May - 2011 |
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| Posted by Eric Pritchard and Richard Gilbert |
5/14/11 Saturday
It was an early morning in Miami. Much too early. We had to be downstairs by 4:50 a.m. Some of us had stayed up very late the night before. We knew we would pay for it later but some of us had never been in Miami before. It was beautiful weather. God is so good. Not that He’s not good when the weather is rainy but on this particular day He chose in His infinite wisdom to show His glory with this kind of weather! We heard it was 45 degrees back home. . .
It took a while to get everyone checked in and through security at the airport. We expected as much. It was interesting hearing the announcements made in Portuguese while waiting for our flight. The plane had much more fancy equipment than the one out from Chicago to Miami. Everyone had their own tv mounted on the chair in front of us. Some of us took advantage of this to watch movies on the way. Others of us slept or tried to sleep all the way to Manaus.
Once we got to the airport in Manaus we had to wait a while to get through check in with our passports and visas. It took even longer to wait to get our bags checked before we could leave. The line was enormous and there was only one man working in that department. It took a couple hours to get everyone out and on the bus.
On the way through Manaus I was captivated by the culture of the city. I had never seen anything like it before. It seemed so much more real than Chicago back home. It was beautiful in an altogether different way than I had ever seen before. It’s so hard to describe. Everyone seemed so much more relaxed or something.
When we got to the boat I was amazed. I was trying really hard to empty myself of expectations for this trip. I wouldn’t have been able to predict what I would see and experience anyway. At first it seemed funny to think that we would all live on this boat but after spending some time on it I think we’ll all fit in nicely. Everyone is so nice. Everything is so beautiful. And I can see God’s hand even now in the beginning of this mission trip. I can’t wait to see what He has in store for all of us.
5/15/11 Sunday
We woke up to find ourselves docked at a village: Sao Sebastian. It was so much different than Manaus. We ate breakfast and did devotions. We sang praise songs in Portuguese and talked about the book of Galatians. We prepared for the day, packing bags and organizing the boat for the villagers. I was assigned the task of taking note of the villagers’ height, weight and blood pressure before they visited the doctor. It was so amazing seeing all the children and adults that came through the boat. The people of Brasil are so beautiful. They seem so happy. I love this place and I love God even more today for bringing me here. I think of how it was that God picked a bunch of people from Illinois and Wisconsin and brought them all the way to Sao Sebasian, Brasil. God is doing amazing things in the world! We can hardly imagine what He has in store for us.
After we finished with all the villagers some of us went out on the shore and played soccer with some 8 year olds. I love how much energy they all have and excitement just to kick around a ball. Even before we went ashore they were so happy to be playing. And when one of them kicked the ball in the water he jumped right in to get it. Anacondas, piranhas, sting rays – no big deal! There was a soccer ball in the water that needed to get out! These kids are fearless. But it’s really not as scary swimming in the water as everyone made it seem by telling us all the horror stories of the things that live in it and the things they can do to you. If you just put it all out of your mind and think: I’m in Brasil, swimming in the Amazon with a bunch of Brazilians! It’s pretty amazing. A bunch of us were jumping off the boat into the water before we played soccer. God is so awesome! What more can I say?
After soccer we all headed through town to church. It was all in Portuguese so our team didn’t understand but God was still speaking so loudly in that place. The love that these people have for Christ is beautiful. Beautiful – I’ve used this word so much to describe this place so far. How much more beautiful is God for creating it all.
After church we headed back to the boat and ate a big dinner with cake. All the pastors from the church showed up. They stayed late but most of the team went to bed early. We were exhausted from the day’s work. We all went to bed wondering what God was going to do in our lives tomorrow.
5/16/11 Monday
We woke up and had breakfast and devotions before setting out from Sao Sebastian. Three of our team members, Matt, Jim and Rich stayed behind to help with construction in town. The rest of us set out for the village we would be serving this day. I really enjoy the time we have traveling in the boat to the villages. It gives us time to talk and pray and reflect. When we are serving people we can get so caught up in what we’re doing that sometimes it’s difficult to stop and really think about what God is doing. Our lives are built brick by brick and when we’re so focused on each brick it’s hard to see the overall picture, the beautiful structure God is creating in our lives and each person we encounter. I think it’s more difficult to see our own though. We are so tied to it that it’s hard to step back.
We arrived at Santa Helena to find a bunch of the children waiting at the top of the steps leading up to the village. Their stares of wonder and delight we apparent as they made their down the pier. We almost immediately began walking around town, exploring and marveling. Most of us aren’t used to seeing people live this way. I wonder what Earl’s eyes see when he wanders through the villages. Probably noticing improvements and changes since he’s seen it last. Probably more of the beauty of God’s work than us who are experiencing it for the first time. I hope I can one day have eyes like Earl’s. I played ball with the kids for a little bit before we had to get back to the boat to start working. I love how passionate they are about soccer and how much they come alive.
We worked for hours with the villagers giving them meds and vitamins. It was a bigger village than I thought. It’s not like I had a difficult job but it was still taxing and by the end of the day I was exhausted. I love seeing all the kids that came through. Some of them smiled, some of them didn’t, some of them you had to coax it out of them a bit, but they were all so cute.
After we finished with the check ups we went to church in the village. Again, even though the building wasn’t more than four walls and a roof God’s presence filled the small room. The joy the children have in singing songs of praise to God is so beautiful. We all had to sing “God is so good” in Portuguese and the children all sang it in English. They were adorable. I hope we were adorable to them as well because we haven’t had a lot of practice.
We had an incident with a strange moth-bat creature. I remember seeing it flying around near the light up by the pastor. It was so cute when the pastor’s little girl was playing with it! She was swinging and swatting at it and when it hit her in the face she just jumped and laughed. These Brazilians are fearless! When Earl was preaching the moth-bat flew into his back and plummeted onto the table behind him. Earl didn’t even flinch. Then it came after Jack and collided with his jugular! Everything stopped for a minute as Matt was assigned the task of picking it up and flinging it out the window which he hesitantly did with a disgusted “aaaaAAHH!!” and a round of applause! The villagers seemed to think this display quite amusing. I’m glad this ferocious attack and heroic rescue brought laughter to everyone. We listened to the message and hugged and prayed for each other and at the end of the service we handed out toys to all the children. Then we made our way back to the boat for dinner and closing devotions before bed. Another amazing day! Thanks Papa!
5/17/2011 (Tuesday)
The only noise was the generator. The sun had crept over the rainforest and pulled us out of our hedgies. By this point in the morning, the rain, chatter, music, and comfort of being on the boat for several days drained the humming of a generator to a distant sound.
A ½ cup of coffee and a ½ cup of vanilla flavored milk and we had ignition for the day. This morning was a bit different, because two of our team members, Jim and Matt, were packing up and heading off with Ronaldo to finish the children’s recreation center that had been started the previous day.
In America, Playstation & X-Box claim victory claim victory to capturing the country’s youth. In St. Helena, the children in town were ecstatic to have a 10 x 14 room to retreat to and call their own. Jim & Matt would be staying overnight to oversee and assist with the completion of the of the project. This would be the first time the group had split up. As Jim and Matt walked ascended the large staircase of the little village established quite a bit above the Amazon River, we began our trip to the next village. Several of the local residents waved and sent us off with smiles.
What were they thinking…? Who were these people? These white people? These goofy people? The people who speak a funny language? Who were those people that came to our village? Why id they come? But maybe they thought, “They came and they gave, without the expectation of getting anything in return. And then, they left.”
Little did they know the visit would heal us in more ways than it would ever heal them? The residents of Helena walked away with ibuprofen and bandages that were quick fixes for larger issues. But for the afternoon, the villagers walked away with smiles. At least the ones that didn’t have dental work done by Dr. William did. The villagers might not have understood what was happening medically, but they received a picture of their family, many greetings and smiles, several articles of clothing, and possibly more questions than answers in terms of why and how. However, that was not the purpose of the trip, but rather a logical reason, even an excuse, for people seeking to spread the word of Jesus.
While the villagers may have walked away from a memorable day, at least a different day, it’s with certainty we walked away with even bigger smiles, ear to ear. Appreciation, freedom, simplicity, love, and family were abundant themes for each of us to reflect on. Appreciation for hundreds of technological advancements we take for granted every single day: plumbing, insulation, electric, public roads, and so much more. Freedom from technology, government, a hectic schedule, freedom to observe the multiple moments without having to look at a watch and say what time to we have to get going…because we had no where to go. The simplicity of life before iPhones, iPods, Blackberries, X-Boxes or video games for that matter. Kids enjoyed playing soccer, husbands and wives enjoyed walked in the twilight, and everyone enjoyed the unparalleled beauty of the mystic scenes provided by the rainforest and the reflections and scenes created by the sun and moon shining down on us to provide portraits you could only hope to buy someplace. Love was in the air. . . for one another, for their land, for their huts, for their games, for Christianity, for what EVERYTHING they had. The families loved the attention, making friends with the staff and doctors, the stickers, smiles, and especially the photographs they walked away with. It’ll probably be their favorite photo in their house, capturing a moment in time with the rest of their family while their children are young. Time decelerates here and moments that are magical seem to last a little bit longer.
There is a phrase in the Midwest that goes, “Lions, Tiger, and Bears, Oh My!” Well in the Amazon of Brazil, it’s more like, “Bats, gigantic moths, roosters, wild dogs, super dragon flies and jungle cats – Oh My!” Laughs continued to emerge from the group as we recalled the church service from the previous night. Besides the universal languages of smiling, laughing, singing, and Jesus, no one spoke the same language but one person in the entire church, yet we were afforded some extra entertainment. We had Jack Marten standing steadfast in the front of the church delivering a message as a gargantuan moth tried to wrestle away the attention of the service from the speakers to no avail. Matt ended up grabbing the massive moth by the wing and flinging it besides Kathy Glenn’s wide eyed, panicked face out the open window of the church. A collective sigh later, church proceeded with smile and easier breaths.
After a few laughs & memories were regurgitated we landed our first destination after some skillful navigating by our ship’s staff. We didn’t treat that many people at our first location, but to those people the treatments may have meant the world. After a brief stint at the first village, we managed our way to the second village as we sounded the horn to alert the rural villagers to begin their journey to where we were stationed. Dr. Lauren and Earl encountered a young boy who was incredibly sensitive and he would not step on the scale nor would he allow the stethoscope anywhere near his head. She determined quickly that he was probably autistic. Shortly thereafter, the father-son duo headed upstairs for a visit to the dentist. It’s hard to imagine what he was thinking as he was heading up as I know what it’s like to go to the dentist in America – not enjoyable. This particular man had his autistic child with him and he was having six teeth pulled among other procedures. The young boy was very protective of his father and hugged him as he saw blood dripping from his mouth. There were no rules, there were no babysitters, and there were no waiting rooms – just love. There was no way that boy was leaving the sight of his father in pain.
After dinner ended there were once again picture perfect shots of the sun shimmering against the water creating hundreds of beautiful, once in a lifetime scenes. As soon as the sun departed us, the brightness of the moon grabbed hold of us for a dozen or three dozen more shots as we had a devotion to end the night. At least until Dave forgot the tie one side of his hedgie up, when we went to lay in it and hit the third deck of the ship with a BOOM. The little Brazilian girl that was staying with us that night erupted in laughter as did the guys a moment later and we all fell asleep smiling.
Wednesday, May 18 In the blink of an alligator eye, Wednesday would come to pass, and it started off very, very busily. We began treating several patients in the morning in Inajatuba, where we had stayed the previous night; we headed to Ilha Do Madruba where we treated 48 medical and 4 dental patients. In Ilha Do Madruba, we had the good fortune to meet many of the children. This town, which was on an island, was more developed than most of the other towns we had visited besides San Sebastio. It had a concrete landing strip for boats and it even had a performance pavilion. We landed shortly before lunch time and the group used that time to explore the village. Ilha Do Madruba had more of a semblance to an American town. There was a main road extending through the middle of town with homes built on each side that had satellite dishes and plumbing. The neatest part about the visit to Ilha Do Madruba was the interaction our group had with the children. Earl captures the attention of kids quickly and gets them to smile, laugh, and sing. One of his tricks is getting the children to hum in English and getting the group (us) to hum in Portuguese. For even the worst singer or for someone who isn’t good at remembering lyrics, it’s hard to mess that one up. The routine also gets both groups comfortable and having a commonality. Roughly 20 children were dressed in the brightest clothes stretching the color of the rainbow, most of which were surprisingly American clothing brands. The children began singing and loved the attention we were giving them.
This was the second visit to Ilha Do Madruba by the Central Brazil Mission, however it was the first time Earl had spoken to the town about Christ. A small seed had been planted, but with time and consistent visits, the town could blossom into a vibrant Christian community. Even veterans within our group were very excited about the relationship that was being nurtured. In Earl’s mind, we’d begun to change lives forever. Jack Marten, who has been on multiple trips working with many people already saved by Jesus, said this trip felt different because we were reaching out to villages that had yet to come to know Jesus and be saved. In that part of the trip, there was energy amongst the group that we were doing true missionary work.
We headed off to Santa Maria where we saw 11 medical patients and 1 dental patient. The visit to Santa Maria was a slower paced visit. While the opportunity to treat many people was not as present, it did allow us to be more in touch with the people we did come into contact with. Janice, who had been working hand in hand with Dr. William treating dental patients for the last several days, shared her testimony of Dr. William, our Brazilian dentist who spoke Portuguese. She said although the people may not have the best medical service in the world and may be a little “unconnected” in terms of technology, they wouldn’t trade their lives for the world. Simply put, “material things” were not important to the villagers we were treating and they were incredibly content and filled with happiness & abundance.
After treating the last of our patients, we headed back to Sao Sebastio to refuel and spend the night before we headed back to Manaus. We got back late and were rejoined with Jim & Matt, who had stayed in Santa Helena for the construction project. While it seemed the group had had a long day, the group was instantly reenergized when Dudu offered to take the group on an alligator hunting expedition and promised there would be no return until the group had an alligator. The group piled in the boat and before too long the boat seemed to be a distant dot that faded away. The marsh was about 15-20 minutes away and Dudu knew exactly where he was going. As the distance decreased between the boat and the alligator, the motor was cut and Dudu used an oar to provide guidance, and also to be used as preferred weapon of choice to soon club the alligator over the head.
Thursday, May 19
We awoke in San Sebastio and we were still from being docked in the harbor all day. We had some breakfast and had our final Bible study together. Gratitude played a large role as our group was very thankful for God blessing us on this trip with health, fun, great leadership and a fantastic crew.
Dr. William and Earl had to go work on a local problem involving who knows what. . . While that delayed the morning a bit, it gave the group a little time to wander around town and take photos and play some soccer. Before we knew it, Earl was back with furniture for the new boat. We loaded it up and then we went out to have lunch at the home of Santana, who is a missionary for the ministry. We saw a snake that the crew had captured from the green house. Part of the crew lived in the nicest houses we had seen up to this point. The Green House Project, which was running a business and creating jobs and better health for members of the church was really amazing to see. After that, we made the short trek to the Soccer Field Project, which was THE BEST FIELD in all of San Sebastio and the other villages we had seen. Futebol, or soccer as we call it in America, really has a way of uniting the people. We then came back and purchased some jewelry and had lunch and a wonderful desert. The sun was hot and the local kids had gotten out of school on our way to and from Santana’s home and so it was neat to mingle with them. We then began our walk back to the boat and our journey back to Manuas. It was nice to have the group together and it truly was fulfilling to see what Earl and the CBM had accomplished in San Sebastian as their hub of the Amazon.
The trip back begins with some relaxation, chatter, and of course diving off the dock and boat and refreshing ourselves from the hot weather. We then settled down and began to break off into groups with individual conversations. We enjoyed the scenic views of the Amazon and were once again amazed at the width and colossal size of the river which we were voyaging on. The return trip would take a bit longer because we were fighting the current instead of having it at our backs.
After it got dark we settled down and we got together on the top deck with Earl and Ruth Anne for a riveting interview. There were laughs and there were tears as Earl told the amazing story about how they were called to Brazil and the mission that they have been on for over 40 years. Time after time when their seemed to be a problem or setback, God blessed them with an answer. Whether it was relationship, teachers or mentors, money or support, God always answered their prayers. Earl plans on doing this for another 30 years until he is 95 he said and then at that point he will hand over the keys to one of his family members to run the operation.
Friday, May 20 (Today) Friday was a bit of a slow day. Some members of the group got up early to watch a beautiful sunrise and others slept in. In was a day of travel in the morning and when we got to Manuas we docked and checked out the Fish Market, the local Opera House, and some local shopping. The group took advantage of some local shopping and collected souvenirs for the people that had supported us, family members, and ourselves. The cruise back truly was amazing as we passed underwater huts, saw birds of all different colors, and saw the industrial hub that is Manaus.
After we returned from the city, we all rested for a bit and then we headed out to a Brazilian steakhouse which everyone loved. It was really nice for the group to be able to have one final dinner all at the same table and celebrate Ruth Anne’s birthday at the same time. The salad bar was tremendous and the meat was outstanding. We drove back in the cab taxi and couldn’t even count how many soccer fields there were. There were some on sand, there were some indoors, and of course there were plenty on grass. As a group, we were exhausted and overstuffed from the fabulous meal. What a trip, we had been blessed in so many ways.
Saturday, May 21 Several of the group members got up between 5:45 – 6:45 and had some coffee and began to pack up. For this trip, that was a bit earlier than the norm. After breakfast, we toured the new boat docked several miles from Manaus. It really was more of a barge than a boat in shape. In terms of comfort ability and size the new boat definitely had many upgrades. Instead of 3 air conditioners, they will have 23. Instead of 7 bedrooms and hedgies, they will have 12 bedrooms plus a lot more room for hedgies. Doctors will have the capacity to do surgery on patients and have an infirmary to hold them overnight if need be. The boat has a much larger engine and generator which will allow it to make better time on trips and provide clean water for the duration of the entire trip. The top deck is quite a bit larger and Earl mentioned performing services on it. The deck could probably fit 100 people. Wouldn’t that be a sight? A church service on deck 3 for 100+ Christians? And to think we’re part of that growth, even a very little part, is heart warming. Kathy debriefed us afterwards and gave us some insights about coming back to the states and some thoughts and what it will be like for us as well as our interaction with friends and family.
We had a chance to check out the hotel and shopping center, and then we packed up and headed to the airport.
The group got a long tremendously and we bonded and had one another’s back at all times. The group and the crew became friends although we could not speak the same language. The Bible studies, the patients we helped, and the time we had to reflect for ourselves with not be forgotten. Many of us talked about coming back again and how much we enjoyed the trip.