The region that three men from Gadsden recently traveled to in South America is a region that saw another visit turn tragic nearly 60 years ago.
In 1956 a missionary team of five men, including Jim Elliot, landed their plane on a small strip of land off the Curaray River in Ecuador. They were there to take the gospel to the Huaorani tribe, who lived near the river.
But without warning the Huaorani attacked and the men were speared to death.
It shocked the missionary world.
But it didn’t stop the gospel from getting to the tribe. Elliot’s wife, Elisabeth, and other missionaries continued their outreach to the Huaorani and today about 25 to 40 percent of the tribe follows Jesus.
Despite the inherent danger and difficulty of the location, Union No. 3 Baptist Church, Gadsden, sent a vision team June 13–21 up the Napo River in the Amazon Basin to the village of Cabo Pantoja, Peru, just 50 miles from where Elliot and his team were found on the Curaray, a tributary of the Napo.
The team’s goal was to see if that’s where God was leading the church to work among Peru’s unreached people groups, but along the way the men led more than 400 Peruvians to salvation in Christ.
According to Pastor Joey Hanner, one member of the vision team, that’s the sort of thing that happens “when God goes before you.”
The vision team, comprised of Hanner and two church members, Phillip Blair and Jay Beggs, along with a missions team of 23 from the church, traveled to Lima together. The missions team went to share the gospel with the community and serve as an outreach for Renacer Church of Pachacutec, led by Pastor Alvaro Terrones.
While Terrones served as the leader for the missions team, local believer Arturo Diaz served as a guide and translator for the vision team.
Blair met Diaz during a missions trip to Peru in 2014. Diaz shared his desire with the team that year for reaching the “often-neglected people of the Napo,” Blair said. That relationship led to the idea of the vision trip.
From Lima the vision team flew to Iquitos and promptly boarded their next mode of transportation — Mayor Pepe’s boat.
A boat trip and a dream
During the initial planning stages of the trip the team thought they would take a plane from Iquitos to the Ecuador-Peru border, all the way to the village of Cabo Pantoja.
But the vision team decided it would be best to take a boat up the Napo River and stop at every village along the way. They asked if the mayor of the Napo River region would lend them his boat and he agreed. Mayor Pepe had a reason for lending his boat, along with a mechanic and a driver, but the team wouldn’t find out the reason until later.
At each village on the river Hanner, Blair and Beggs met with different leaders, sometimes a police chief, a colonel in the army reserves or a school principal, and shared the gospel with them.
“It sounds unbelievable I know, but these men would accept the Lord,” Hanner said.
Each new believer was given a Bible and before the team would move on it would meet again with the new Christians and show them how to study the Bible and begin their life as a Christian. At village after village the team shared the gospel. And at village after village several people came to Christ.
The team also shared the gospel at schools, and teachers and students came to know Christ. By the time the vision team made it up and back down the river, more than 400 adults and children had prayed to receive Christ as their Savior.
This all took place while the missions team, who served in Lima, saw more than 600 Peruvians come to Christ.
With so many new believers, the vision team senses an urgency to return for training and discipleship.
The church plans to reach out to the region both in the short and long term through its missions endeavor “Rio de Vida, Peru” or River of Life, Peru.
The first short-term goal, according to the endeavor’s leadership team — comprised of Hanner, Blair, Diaz, Beggs and George Watson — is to be intentional in establishing house churches in villages where there are new believers, specifically in the areas of Cabo Pantoja, Torres Causana and Elvira.
Union No. 3 plans to take three trips in the coming year and will use E3 discipleship materials in Spanish. The church also will provide financial and spiritual support for Diaz as he follows up with the believers and church plants throughout the year. Diaz will again serve as a guide when Union No. 3 teams return.
Looking at the long term, Union No. 3 plans to help locate and train pastors and help construct church buildings when there is a need.
Blair noted how prayer was a critical component in the trip’s effectiveness and how it will make the ministry effective in the future.
“We prayed regularly for months concerning this trip. We prayed specifically that God would send people from all around to hear the gospel. He did. We prayed that God would save people of influence. He did. Every person of authority who heard the gospel received it — an army colonel, principals, doctors, schoolteachers, chiefs. And I could go on and on. To God be the glory.”
And as for Mayor Pepe?
While the vision team was preparing to return home, the mayor and his wife came to say goodbye. Mayor Pepe shared a dream he’d had prior to the team’s arrival in which the Napo was like a jail and the people there were trapped. His boat was the only way to save the people. When the team had asked to use his boat to bring a life-changing message to the people, the mayor immediately agreed, remembering his dream.
“We shared the gospel with [Mayor Pepe] and his wife and they were both saved,” Hanner said.
When Hanner asked the mayor if the team could use the boat again in the future the regional leader said, “No. I’m going to buy you another one.”
As Hanner recalled the unexpected things that happened before and during the trip, he was in awe at how God laid a foundation for the team, even in the form of dreams.
“There are hundreds who have never heard the name of Jesus in this region,” Hanner said, “and now the door is wide open for the gospel.”
For more information about “River of Life, Peru,” email Phillip Blair at philablair@gmail.com.
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