Jungle books

24/04/2008Lizzie Hamlin is a BMS mid-term worker who has been in Quito, Ecuador, since January 2008, helping to train PEPE teachers.

Here she tells us the heart-warming story of how the good news of Jesus Christ is reaching tribal children in Ecuador, through PEPE, the BMS-supported pre-school programme:

There is a newly-formed PEPE in Valle Hermoso – a community that takes its name from the valley where it is found. A two-hour bus ride into the jungle and an hour’s walk over muddy paths will get you to this cluster of huts between two rivers in the rainforest.

There is dense vegetation and the Amazon landscape is clamouring with life and for people it is largely impenetrable – except for the tribal communities for whom it is home.

Life seems hard in this remote place – there is no clean water or electricity.

However, with the help of Guillermo, a local mission worker from the Ecuadorian Baptist Convention, and his wife Lilian, a small church and PEPE pre-school have been started. They are seeking to bring a new voice of hope to Valle Hermoso and to reach out to the children and their families with the love of God in both words and action.

At the PEPE, the children arrive with much excitement, tearing across the jungle clearing in the early morning light; some in wellington boots, others barefoot, their legs caked in mud. Some are wearing faded T-shirts and shorts, while other little girls appear in curiously incongruous party dresses, laced in mud and fraying at the edges.

They then sit quietly in the wooden hut that serves as their classroom. Their eyes are fixed on Guillermo, their PEPE pre-school teacher. In his tribal language, Shuar, he recounts the story of David, the shepherd boy.

Shifting from Shuar to Spanish, Guillermo asks a question, “Who would be able to kill wild animals like David did when he was a boy?”
“Me,” pipes up three year-old Deysi (Daisy in English). For these children, surrounded by nature with its beauty and its dangers, the story of David is all the more easy to imagine.
“How?” Guillermo asks.
“With a machete,” she answers simply.
Guillermo smiles. “I don’t think David had a machete.”

Guillermo shows me some of the children’s work before proudly pointing out an old tin can stuffed with toothbrushes, each with a child’s name taped to it. In a culture where tooth-brushing is largely unheard of, this is an extraordinary and heart-warming sight. Guillermo tells me that some of the older children sometimes sit in on PEPE classes, struggling to keep up with the younger ones. This is what Guillermo and Lilian are trying to avoid for the generations to come as several of the children and young people in Valle Hermoso do not seem to attend school regularly.

They are determined to the meet the diverse needs of the children in their care as best they can, from the pot of toothbrushes to animated Bible stories of David the shepherd boy. They are sewing seeds of hope and encouraging children to reach out for life in all its abundance as promised in Jesus Christ.

Later, by the light of a candle in one of the huts, Guillermo tells me more of his story. His father had six wives, as was Shuar tradition, but abandoned Guillermo’s mother and her children to live with another wife.

So, as a young teenager, Guillermo had no choice but to leave school to work the land, in order to support his family. Thankfully, he had by then mastered basic reading and writing skills in Spanish and Shuar, unlike some of his friends for whom reading is still difficult.

Just before the candles were blown out, I watched this gentle but strong couple, carefully doing one of the PEPE jigsaws together in the flickering light, reclaiming for the children of their community the opportunity for education.

Praise God that through PEPE, the support of BMS, and the opportunities that God is presenting to them in Valle Hermoso this is possible.

Utilities