Eastwood day 1

A great trip so far...Far from much loved families and friends, but enjoying the fellowship with dear brothers and sisters...Lee Ann, I am praying for you...Thanks for making it possible for me to be here and to serve God for His Kingdom advancement in the Amazon...Duggar

Boat life is interesting and different. But AWESOME! Nothing more or less. The villagers are open to us. The kids are adorable and wonderful and the adults are understanding. I couldn't ask for anything more. I never stop sweating....or getting eaten alive. Oh well. Amazon boat life is cool! Oh, and mom just inhaled a bug. Jordan

Thank you to all who have made this possible. Boat life is indeed interesting and the villagers have been very receptive to the gospel. We ran three different clinics today...medical, dental, and eye glass. What a beautiful sight to see their faces light up when they could read their bibles once again. We also had the opportunity to do a VBS for 30+ children, and had a separate time of ministry for the men and women. Before we returned to the boat, we had a sweet time of prayer, a bible lesson and singing. They all walked us back to the boat. Apparently they don't see "outsiders" but twice a year. More later, Kathleene

Well, we went to our fist village today. I helped with VBS and blew a large quantity of bubbles. In the afternnoon i helped with Women's ministry. The women are very open!!! Boat life is good except for the first night of motion sickness for me. I am so glad God blessed us with the opportunity to go on this Trip!!! I love you Dad, Mom, Marg, and Bud! ~Ansley

Having a great time in the Amazon..worked in the pharmacy today which was exhausting and definitely more difficult without my family of pharmacists!! -Laura

Telephone communciations are not available to us right now so if you have tried to text or call, this is the reason there has been no response. God has been so good to us. The crew and the missionary team we are with are wonderful. All of our Eastwood Youth has been outstanding in helping. We had to unpack all of the boxes and luggage with meds, dental supplies, gifts for people of Amazon and then separate out into 250 bags. Adults and youth alike worked hard in the heat and humity. God is honoring us interaction with these wonderful people. Everyone is doing well and are blessed by the work we are doing. Continue to pray for us. We miss everyone..............one thing we are looking forward to when we get home is ice........a glass filled with ice! We will blog again. Please let others at Eastwood know of the blog so they can track what we are doing. We send our love and prayers for the Uganda team that will be leaving Thursday. Ginger

PCA Day 5

Yesterday was yet another amazing day in the Amazon. We served in a village along the river again, bigger than the one we had served the previous day. We held VBS with the children again, performing the Christmas story with costumes, a clinic, and a dental station where Dr. Eli pulled many teeth. This station is where i spent most of the day assisting Eli. In these villages the people tend to not brush their teeth, leaving them rotten, and leading some into death. Dr. Eli, a full time missionary dentist, yanked teeth from strong Brazilians throughout the day, one lady having 12 pulled, leaving only a few teeth. I saw God's love through Dr. Eli who had devoted his life to this work, saving these people's lives. Throughout the heated day, Dr. Eli only took a short lunch break, and was out once again pulling teeth out of his love for the people. The eyes of Christ are reflected through these joyous children, as they giggle and laugh with all of the students. These children have nothing and yet they are the most happy kids i have ever seen. The first day when we visited the invasion area in Patintins, i encountered a group of girls. They were so happy to spend time with us, and a smile was spread on almost every child's face. At the end of the day multiple girls gave me their suckers or worksheets out of thankfulness, but one little girl's gift touched my heart the most. Earlier that day i had given her one of my rubber bands that i had been wearing, and when we returned in the afternoon she came back with one of her beautiful silver bangals to give me. It struck me that these children were so willing to give away their few things, to me who had much more, because of how much they loved us.

One man in the village today decided to accept Christ after hearing Bill Squiric's testimony. As well as this man, many others gave their lives as translaters, students, and adults shared the Gospel through tracks and testimonies. The most touching part of the day occured at the place where the well had been drilled to supply local villagers with clean water. In honor of Mr. Ellis and his father, this well was dedicated and prayed over by all of us. Here i realized that God truly does answer prayers. Though it seemed unlikely at first, we were blessed with this great opportunity.

It was humorous to watch Eric and Michael paint little girls nails and play with their hair. The Brazilians beat the Americans in soccer, yet again, 17 to 0. Also, three of our very students decided to be baptized in the Amazon river, which was a very precious moment for all of us. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!!!!!!!!!!

We are airing up soccer balls to throw out to the small villages we pass on the way back to Manaus. The little kids swim out into the river to get the soccer balls and the baloons filled with bible verses and candy. It's like gold to them. Tonight we are going to cook dinner for the boat crew and the translators who have been serving us all week. We're going to throw a little party for them and serve them to show our appreciation for what they do.

It has definitely a trip that we are all going to remember and cherish throughout the rest of our lives. Thank you for all the prayers and support!

Heather Burns and Eric Shell 

 

Amazon PCA Update

Yesterday we worked in the village of Palhau which on a tributary of the Amazon called the Caburi.  The kids and parents on the team gave their all to show the love of Christ to this village. It was a lot of fun to see about 60 children chasing around Claire and Chris Cowman, Eric Shell, Brennan Beeson, Sheridan, Mr Green and Chelsea Huss around the village!  Heather Causey had a little boy follow her the entire day.  I am going to check her suitcase to make sure she is not sneaking him home!

 

This is a village where Amazon Outreach has done some work in the past and has seen some from the community come to Christ.  One man who came to Christ by the name of Adenil has since suffered because of his faith in Christ.  He is not as welcome in the community because in his new faith he has been seen as turning his back on his own Catholic faith.  The vision of Abimael - the local evangelist that continually travels to all of the villages under the ministry of Pastor Elmer Lessa in Parintins - is for a new community to be formed a couple minutes down the river so that Adenil can worship freely with some of the other new believers.  Through prayer with Abimael we have come up with a name for this new community - Nova Esperanca - which means New Hope!  There is another local believer by the name of Igino who is a hard working rancher and he owns a beautiful piece of land there in Nova Esperanca.  There has been a simple structure raised where services can be held for discipleship in the months ahead.  We are also in the process of drilling a well here in New Hope to provide much needed clean water for this new community.  This well is of particular significance to me as we are dedicating it to my father - Perry Ellis for his years of missionary work in Brazil.  Yesterday we were in prayer because the drill motor was not working for a period of time because it had struggled to break through the rock but by God's Grace the crew of the well boat drilling team got it back up and running!

 

I have attached a picture of several of our students as they shared the story of Mary and Joseph to the kids here this morning in the village of Terezinha.  The people have overall been very receptive and welcoming of our team.  Dr Huss and his nurse assistant Brittany Gadica saw over a 100 patients in the medical clinic yesterday.  Stefan Ralston made an endless amount of trips to the boat to keep the pharmacy supplied with the needed medications that were being dispensed by Mike Beeson and Bill Squiric.  They provided the only real medical attention to the village.  Our team also dispensed several pairs of much needed eyeglasses.  It was particularly touching to see Heather Burns as she assisted the dentist yesterday.  She did all that she could to encourage the dental patients.

 

All is well with the team but please keep us in your prayers on our final day of ministry.  Lord willing we will be making our way back to Manaus early tomorrow morning.

 

Christ Is Life!  Johnson Elis

PCA Day 3 - Mission Trip - Amazon

Hello Friends and Family!! It's Lauren Kelley here and it is officially the end of day 3!! So far it has been such an awesome trip!! Today we were in the city of Parintins and we visited the school called Colegio Batista de Parintins where we held our VBS in the morning with the smaller kids and had a chapel service. After returning to the boat for lunch, our group decided to put on a skit for the afternoon chapel service for the high schoolers. In the skit, Kevin played the role of Jesus and the rest of the group played the roles of "sins" that people often struggle with. The main point of the theme was that each person acts out their sin and tries to tempt Jesus to get him to do the sin with us. Jesus refuses to be transformed to wordly things as each person tried to tempt him. At the end of the scene, Brittany played the role of a missionary and pretended to read in her Bible to be a model of Christ and conform her life like Him. Even through the language barrier, this skit had no words and we only acted to the music, which caused the students to understand much better what we were acting out. It has been so awesome getting to spend time with these children and play with them. It's so evident that they crave attention and love and it has been such a joy to share that with them!! We are leaving Parintins tonight and heading to the villages. Everyone is having a blast and we are so excited for the days to come!! Thank you so much for all your prayers and Mr. Green wanted me to tell his wife that he loves her!! AWW!!! We have had much joy making fun of Mr. Green the whole trip haha.

 

This is Mr. Green...I wanted to add just a little bit to today's blog. First, let me say that I have been so impressed with the students that we have on the trip with us. They have jumped right in and ministered to the children and students here in Parintins -- it has been very encouraging to see. It was really neat to see them perform a skit all together at the school today. Even students who are generally quieter and more "behind the scenes" participated, and the skit really ministered to the students at Colegio Batista. I anticipate that these next two days will be extremely eye-opening for them as we move to the village...this is going to be like nothing they have ever seen before! We are so blessed as well to have several adults with us who have been so helpful too...each one of them has been serving faithfully and enabling the students to do what they are doing. Overall, we can see the hand of God clearly as we work here in the Amazon. There is no other way that we could be doing the things that we are doing...we are doing this in HIS strength and not our own.

Pray specifically for God to renew us physically and mentally each day as we continue to work with these people. The heat can be very draining at times, and we always want to be able to give 100%. Pray, too, for the drilling of the water well over these next couple of days. I think it is going to be an amazing thing for our kids to see and participate in...I really believe it will revolutionize the way they look at the world. And pray for boldness in all of us, especially in our students. We will be sharing the Gospel with many people in the village over the next couple of days. Please pray that God gives us clarity and wisdom to speak His truth faithfully.

Thanks for your prayers and your support. We could not do this without you. And to Tara...I love you and I miss you! I can't wait to see you on Sunday!

PCA Day 2

We have made it to Brazil safe and sound! As we spent our first full day on the Amor E Esperanca as we traveled, we bonded together as a group. At first when I read the list of names of the people on the trip I thought to myself about how it was a random group of people and no one will really bond...well God has proved me sooo wrong. I know for sure now that God hand picked this group of people for a certain reason and that each and everyone of us has His plan to answer to. There are no words to explain the beauty here. You can look off the boat and see every single star that God created, and you look at the tress and realize how every single one is created by His hands. It truly takes your breath away. God is so good! This morning after waking up from a night of brutal lightening storms we ate breakfast as a group and began to go out on our first day on land. We did VBS in a place called "The Invasion." This place is where kids and teens are raising themselves as their parents go back to the jungle to get money and make a living. We sang songs of praise and worship and performed passages of scripture for the kids as their laughter filled the room. A personal favorite from the crowd was the "fruits of the sprirt" song and dance. :) We made crafts and colored pictures, and the boys lost in a game of soccer to the natural Brazilian soccer stars!! As the day continued on, more and more children joined us! They would stand at the gates questioning if they should go in or not, and the second the stepped in the gates a smile grew upon all of their faces. The place was full and overflowing with the joy and happiness of God, and people could not turn away. I personally got to share my testimony to all the kids during VBS. As I told my story I listened to the translator repeat it to the kids and thought what a mighty God we serve! He is so great that He is praised in numerous languages!! We continued to play till the late afternoon, and Mr. Green was worn out after being tackled many times! Many of our students had created a special friendship with children here in the Invasion place. I had met a beautiful little girl named Sara. Sara was probably no more than two and clung to my hip as I spun her around singing songs to her. Sara had horrible scabs near her eye and mouth, but I disregarded them and continued to play and color with the sweet little girl. As I continued to play a woman came up and asked Sara what her scar was from. Sara said nothing, she was shy and her words still sounded as gibber gabber since she was a young toddler. The woman told me that she works with a company that goes searching for child abuse throughout the village. She said that Sara's scars did not look like she had just fallen, but that she had possibly been pushed or beaten by someone. I wanted to break down crying right there. How could someone hurt such a precious child of God?? After the woman walked away I held Sara closer wanting this child to know that she is loved by me and more importantly by a God of protection! As we left the place, multiple students left in tears as they realized that they would most likely never see these children again. The bus pulled out and the children began to run after us chasing the bus down waving. It proved to us all that the simplicity of kicking a soccer ball around or braiding hair meant the world to those children. We loved them and that was all they wanted, to be loved. Her in Parintins there is a festival that goes on in June. This festival is sponsered by Coca-Cola and there are two teams, the red and the blue. Parintins is the only place that you can buy a blue Coca-Cola can. This festival is based on old folk tales and stories. The people worship demonic creatures as they partake in the competitions of the two teams. This huge and famous festival brings thousands and thousands of people to the city and also brings prostitution, drinking, gambling and many more things. Our group got the chance to have a time or worship (led by Camryn Clark and Sheridan Ellis) and prayer in the stadium where the event takes place. In a stadium where sin happens, God was worshipped. We spread out around the stadium and covered the place with prayer. We prayed that God will work among the hearts of the people of Brazil. We finished the day off with some ice cream and have headed straight to our beds, since tomorrow will be an early start. Please continue to pray for us as we are fullfilling the plan of our great God. Pray for health as a couple of our team have grown weak due to dehydration. But mainly pray for the people of Brazil and that God will continue to work in this city and open hearts and minds as we students are His hands and feet! We love and miss you all so very much! Hugs and kisses are sent to the family members and friends of those on the trip! (and Mr. Green wants to give a special shout-out to his wife he says, "I love and miss you") Thank you for all the support and prayers!

-Claire Cowman 10th Grade

PCA Day 1

Bom dia from the Amazon!  We all arrived safely by God's Grace.  All of our bags made it and we moved easily through customs.  I have always wanted the chance to see the team from Trinity Christian Academy but they usually have all departed by the time we arrive.  We have been praying for their team and reading their daily blogs. Today though we had the chance to have Dave Delph (TCA Headmaster) and some of the TCA students as they came on board to send us off from Manaus.  Dave has been a faithful leader of trips to the Amazon for many years.  Both PCA and TCA are so blessed to have headmasters that have a passion for world missions!  TCA and PCA compete in many areas such as academics and sports but on the mission field we are all pursuing the same objective - to make Christ's name famous.

 

All of our PCA mission teams were commissioned before we left Dallas in a powerful message given by Mike Fechner.  He asked us to:

 

1) See People Through The Eyes OfChrist - Mike said that when Christ came to earth He didn't come on a mission trip - He came to give us life!

 

2) Love People As God Loves Us - Love unconditionally as Christ loves us.  When you love someone you don't leave them the way you found them.

 

3) Be The Hands And Feet Of Christ - Mike reminded us that Jesus said that we would be able to do even greater works than Him!

 

We ask that as you follow the blogs that will be written mostly this week by our students that you voice a prayer for us as you read about our day.  Thank you for the sacrifice you each have made for us to be on this wonderful journey with Christ!  Tomorrow we will most likely work in the Invasion Zone - a very impoverished part of the Island City of Parintins.

 

A few lines from the band Unhindered that played at Freedom weekend recently -

"Father wont you come and open up our eyes.  Fill us with your heart,  Renew us with your life.   Consume us with your majesty.  Glory, Honor and Power Belong to You!"

 

Christ Is Life!  Johnson Ellis

TCA Day 7...the last blog

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