Saying goodbye

Allison and I at a recent trip to a beach



I (Josh) am leaving tomorrow on a 5 day trip, I need to get some sleep, but I wanted to post something first...



Earlier tonight I said goodbye to my good friend Allison. He's going to Sao Paulo to study at a 3 month missionary training program. He learned about it from a friend who went through the program. I'm hoping it may be something that we can use with others as well. Allison is very excited, he'll be flying for the first time, and will probably be blown away by the sights and sounds of the big city.



Please pray that during this time Allison learns a lot about missions, but also that God would use this time to really draw near to him and give him a real passion for reaching the lost. Ironically, Allison wants to be a missionary pilot and mechanic (the same dream I had). I'm not sure where God will lead Allison, but he's already touched my life with his friendship and I know God will use him to touch the lives of many others.

Soup

Altamira is slowly getting back to normal. Some families are still displaced, but most of them have returned and begun cleaning up after the floodwaters. It seems also that the fears of another dam breaking have subsided. Initially, after the flooding, their seemed to be a bit of chaos as some families were returning with their things, and others were still moving their belongings out in fear of the floodwaters returning.

In the face of suffering like we often see during a natural disaster, we want to help but often don’t know how. So often these feelings slowly pass, never resulting in much action. I was with a group of friends from our church and they decided they were going to make soup and give it away in the street. At the time it didn’t seem like the best use of our time, but as we were running around buying potatoes and carrots and tracking down pots, I realized that giving soup away wasn’t really the point. We were doing something. And yeah, it made us feel good, but more than that it was an act of love.

Agustino tried to show me how to make soup for 75 people ,
but he lost me somewhere around the chopped onions.

Loading up in my truck to take the soup to the street.

Easter Morning

On Easter morning our family awoke to a flooded school room and guest room after a night with especially long and heavy rains. We cleaned it up and then I went to our Training Center outside of town to pick up some youth that had spent the weekend there at a retreat. On the way back to the church, we crossed one of the main bridges in town and saw that the creek was high and flowing very fast. I thought not much of it, as it is common this time of year. Usually once or twice a year there is a heavy rain and some of the low-lying neighborhoods in the floodplain fill with water. By the time we reached the church I had heard several comments about some dams breaking upstream on a large creek that runs into the Xingu River. There are several earthen dams on ranches upstream, but again, I didn't think much of it. I made a couple other stops, dropping people off and then headed back home.

On my way I got a call from Bud, another missionary who said the water was getting close to the foundation of his house (although his house is near the creek, it had never raised to the level of threatening his house). As I approached the same bridge to cross back over the creek I saw water covering the road, a quarter of a mile from the bridge! I knew then this was not an ordinary flood. I checked a couple other bridges and found them all impassable. There was no way for me to cross the creek, and get to Bud's house. Or even home if I wanted.

The creek cuts through the middle of town and has several bridges. Most of them are older wooden bridges, some of them more solid than others. I was still driving the Mission's large truck, now empty, and I realized I could help the many people fleeing their homes. I first encountered a distressed guy on the street desperately seeking help, I followed him into a flooded neighborhood driving through almost 3 ft. of water. We anxiously loaded the truck with furniture and family and headed for higher ground.

The first family I helped rushes to evacuate their house and save as much as they could. Only minutes later the water had risen another 2 feet.

I returned to help others and worked most of the day alongside Allison and other youth from our church. I've helped with flood clean-up before, in St. Louis after the 92 flood and in New Orleans after Katrina, but it's always been after the fact. I was there when it happened this time and I could see the fear, desperation and confusion in their eyes. Especially difficult was watching people who had so little lose everything, knowing there was no insurance, no savings account, or other government safety net for them to fall back on.

Later on, my thoughts returned to how I was going to get home. Just before dark, Allison and I found the only way to cross to the other side of town. A bridge had been partially washed out, but people were crossing by a plank. I left the truck with my friends and I walked across, finally arriving home after a long day. Below is a short clip of the bridge crossing:



Many people lost everything they had. In some locations, the water rushed in with such force that they were only able to leave with the clothes on their backs. Local reports say 15,000 people have been affected. Our churches had many families effected by the flooding, but Bud's house was spared.

The next day the water receded and the damage was more visible. Entire houses are gone and the only thing left on the land is debris from their upstream neighbor. Slowly the bridges reopened. One was completely washed away and several others are damaged, probably beyond repair. There is talk of another dam that may break and cause more flooding. So while the victims are trying to recover from the first flood, they live in fear of another assail of water. Last night I helped the youth group make soup and distribute it to the people living in the area most affected. The whole situation is truly heartbreaking with so many people in need it is almost overwhelming. Please pray for our community. We need wisdom as we seek to meet the needs of the community during the long rebuilding process, both physically and spiritually.

The road to the airport has been washed out and while we were discussing this problem Mia lightened the mood when she said she hopes it gets fixed before grandma and grandpa come in June, otherwise they'll have to spend the 3 weeks in the airport.

Heading for higher ground

A scene from one of the streets:




Here's a link to a Brazilian article (in portuguese), but it does have some video.

Quick update... more to come

We have been meaning to update our blog about Easter Sunday but just have not found a moment. Altamira has suffered some difficulties in the last few days as dams upriver broke unleashing a torrent of water to unsuspecting homes. Entire houses were washed away in the current and many, many people in our town are displaced, some having lost all of what little they owned. For a time all bridges were impassable, cutting off one part of the city from the other, with Josh stuck on the side opposite our home.

Josh has been out every day, almost all day helping people move to safer ground, retrieving appliances and belongings that were swept away . Tonight some friends made huge kettles of soup and we passed it out in the area most affected. Hopefully we can get an update out soon, but if not please understand. And please, please pray.

Jungle Training

This past weekend I went on the inaugural trip of a weekend training school that we are starting. Every month we will take a group of Brazilians to a river community where we have a work started. Most of the weekend is spent in a structured class, but they also help out with a church service and inviting neighbors from the community. I made a sort of promotional video for this training, which is called Fiel (faithful). I've done some other video stuff recently, some of it more fluff side (see the last video about Mia's birthday), but if you're interested in learning more about our work here, watch this video:

I can also make the video available in high quality if anyone is interested in showing it for promotional purposes.