Thanksgiving on the Rio Negro

I fell asleep in my hammock, gently swinging between two trees on a beach somewhere on the Rio Negro, under a brilliantly starry sky.  Only to be greeted in the morning by a magnificient sunrise, admitedly, I don´t see a lot of sunrises, but I don´t remember one quite this colorful.  Our boat lazily waited on the beach, we were in no hurry to finish the 10 hour journey from Santa Isabel to Barcelos.  We still had about 4 hours to go, but we´ve been trying to allow time to listen to God, and share as a group each morning.  As I read in Psalms "offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving...", a thought occured to me and I turn to Luke and asked "hey Luke, what days is it?"  "Thursday, I think" 

Thanksgiving has always been a family day.  I grew up every year going to both of my extended families' thanksgivings.  It was just what we did.  Brin often reminds me how when we had our first thanksgiving together and were discussing our plans, I selfishly said "well of course we have to go to my family things on thanksgiving", not even considering that her childhood may have been different (yeah, we had a few issues to work out).  At any rate, thanksgiving for me is being with family.  And here I was, in the middle of the Rio Negro, 2 days boat ride from what most people would call civilization (Manaus), with 4 fellow missionaries and 2 brazilians that we had hired as guides. 

I have to admit, the first feelings were of self-pity, wishing I were somewhere else, eating something else.  But before long a feeling of peace decended on me.  This was a unique experience I was having, seeing new places and sights, experiencing the beauty and majesty of God.  Like the 10 foot crocidile sunbathing on the beach, the tea-colored water of the Rio Negro, the endess white-sand beaches lining the banks and islands, the indigenous people of the region, and of course the sunrises, sunsets and star-filled night sky.

I do miss my family, but this year I am more aware than ever, and thankful for, the beauty of God's nature.

(pictures  to come later)

Exploring the Amazon

View Rio Negro Exploration Trip in a larger map

Tomorrow (Thurs. Nov. 19th) I'll be leaving on a two week survey trip of a region in the western Amazon. Tim Kubacki, a fellow missionary, has been wanting to explore this region to see the potential for future work. Since we are asking some of the same questions about our future, I thought it would be a good opportunity. Tim and I, along with his sons Luke and Ben, and another missionary, Chelsea, will be exploring primary 3 cities, and the remote areas around those cities, along the Rio Negro.

After flying to Manaus and spending a few days doing some fact finding, we'll head up-river on a line boat (public transportation) for almost 600 miles to the furthest city, Sao Gabriel. Spending a few days in each city and possibly some of the area around each city, we plan to arrive back in Manaus by Dec. 4th, when Chelsea and I fly back to Altamira. The Kubackis will continue the trip, traveling up the Amazon and exploring several cities for another two weeks.

Please pray that we will not only see the region through our own eyes, but be able to see what God is doing and if we are to play a part in it. Also pray for Brin and the girls staying behind. I'm bummed to be missing Thanksgiving and the girls are going to be in some kind of a parade that they are excited about, but Brin and I both feel this is an important opportunity to seek God and where he might be calling us.

The simplicity of doing without

About once a quarter we have a leadership training workshop called a TLC.  Leaders from city churches and interior churches all come together and receive training in areas such as small group leadership, leading worship, children's ministry, new membership classes, etc.  What makes this workshop different is the setting.  

Agua Preta is a community where we have had a church for several years.  Throughout that time, we have also developed a crude training center on site.  The structures include a pavilion in which to hang a hammock, a shack for cooking, and a few mango trees which serve as protection from the Amazon sun.  The lack of electricity (except for a generator we brought for showing a film), running water, or any other modern convenience makes this a memorable setting for a workshop.  

Mealtime 

 

 One group meets in an abandoned home.

 

But I am constantly impressed with the Brazilians ability to take what is available and make it work.  Sure, it was a bit inconvenient to walk down to the river in the dark to wash my dishes and the heat was oppressive at times during the day, but nothing a dip in the cool river didn't help.  

I think at times we convince ourselves that we need much more than we really do, leading to attitudes of self-entitlement and privilege.  It would have been nice to enjoy all the amenities of a modern conference center, but there's also something to be said for the simplicity of doing without.  

A class project

Allison, Josh, Zeca, Rómolu, Patrícia, Carlinha and Ronaldo, the church planter from Altamira that has been working in Surubim.

In some previous posts I have written about our church plant in Surubim, a remote community about 4 hours from Altamira. I just got back from a trip there. This time, however, I used the experience as a practical learning experience for the training group I have been working with. Our group has been meeting together for a few weeks now, talking about missions and what it would be like for them to live in a community for 3-6 months and disciple the leaders. We learned some teaching material, and then went on this trip to apply what we learned.


Surubim was an ideal location because all of them had been there before and knew the main leader, Zeca. Also, recently a woman named Carlinha moved to the community from one of our churches in Altamira, and more importantly she had been through some leadership classes and involved in leading a small group in Altamira. She is excited about helping out and has been holding a small group in her home since arriving in Surubim this summer. Zeca has been through some leadership material already, but still feels a bit nervous about leading a meeting on his own. We hoped to encourage both of them and to help them logistically plan for how to move forward.

We arrived Sat. and took the afternoon to visit with Zeca, Carlinha and some other potential leaders. We explained that we wanted to meet with all of them on Sunday morning to begin training them as a group.

One of the logistical problems with this area is that the people are spread out over a large area. The people work all day and it is usually dark or getting dark by the time an evening meeting would start. A long walk through a dark jungle path, often in the rain, is difficult. That any one shows up at all is a testament to their desire to meet together. The distance between Zeca's house and Carlinha's is about 4 miles. We took a group from Zeca's house to Carlinha's small group, but we realized that it was going to be too far to expect them to go that distance when we weren't there to give a ride.

On the road to Carlinha's house from Zeca's.

Carlinha's small group, meeting outside her house

Carlinha is going to be a great asset to the fledgling group of believers in Surubim. We are hoping to help Zeca start his own small group which will meet weekly at his house, and then once a month the two groups can meet together for a larger church service.

Sunday morning, Allison, Rómolu, Patricia and I met with the leadership group, or at least what we were thinking would be leadership. In reality, when a group congregates out in the bush, it is normal for neighbors to just stop by and hang for a bit. So included in our meeting were several people who just happened come by, some not even believers yet. So they stayed and listened. We had prepared a lesson on how to study the bible, each of the three took a section of the material to teach. Next month we are going back and will be teaching about how to lead a home group. Up until this point the visits to Surubim had been primarily evangelistic, with several believers in the community it is now time to begin releasing them to meet on their own. For me, this is one of the most encouraging steps for a church plant, watching them begin to walk together in faith and taking those first few steps on their own.

Playing it safe

-post by Brin

My children arrive home after an afternoon of Brazilian school around 6:00pm, and with about another 30 minutes of daylight, Ava and Mia usually run to the street to find their neighborhood friends who also just returned home. I pity the neighborhood boys. This group of girls, sometimes as many as a dozen of them, rule the street. Or at least the portion between my house and my neighbors house 20 meters away. They patrol their turf with scooters from my garage and then whatever else they might find around. Adults would call it trash or yard refuse, but they call it a Barbie car, a bowl of rice or whatever they need to fit into their imaginative play. That is the part I like. Josh and I have often been impressed with the ingenuity we see among Brazilians friends (at least for Altamira, I can’t speak for the rest of Brazil) and I see that same trait come out in the children as well. I like that my children do not need a drawer of dolls and their plethora of accessories to play house. They would probably like it, and they do have some, but they have learned to play and have fun with simple things. I see their minds at work when they make up a game with a jump rope and bucket of dried açai berries. I really like it for one thing because I am a homeschooling mom, and hey, they are doing some of my work for me.

So clearly I will need to admit, I have found my children playing with trash. This leads to conversations about what sort of garbage they should leave alone, such as tin cans, cigarette butts and diapers. And then which trash can be used for play (am I really saying this?). I would probably give a go to an empty butter container that has a string attached so it can be floated. Which leads to another conversation about what sort of water is ok to play with. Yes to buckets that you make yourself and no to the gray water run-off from the neighbor uphill, however alluring that greenish, odorous little river running next to the sidewalk is to my children. During heavy rainfall, the drainage ditches fill with a swift current of water. Once I let my girls out to play in the rain with their friends and when I checked on them they were splashing around in gray water. I bee-lined it to the group and busted out admonishments about the filth of the water and how prone they all were to diseases like diarrhea and skin infections. They stared at me wide-eyed as I confirmed what the neighborhood girls already knew, that the American mom is weird. I think my girls wonder why I must complicate their play to the degree I do. I consider it too, because sometimes it is a lot of work for me. It would be much easier if I just kept all the kids entertained within the confines of my clean, safe yard. And I do, often. But sometimes, they are just too noisy. And sometimes, they are rougher with some of my girls’ belongings than I have taught them to be, as in throwing a Bitty Baby doll into the mango tree. Sometimes, they are frustratingly disobedient and disrespectful. However, what it really comes down to is the value I see in my girls learning from their Brazilian counterparts and gaining some of those traits that I find so desirable. So yup, my kids get parasites more than your kids do. And I still do not know my neighbors well enough to let my children have more than 5 minutes of unsupervised play. Not that my neighbors aren’t friendly, it is just that so many people come and go I never am really sure who lives there. That requires close tabs and fragmented email writing. For now, I think the extra effort is worth it.


I love this picture of Ava as Captain Hook. The beauty of her play is that we were at the beach when she came up with that and so she got to play out her Peter Pan story on the boat… err ship, back home.

A new pile of sand was delivered to the neighbors today for an addition on their home. What a treat for my girls because if I do not know how long the sand has been on the street, I won’t let them play in it. It is anyone’s guess as to what critters are living in it and so it is cruelly off limits. Mia is in the foreground and happens to be playing with a dried and discarded turtle shell, the likely remnants of our neighbors’ lunch.


I am thinking about this because I am realizing what a contrast it is to my antibacterial and garbage-less neighborhood back in Illinois. If I was concerned when my kids ran barefoot across the street, it was probably for their tender soles on hot pavement, not the dog hookworm larvae or scorpions hiding the in the coconut tree trimmings. My children’s every day play comes with a risk that I simply didn’t experience in my old life. Thanks to things like childproof medicine bottles, construction codes for stair railings and that forbidding skeleton and crossbones warning on the bottles that scares away even a pre-reader. But with the risk comes the creativity, the freedom of play and the expanse of mind that might not happen otherwise or at least to that degree. And so sometimes, with a decent amount of assessment and prayer, I choose risk.


But I am just speaking of risk within the context of my parenting my girls, but I know it plays out in so many areas of my life. Do I risk inviting a 20 year old girl to live in my home for 6 months even though I met her once for maybe 5 minutes and I don’t really remember her? Should I launch a new idea that could fail as easily as it could succeed? Heaven forbid people might suspect I have the incompetence I actually do. Do I risk telling my friend about a dangerous tendency I see in her life, knowing she is sensitive and might put me at a distance? Keep in mind, it is not fun to make friends with a foreigner who speaks annoyingly slow and asks a lot of questions, so I would like to keep the friends I have, thank you very much. So how about you, do you risk telling your boss some prickly feedback knowing his thanks might not come until the day of his retirement party after you have been passed over for a promotion 3 times. Or what about the risk that comes in revealing sin, hurts and betrayals. Admitting “I am getting close to the breaking point” can be uncomfortable, but downright risky if we know someone is going to suggest we take a leave of absence from work, enter rehab, or go to counseling. Believe me, that sort of risk runs especially costly when you work under and minister with the very same people you meet for small group with later in the evening. Imagine it with me, you have fleeting doubts of God’s faithfulness and you want to share it but that means you will be sharing it with people who make decisions on your role within the ministry. See what I mean?


So why do we risk? We know we should. I think the same reason I do with my girls. We undertake risk for the prospect of maturity, opportunity of a wide-open future and the expanse of heart and soul. When are you more likely to see the unparalleled hand of God in your own life than when you make a chancy decision in faith of God’s provision? However that provision might look. If you want your life used by God that might mean having an unsafe conversation with someone. It might bring an awkward difference to your relationship but it also might make all the difference with their soul. If our finite minds could comprehend what we are missing by not venturing beyond what we know, the risk would be not risking. Zero risk can get you zero gain, God is going to do what He wants, with or without you.