Day 1: Wednesday

Oi from the Amazon!

   

    Yesterday, the second gorup arrived in Manaus and loaded the boat around 3 PM. We got settled in and floated through the meeting of the waters on our 15 hour voyage to Sol Nascente to pick up the missionaries, Erika and Vanderley, who oversee four villages on Lake Carara (for all you people who know how to use Google earth, you can see exactly where we have been) just off the Amazon.

 

    We started off the morning going to Bucuzal where we had VBS, medical, dental, women's, men's, and a church service... all before a lunch at 3 PM. 30 minutes later we headed out into Divino village where we did the same ministries plus some worship with the people of the village. Oh and let's not forget soccer, soccer, soccer in both places. And yes we lost in both places. The boys are very good but nothing compared to the Brazilian pros.

 

    A few highlights of the day:

-Erik Nieder has led sweet times of worship on the boat & in the villages with the Americans & Brazilians singing in their native languages.

-Will Shellenberger dancing for all the children in VBS to a Portuguese song. He had everyone laughing.

-Jeff Johnson starred as Gabriel in a play where he held his halo proudly.

-Becca Nail shared her testimony with the women's ministry and spoke with some girls who related to her story.

-Becky Sayman and John Nieder shared their testimonies at church.

-Rose Delph and Shannon Thompson were encouraged to see the joy in a 19 year old girl whose mom was killed during a fight between her husband and her brother.

 

    We are all encouraged to see the Lord working, even beyond the obvious language barrier. The kids have so much fun during VBS with the songs, skits, coloring and laughing. Today we sang a song during VBS in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Korean because of the many nationalities represented on our trip. It was neat to visit these specific villages because of the relationship that has been built in previous visits and with the two missionaries who are with us.

 

    Tonight we had our first nightly devotional with the group and discussed what we saw today and how we were encouraged. We are reading a C.S. Lewis book of meditations which has been a great book to read on this particular trip.

 

We are all safe minus the one who was attacked by an alligator when he was thrown into the river after he tried to win over the cute girl in town... we'll let you guess which of the boys that was. :)

Thanks for your prayers and support. Tomorrow we are going to Paraiso (Paradise) and the largest village on the lake, Sol Nascente.

 

Boa Noite,

Audrey