Friday, July 22, 2011

Carpenter's Way Amazon Trip Day 4-5

DAY 4:
Village of Ariau. Construction team consisting of Sam, Mike, Filipe and Jerry helped to build stadium bleachers behind the school. Some of the children of the village helped to saw the wood and take out nails from some old boards off of a grandstand that were used for the bleacher seats. In particular, 11 year old Adu was a big help. He came over later and played frisbee and football with some of the Argentinian kids from the boat. 
Mike Chamblee met one of the villagers and got a tour of his home that he was in the process of building. The man also invited Mike fishing. Mike, Jerry and Kristine, one of the translators, took a canoe ride to a remote spot where the man had another house on the river. He took the three on a tour of his land where he had equipment that had been siezed by the group IBAMA which protects the rainforest. A group from the neighboring State of Para had been illegally cutting wood from his land until the group stopped them. On the way back, the boat kept stalling. Mike asked the group to pray for our safe return back to the boat. The engine ran smoothly after praying and there were no more stalls. Back at Ariau, the man then recieved Christ as his personal saviour.
 
Hair Stylist extraordinaire Olive Amanda Reasons (aka OAR) paddled her way through twenty haircuts at the village. Before starting she felt tired and was in pain from cutting so much hair over the week. She prayed for strength. A man named William showed up and began helping her cut hair. He was a barber from Manaus and he had recently moved to the village. Olive found out through getting to know him that he was having problems trying to stay away from various bad influences. She prayed for him and thanked him for helping.
 
DAY 5:
After having breakfast and devotional we spent the morning in the village of Freguesia, a bigger village of about 1000 families. Some of the group saw firsthand the processing and grounding of the Manioc root. Others watched a few of the villagers make thatched roofs, an excruciatingly detailed process of tying leaves from the Caranai plant to the bamboo-like shoots of the Inaja plant.
VBS was a success. The kids were very happy to color and hear about Jesus through the story of the Little Lost Lamb.
 
In the afternoon, we went back to the town of Barrerinha. The construction team helped to sand down the outside walls of the church. We then painted the outside of the church with primer and let it dry for the next day.
 
Today was a day of strengthening the many friendships made among the group throughout the trip.
 
DAY 6:
Barrerinha. Half day. The construction crew painted the church a coffee-with-cream tan. It looked nice once it dried. The crew then went around and shopped at the local stores and got a chance to bond with the people of the town.
VBS had over 400 children hearing stories of Christ's power and singing songs of faith.
 
 

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Carpenter's Way Trip Day 1-3


DAY 1:
Pastor Mario set the tone of the entire trip the night before. He said that he felt something very special was going to happen on this particular trip. He said the group would be going to villages with whom we've already established relationships And, he added, we would be embarking on new journeys and establishing new relationships with villages we've never been to before. He called us pioneers. 
He then told the story of a woman in the town of Baharina who dreamed a big snake was attacking the city and that we were sent to destroy the snake. We had fire in our hands and we were burning the snake until it was no more and the city once again belonged to the lord. Pastor Mario had put a fire in us spread the Word to those who knew us and those who didn't.
 
The First Village Terra Preta seemed like it happened in a blur. We left the boat and got everything set up in the village. Dental and medical teams assisted the villagers. Our main focus once everything had been set up and running was to assist in getting building materials to the church. Another boat pulled up with windows and beams and metal roofing and we carried them to the back of the village where the church was located. It started to rain and there wasn't much construction that day. The youth group played an exciting soccer match.
 
We then went to the town of Barrerinha to visit another church being constructed. So exciting to so many churches being built. You also got the sense you were at the very early stages of that "something very special" that Pastor Mario had spoke about. At the church, we sang songs and there were testimonies. Becky, the Amazon Outreach intern, gave her story and how she returned to the lord.
 
It got late and it became very dark in the church. Relating to the dream he told the night before, Pastor Mario lit a lighter and said it was the light of Christ to spread throughout the city. We then went to the back, sang more songs and dedicated to the lord a piece of property behind the church that would very soon be a youth recreation area, a place that would guide the town's misguided youth back to the lord.
 
 
 
DAY 2:
Guatar. Smallish village of thirty families. Those new to the mission seemed to be just a little more comfortable. Group members were establishing lifelong friendships as our relationship with the village was strengthened. Pastor Trey and Mike and Nora as translator met with the president of the village. They had to walk down a remote path, fifteen minutes away from the rest of the village, to get to his house. There he showed them land that he wanted to donate to the church. The four of them prayed together, knelt down and blessed the land. While in the midst of prayer, the president tearfully thank God for all his blessings. He then gave them three pineapples grown from his orchard as gifts. He gave them three beautiful smelling pineapples but Trey told Presidente they only needed one. Presidente then pointed to Trey's belly, and told him, via the translator, that he definitely needed three.    
 
Ipiranga was a very short trip. Most of the villagers had gone to work at a lumber site. So we didn't stay there.
 
The village of Pindonbal had not expected us until the next day. So we had to find the President to let him know that we were there and ready to help them. He was very happy to see us, and immediately grabbed his soccer cleats first thing. The group played a very intense soccer game against the villagers. Pastor Mario prayed for the village. A woman came up and gave testimony of how she was sick the very first time the boat had arrived a year or so ago. She couldn't use her hands and was very sick. On that mission we prayed for her and she was healed. And she was thanking God for sending us.
 
Peyton gave an amazing testimony of a girl who raised her hands for the lord and waved goodbye to her
 

DAY 3:
Pastor Trey set us in the right frame of mind for our mission trip to the next village. He read from 1 Corinthians 5 about hating the sin and not the person sinning. Linda Sticker gave a prayer and then we got off the boat and made our way into Pirai.
The construction team, Mike, Sam, and Jerry helped a villager build part of a new house situated next to his old house. The team used Zapatero wood for the floor boards and Loro wood for the posts. Mike lent his expert carpenter's touch to move the project along quickly. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to finish the project but we got him far along on his project. The man's favorite tools were his chain saw and machete. He used that giant chainsaw to cut a straight line in the floorboards already nailed to the post and crossbeams, walking along and shaving off wood. He'd been using the chainsaw working on various projects for 30 years.
The kids played soccer and volleyball. Trey read Luke to the villagers. The story of Zachaeus. His message: In America, people think they can wait and meet Jesus at their own convenience. But there should be the same sense of eagerness to meet him that Zaccheus had. You should have a sense of urgency about building your relationship with Jesus because you never know what will happen tomorrow. Zaccheus did not procrastinate. He seized his moment and found his sycamore-fig tree to climb so that he could see Jesus. The sycamore is there for all of us and we need to find it, now preferably.
In the afternoon and evening the group went swimming in the amazon. Some of the group went fishing. Later, the small boat disembarked and took those who wanted to, aligator hunting (i.e. seach the river bank and find the runt gators the hunter could grab from the front of the boat, ducktape the mouth shut, take back to the boat for pictures, and then release).
 
       
 
 
     
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, July 7, 2011

coppel trip day 1

We're here! Everyone arrived safetly in Brazil with all luggage. PRAISE GOD! We boarded the boat about
 
3:30pm Tuesday and enjoyed a sweet time of fellowship and worship with our Brazilian brothers and sisters in
 
Christ. Everyone has settled into boat life wonderfully, including all the 'rookies' and everyone is well and
 
rested. We arrived at our first village, Terra Nova (New Land), late yesterday afternoon which was much earlier
 
than expected. We were able to set up medical, dental, VBS and hair ministries quickly and had 1 evangelism
 
team take the speed boat down river to tell neighboring villages we were here. Even tho it was a short
 
afternoon of ministry, God had clearly prepared hearts and enabled us to show the villagers His love and
 
concern for them.
 
The village we are at is the village where Pastor Nema lives -- Pastor Nema is our Coppell Bible Fellowship
 
missionary on the Amazon. It was an overwhelming and unspeakable joy to see him again after 5 years but
 
even more joyous to see how God is working thru him and his ministry in this area of the river and growing His
 
Kingdom through this humble servant.
 
It's now Thursday morning and all ministries will be in full swing today in Terra Nova. We are expecting several
 
other surrounding villages to make their way here and we look forward with great anticipation to ministiring to
 
them.
 
We continue to covet your prayers for us and this trip! Our love to everyone.
 
Coppell Bible Fellowship trip

Sunday, July 3, 2011

A Day at a Brazilian Church

Hello!
 
Yesterday was a day of travel for us, so we all enjoyed a day of fellowship and rest.
 
Today we visited a church "Templo da 1Igreja Batista". This church was a little different than the villages that
 
we've vistited over the past week. The other villages were of native indians while this area consisted mostly of
 
Brazilians.
 
After the church service let out, we set up our ministries- medical, dental, eye wear, vbs and women's. The line
 
for each of the health ministries was unbelievable. Since we dropped our doctor off with another boat in
 
Manaus, Heather was our only medical professional. She did a wonderful job of helping SO many people in
 
such a short amount of time. Dr. Eli, with the help of Bea and Lance pulled a number of teeth. The kids
 
enjoyed some time coloring and playing soccer with vbs. Our women's time today was a bit different than the
 
other villages since most of these women are already believers. We had the opportunity to share our stories
 
and bible verses that have changed our lives.
 
Tonight, our team will be leading a church service. We will be singing the Portugese song "Celebrate Cristo".
 
We've been practicing the past few days! Leslie and Brent will be giving their testimony and Francisco will be
 
giving the sermon.
 
We will visit our last village tomorrow! Please continue to pray for the team and that the Lord would be with us
 
on our last day with the natives.  
 
Everyone here has had a wonderful time & cannot wait to update you on our personal experiences when we
 
get back!