January has almost slipped away in the fog of an incredibly busy and hectic start of 2012 but we go back to the jungle.
There as here and then as now the excitement of Christmas was all too quickly left behind as the realities of life and ministry with their never ending challenges, of necessity became the focus, front and center of daily life.
By the time our kids had flown away to study or minister elsewhere the school kids were coming back to our jungle school. There was always much to do in getting everything ready to receive the students as they were flown in on our little jungle planes.
We were on call 24/7 for any and everyone out there in the jungle. We helped our tribal neighbors with medical and dental needs and were always there to help officials who lived in the area or who happened to be visiting. You could speak in the Sunday morning church service with tribal folks, National folks and missionaries in attendance and that afternoon be called upon to pull a badly aching tooth for a tribal brother. That same evening Diana might bake a cake for some local official. Late that night someone might knock on your door asking you to make a medical house call because their daughter had been stung by a scorpion. That would be after you’d spent several hours visiting with folks who came by to just chat or share some need. Come Monday morning, well then you really got busy!
In January the number of turtles laying their eggs on the sand bars reached their peak. Jungle folks weren’t the only ones hoping to add the protein from the eggs to their diet. Jaguars, lizards and birds all were drawn to the sandy nests hoping to make a good meal of the eggs.
In the jungle scheme of gardening January was when many gardeners felled the big trees. This is the last step in garden making before the entire plot is set on fire just before the rains begin.
And speaking of trees. By now the jungle turkeys will be singing or humming at 4:00 am and will continue through midmorning and sometimes till noon. As noted previously the skilled jungle hunter can sneak right up to the tree the turkey is roosting in. The Jaguar and other jungle cats are known to mimic the turkey’s singing. The jungle hunter must be careful and cautious. I personally have come across a jungle cat doing this very thing in the predawn darkness.
The jungle with it’s rivers and steams can be a very dangerous place. We have friends who have been barbed by stingrays, others have been sliced open by wild pigs, and many who’ve been bitten by bushmaster snakes. One of the tribal children we knew and had cared for was killed by a Jaguar. And sadly over a period of several years three of our tribal friends, people we knew and had ministered to over the years from sharing the gospel to nursing them back to health after a serious illness, just disappeared in the jungle. In one case some bones were found (results of a Jaguar attack) but in the other two no trace was ever found.
But we must end on this positive note. For most jungle dwellers January is a great all around month.
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