Mixed Nuts Day 2 -August 2nd

As I write this, it's evening and we are anchored in the middle of the Lake Carara off the shore of the village of Maranhao~.  This village is rolling hills covered with palm trees and beautiful vegetation.  22 families call it home.  They farm watermelon, passion fruit, banana's and whatever seeds they can get they grow.  They share the fruit of their harvest among each other.  The village has been here for about 10 -12 years.

 

We started the day with worship and devotions and headed into the village to provide Vacation Bible School for 30 children.  The children heard the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000.  They were given wooden spoons to symbolize how God provides food for their Mothers to prepare.  The plan was for them to give them to their mothers, instead some chose to beat the village cow with them instead!  Kids will be kids no matter where you are in the world!

 

At the same time we offered eye tests and glasses.  Sixteen villagers were given reading glasses., including an elderly woman wiith double cataracts was given 3+ pair of glasses.  Because this village has a well, Dr. Pablo did not have to treat for parasites.  The medical needs were basic, pain relievers and providing antibiotics and vitamins and medicine for asthma.  Our local dentist Deja saw 21 patients and pulled 30 teeth.

 

All the woman of the village, 21 in total, attended Woman's Ministry where we shared the love of God.  Peggy and Patricia gave their testimony.  We handed out care packs with kitchen items and toiletries. We had a special package for the oldest and then for the youngest woman in the village, the oldest here was 83 (she told us she has 15 children!) and the youngest 20 with 3 children.

 

Men's Ministry headed up by Lee, Dr. Pablo and Pastor Willer with 8 men from the village attending.  They discussed the similarities and differences between our two countries and how they are blessed and we were blessed to be there to minister to them.  Dr. Pablo told them they are blessed to not have all the material distractions we have in the U.S., they have more time for God and family.  Dr. Pablo having spent a year in the U.S. knew that first hand.

 

One elderly man named Glauder was in pain from a childhood injury on his hip.  Lee gathered the teenagers from our group who prayed over him to relieve his pain. The man walked away telling Grace (our interpreter) that his hip was not in pain.

 

Lee, Phyllis, Peggy and Claudia (interpreter) met over an hour or more with Arcangelo a 25 year old father of 3 children.  We talked about God's love for Him.  His plan of salvation and what it means to have eternal life.  This village only has 1 Christ professing family.  We are praying seeds were planted for Archangel and his family and that God's salvation will come to his home.  We presented him with a bible later in the day and highlighted verses we discussed earlier that day. 

 

We ended the day with a service in the center of town, most the Villagers came.  Each family received a family pack filled with clothes, flip flops, toilitries, toothbrushes and toys.    The representative, Yolanda,  of their church thanked us and asked us to please return.  We hugged and said our good byes.

 

As we were preparing to settle in for the night the village fishing boat pulled up to ours and passed over a 5 foot long Piraruccu fish they had caught, they wanted to sell it for $60, Dr. Pablo said that was actually a small one!  They get up to 7 feet long.

 

Overall, God was glorified and His love shared in many ways on this day.

 

 

 

 

 

August 1st - Greetings from the Amor

Thursday August 1st - Greetings from the Amor Esoeranca!  (please follow the Linda Esperanca blog, as we are told the Amor blog may still not be working). All of our teams coming from Dallas, Los Angeles, Arizona, Kentucky and Tennessee all made it to Miami where we boarded our plane to Manaus. Not only is our group geographically diverse but also diverse denominations, Evangelical, Baptist, Methodist and Prebyterian.  With our youngest Gabby Rielle at 12 on her first mission trip all the way up to Pete and Nancy who are 80 (yes 80) who have been on 34+ mission trips each, our group name "Mixed Nuts" is appropriate!

 

We breezed through customs to be met by our wonderful Brazilian bothers and sisters who will be our hosts and interpreters for the trip.  For some of us it was a reunion with familiar faces of past trips to this warm and friendly place in the Amazon!   We arrived at the boat about 12:30 a.m. got our hammocks ready, and settled in about 1:00 a.m.  Captain Nelo drove all night headed to the area of Urucara`, as I write this we are still motoring at 2:30 p.m headed East on the Amazon.  It's a beautiful breezy day.

 

Joining us on our trip is a newly Graduated Dentist, Dr. Dejailson and medical Doctor Pablo, both from Brazil.  We will work with Pastor Willer from the local Presbyterian church to bring hope to the people of the Urucara` (this is the region of the Amazon where we will spend our time here).

 

We had a wonderful breakfast made by our chef and his two assistants.  We spent the day up to the late afternoon organizing VBS supplies and preparing family packs we will distribute tomorrow at the Village of Maranhao made up of 22 families.  We will distribute these to this needy village as well as do VBS,  Men and Women's ministry, basic medical and dental care..

 

Our group of people who are all virtually strangers are starting to form a working group already.  Just a little taste of what it will be like in heaven with every nation and tongue will worship Him and serve Him together.  God is already at work and we are eagerly looking forward to serving the people of Maranhao in the morning.

 

 

Amazon Outreach Bent Tree 2013 Trip Update#1

Greetings family & friends from Brazil,

Praise Jesus! His presence is alive & well here in the Amazon! It is absolutely stunning here & such a joyuous pleasure to be serving our Lord with our Brazilian brothers & sisters! We have already been to two villages and seen at least a few hundred people; many of whom accepted Christ as their Lord & savior. All of the villagers have been extremely welcoming & receptive to our visit and have been very engaging in our ministries. We are all healthy & there has been amazing unity amongst our team! All who have wanted have participated in allegator hunting & fishing during the evening hours & some real whoppers have been caught! Lucy, Sally & Nancy (Americanized names) have been awesome cooks. We've enjoyed pleasant weather & this morning a rainbow graced our sky. As we rely on the Father & surrender to His will we have not only grown closer to Him, but to others & have been able to pour our hearts out to His people. Thank you so much for your continued prayers. We love all of you so much!

Note: This is from the Amor boat (our computer is had wired to the Linda boat).

Test

testing...

Nov 30 Trip - Christmas on the Amazon - Day 1 and 2

WE'RE HERE!!   Sorry for the delay in writing, we've been kind of busy.  Day 1 Travel....We got safely to Miami and realized we left 15 full bags of gifts in Dallas.  After the chaos we realized we weren't going to be able to get the bags before we left for Brazil.  We sent out an SOS to Marco in Brazil for supplies and prayer to cover all we had lost.  We're literally believing that God will provide like the 5000 he fed with 5 loaves and 2 fish....

Please continue to pray for God's provisions. We arrived in Manaus at 11:30pm, made it through customs and boarded the Amor e Esperanca, to find our hammocks already hung by the amazing crew. 

 

Our team consists of 19 Betenbough people from Lubbock, 1 from Kansas City and 5 from the Dallas area.  Our fearless leader Brenda, was struck ill with bronchitis shortly before leaving Dallas... thankfully God provided us with Phyllis, the night before our flight, to help Don lead. 

 

Day 2- After little sleep and awakening to an amazing breakfast, Don lead us in a devotional to again remind us that it is not our plan but what God has planned for us. We know our steps have already been set.  We spent the day traveling southwest on the Solimoes river (the Amazon River)       and trying to determine what gifts we actually had.  We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of gift bags we had and supplies that were brought here previously from a Prestonwood Group, supplies raised by the Brazilian team and our great packing ability. We began our packing assembly line to initially combine 50 gifts for 5 groups of children.  The more we filled the more we seemed to have available to pack.

 

We also wouldn't be successful without the great group of translators we have.  

 

We ended the day with an amazing worship and devotion by Pastor Jailson, a local minister for the Brazilian villages we will be visiting.

 

Please pray for rest and safety for our entire team and that the Holy Spirit might work through each one of us.  We are going to sleep to the sound of the rain and peaceful Amazon Rainforest. 

 

Matthew 14: 13-21  ......Amen. 

Prestonwood Singles Mission Trip

Greetings from the Amazon River:
As I write, we are half way through our week. 11/16/2012, Friday, our
team of 25 safely landed in Manaus, Brazil around midnight. We then
traveled by tour bus to our boat, the Amor Esperança, and began our 20 hour
boat ride around 1:30 am (11/17/2012). The night was short though, with
breakfast at 7 am. Of course, Saturday would not be wasted, but was the
perfect opportunity to read, study the Bible, and prepare for sharing the
Gospel to all who are receptive. Our destination was three small villages
near Parintins, a city of about 100,000 people. Our team is working with
First Baptist Church Parintins, to plant a Church in each of the three small
villages, Maranhão (Madanyow, the largest), Varrevento (Vahevinto), and
Barajós (Badajois, the smallest). Three small teams were formed and
assigned to each village, for the purpose of sharing the Gospel. In support
of the small teams are about 9 translators and a medical team that is
spending 2 days in each village, while the small teams witness and hold
Bible studies with the local Christians. The medical team consists of Dr.
Socorro, one Brazillian dentist, one physician assistant, and two nurses.
Dr. Socorro and our PA's are examining patients, writing prescriptions, and
dispensing medications. On Sunday & Monday, the medical team was in
Maranhão and on Tuesday & Wednesday, the medical team is in Varrevento.
Thursday, we complete the medical work in Barajós.
Another important accomplishment for our mission trip is the drilling of
a water well in Barajós, which is the result of a $5000 donation. The
people in all three villages get their water from the river, which is not
always clean. Maybe in the near future, Maranhao and Varravinto will also
get a water well. The well drilling team began on Sunday (11/18/2012) and
the well will be ready to use on Thursday. We expect to have a well
dedication service before coming home.
On Tuesday, some of our translators who are from New Baptist Church in
Parintins, performed two drama presentations to American music for the youth
in Maranhão. Following the presentations, our team members had the
opportunity to present the Gospel to the youth of the village. We plan to
do the same today in Varrevento.
We begin the long journey back to Manaus on Thursday night, to arrive in
Manaus on Saturday morning. Many thanks (muito obrigado) to all who are
praying and have given to make this trip a success.
Our current GPS coordinates are: 2.82993 S, 56.75615 W.

Team Bent Tree Amazon Update

Hello from the Amazon!  The Bent Tree team is safe and well.

 

Sunday, 09/02/2012
Village:  Marajo

 

Our first day of ministry was amazing, we spent the day in Marajo, the first location of the Bent Tree water well.  All ministries were in full force.  We left the waterwell crew there to continue drilling as the minstry team continued down river.    

 

 

Monday, 09/03/2012
Villages:  El Shaday and Sau Mateus

 

Happy Labor Day y'all.  Another full day of ministry.  The visit to El Shaday was especially meaningful.  Some of our team members were involved in the early construction of this Christian village back in 2000.  It was amazing to see how the village has grown over the last twelve years and the impact it has had on that region of the Amazon.  We found out that they hit rock while drilling the first water well at Marajo, which normally means the well has to be moved.  However we found out that miraculously they were able to get through the rock! Glory to God!

 

 

Tuesday, 09/04/2012
Villages:  Badajos and Vonderley & Tiane

 

Today was the most amazing day! This morning we worked in a small village named Badajos where the people had been resistant to the Gospel until recently.  We were very well received and many prayed to receive Christ.  During the morning a  few of us went to visit a couple named Tiane and Vonderley.  They became Christians through an Amazon Outreach team last year and have been persecuted by the friends in their village and by their family ever since.  Two months ago they had to move out of their home because Vonderley lost his job. The villagers told him he could have it back if he decided to not follow Jesus but he and Tiane decided that they had no choice but to follow Him!  A Christian family near Badajos told Vonderley and Tiane they could build a home on their land.  We came to their little home site in the middle of the jungle with only Vonderley and their two young sons to work.  The team decided to come back after lunch and help them level the dirt under their roof and clear the land around the house they had begun to build.  We are putting the second BTBF water well on their property.  Tonight we're collecting a love offering for them to purchase the cement for the floor of their house.  Tiane spoke to all of us and as she spoke we realized how small our faith was in comparison. No one on our team has ever been faced with losing everything for Christ.  We will never forget this couple and their family and they will remain in our prayers.