The city of Tarapoto lies between the foothills of the Andes Mountains to the west, and the dense rainforest of the Upper Amazon Basin to the east. For Peruvian and American missionaries, Tarapoto was a staging point for Gospel ministry in the rainforest.
Look among the trees and bushes around the airport at Tarapoto and you will find a surprising number and variety of beautiful birds flickering among the foliage. Why such a collection of colorful creatures here beside this airport? Well, the illegal traffic in rare and exotic jungle birds is tempting. Peruvian customs officials find the birds in the pockets and purses of would-be smugglers attempting to board planes. When found, the birds are released through the departure hall’s open windows. Thus the alley-side airport aviary!
Traveling beneath the vast green canopy of the jungle’s rainforest roof, the natural home of those exotic birds, missionaries and native lay ministers must have sensed that they were amid an environment like that of the Garden of Eden. But they taught hearers that mankind’s sin polluted God’s perfect creation. What had been ”very good (Genesis 1)” had become corrupted. We know the same disheartening truth about ourselves. But missionaries were privileged also to bring the Good News that God has remedied this sad situation: that Christ’s sinless life, innocent death and victorious resurrection are the basis for the redemption of our fallen world. “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin (I John 1).”