On the second river trip of our outreach to the Amazon jungle of Peru, we visited a village called Dos de Mayo. We were told that the village had no church and we were going to evangelise and pass out anti-parasite pills.
Upon arrival we found that the village did once have an active church but the pastor had left some time ago. The few Christians in the village were asking us when we would come and build them a church. We did not have the time or the resources to be building them a church, so we did some evagelism on the first day and we found out that they do indeed have an old abandonded church building. When we found that out we decided that we wanted to clean the building up in hopes that they would see that it is still functional and could be maintained.
The next morning we put on our work clothes and got busy, we cut the grass with machetes while the girls were scrubbing everything on the inside. For half a day we caried buckets of water up the bank for the girls to use on the floors and walls.
After much hard work we were finally satisfied with the church. We had even aquired the help of a few of the locals. The following morning we had a service with some traditional Peruvian worship songs and prayer. Two men in the village agreed to maintain the building and continue holding services.
It was awsome to see that just a little elbow grease could put a church back together. A half day of hard work opened the eyes of the people and they saw what they had. I pray that God continues to work in Dos de Mayo.