September 4, 2000

Missionary's journey from Laos to
Peruvian jungle weaves common threads
___By Chris Turner
___SBC International Mission Board
___Dena McAnally remembers crouching in the dark trying not to breathe, let alone move. It's difficult to be still when fear causes the body to shake.
___As she and her family waited to crawl quietly into the small canoe, she knew this was the end of her life. Nobody made it across the Mekong River to the relative safety of

LIFE in the jungles of Peru reminds Dena McAnally of her homeland in Laos.

Thailand. Several attempted the short journey, but the Laotian communist army gunned down most in the river. Those who did reach Thailand were hunted like animals and dragged back to Laos, many for execution.
___"My family had been looking for an opportunity to escape," Dena says. "I kept waiting for the gun shots. I couldn't believe it when we made it to the other side."
___Relatives in Thailand hid them for three days as the Laotian army searched each village. Eventually the army returned to their side of the river. Dena's jubilation was a mix of emotion. They were free from the iron-fisted terror that governed their country, but they had nothing and no place to go. She didn't even have her mother, who had died three years earlier. Most 8-year-olds don't have such worries.
___After a year in a refugee camp, the family received a sponsor, allowing them to move to the United States. Dena didn't know English and had no idea who God was.
___As a teenager, she visited First Baptist Church in Houston and heard the guest speaker say, "Your heavenly Father will never forsake you."
___"I remember that struck me," Dena says. "I wanted to know that love and asked Jesus into my heart."
___As Dena grew in her new faith, she realized it was something she had to share with others. Initially she wanted to go back to Laos, or at least the refugee camps in Thailand, and share the gospel with her own people. But God had other plans for Dena and her husband, Marty.
___The McAnallys accepted a position with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board to work among the Ashéninka (Ah-SHEN-eng-kah), an indigenous people group living deep in the Peruvian jungle. Most have never heard of Jesus Christ, just like Dena when she was living in Laos.
___"I had to deal with a lot of emotion before coming here because it reminded me of my home," she says. "The thing that really moved me to where I am is reading for myself what the Bible says. I started digging in the word and found God had a purpose for my life. I try to take that very seriously so that God will find me sincere and blameless when I come to the end of my life.
___"Never in a million years would I have guessed that I'd be here, but I thank God for allowing me to be a part of what he is doing among the Ashéninka."

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