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History of JungleMaster
Blessings,
My name is Tom Clark and
I'm the Director of JungleMaster Ministries. In 1997 I felt God was
calling me to missions. I began my investigation of where that may
be and I ended up going to Ecuador with HCJB World Radio. After 5 weeks in the jungle I
realized that serving with a large organization was too much like
having a job. I had a job and that really didn't feel like where God
would have me go. What I wanted to do, was work one on one with the
people in the jungle and being a repairman in the hospital didn't
afford me that opportunity.
During that process of
getting ready to go I had met Steve Saint via E-Mail and we had
started to work on a small motor project together for the Waodroni
people. The first motor we built was ready about the time that I was
going to be in Ecuador and Steve was scheduled to be there during my
last few days there. As God would have it, Steve and I were able to take
the little motor into the Waodroni village on the day that I
was scheduled to leave Shell and head back to Quito. We flew Rick LaBouef's
small plane out and delivered that first motor. During that day we ran the motor around on the Currary River I
and
realized that this is were God would have me, but I had no way of
replicating this again. We left Ecuador within the next couple of
days and I had this vision of what my mission was and no likely way
of fulfilling that vision. Needless to say the next few years were
ones of heartbreak and trouble.
I continued to work on
the motor project with Saint in the hopes of somehow, maybe that
would led me to getting back to the jungle and getting my fix again
of being on the Amazon with the native people. In 2000, Steve had a
dedication for his new building in Ocala Florida for I-tec (his
ministry) and my wife and I flew out to be a part the dedication.
While we were there I came to a realization that Steve had a lot of
stuff on his plate and our little motors were a low priority for
him. I really felt God calling me to continue working on the motors
and getting them into the nationals so when we returned to
Bellingham I wrote Steve and asked if he felt that it would be OK if
I spun the motor project off and began my own ministry.
"JungleMaster Ministries". He wrote back and offered me whatever
help he could and gave me his blessings.
I started to manufacture
small motors for the indigenous people to use for transportation
along the rivers. Through the internet and some contacts I had made
in Ecuador I was delivering 4-5 engines a year to national pastors
to use as tools to free up their time for ministry.
This led to my delivering
motors to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Brazil and Peru. On my first trip to
Peru I was working through a Missionary named Larry Hultquist. I
took in two of my little engines to Iquitos Peru and we used Larrys
boat to deliver them to Apayacu a small village about 100 miles down
river from Iquitos. (see the article 4000
miles) (2001)
I spent the next few
months developing contacts in Peru and came across a Peruvian Non
profit called "MCS Mision". Mision de Christo en la Selva. In time,
I prepared two of the little engines that I was working on and
delivered them to MCS. We started a relationship with them and over
the next two years we built a new church in Iquitos and helped them
with the costs of their missions efforts into the jungle. I soon
discovered the MCS had been in an internal struggle and many of the
pastors there were leaving. I began investigating and realized that
the senior pastor was on a power trip and when there was money
flowing from North America it gave him an inflated feeling of power
and importance. It also came out that they had been skimming a
little off of the top of what we were sending and when they were
confronted with the issue they wasn't any repentance.
At this point I really
felt betrayed and was on the verge of quitting. God sent several
people to intervene and encourage me. Simon Petree and Kike del
Aquilla were two that begged me to continue. I had employed the help
of Roger Rios, "lucho" to investigate what was going on with MCS and
we became close and were building trust in one another. Lucho is not
only my Language interpreter but he is also my cultural interpreter.
No North American will ever be successful in the jungle without
someone to help them understand the culture of the people that live
there. As different as we are from Latin America, the people of the
Amazon are as different again from the Latin culture.
I sent Lucho back up
river to confer with a couple of pastors that we knew there. Our
plan was beginning to hatch. We would start our own Non-Profit in
Peru and work only with the people on the rivers. The people from
the cities in the jungle are professional at taking well intended
money from North Americans. They show you all the great works being
done on the fringes; claiming as there own, and when the donations
start to flow, all the money stays in the city. Our intent was to
get in control of all the property and equipment that JungleMaster
developed. We would have a Peruvian run mission that I would only
act as an advisor. It would be their mission and their vision.
Javier Sinarahua would be our director in the jungle. From the tiny
village of Santa Rita we would launch our ministry efforts into the
deepest reaches of the Amazon.
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