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.