Vision
Our vision is to aid in the establishing of viable, self-sufficient churches and healthy communities among isolated jungle tribal groups who have or will have the New Testament in their own language.
Need
Since 1999, Church Planting International has been co-laboring with missionaries from the Wycliffe Bible Translators in the follow-up of isolated tribal groups in the Amazon jungles of Peru, South America. These tribes are functionally monolingual, speaking their own tribal languages. There are people who speak some Spanish, but hardly any are able to understand the Gospel message in the Spanish language. There are hundreds of such tribes all over the Amazon region. Their villages have no stores of any kind. The people depend for their living on crops, hunting, and fishing. Many thousands of these villages all over the Amazon region need to be reached with the Gospel. While some villages do have churches, in many cases they do not endure for lack of effective leadership.
Church Planting International’s director, Steven Shepard, made an exploratory trip to the Matses in December of 1999. Dr. Logan Sparling of Christian Life Ministries, and Tom Hopkins, formerly of Food for the Hungry, were also part of the team. When contact was first made in 1969, the Matses (about 3,000 people) were known for their fierceness. They kidnapped and killed, worshipped the spirits of nature, and lived in darkness, fear, and superstition. If twin babies were born, they thought it was due to evil spirits, so they would kill the babies. If someone died, they would bury the bodies under the home, burn the house, and move to another area. Wives who did not please their husbands might be burned with sticks from the camp fires. After the tribe received the Scriptures in their own language (1994), they were very receptive and began memorizing large portions of the New Testament. Many lives were transformed, destructive practices set aside, churches planted, and pastors called through the powerful working of God’s Word. In the villages where God’s Word spread, even many unbelievers laid aside past destructive practices.
The linguist, whose work was ending, was greatly concerned for the long-term spiritual well-being of the Matses. She did not feel that the tribal group which she served for over thirty-three years was ready to be left on their own. That is why our team was invited to assess the needs and determine how we might follow up. Since our first exploratory trip, we have returned every six months to train Matses pastors. Over 30 leaders from fifteen villages travel up to two days in motorized dugout canoes for three days of training. In 2002, at the request of other Wycliffe Missionaries and Wycliffe supervisors in Peru, our team visited two additional jungle tribes, the Sharanahuas and the Yaminahuas, which we also adopted. Even though the linguists had worked for many years, there were almost no Christians and no functional churches among these tribes.
Follow-up is greatly needed for isolated Amazon tribal groups which have the New Testament in their language or have a translation in progress. Bible translators typically spend over thirty years learning the language, putting it into written form, teaching the people to read and write, and translating the Scriptures. But after they leave, a void is left. In some cases, even after many years and the completion of the New Testament, there are few if any actual converts. Sometimes tribes are revisited after the linguists leave only to find a handful of weakened “believers” no longer meeting. This is often due to a lack of qualified leadership. The “leaders” are baby Christians themselves or just interested people who are willing to preside over the meetings. Often these leaders fall into sin or error and the people become discouraged. For strong spiritual foundations to be imparted, leaders need to be trained and mentored.
Monolingual tribes present a challenge with their special needs. When a tribal group is functionally bilingual, there are many groups that will minister to them in the trade language. But who will minister to the isolated monolingual tribes after they receive their New Testament and Wycliffe leaves? The outside world sooner or later encroaches upon the tribes for good and for evil. Will the world bring its evil influence of corruption, greed, cruelty, perversion, and unbelief, leaving the people in darkness and destruction? Or will the Kingdom of God bring its influence of righteousness and faith, preserving the well-being of the people both physically and spiritually? These are often small tribes of between 500-3000 people. Hardly anyone knows they are there, but God knows and cares. We believe that it is God's purpose to call to Himself a good number from among these hidden peoples, that they may be conformed to the image of His Son, and some day gather around God's throne in Heaven to worship Him forever.
- A member of the Peru Tribal Project Team will visit each of the three tribes at least once a year to proclaim the Gospel, encourage the believers, and train leaders.
- We will send teams of Peruvian, Indian, and other South American Christians on training missions to the tribes. These training missions will last from several days to about two months in duration depending on the tribe and the workers.
- We will provide gasoline for the motorized canoes that tribal Christian leaders need to evangelize their own people.
Before adopting a tribal group, the Peru Tribal Team conducts an exploratory trip to learn about the tribe, assessing the needs and considering ministry options. We seek to learn how they can best be helped spiritually and whether God is calling the Peru Tribal Team to become involved. We make the exploratory trip only at the request of a linguist who has either completed or is working on a translation of the New Testament in the tribal language. In the past we have sought to recruit long-term cross-cultural missionaries willing to make a five to ten year commitment, learn the language, and live with the people. None have been found. While we are still open to using long-term missionaries, our focus has shifted to sending South American Christians to minister to their own South American tribes. To fulfill this purpose, our team has devised a four prong strategy:
First, we will continue to visit each tribe ourselves at least once a year. The consistent teaching of God’s Word along with the commitment to relationships has brought encouragement to the believers. We are also able to assess how the work is progressing and what future steps need to be taken.
Second, we plan to send teams of South American Christians to work with tribal churches and help train leaders. South Americans can be sent for a lower cost, can stay for a longer period of time, and have fewer cultural barriers to cross. These teams will be composed of tried and proven workers with whom we have built solid relationships. Each team will work through interpreters using the best of the bilingual speakers in each tribe. CPI will monitor the content of the teaching materials. Radio contact with the teams will be maintained by co-workers in the jungle cities. In the case of the Matses, there are already about fifteen churches established. We plan to send Francisco Vilchez, a Peruvian pastor from Lima, and Ricardo Lopes, a Brazilian missionary who already is ministering to the Matses on the Brazilian side and speaks some of the Matses language. Among the Sharanahuas and the Yaminahuas there are presently no strong churches. There are, however, some very receptive people who have begun to meet, and tribal leaders who are able to translate from Spanish to the tribal languages. CPI plans to send a team of Peruvians, Cesar and Isabel Soto of Pucallpa and Pastor Samuel Rios of Lima, to live among the Yamis for six to eight weeks. A team consisting of Shipibu Christians will go to the Sharanahuas for a similar length of time. (The Shipibus are a large jungle tribe with a strong established church). Each of these teams is willing to go once a year. Our goal is to send to both the Yamis and the Sharanahuas two teams per year for six to eight weeks each visit.
Our third strategy is to provide gasoline to help tribal Christians evangelize their own people. Villages are sometimes separated by as much as two to three days of boat travel and are often scattered among the borders of two to three countries. In the case of the Matses, there are several unreached villages in Brazil. Brazil forbids missionaries to go and incarcerates those who try. However, the Matses can go to their own people and they have a great desire to do so. The only thing stopping them has been their lack of gasoline ($100 per trip) to power their motorized canoes. Though they are also poor in food and supplies, their only request of us has been for gasoline in order to evangelize their people. Other tribes will someday have the same need when there are workers ready to go forth.
You Can Help!
The success of the Great Commission and of church planting depends upon called and trained leaders. We need financial backers who will help us to continue to go to the Amazon tribes to train leaders, to send teams of South American co-workers for extended periods, to send tribal leaders to the Bible Institute, and to send tribal Christians to evangelize unreached villages. With God’s help and yours, we will be able to do all of these things and even extend the work to more tribes and more unreached villages, reaching the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Budget
This budget covers expenses for two years of ongoing work with three remote jungle tribes. It includes the travel expenses for four of our team’s trips to the tribes, eight training missions for our South American co-workers, the Bible Institute two year program for four tribal leaders, and gasoline for 4-6 tribal leader missionary journeys. The cost of each training mission ranges from $800-$2,500.
- Peru Tribal Project Team Travel (four trips)
- $5,400 - Flights for South American team members (including flights from Lima to the jungle cities and from the cities out to the tribal communities)
- $8,250 - Family support for 4 South American missionaries for the time that they will be away (for 8 trips).
- $2,350 - Supplies and misc. expenses of the South American teams (for 8 trips).
- $1,700 - Gasoline for 4-6 missionary journeys for the tribes to evangelize their own people.
- $400 - CPI operations.
- $4,150
TOTAL BUDGET FOR TWO YEARS' WORK WITH THE 3 TRIBES - $22,250