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The Rani Adventures #3
Jungle Calls
"Jungle Calls" by Ron Snell is Book 3 of The Rani Adventures, also known as The Jungle Series. The second edition is 5 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches. The first edition was 4 1/4 inches by 7 inches. Type is bigger and easier to read in the second edition.
Extremely popular with the Christian homeschool audience as well as people of all ages, The Rani Adventures depict what life was like for a young missionary kid growing up in the rain forests of Peru. Snell writes: "It was 7:30 at night. Standing in inky black jungle, we were hundreds of miles from the nearest lightbulb. The call of insects and frogs shrilled in our ears. Somewhere nearby, we knew, were Indians who killed anyone who ventured into their territory. What we didn't know was whether they were coming to kill us. Even so, after almost a year in the concrete jungles of Chicago at the Moody Bible Institute, there was no place else I'd rather be. I was 17."
This third book in the Rani Adventure Series is filled with more true stories of high-pitched tension and hilarious adventure. The Matses Indian contact. The attempt to raft through the Boqueron. The night an idiot Chihuahua became our hero. And through it all, a thought provoking look at the jungle, at the Machiguenga Indians, at the process of translating Scripture into another langauge.
Extremely popular with the Christian homeschool audience as well as people of all ages, The Rani Adventures depict what life was like for a young missionary kid growing up in the rain forests of Peru. Snell writes: "It was 7:30 at night. Standing in inky black jungle, we were hundreds of miles from the nearest lightbulb. The call of insects and frogs shrilled in our ears. Somewhere nearby, we knew, were Indians who killed anyone who ventured into their territory. What we didn't know was whether they were coming to kill us. Even so, after almost a year in the concrete jungles of Chicago at the Moody Bible Institute, there was no place else I'd rather be. I was 17."
This third book in the Rani Adventure Series is filled with more true stories of high-pitched tension and hilarious adventure. The Matses Indian contact. The attempt to raft through the Boqueron. The night an idiot Chihuahua became our hero. And through it all, a thought provoking look at the jungle, at the Machiguenga Indians, at the process of translating Scripture into another langauge.
263 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 12, 2019
This review covers all three books.
Providing a humorous side to mission work is Ron Snell, who grew up in the Amazon jungle of Peru during the 1950s and 60s. Ron's parents worked as Bible translators (Summer Institute of Linguistics) with the Machiguenga Indians. The book trilogy, It's a Jungle Out There; Life Is a Jungle; and Jungle Calls, contains stories that will bring tears to your eyes through laughter and touching stories.
Travel down a jungle river with Ron and his brother, Terry, as kids when they take a wild ride on a log, or when they camp out, and Terry gets bitten by a vampire bat. Cross the Andes with his family in an old car, on a one lane road, over a pass at 16,500 feet. Mourn with the family and Indians as sickness and death come to a village.
Later, follow 17-year-old Ron to Chicago to Moody Bible Institute and learn why that school banned snakes and blow darts from the dorms. (You can take the boy out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the boy.) Watch the power of prayer in action when Ron helps to blaze a trail through the jungle for two missionary women to make the first contact with a tribal group known for killing men and kidnapping women who came into their territory. A miracle happened.
When reading these books, do NOT skip the Acknowledgment pages, especially the one in the last book. The humor begins before page 1.
Providing a humorous side to mission work is Ron Snell, who grew up in the Amazon jungle of Peru during the 1950s and 60s. Ron's parents worked as Bible translators (Summer Institute of Linguistics) with the Machiguenga Indians. The book trilogy, It's a Jungle Out There; Life Is a Jungle; and Jungle Calls, contains stories that will bring tears to your eyes through laughter and touching stories.
Travel down a jungle river with Ron and his brother, Terry, as kids when they take a wild ride on a log, or when they camp out, and Terry gets bitten by a vampire bat. Cross the Andes with his family in an old car, on a one lane road, over a pass at 16,500 feet. Mourn with the family and Indians as sickness and death come to a village.
Later, follow 17-year-old Ron to Chicago to Moody Bible Institute and learn why that school banned snakes and blow darts from the dorms. (You can take the boy out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the boy.) Watch the power of prayer in action when Ron helps to blaze a trail through the jungle for two missionary women to make the first contact with a tribal group known for killing men and kidnapping women who came into their territory. A miracle happened.
When reading these books, do NOT skip the Acknowledgment pages, especially the one in the last book. The humor begins before page 1.
March 31, 2025
Fun, easy read. Great for read out louds!
August 5, 2014
This is the third and final installment of Ron Snell's memoirs of growing up as a missionary kid in Peru. It begins when he was 16, already having left Peru for the United States, a lonely, out-of-place, homesick young freshman at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
Many missionary kids must go through the same thing after they graduate from their boarding high school or home schooling, although most are probably slightly older. It would be a good subject for study, if anyone is looking for a thesis.
Despite being (unintentionally) perhaps one of the most rebellious students in Moody Bible history, Snell gets through and moves on to Indiana University, where he is even more out of place.
But most of "Jungle Calls" is about return trips to the Amazonian jungle of Peru.
The first time he returns, at 17, he overhears a conversation about two female missionaries who need a trail broken so they can move closer to the people they are trying to reach. He immediately volunteers and gets the assignment.
I don't remember what I was doing at age 17, but it was nothing like that. I've never done anything like that.
But what I really want you to consider is the two missionaries, Hattie and Harriet. They already had spent considerable time trying to reach a tribal group known as the Matses. Snell's parents had been assigned to people known as the Machiguenga. This was no small thing, but at least the Machis tended to be a gentle, welcoming people.
Not so the warlike Matses. When outsiders got too close, they killed the men, took the women as wives and took the children, if there were any, as slaves.Their hostility probably came about as a matter of self-defense, but it was hostility nonetheless.
And Hattie and Harriet wanted to get closer. I would have been heading in the opposite direction.
This is another reason why my heroes have always been missionaries.
I haven't mentioned this in my reviews of the previous two books, but Snell's writing is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, and he always writes with a sense of humor. I'd like to say with a gentle sense of humor, but occasionally there's a bit of a bite to it.
This third book gets a little dull on a couple of occasions, but in other ways it was the best of the three.
Many missionary kids must go through the same thing after they graduate from their boarding high school or home schooling, although most are probably slightly older. It would be a good subject for study, if anyone is looking for a thesis.
Despite being (unintentionally) perhaps one of the most rebellious students in Moody Bible history, Snell gets through and moves on to Indiana University, where he is even more out of place.
But most of "Jungle Calls" is about return trips to the Amazonian jungle of Peru.
The first time he returns, at 17, he overhears a conversation about two female missionaries who need a trail broken so they can move closer to the people they are trying to reach. He immediately volunteers and gets the assignment.
I don't remember what I was doing at age 17, but it was nothing like that. I've never done anything like that.
But what I really want you to consider is the two missionaries, Hattie and Harriet. They already had spent considerable time trying to reach a tribal group known as the Matses. Snell's parents had been assigned to people known as the Machiguenga. This was no small thing, but at least the Machis tended to be a gentle, welcoming people.
Not so the warlike Matses. When outsiders got too close, they killed the men, took the women as wives and took the children, if there were any, as slaves.Their hostility probably came about as a matter of self-defense, but it was hostility nonetheless.
And Hattie and Harriet wanted to get closer. I would have been heading in the opposite direction.
This is another reason why my heroes have always been missionaries.
I haven't mentioned this in my reviews of the previous two books, but Snell's writing is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, and he always writes with a sense of humor. I'd like to say with a gentle sense of humor, but occasionally there's a bit of a bite to it.
This third book gets a little dull on a couple of occasions, but in other ways it was the best of the three.
December 14, 2020
I have loved all three books in this series and highly recommend them. They are hilarious and heartwarming. I also appreciate that Snell's faith in God is very much apart of who he is but that doesn't come through as forced. The underlying message of these books is that following God may take you to places you would never imagine and give you relationships you could never have elsewhere. Following God gives you meaning, courage and incredible experiences. And depending on your level of sanity, opportunities for outrageous adventures.
September 19, 2008
Jungle boy Ron goes to Moody Bible Institute. By the end of his first term, there's a rule against having boa constictors in the dorms and an exact fine for getting blowgun darts stuck in the wall. Plus, more good clean fun in Peru!
July 8, 2008
It was a fun, short read.
December 3, 2008
very fun
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews