A change of scenery

Waiting to board the plane while Tim completes his preflight inspection.

For those long time followers out there, you may have noticed an absence of Josh authored blog posts.  I've sat down to write a few times, but not much came from it.  Since changing ministries in 2011, I've found it harder to find topics to write about.  It's not that my life is suddenly boring, I really enjoy what I do.  But who wants to read a blog on the latest Annual Inspection we've done at the hangar?  Me either.  The other day I got the opportunity  so I loaded up my camera and jumped in the plane...

It was just a day trip, a quick stop in a couple villages that our leadership is evaluating as possible locations for us to begin visiting with Health Clinic Teams in our mission's boat.  It reminded me of the many survey trips that I had made with fellow missionaries in the past.  Traveling by plane did make the trip a bit different in one regard - in less than 3 hours of flying we covered what would have taken over 40 hours in a boat.  

I was able to see a side of the ministry that I usually miss out on when my head is under the cowling of an airplane.  Here are a few pictures that I took and some things that impressed me:

Arara, the first community we visited, was well developed by Amazonian standards. The two main streets were actually paved even though a car had probably never driven on them.

You don't arrive in a river community in an airplane unnoticed.  The young boys especially were very interested in the plane.  I told one boy that he should stand right behind the plane when we start up and he would feel a blast of air, he followed through on my suggestion and wore a big grin the whole time.

Marco (with backpack) and Eunice (blue shirt to his left) are both leaders in Asas, they spent most of the time talking to leaders of the communities, pastors, and health workers trying to get a feel for the needs and welfare of the residence.

At the community's health post we found this all too common scene,a boy laying on a cot unresponsive, his parents the only people at his side.  No doctor or nurse in the village meant that he would have to be transported to a staffed health post several hours away by boat.  

As I walked around the community I met a boy named Allison, the name of my friend from Altamira who has joined me on many trips to the interior over the years.  I missed my friend so I bought little Allison a Coke.

The second community we visited was more what I was used to, about 12 families living on the bank of a river in a region that seems to offer very little.  Welcome to Novo Sonho (New Dream).

The only income in Novo Sonho was day wages from a local rancher when he needs the help. They say it is nearly impossible to grow crops because of the cattle grazing. 

 I'm not sure if Novo Sonho was the dream that its residence had hoped it would be.  From the looks on their faces they appeared to live a hard life.

I wonder what the people thought as we swooped in with our questions and cameras and left just as fast.  I am sometimes cynical about short term trips that just seem to offer a bandaid to a problem so much more complex than we can imagine.  But then our pilot Tim shared with me about a nearby community that we had been working in for several years.  A church from a large city in southern Brazil who had been partnering with us decided to adopt this community as their ministry.  They sent several teams to help with health needs, build a church, and do other outreaches.  A woman from one of those teams decided to move to that community and work with them full time.  She now teaches at a community school, works with church leaders and is reaching out to several other communities in the area.  An intern from the sending church went to help her this past year and now the intern just recently committed to staying long term to continue the work as well.  And the catalyst was a short-term trip from a church with long-term love.

So I suppose we can look at the little we are able to do and throw up our hands saying it's not going to change anything.  Or we can continue to give what little we have and watch to see how God multiplies that.  

I think I'm going to stick with working on airplanes, but it was refreshing to see that although the problems seem insurmountable, we have a God who is bigger - but more than that, He chooses to use what little we have to further His kingdom.  Whether that is turning a wrench, visiting a needy community to offer temporary relief and hope, or leaving our home and family to work permanently among the "least of these".