this fabulous bus to go to camp.

However, we got a flat on the way.

We had camp registration and gave out awesome shirts that Matt Jones brought all the way from Thailand (with genuine Thai sizing!

The kids received their assigned teams from this magic suitcase.

Yes we used a box of water for a pulpit. Here I modeled some lost glasses while Tim made funny faces.

Our family got to teach a new song to the camp.

There were lots of awesome outdoor games

And some pretty awesome indoor games.

As well as some informal fun here and there.

Thanks to Camps Abroad and Matt Collier for bringing big balls and equipment

F

The essential camp equipment: Bible, coffee, and megaphone!

Here is “The official MK Camper photo”

 

January 2019

Dear Friends, as I write this a mixture of emotions swirl through my head just like the tail stream on the jet we are riding back to Peru. We are currently at cruising altitude somewhere in between the USA and Peru, and our hearts are also somewhere in between. We’ve had a fun and busy five-month furlough, driving about 25,000 miles, but we are going to miss friends and family. Now we are heading back to our long-term work: some will be fun, some will be rewarding, some will be difficult, but we want it all to be what God ordains for us. In this letter, we hope to summarize activities, outline goals, detail progress toward specific goals, and report on needs from this past year.

ACTIVITIES:  It seems that every year goes by even more quickly—preaching 2-3 services per week, other short devotionals, men´s and women’s discipleship groups, personal discipleship, outreach, and evangelism. We have continued visiting the nearby tribal villages of Boca Inambari (an Amarakaere village where there is now a body of believers and a leader, Joel) and Santa Teresita (a Yine village), while we also began visiting Tpishca, another Yine village further away. We held two modular Bible-training classes and had good attendance and growth. We hosted a number of teams and interns during the whole year, and saw great fruit at times, including a small medical team in April, which helped us reach out to four different needy areas in the jungle. The medical campaigns have been a major part of the two church plants in other jungle towns and a big boost here too! Segundo has continued working in the squatter’s village of La Joya (on the edge of our city) weekly for the past 3+ years, and they have seen a few professions of faith, although the work is slow. In 2018, I also taught two Bible college block courses and flew to Mexico for a discipleship seminar. Then in early August, we returned to the U.S. for a brief stateside ministry. We wanted to raise: 1. Awareness, 2. Support and 3. More laborers. God seems to have blessed in each area.

GOALS: In 2018, we focused more than ever on making more disciples of Jesus. Although there are lots of methods and gimmicks out there to promote church growth, we believe the main thing is making more disciple makers. God gave us many professions of faith and baptisms during our first 7 months before returning for furlough. We also desired to identify and purchase a church property for the long-term growth and stability of the church. Although we received several generous gifts, we are still a long way away from purchasing the $350,000 property, which we are currently renting. We rejoice that the church was officially constituted, recognized, and formally has officers now!

PROGRESS TOWARD GOALS:  We are thankful to report that although several key folks have moved away, we now have many more people involved in serving every week, and we are seeing them grow as they serve. We will again be holding leadership training classes. Several members are holding Bible studies in different areas and many are spontaneously sharing the Gospel. Segundo, who is also the church secretary, continues leading the work in La Joya, as well as several other areas, since he is with us full time. Richar Espinoza, our treasurer and a candidate for deacon, is leading the youth group and getting more involved as he trains for ministry. We now have gospel-preaching works in multiple places and requests for help in several more areas. We are praising the Lord that we now have more than $130,000 to purchase the land when God directs. We are also now officially constituted as a church and are incorporating members. We are thankful to report that we have Kristin Klaich, a young lady from Alaska, flying back with us to help for five months!

NEEDS: 1. The property we hoped to buy fell through, and most others are much more expensive, including our current rental location: They are offering it to us for $350,000 (which is well under current market value). 2. We rejoice that God brought an interim pastor for the last 6 months, and we are praying about whether God would have him and his family stay: we truly need wisdom. 3. The sink hole near our house seems to be stable after the temporary drains were built, but is now less than 70 feet away, so that is on our minds at times. 4. We have several folks in sin at church, and that is holding them back. 5. Our hearts still yearn to evangelize the unreached tribes, and although they are appearing on the riverbanks at times, God has made it clear that it is not yet time for us to move into the interior jungle. We continue visiting and building ties with the tribes as we can.

In Christ alone, Buddy and Loren

P.S. Please pray for funds and strength for our Bible training block class, where I will be teaching and preaching quite a bit.