Ava is 7

For the third time, I found our school room had flooded during the night. We have had so much rain that I am eager for the dry season to start. The entire Amazon Basin has received record amounts of rain this year. Thankfully, Altamira has not had another flood since the one last month, although the fear is still a reality for some. So I am thankful that I only lost a few books and papers, remembering people that lost everything. It is 11:30, Sunday morning and I have spent the morning cleaning. So much for a day of rest. And I see the danger in losing it as I am tense and finding myself overwhelmed in the tasks of just living here. I know I've got to let some things go, I am still just not sure what.

Last night we hosted a party for Ava's 7th birthday. We had 27 children (which is why i am still cleaning now), most invited and some that just showed up. I put a lot of effort into making this a Brazilian party, even though I myself have never attended a child's party in full. I am usually more than eager to just drop my daughter off at the 5 or so parties they get invited to a year. And I think it was pretty Brazilian accept for the grapes (a rare treat) I put in the "salada de frutas", the over-the-top princess dress Ava wore, and the occasional English words we let slip. And it was the Brasilians who wanted to sing Happy Birthday in English. So lucky Ava got two songs. We had a downpour just as it was time for the children to go home, although just because the party ends does not mean people necessarily go home, I have learned. Ava, comandeering leadership of her own party, led about 10 kids into the now dark street, giggeling, screaming and dancing in the rain. They were soaked by the time Chelsea told me what was going on, and I was fretting that a mom would show up and wonder what kind of family lets the children play in the rain, in the dark, in the street. Come to find out, that is mine. So as you can see, I have let some things go. Maybe it is a little weird that my family goes outside to play when it starts to rain. But I am still, after 2 1/2 years finding my way.

Friday was another, and especially notable, Alpha Circles meeting (our Friday night English meeting). Terry, a new missionary in Porto de Moz shared some beautifully raw moments from his life. It was touching. Several of the dedicated attendees told me it was meaningful for them and thanked me for the efforts we were putting into doing Alpha Circles. That was certainly a boost for me.

~posted by Brin

Follow this link to see more pictures from Ava's Birthday Party

rhythm

Nothing of real note to blog on this past week, after my last adventure life here in Altamira seems somewhat calm. Adding to that, we've noticed recently that our lives have fallen into somewhat of a rhythm. For me that means having more defined responsibilities with the maintenance of the boats, as well as traveling more to the interior where we are planting churches. Brin and the girls, on the other hand, seem to have more responsibilities in Altamira which makes it more difficult for them to travel.

An English discussion group at the
Friday night outreach that Brin leads.

Brin continues to lead a Friday night outreach to students from our English school. It's been exciting to see several students begin attending one of our churches as a result of the outreach. Brin also helps on Saturdays with a small group of young people from our church that go to a local orphanage to spend time with the kids.

Ava and Mia hosting slumber party with two of their friends.

More and more, the girls seem to be adjusted to their Brazilian school and are enjoying several new friendships. The other day Mia said that her teacher told her that her eyes look like Jesus. We weren't sure what to make of that, but then realized that what she meant to say was that she said they looked like the sky, which in Portuguese is the same word for heaven. I suppose having Jesus' eyes would be a pretty good compliment though.

Church Planting and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Our group, the morning we left

Last Tuesday I left for a trip to Maribel, a very remote region where we have several church plants. Usually we go by road, taking the TransAmazon hwy for about 4 hours and then a jungle road for another 5 or so hours. Usually during the rainy season (generally over by June) we go by boat, however that is a 3 day trip. During the rainy season the jungle road becomes impassable for trucks, but we thought we would try the trip for the first time by motorcycles. Five of us went, myself, Bud, Keith (missionaries) and two Brazilians, Naldo and Poli. We knew we were in for an adventure, but we had no idea...


The trip there was adventurous enough. The weather was perfect, no rain. But the jungle road has lots of standing water, which sometimes you can drive around, but usually the only option is driving through. In one such crossing Bud decided to take an "alternate route" and ended up at the bottom of a five foot deep hole. His motorcycle was completely submerged and flooded. We spent about an hour draining the water out of the oil and drying out the motor. It was just getting dark as we got on our way again. Then it was Poli's turn. Hitting a submerged rock, his motorcycle fell into the water. We went through the same process with Poli's bike, not arriving until 9:30 pm.

Our time visiting the communities went very well. We left the next morning on a boat and spent the next 3 days on the river. Here's a video about our time...






We decided to head for home a day early, on Friday. It had rained much of the night Thursday night, and we had only been on the road about 15 minutes when Bud realized he was missing the nut from his rear axle. We spent about an hour looking for it and finally decided to do the best to wire it in place and continue on. We stopped and asked several people along the way if they happened to have a nut we could use. It seemed to be a complete waste of time to me, you don't just stop and ask someone a question here, it turns into a much longer ordeal. Miraculously, however, a guy had a honda motorcycle with the same nut. He let us take it as long as we promised to give it to his brother who lived in a town that we would be passing through, where we could buy a new one.


Back on the road with fully functioning equipment, we started to feel good about things. The water we had passsed through on the way in was higher, but nothing was impassable yet. Then came a creek that a man told us he had to swim across, much too high for our motorcycles. Some locals told us the creek would probably be passable in the morning, and one man offered his house and even some food, we went to bed thinking we would be home the next day, only this one more creek and we're home free.


Unloading our equipment at the house of a kind stranger
who put us up for the night

After passing the creek in the morning, we rounded a corner to see yet another impassable river. We were able to borrow a rowboat in disrepair from a neighbor, and after fixing some holes with tar, we were able to cross the creek, one at a time with our motorcycles. And then yes, yet ANOTHER, flooded creek (I apologize for the repetition, but how do you think we felt?). We heard about a detour through the jungle, but waited a few hours for the water to go down a little more because of the swift current.

Crossing one of the many water hazards

We finally made it out of the jungle road and onto the TransAmazon later in the afternoon on Saturday. We decided we should just stay the night in Uruara, a city on the TransAmazon and about 4 hours from home. As we arrived into town, we realized the only bridge into town had been swept away by the rising waters. We were able to cross, amid about 300 onlookers and heavy equipment trying desperately to repair the road without running over the gawkers. After making some repairs to our motorcycles, we greatly enjoyed some pizza, a shower and a clean bed.

But surely, we thought, no more problems. It started raining just after breakfast. Just out of town we came to yet another river which had risen and covered the road. An entrepreneurial man showed up just after us with a boat. He charged $5 a motorcycle to ferry us across. We would have paid 10 times that.

During the trip we realized Bud hadn't been baptized yet... just kidding, here Bud and Naldo check the depth of one of the flooded TransAmazon Hwy

Evidently the flooding was due to the heavy rain the night before. It's not uncommon for the road to become impassable, but this has been an unseasonably wet year. For sure the washed-out bridge going into Uruara and the river flooding the road going out of town were both very rare. If you've stuck around this long, maybe you'll enjoy this video I made of our return trip: