Day 7
Araunjo
Hello faithful Amazon followers!
Yesterday was our last day in a village, Araunjo. After discovering our upriver boat ride was actually ten hours longer than we had originally planned for, we only spent half of the day in the village. Araunjo was a village of about two hundred people. Logan Landry and Alex Beebe both boldly shared their sweet testimonies at our brief church service. Last night we enjoyed throwing a party for all of our translators and the crew of both boats with a classic tex-mex dinner. After dinner the team had a sweet time sharing what the Lord has been doing in each of our hearts and discussing what we have learned in Brazil this week. This morning (Saturday) at breakfast, the team shared who they were assigned to pray for during the week and spent some time encouraging one another with some sweet words. We are now on our way to Stuckey's to adventure on a jungle walk and buy some bracelets and other fun items from the Amazon. After Stuckey's we will eat lunch and then go to the Tropical Hotel to swim. We will go to the mall briefly to eat before heading to catch our plane and also to buy some soccer jerseys, because everyone knows you cannot go to Brazil and not come home without a jersey! I must say, after watching our American team fight through soccer games daily against the Brazilians, I have discovered that every single Brazilian is actually born with some serious soccer skills in their DNA. Although I am proud to say our Americans did win one game, tied another, and only lost about seven... better than losing all of them, right? The Brazilian boys have enjoyed learning a little bit about American Football from Kyle Cox and Trip Starkey, although I think it might have been odd to see a ball not bounce straight like a soccer ball. We all consider ourselves truly blessed to have been called by the Lord to go on this journey together this week, and although we all expected to teach the Brazilians about Jesus, I speak for everyone when I say that we learned more from their sweet, loving hearts than we could have ever dreamed of doing. I would like to give a special thanks to everyone who has supported us financially and through prayer, we could not have had this week without each and every one of you. I would also like to give a special thanks to the Delph family. The Delphs put so much work and heart into this trip, and we could not have done this mission without them. I never heard one of them complain, each of them led with a servant's heart and a compassionate spirit. We have all grown closer to the Lord and felt His love this week and pray that we will be able to live out that love when we return home. So farewell, this is our last blog of Amazon 2010 TCA trip. We cannot thank you enough for all of your support, and although I know everyone here will genuinely miss this place, we know that God has called us to be in Texas for a reason, and we hope that we will work to serve Him at all times, even at home.
In His Strength,
Gracie McCormack
It has been an amazing blessing to go into the schools in each village. Our Kindergarten students adopted the Amazon schools as their mission project at TCA. The students from home provided five large duffle bags loaded with a variety of school supplies that these villages desperately need. The schools are typically one room schools that serve students ranging in ages from 6-16. The schools do not usually have electricity, they are very small, and do not usually even have enough desks for each child. The students come to school in two shifts, morning and afternoon with adults coming at night. The schools are government run, and it is not unusual for the schools to have absolutely no provisions because the government did not send them money. In each village, we presented the school bag to the teacher of the school or a leader in the village. It was important to us that the villages understood the supplies were only part of the way we wanted to support their school. I was able to explain to each village that our students at home are praying for their school and many gave of their own money to bless and encourage them. Every teacher wept with thankfulness and appreciation. It was precious to hear them share that they had no way to get supplies because they simply did not have the money and the village families do not have the financial ability to provide for their kids. It blessed me beyond words to see the joy and incredible thankfulness in the eyes of these beautiful people who could never have imagined having such a bountiful provision.
Thank you all for praying for us daily. Your prayers have been felt every moment of every day! We love all of you and leave here having tasted and seen the Lord's goodness, grace, and mercy. We have seen God's mighty hand move in powerful ways. We look forward to sharing our journey with you.
His,
Dawn Pownell
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