The French woman

For those of you who are fans of the series Lost. You will remember the crazy french woman that the characters met in the jungle. Well i met my own. Ok she wasn't actually crazy, but she had had an amazing story. At present she is living in Pucallpa and is part of the church that Mark and i visited.

When we arrived i did notice her because she had much lighter skin and hair than the others but she spoke Spanish and i hadn't realise that she wasn't a local.

Later i introduced myself to her and she told me she could speak English which was helpful. On one of the walks between Jungle villages we went to, we had a long talk, more memorable than the many short talks i had in my limited Spanish with the rest of the group. During this time she told me her story. It's amazing the people you meet around the world.

She had grown up just outside Paris and had told me how she hadalways had this part of her that believed in God, a higher power or something she couldn't explain and even though she wasn't from a religious family she really felt there was something out there. So when she got older she decided to travel the world to in her words "find God". SHe lived with Buddhists Monks in Nepal, spent time with Muslims in India and other tribla religions all of which i can't recall in the hope that she would "find God". She had heard about a hallucinagenic drug that is famous in this particular area of the jungle in Peru so she had come to Peru to try this. The reputation of the drug is that people can hgave dreams and visions and speak to God. So she arrived and met with the Shaaman - like a kind of witch doctor and she began taking the drug. she explained to me that whilst others had good dreams she would have these visions and see these evil spirits and demons around her, this kept getting worse and worse so that even when she wasn't on the drug the demons would still be on her. She had heard that Churches have exorcists and tried to find out about going to see a Catholic Priest, she then met someone who new about the Church Mark and I had been speaking at and she had gone to the church and the Prayer team and Patsors who we visited the jungle with payed for asll night that she would be released from these demons and dreams and that night she described herself as feeling closer to God than ever before and all those Demons she flet on her, all the images in her head disappeared and have not been back since. That night she became a Christian and all this had happened about 3 months befpre i met her, she was one of the most passionate, prayerful people i have ever met and she says every day she just wants to spend time with God learning more about him and coming closer to him. So that is my French Woman, its crazy the people and stories you'll find in the Jungle. What next i wonder?