Loving the Amazon

Wow what an experience this past week has been! Last night my team returned to Bogotá from an 8 day mission trip to the Amazon Jungle around the area of the river where Colombia, Brazil, and Peru meet. It felt SO good to sleep in my bed last night and take a hot shower this morning but my mind and part of my heart are still in the villages along the Amazon River.

Leticia, Colombia

On Thursday March 21 we landed in Leticia, Colombia which is the VERY southern point of

Leticia, Colombia--the very tip of colombia!

Colombia  next to the Amazon River on the border of Brasil. We went to the JUCUM Amazonas base (Juventud con una misión....in english known as YWAN or Youth With A Mission) We got all unpacked and then went to a Christian orphanage and played with the kids and got to know there names.  Then the next day, Friday, we went back to the orphanage in the morning and did one of our Bible outreaches with the kids there and played games, sang songs, told bible stories and did a craft.  Then, we left and went back to Jucum to get all of our things packed and took our last shower in civilization before heading out the next day!

In the Orphanage in Leticia. 

On Saturday we then took a 3 hour boat ride and arrived at our first village: Zaragoza. 

Zaragoza

The village of Zaragoza

When we arrived to Zaragoza it was HOT.  We went over to the bleachers and sat down while all the kids came over. We were waiting for them to tell us where we were going to put up our tents so while doing that we ended up playing soccer, jump rope, and talking with the kids. It was fun just having a time to hang out with the kids.

The first night Lilia (a former ECA teacher that has led this trip in the past and was able to come) was out on the sidewalk telling the students Bible stories just form her head in Spanish and I was amazed and realized that I wanted to be able to do that one day.  As she had to go look for something she's like "Allie! Talk with them while I try and find this."  I was freaking out on the inside because I'm still not SUPER confident in my Spanish. So I taught them the song "Eres Todo Poderoso" and then tried to think of an easy game I knew how to translate in Spanish so we played "Simón dice" "Simon Says" haha sooo that worked for a while but finally Lilia came back and that's when I realized how much more I want to work on my Spanish to be able to talk and play with kids like that without a struggle. 

Beautiful kids of Zaragoza!

The next couple days went better. I was having conversations with them in Spanish and told a group of them my testimony.  There's one time that really sticks out to me was when I was just sitting on the front porch of where the kitchen was with my Bible and 5 kids came over and sat by me. They started touching me and my skin because it was so much lighter than them. Then they started playing with my hair because they hardly ever see people with light blonde hair.  It was really interesting.  But my favorite part about it was I just sat and talked with them about the love of Jesus and was asking them questions.  I knew I couldn't say a Bible story straight from my head and so thankfully I had my bilingual Bible with me and asked the kids if they wanted to hear how God created the world and they said "yeah!" so I opened to Genesis 1. And started reading and would stop every now and then to ask them questions to see if they were following along. It was SO beautiful and you could just tell they were hungry to hear stories of God. I asked the kids if they were going to go to the movie that night in the church and they responded yes so I told them I'd see them there.

Swimming with the kids in the Amazon River!

That night we showed the movie "End of the Spear" about the missionaries who went to Ecuador and were martyred for trying to share the Gospel of Christ. While we were a little into the movie with Felipe sitting in my lap a girl comes up behind me and I hear someone say "Allie" with a Ticuna accent. I turn around and it was Jamie! One of the girls that was on the porch. I told her I was excited that she came and that she should sit by me so she came and sat by me.  It melted my heart that she remembered my name and found me at the front of the church.  After the movie Lilia had a very impacting speech about Christ and making Christ the center of their lives. We then prayed with them and were singing songs in Spanish.  

Watching "End of the spear" Jamie is the little girl next
to me

Also, I translated a little for the dental hygienest that came down with the medical team and learned new words for cavity & gums haha.  I was intimated at first because again, I'm not confident with my Spanish but I know I have gotten SO much better.  It ended up working great and I was able to communicate with the families and translate back the questions they had for her. As the trip went on I kept getting more and more confident with my Spanish--Praise the Lord!

On Monday we went over to Puerto Alegre. We left all of our stuff in Zaragoza because it's only across the river. 

Puerto Alegre

Telling a Bible story with puppets we made!

Puerto Alegre is a village that is a 10 minute boat ride across the river from Zaragoza.  It is located on the Peru side of the Amazon River and was 20 degrees hotter! It was crazy how much hotter it was.  While the doctors were treating the families we were outside with the kids singing songs, telling Bible stories, coloring pages, and playing games with the kids.  The kids in Puerto Alegre didn't speak much Spanish but they understood it.  I mostly just played with the kids where it doesn't require a bunch of talking. 

Kids coloring in Puerto Alegre after the Bible story

Then we went back to Zaragoza for the night and got all packed for the next day where we went to Dos de Mayo. 

Dos de Mayo

This village is down the river closer to Leticia and still on the Peru side of the River. We arrived on Tuesday and this village was by far the hardest one yet--for me.  It is the most Christianized village and the man of the house we stayed at told us how the Gospel was brought to that village and he said it was 23 years ago when an indigenous missionary brought the Gospel and from then on they started a church and more and more families have become Christians. This village is from a tradition that most ticuna tribes have where when a girl gets her first period, they end up taking her, throwing a party where the men of the village can come and do with her whatever they want, pull out all her hair and then bathe her in the water to "cleanse" her from what happened and after all of that is when she is finally considered a "woman" They practice this in Zaragoza & Puerto Alegre. Fortunately I didn't see any girls with a head covering and no hair but there were girls with necklaces which symbolizes that it's about time and when she starts she hangs her necklace in the house and that's when her parents know. But, praise God that this village is free and healed from that awful, evil, tradition. 

The village filled with water!

At Dos de Mayo we did kids ministry which was fun and played soccer but these kids even spoke less Spanish. They could understand it but amongst each other they would always speak Ticuna. These kids also kept flicking and touching my hair because it was so different than what they had ever seen.  

This by far was the hardest part of the trip for me: I was tried. I was mentally, spiritually, and physically exhausted.  Also, to top it off the village was flooded with water knee deep so wherever you went you had to get wet and that just was REALLY annoying.  

I was doing my devotional time with God and was asking for his strength and I was reminded that this was like a race.  My personal weak point in running races is two-thirds into the race. That's when you are so tired but know you have a little more to go.  I would always want to let down at this part of the race to save energy until the end but that would always make me lose my place and I'd have to work twice as hard to regain it at the end.  I was two-thirds into the race and knew I need to keep pressing strong and not lose my endurance.  This verse came to mind, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:24. I needed to press on and run in such a way to get the prize. After that I went back with the kids to play with them...but it was still mentally & physically hard.  

playing soccer and jump rope with the kids

A couple getting married in the church

The last night in the church in Dos de Mayo there were 2 weddings.  The doctor on our team is also a pastor and it's a tradition to have a pastor from somewhere else to marry them.  Two couples got married that night and they had 1 baby dedication. It was beautiful.  The next day we took down the tents, loaded the boat, and made our way back to Leticia. 

Then we got all unpacked in Leticia and repacked for our flight that afternoon.  

Airport in Bogotá

As we were waiting for our luggage I made a trip to the bathroom. While I was coming out I heard some girls speaking English to each other but in a different accent that I had never really heard.  I thought it was Irish but ha I was wrong.  I kept going and then all the sudden I heard one sing, "Farther along we'll know all about it" Being a BIG Josh Garrels fan I stopped, thought about the words she sang, turned around and asked "Is that Josh Garrels?!?!?!" She responded "yes!" and we started talking about how he is my favorite singer and asked her where she had heard him and she said one of her friends on their trip. I found out she was from South Africa and there was a team of them that had just got back from a week in the Amazon Jungle as well and they're on a trip called "Global Expeditions" which is based out of South Africa and is a Christian Organization and their team was traveling all over South and Central America.  I was encouraged by what they were doing and where they were going and so we prayed for each other and it was SO cool to see how God's family is scattered all throughout the world but we all have the same Spirit in us and the same goal to glorify Him in everything we do.  What a blessing that was.

Anyway, now here I am back in Bogotá and still haven't started grading or planning for next week...I'll get to that here either tonight or tomorrow but all day I have just been reflecting on what just happened and now what do I do with this, how do I pray for them, where do I go with this and I just sit back and think how I just need to be content where God has placed me right now and for this time in my life that means investing in my students and being the best teacher I can be that glorifies God. 

TWO MORE MONTHS & I will be done with my first year of teaching. Just like the last couple days of the Amazon I need to keep running with perseverance the race marked before me and finish the race strong--fixing my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith--who for the Joy set before Him endured the cross!