Jungle Days

As we clean, pack and prepare to fly out, we want to share with you some pictures of our last three days in the jungle.  Stories will be coming as we spend our layover hours in the airports ahead of us. 

What an adventure this has been!

Before our four and a half hour boat ride to the village.

Jordan preparing to preach through Duane's interpretation.

VBS - We had close to 200 hundred kids for three hours. 

There teachers took the day off when they knew we were coming!

Beautiful faces, precious souls.

Dinner?

We learned four people is too many for a canoe.  Our poor guide!

Hammocks and mosquito nets all around!  We did not get much sleep in these things.

More VBS!

Our jungle souvenir - mosquito bites!

Finishing Strong!

What an eventful day! We began the day early by going to a Christian school here in the city. It was so encouraging to be around adults who valued education - Christian education. We did our usual set up of singing songs and doing a skit. Once again they were shy at the beginning, but comepletely loose by the end. The leaders made rice pudding for our team and were so kind. They couldn't speak any English, but they still gave us hugs and so many smiles.

We ate downtown again and did a little shopping. Work at the mission house still needed work and we completed everything we started with a little extra. It was amazing to look around the property and see all the the Lord allowed us to accomplish. Who would have though 17 people could turn a whole mission house upside down in an organized manner. We are all different ages with different strengths and weaknesses, yet it worked. The Lord blessed us so much by giving us great weather so that we could work all through the afternoon. We had planned on not being able to do outside work during the afternoons since it gets extremely hot, so we were very thankful. The owner of the mission house came in and kept saying "Wow, wow, wow!" That is exactly what we had hoped for.

Our last VBS session in the city was tonight, and it went much better than expected. Our missionary said it would probably be about 15 kids because it was their first time working there. Little did he know that about 150 people would show up! Isn't that amazing? We looked around and people of almost every age were there. It was probably the largest group of teenagers that had shown up to one of the sessions. One of the local pastors is starting to get a weekly teaching session going for that group of people so you can keep them in your prayers.

Afterwords, we went to the missionaries house to eat and socialize for a bit. It was so encouraging. Our missionaries (Duane and Nadine Howe had their two sons and their two wives with them tonight who are all missionaries, too). Too be in the presence of Brazilian missionaries, and Brazilian Christians at the same time is amazing. Some of the people from the church was attended last night showed up and sang worship songs to us. Even though we don't know what they are saying exactly, we understand we are all praising the same Lord. Then, a few of them gave us ride on their motorcycles!! It was so much fun.


Tomorrow we head into the jungle at 9am, so there won't be any posts for the next few days. We will take a four hour boat ride into to our location and will spend time with a tribe there. We are hoping to help a pastor there. Please pray for our safety and that we would get some sleep - we are sleeping in hammocks! We are pumped!! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support - God is so good and we see His hand in so much here.

Brazilian Hospitality

We woke up to a warm breakfast and began our day with a huge crowd of kids that our missionary usually works with. We sang many songs to them and they sang to us! A man shared a message and the kids paid close attention. We passed out balloons and bracelets; the kids were so excited. They would swarm whoever had the bag of goodies. At one point, one of the students was handing out the bracelets and a child wouldn't let go of the students hand until they were sure the bracelet was theirs. The littlest things delight them. We then ate lunch downtown; there was only one place opened because it was Sunday. It suprised some of us that everything was closed. We weren't expecting the day of rest to be observed here.

We then came home since nothing was open and rested or played outside with some kids from a local church. Tonight was our night to go to a church service. It was incredible! We got to here them sing "I Surrender All" and many other songs in Portuguese. We read a few different passages in Psalms and Acts and ended with our whole team coming to the front of the church to sing. We started out with the Hokie Pokie (yes, our missionary wanted us to sing it), and ended with Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art. They actually started to sing along in Portuguese on How Great Thou Art - that was amazing. To sing along with other believers in a totally different language is so neat. We thank God for that oppertunity. It was amazing to get a glimps of Philipians 2:10-11 "so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW...and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Afterwords, some of the people wanted to greet us. We began shaking hands and saying hello; it turned into hugs and kisses on the cheek! These people barely even know us, but we already have a special place in their hearts because we bow to the same Creator. They weren't afraid to bend over backwards if we needed anything; they wanted to make us feel completely welcome and loved. How is it that a people who seem less fortunate are actually the ones teaching us about loving others? Just to see them smile at us is enough. Then, they bring us things like ice cream! It's amazing how giving they are. They asked if anyone in the group played guitar or drums. Candice, Jordan Bowen, and Ethan gave them a great show! People kept wanting more and more songs to be played. It was so much fun. We went outside and one of the singers rode up in his motorcycle and let Tony drive it around the block!

As we came home tonight, we decided we had much to learn from these people. Tomorrow we plan to a school to visit 300 students, finish work up work around the mission house, host another VBS session, and then will end the day at the missionary's house. Please pray that we are open to whatever God has for us here; may our prayer be "Thy will be done."

Good night friends and family!

Three VBS sessions and a little bit of shopping!

We had a very exciting day! We had three VBS sessions. We visited two new places, and then we went back to our first location - Stilt City. Our first session involved an exciting adventure through a sewage system and then into one of the homes of a Christian man our missionary has worked with for a long time. Kristen Copeland and Jordan Bowen did a great skit describing salvation.

We then had an amazing lunch downtown. A huge covered patio had little kitchens all around it. They make the food right there and it was great! We had rice, chicken or beef, salad, and beans. We did a little bit of shopping and bought mosquito nets and hammocks for the trip we hope to take into the jungle in a few days. A lot of us also bought Brazil shirts. GO YELLOW AND GREEN!

We came home for a bit and then headed out for our next two sessions. Our first session was very encouraging. Two Brazilian women had lessons and songs prepared that talked about Paul and Saul. The kids sang and did motions. They were so happy and delighted to give us a little taste of their world. We then played games and headed out. Our final stop for the day was Stilt City. This time, the children greeted us with many hugs and smiles. They were so happy to see us again.

It's so interesting because some of the kids are sort of open when we first meet them. By the end of the sessions they are climbing in our laps, giving us huge hugs, and even giving us kisses on the cheek. God has really blessed us with a group of open hearts. We just want to share the Gospel and love like Christ loves us.

We are all doing well health wise and have shared many laughs. The freezing cold showers are now becoming somewhat nice due to the hotter weather. We also have learned who not to follow when trying to get around the city. This came about when the whole group almost got lost last night trying to get home, and then a smaller group got lost tonight while running around the city. Thankfully, we don't hold grudges:)

Thank you so much for your prayers!

New people and new food!

We again had great weather! The Lord has definitely blessed us. Because the weather has been so nice, we have been able to work longer than we expected. Some of us visited the orphanage, Jessica and Jordan Bowen attempted to make bricks with Coach Troop and Coach Tony, painting continued, volleyball games against the Brazilians were played, much laundary was done, and we all dined on Brazilian pizza and ice cream!

TIME FOR BED!...not all of us are talented enough to sleep with machetes ;)

The first day of work!

Today was our first day to get our hands a little dirty! We began repair/updates on the house, had our first VBS class, and some people began making bricks!

The house repairs consisted of cleaning the outside of the house (sweeping and sanding the walls), painting the house and the four smaller buildings around it, repairing the laudary house (sawing new posts to hold up the new nets that act as windows), and cleaning the windows.

To get home, ten of us (Duane drove and Madison is next to Glory) piled into a five person car!:

We had a great first day of work. The weather was cool and we got a lot done. Tomorrow, we will finish up the house, start some new painting, visit a seminary, make more bricks, and some will be going to a small orphanage.

WE MADE IT TO CRUZEIRO DE SOL!!

After....

• 17 travelers
• 7 flights
• 1 mistaken identity for Marci
• 1 cancelled flight
• 5 days of travel
• 1 explanation of how to light a match under water from Kristen
• 3 time zones 7 different times
• 17 cancelled tickets
• 1 Brazilian BBQ
•  8 airports
• 2 skipped meals for Jessica
• 1 visit to Sao Paulo
• 6 boys with 6 machetes
• multiple searches for Eathan and Ryan
• 4 missionary hosts
• 5 airport meals
• 1 roll of duct tape used on Tara's suitcase
• 1 missionary house
• 1 early morning shower (2am) for a very confused Karch
• 5 cardboard boxes not marked fragile
• 1 awkward taxi ride for Jordan Bowen
• 22 bags
• 1 visit to Manaus
• 47 hours of flight and layovers
• 28 games of spades
• 2 bouncy balls
• 1 confiscated and popped bouncy ball
• 5 scanty pat downs
• 1 visit to Salt Lake City
• 8 swollen ankles
• 2 showers
• 15 pounds of American snacks
• 4 miles of touring Manaus
• 1 visit to JFK airport
• 2 life-threatening taxis
• 1 Brazilian couple asking where Candice's parents were
• 153 airplane snacks eaten
• 2 missed wake up calls
• 1/2 gallon of water chugged at security

WE FINALLY MADE IT TO CRUZEIRO DE SOL!!

    Thank you so much for all of your prayers. We had a great 5 days of travel but we are excited to get to work here in city. We were welcomed by a home-cooked Brazilian soup (fantastic!) and enjoyed a couple games of volleyball and soccer. We also drank fresh coconut juice! (Sorry for the sideways views):

Thanks again for all of your support and prayers. Tomorrow we start working and will host our first VBS session with some of the kids. We plan on playing games, having a message, and possibly sharing some of our testimonies. Our missionaries told us that they are extremely open to the Gospel right now (amazing!), so we have a great oppertunity at our hands.

"Let the poeples praise You, O God; 

Let all the peoples praise You."

Psalm 67:3