South American Call: May 2010

Eddie's cell 229-425-3274     Eddie & Nook Burge    Nook's Cell 229-425-7249
eddiewburge@gmail.co                     Home 229-423-32                             ladyniurka@gmail.com
223 El Harris Road - Fitzgerald, GA   -   31750


GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD, PROCLAIM HIS GREATNESS,
TELL THE NATIONS WHAT HE HAS DONE.
1 Chron. 16:8

May 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
We have just returned from being gone for almost the whole month of April. My computer crashed in March and there was no way for me to notify many of you of our whereabouts! Ouch! While we were gone, Matthew restored it and recovered most of my info. Although the email address book was GONE I had made copies of my 'email buddy list' on a document and saved it a few months earlier... just felt like it. Praise the Lord! I was sure excited to realize it had been recovered!! God is so good and so is Matthew!!! Thanks to both! PLEASE TAKE NOTE THAT OUR EMAIL ADDRESSES HAVE CHANGED!
Earlier this year we had been praying about doing a school for pastors in the northwestern part of Venezuela but things were not coming together. Ok Lord, if this is not of You, show us where we are to go next. The following Sunday evening after having gone to bed, the phone rang, it was Joe Mercer, “Can you come do a school in Peru in April?” Yes, of course! Joe continued, “the accommodations are primitive, you will sleep in a cot, no bathroom, kitchen or amenities of any kind except a mosquito net to keep the millions of critters at bay, but the village women will bring your meals, don’t know if Nook should go, we’ll talk more later.” Thus began God’s call for this trip.
We called Hernan in Venezuela to see if he could meet Eddie in Lima in April to help with the school. He was willing. His passport was not valid and he was not sure if he would be able to get it renewed in time but would start proceedings right away.
We were down to the wire now, no hope for Hernan to make it. We didn’t feel it would be safe for Eddie to go alone, remembering the slight heart attack he had encountered on his last trip alone. We contacted Joe, Hernan would not be able to make it and Nook would be going, what were the possibilities of changing the location? Joe would work it out, he would transport the natives to another village where a motel was available! We got the tickets, found a motel in Atlanta where we could spend Tuesday night before the trip and leave our car for the next three weeks. Things were working out.
Thursday morning Nook woke up with a horrible headache and nasty cough. Dear Lord, please, not the flu, we have a trip to go on! Made an appointment with our doctor. Friday, symptoms were worse and we were told it was a virus and would not respond to antibiotics. She suggested a strong vitamin infusion to build up the immune system and hopefully the body would fight it off quickly. Since Eddie had also been exposed she would give him an infusion too, just to be safe, but first had to have his vitals checked.
The nurse did not look too happy, his blood pressure was extremely low, she notified the doctor who immediately ordered an EKG. He had been feeling unusually tired and weak. Obvious changes had occurred since the last EKG and she was sure another slight heart attack must have occurred recently. “I must put you in the hospital for tests. This is serious.” Eddie refused but promised if he had any pain or other unusual symptoms over the weekend, he would go to the hospital. The medication his heart doctor had prescribed must have been too strong and had lowered his blood pressure way below the normal range, no wonder he had been so tired lately. She told him to get off of it immediately and begin taking nutritional supplements to strengthen the heart and bring the blood pressure back up to normal.
By Monday we both felt better and she gave me another infusion and instructions that if Eddie had any pain I was to take him to an ER immediately…in the jungle? “Well then“, she said, ”we’ll PRAY!” Many of you prayed with us and he never had a bit of pain. Thank you Lord.
Tuesday we drove to Atlanta, had to be at the Airport Wednesday at 6am to fly to Miami. A long wait at the Miami airport and we were on the way to Lima where we arrived around midnight. It was after 1 a.m. by the time we had picked up our luggage and gone through customs. Joe had arranged for “Wilder” to pick us up and get us to Pucalpa, our next stop. “Wilder” was a precious young man who informed us that we had a choice, “spend the next few hours in the airport or spend a couple of hours at a motel and he would pick us back up and get us to the airport in time to take the next plane for Pucalpa. It seemed the motel operator was waking us up about the time we had laid down, but we were thankful for a couple of hours of sleep.
Each time we changed planes they seemed to be getting smaller. Pastor Melida met us in Pucalpa with our tickets for Contamana. Several hours later, our plane arrived. Melida would go with us, and Joe would meet us there. As we walked out on the runway, I couldn’t believe my eyes, we were headed toward a little ‘puddle jumper’ that Eddie said was from the ‘50’s’ with room for 4 of us. Melida was put in the tail with the luggage and Eddie and I squeezed behind the pilot! With nothing but jungles and rivers below, the flight seemed like an eternity and then we saw the little dwellings...Contamana was in view!
The narrow jungle landing strip was 'interesting' to say the least! A 'motorcar' (moped with 3 wheels, a 2 passenger seat and sun roof, the village's only mode of transportation.) met us to take us to the boat that would take us to Lake Tipishca, where Joe and his team had been evangelizing and ministering, not only spiritually but physically, to the five villages around the lake. They had been there a number of times during the past few months and now leaders and pastors had been raised up to minister to their respective villages and it was our privilege to take them through an intense 2 weeks of International School of Christ curriculum.
Contamana, the nearest village with an available motel had been chosen for the school. The leaders and pastors would be transported 30 minutes along the river to Contamana. They would be supplied 3 meals a day and they would spend the nights with friends or family in Contamana for the next two weeks. They were to go for breakfast and be at the designated place at 7 am sharp to start an hour of prayer before the school actually started each morning. Each day began with an hour of prayer then classes until lunch time, then after lunch classes until supper, and then classes until 8pm and an hour of prayer to finish each day.
It was a joy to be a part of this school. One morning the students had gone for breakfast but for some reason breakfast was late and they would not stay and wait. They would have no breakfast that morning because they did not want to miss their prayer time, what faithfulness! Eddie has done hundreds of schools, from Guyana to Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and now Peru, but none has been as rewarding as this one. The students were so intent on learning, attentive to the lessons (they filled the notepads we had taken), cooperative, even the exams showed the caliber of their integrity. Though they were open tests, they honestly told the errors they had made and asked for the correct answers so they would know the truths they may have missed. We were impressed. Several local pastors and young men also attended when word spread through town of what was going on at the “Sueno Dorado” Motel, which appropriately translates to…"Golden Dream".
We wish we had time and space to share all the wonderful things God did but we decided to pick this particularly special encounter He had planned for us. Friday evening when we arrived at the motel we noticed a young man sitting alone in the lobby. The following day he was still there and we asked if he knew of a place we could get something to eat and he cordially offered to lead us there. We thought he might be a hotel employee but he said he was a guest.
That evening we decided to invite him to have dinner with us and thus began our friendship. Over dinner he opened his lonely heart to us. His parents had been born here but he had never been here before. He had been born and raised in Iquitos. He was an engineering technician, had his own business and was on a month’s vacation. He had been to many large cities in many countries and had decided to make this a different vacation.
His parents had told him about the ‘healing hot sulfur springs’ that people from far and wide came to sit in for healing purposes, and he planned to go the next day and invited us to go with him. We told him we had a previous engagement at the local church to speak and would not be able to make it, maybe one day during our stay we would go.
He had been christened and raised Catholic and all his life, as far as he could remember, had wanted to help people. After the university he had decided to become a priest but after a while he knew this was not his call. After an unsuccessful attempt at suicide he joined a social organization, as a volunteer, where he felt he could be of more use to mankind. He would go with a team into indigenous communities and study what they could profit from most and then report back to the home office and begin the approved changes to better their way of life. He did this on the side while he ran his business through employees.
He continued to pour his heart out. He had been in Contamana a week and was ready to go to the Springs and on to Lima. He felt empty, unfulfilled and bored, maybe he would find something to do in Lima for the rest of his vacation.
The following day we found him in the lobby again. Yes, he would love to go eat with us and had decided not to go to the Springs. Would we mind if he went to church with us that evening instead? We spent the day together and all afternoon shared our mission for being in Contamana. We answered what seemed to be an avalanche of questions with no end. Would we allow him to attend the school? Of course, he understood it was for pastors and church leaders but seemed excited to be allowed to attend. Late that afternoon Gerson, whom Joe had sent to help us showed up and we introduced him to Gian Pierre.
Amazingly enough they were both about the same age, 29 and 30, both single and both from Iquitos, Peru. Gerson too had studied for the priesthood after college and also attempted suicide as a younger man before the Lord had saved him. Their similarities were incredible! Even their names both started with the letter G! They stayed up late that night getting acquainted.
Many times during the next two weeks we were to hear from Gian Pierre, what seemed to have become his favorite phrase, “You know the real reason you are here is because God sent you for me!” Then we’d all break out in laughter and praise God for all He was doing among all the students. He was as faithful as everyone else. At 7am sharp he would find a place of prayer and knelt with the rest. He helped with many technical problems that we could not solve and was a great asset. We didn’t push him - just loved him and he knew he was loved by all of us. Many times we saw tears streaming down his face as different messages reached his heart of hearts.
We had been invited to attend another village down the river on the following Sunday and Gian Pierre, would not be left behind. We had become inseparable now, camaraderie had taken place and there was no denying it. That morning on that muddy dirt church floor, he surrendered His heart to Jesus as the invitation was given, tears again streaming down his face. On the river on our way back to the motel we shared that he needed to be baptized, “Yes, let’s do it”, he enthusiastically responded. We got to the motel, changed clothes and headed for a river branch where Gerson and Eddie baptized him.
It was the last day of classes, we were sitting on the back row when we noticed he had quietly slipped on his knees and was asking us to please pray for him. He wanted to give his whole life to Jesus for Him to do whatever He wanted with him. He couldn’t wait to call his mom and tell her the Good News! He had not yet been to the sulfur springs but God had put within him springs of living water that would never run dry.
Thank you Lord for sending us to Peru and “thanks” to all of you who helped get us there. Many souls were saved besides Gian Pierre, hundreds of tracts were distributed and many Christians rededicated their lives. We wish we could tell you everyone’s story but it would consist of a full book. Pray for all those whom we (you and us) touched. The three maids at the motel, who snuck into classes every chance they had and quietly slipped in after their work was done, all 3 gave their hearts to Jesus by the time the school was finished; a young man whose 6 year old daughter had become sick and quickly died and his wife in her grief had turned against him and God and left home; the pastors and leaders that we graduated, to be strengthened and encouraged as they minister to those in their respective villages and anything else the Lord may lay on your hearts to pray about concerning these precious people of His, in Peru.
Cold showers, perspiration that we could wring out of our clothes, unusual native meals, millions of mosquitoes and a touch of ‘Montezuma’s revenge’ cannot be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in eternity. Again, thank you for your love and prayers, none of these lives would have been touched without you.
In HIM,
Eddie & Nook

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