Bon Gia (Good Morning), it's the next day, this blog entry is for yesterday. We spent the day in the Village called Sororoca, in the same area not very far up the river from the village the day before.
This village is home for 39 families (70-80 children) and has been around at least 20 years. We were warmly welcomed. Like the last village they rely on fishing and farming for their livlihood. The health of the villagers was good as they also have a Well. The children attend school in the village, with two of the teachers being the Pastor's wife and the President's wife, there are 5 men who come to teach from the larger village Ururaca.
The President Ardecy and Pastor of one of the churches DeJalma took Phyllis, Gary and Peggy on a tour of the village. They gathered and gave us Jambo (prounced Joombo) fruit, sort of a cross between a plum and a peach, several cocunuts and limes.
The highlight of VBS was the skit telling the story in John of the fisherman (disciples) being called by Jesus, while they were fishing. Nancy and Amelia rounded up 4 "tough" teenage boys from the Village and dressed them up in their costumes, as Mechiel told the story the boys acted (with much coaching from Nancy). The smaller children got quite a kick out of seeing boys from their village make their debut acting! Cindy connected with several girl's helping them with their craft.
The pharmacy team, Mary Jo and Gary were consistently busy the entire day, providing antibiotics, vitamins and mild pain relievers for the villagers. They diligently worked most the day in the high humidity, joyfully serving.
Pete and Joyce fitted and distributed eye glasses and sunglasses to 27 villagers.
Dr. Dja saw 19 patients and performed 40 procedures. Janet was their faithful assistant and stood all day long holding the light and witnessing each procedure, maybe a new career for her!
Dr. Pablo saw 57 patients.
Twenty village teenagers listened and interacted as Jamie, Jessica, Anthony shared their experiences as teenagers in America, with Jessica and Anthony giving their testimony's. Five prayed to receive Christ. They then handed out "Courages" banded bracelets for the teens.
Lee and Pastor Willer spoke to Men about the challenges they face in their village and challenges of leading their families.
10 Women attended the Woman's gathering. The most influential woman in the village attended...the President's wife, the Catholic Church representative (here it's often a woman) , the Pastor's wife. We had woman 20 years old up to 78 years old. We shared the gospel message of faith not works. We talked about how even if you have faith and believe in Jesus, you still make mistakes but God's forgiveness is available. One woman Maria remained behind and Phyllis, Grace and Peggy were able to encourage her in her faith and for her to turn back to God in her struggles. It was heartfelt and we were blessed to be able to encourage even one of God's faithful.
In the afternoon, Kyle, Jessica, Brent, Gabby and Carlos went for a walk along the beach where they came to some different sand. Kyle tossed in a stick and it was immediately submerged. He put his foot in and it was up to his knee in no time flat. About that time Carlos intervened and told them it was real quicksand, just like you see in cartoons or movies!
As we gathered to hear a word from Pastor and pass out family packs, the temperature started to cool down the sun began to set over the hills. God was showing his Glory in the beautiful creation around us. The children and teens of the village played soccer with our Brazilian interpreters, American teens, Mechiel and Jamie (every village has a huge cleared out soccor field!) President Ardecy addressed the gathering and told us we were welcome back anytime to their village.
We began our good bye's and you could feel the change in the village from the time we arrived. What started as a group of people unsure of each other, we ended the day as old friends sad to be saying good bye. It's amazing each day when we start out unsure of one another and by the end of the day we realize, we are all sons of Adam and Eve and we pray to the same God.
As the captain prepared the boat to push off the shore, several of us stood at the front of the boat. 3 girls, two of them twins came and sat at the shore, singing in English the words from the song taught to them in VBS that day. They shouted out goodbye's and stayed at the shore until we were almost out of site.
We enjoyed a great time of good food and worship together and shared the blessings of the day. Topped off with an alligator hunt hosted by the crew including Janet, Amelia, Gabby, Nancy, Jessica and two others. They did bring back a 3 foot alligator!
It was lights out by 10:00 p.m. as we have another full day of ministering in Pastor Willer's village Sol Nascente, more on that later.....
No comments:
Post a Comment