Chapter 40: Bible Study Weeks and a Fishing Miracle
AS TOLD BY JOHN AGERSTEN
Bible Weeks at Tigre Playa
Upon our return to Tigre Playa, we witnessed a wave of conversions in many villages along the Marañon River. Those who could read yearned for Bibles or New Testaments. Those who couldn't read listened attentively as others read to them. The need for Bible teachings was immense, prompting us to invite believers and leaders to attend Bible weeks at Tigre Playa. They arrived in their canoes or floated downriver on rafts made of balsa wood. We would then transport them back upstream with our motorboat. Many brought bananas and cassava; some even carried dried wild boar meat, turtles, or chickens for the shared meals.
But they didn't just come from villages along the Marañon River. More and more people also arrived from the tributaries, both from the Spanish-speaking villages and from various indigenous communities. Some believed that it would not be wise to invite indigenous tribes who were former enemies simultaneously. However, we never encountered any issues when believers from different groups came together, such as the Chapra and Wampis from Morona and the Awajun from Potro. We all viewed each other as siblings, united in our faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. They wanted to learn more from the Word of God and rejoiced in being together.
Upon our return to Tigre Playa, we witnessed a wave of conversions in many villages along the Marañon River. Those who could read yearned for Bibles or New Testaments. Those who couldn't read listened attentively as others read to them. The need for Bible teachings was immense, prompting us to invite believers and leaders to attend Bible weeks at Tigre Playa. They arrived in their canoes or floated downriver on rafts made of balsa wood. We would then transport them back upstream with our motorboat. Many brought bananas and cassava; some even carried dried wild boar meat, turtles, or chickens for the shared meals.
But they didn't just come from villages along the Marañon River. More and more people also arrived from the tributaries, both from the Spanish-speaking villages and from various indigenous communities. Some believed that it would not be wise to invite indigenous tribes who were former enemies simultaneously. However, we never encountered any issues when believers from different groups came together, such as the Chapra and Wampis from Morona and the Awajun from Potro. We all viewed each other as siblings, united in our faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. They wanted to learn more from the Word of God and rejoiced in being together.
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A Fishing Miracle during Bible Study Week
During one of the early Bible weeks at Tigre Playa, evangelist Segundo Vela from the church in Lima came to teach. He was a great blessing both in the daytime study sessions and the evening services. There were many more visitors this week than we had anticipated, and soon, we realized that the food the participants had brought, along with what we had in terms of meat and chickens, would need to be increased. What should we do now? We were reluctant to end the week prematurely due to a lack of food. While contemplating the food situation, I remembered the fishing net we had received while visiting the church Betania in Hauge in Dalane, Norway. The net was a gift from Leif Midtbø, a fisherman and member of that church. When he discovered we lived by a river, he asked if I was interested in taking a fishing net to Peru. He had crafted it from leftover fishing gear when making his shrimp trawlers. We gladly accepted. The next day, he arrived with a sack containing the net, complete with weights and floats, and it was a pretty large bundle. |
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Despite its size, transporting it to Peru would not be a problem since we could include it in the crates and barrels we were shipping to Peru.
Our current situation reminded me of the net. The river water was exceptionally high, nearly overflowing the banks of Tigre Playa. When I suggested we fish, several people told me fishing in such high water would be futile. The fish moved out of the high water into the flooded jungle, something I had observed before. They would come back out in large schools once the high water receded. But the need for food was great, so we decided to try anyway. We prayed to God for help, asking for a miracle akin to the fisherman's tale from the time of Jesus.
Our current situation reminded me of the net. The river water was exceptionally high, nearly overflowing the banks of Tigre Playa. When I suggested we fish, several people told me fishing in such high water would be futile. The fish moved out of the high water into the flooded jungle, something I had observed before. They would come back out in large schools once the high water receded. But the need for food was great, so we decided to try anyway. We prayed to God for help, asking for a miracle akin to the fisherman's tale from the time of Jesus.
The Fishing Trip
I got the net out, and it caught everyone's attention. None of them had ever fished with this type of net before. They frequently used a "tarafa," a smaller net thrown out from a canoe and pulled together like a bag. A group of us crossed over to the other side of the river, where the water was calmer, and a large sandbank was visible two meters below the surface. It was too deep to stand outside the boat; we had to cast the net directly from the boat, creating a circle and then pulling it back up.
The first throw was a complete failure. We couldn't get the net properly out. Eventually, we improved, but still, no fish, just an empty net. After five throws, we were ready to give up. However, we agreed to make one more throw. This time, we cast the net beautifully. As we started pulling the net into the boat from both sides, we felt fish in it. Some large fish leaped over the edge and out of the net. When we finally hauled the net in, twelve large fish were in it! They were a type of "zungaro" with black stripes, known as "tiger-zungaro," a kind of catfish. The largest one weighed over twenty-five pounds. Satisfied and relieved, we crossed the river back to Tigre Playa.
As we returned, the Bible week participants had gathered at the bank and rejoiced to see us with such a great catch. They were amazed by the fruitful outcome of our fishing trip. Now, we had enough food for the remainder of the Bible week. There were plenty of green bananas and cassava, but eating them three times a day without anything else is not particularly enticing. Against all odds, we not only obtained fish but a lot of fish! We viewed it as an answer to prayer and a blessing from the Lord.
Fishing in Morona
Later, we brought this fishing net on our journeys up the Morona River, a slow-flowing tributary to the Marañon. On one occasion, when we visited the Chapra village of Shoroya Cocha, where Tariri was the chief, we had the opportunity to use the net. We had a service in the afternoon with many people listening to the songs and the sermon. The village was a 30-minute walk from the river bank on a winding jungle path. When we returned to the boat just before dark, we heard a loud splashing on the other side of the narrow river. There was a small bay behind a sandbank. We looked closer and saw a whole school of fish moving into the shallow water for the night.
We rowed over in a canoe and blocked the narrow entrance to the bay with the net. A couple of the indigenous people ran back to the village to gather help in pulling the net to the bottom of the bay. We had to leave it until the next morning when we could draw a large quantity of fish onto land. Tariri sent word to the nearest neighbors to come and get some fish. I'm not sure how many pounds of fish there were, but they lay in large piles on the sandbank, enough for everyone. The fish was salted and dried at most houses and huts in the village. Everyone was pleased with this bounty of food. We enjoyed using the net for several years when the annual schools of fish, called "Mijano," passed by Tigre Playa. The net was an unusual but valuable gift for us in the jungle.
I got the net out, and it caught everyone's attention. None of them had ever fished with this type of net before. They frequently used a "tarafa," a smaller net thrown out from a canoe and pulled together like a bag. A group of us crossed over to the other side of the river, where the water was calmer, and a large sandbank was visible two meters below the surface. It was too deep to stand outside the boat; we had to cast the net directly from the boat, creating a circle and then pulling it back up.
The first throw was a complete failure. We couldn't get the net properly out. Eventually, we improved, but still, no fish, just an empty net. After five throws, we were ready to give up. However, we agreed to make one more throw. This time, we cast the net beautifully. As we started pulling the net into the boat from both sides, we felt fish in it. Some large fish leaped over the edge and out of the net. When we finally hauled the net in, twelve large fish were in it! They were a type of "zungaro" with black stripes, known as "tiger-zungaro," a kind of catfish. The largest one weighed over twenty-five pounds. Satisfied and relieved, we crossed the river back to Tigre Playa.
As we returned, the Bible week participants had gathered at the bank and rejoiced to see us with such a great catch. They were amazed by the fruitful outcome of our fishing trip. Now, we had enough food for the remainder of the Bible week. There were plenty of green bananas and cassava, but eating them three times a day without anything else is not particularly enticing. Against all odds, we not only obtained fish but a lot of fish! We viewed it as an answer to prayer and a blessing from the Lord.
Fishing in Morona
Later, we brought this fishing net on our journeys up the Morona River, a slow-flowing tributary to the Marañon. On one occasion, when we visited the Chapra village of Shoroya Cocha, where Tariri was the chief, we had the opportunity to use the net. We had a service in the afternoon with many people listening to the songs and the sermon. The village was a 30-minute walk from the river bank on a winding jungle path. When we returned to the boat just before dark, we heard a loud splashing on the other side of the narrow river. There was a small bay behind a sandbank. We looked closer and saw a whole school of fish moving into the shallow water for the night.
We rowed over in a canoe and blocked the narrow entrance to the bay with the net. A couple of the indigenous people ran back to the village to gather help in pulling the net to the bottom of the bay. We had to leave it until the next morning when we could draw a large quantity of fish onto land. Tariri sent word to the nearest neighbors to come and get some fish. I'm not sure how many pounds of fish there were, but they lay in large piles on the sandbank, enough for everyone. The fish was salted and dried at most houses and huts in the village. Everyone was pleased with this bounty of food. We enjoyed using the net for several years when the annual schools of fish, called "Mijano," passed by Tigre Playa. The net was an unusual but valuable gift for us in the jungle.