The forest was dense, but the floor soft with leaves and vegetation as we headed at a trot toward the spot where the large animals had last been seen. Suddenly we were on them and my guide motioned to me to get into a tree as fast as possible! The villagers surrounded the smal pack of pigs and began to yell directions. One escaped and ran just under my perch, it's tusks showing dull yellow as it grunted, pounding the earth. My guide yelled at me to stay put! Another squirted screaming past the tree, an arrow protruding from just behind it's left front leg. The air was thick with shots and hollering as my guide slapped at the two pigs which had begun my heart pounding with adrenalin!

Near the middle of my stay with the Amarakaeri Indians in Peru, my missionary partner gave me permission to go on a hunt with the fellows from our village deep in the Amazon forest. One of the men had spotten a small herd of wild pigs out in the jungle and the village needed the meat, since they all run out of the fish the village had gotten the week previous.

With my linguist friend's consent, donning T-shirt and cuttoffs, I dashed off with the bronze skinned fellows, barefoot and most with no arms but a homemade bow and arrows. Two of the guys had single shot shotguns. I was on a "guided tour" so I had nothing, just the instructions to stay close to one of the hunters.

My linguist partner had warned me before I left that these wild boar viciously attack in groups with their tusks and don't stop until the victim is dead! Here, this indian was tenaciously protecting me, risking his own life to allow me to participate in the hunt. I didn't realize until hours later back at the thatched roofed village, just how much danger he had cheerfully put himself in to guard me. Me, a missionary kid, white skinned and ignorant of much of the jungle ways. Much to learn!

Imagine our Lord enduring excruciating pain to save us!

The grace and love that village showed me during my stay with a Wycliffe missionary stuck with me for the rest of my life!