My outreach team and I have just returned to modern civilization after 8 days and nights in the Amazon. We visited 5 villages around the area where the Amazon river begins. The only way to access these places is by boat. A few of these villages had never had a team of missionaries before in their village. As you can imagine, this meant there was always a troop of small children following us around simply checking out the new strangers.
Although small churches were established beforehand, most of these people follow their own way. Alcoholism, adultery, and general independence from God have a huge influence on these communities. Our mission was to bring God's love and grace and simply be His servants. Almost every day we would host a children's program. This meant walking around the neighborhood to find the children before doing a 2 hour long program of teaching, dramas, songs, and games. Many kids had never participated in something like this and it took them a while to get involved. At the end of the service we would hand out medicine that gets rid of worms that reside in their bloated tummies. I was so glad we could help their health in some small way even though it was obvious that many other health problems existed.
During the evenings we held evangelistic services. God's love was shared through song, testimonies, dramas, teaching and preaching. At the end of each service was an opportunity for people to come forward and enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Many were moved as they prayed confessing that they are sinners in need of the Savior. Others came forward for healing and we were told later that healings did occur! Unfortunately my group and I were often 'lost in translation' during the prayer ministry, but would move among the crowd praying in faith anyway.
If we weren't doing a service we would be found meeting the locals and investigating their way of living. I enjoyed spending time with the women in the kitchen learning about how they cooked. Some of the food we had was plantains, rice, armadillo, duck, chicken, coconut, local fruits, and fresh bread. Other members of my team would engage in a competitive game of soccer or simply playing with the children.
Some challenges we faced were moving locations (new toilet - if there was one - bathing in the rivers, place to sleep), living out of tents, being bitten by every sort of bug (Catharina stopped counting her mosquito bites after 500), digestive problems, language barrier, no electricity - basically a completely new way of living!
As more time passes I know I will look back on this time with a smile. It was a stretching time for all of us in almost every way, but such an amazing opportunity at the same time. I felt like a missionary exploring new frontiers as I've read about so many times before. Being with quiet, tribal people who move at a pace that's never rushed was refreshing. Now I'm attempting to adjust to the fast-paced life of the city. Our first night back into the city we ate at a restaurant owned by a Texan and during the meal were overrun by a loud missions youth group from Florida. There's nothing quite like reverse culture shock!
Through this experience I've been learning about simplicity and blind faith. The people we met live simple lives, unhindered with the rat-race for more stuff. Watching how they passed the time and lived so simply challenged my impulses to be constantly busy. Also, the basic act of believing in what is unseen was an area for me to grow as well. When we would have these services and people were so obviously touched by God during the prayer time I had to resist the urge to interview them to see what God was doing in their life. Truth is, my team and I don't know exactly what God was up to during our ministry times, but I know that I can fully believe that He was bringing lasting change to these people's lives. Faith continues to grow as I don't have a list of results and number to share of how many received salvation or healing.
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