The day had finally arrived. We were leaving our home in Nauta to spend a week & a half ministering to three remote villages along the Amazon River. We had been excited about this voyage since our arrival in Peru, so we had prepped & were totally ready to go (at least, we thought we were prepared!). Our goal was to bless the villagers with encouragement, messages, personal stories, a program for the children & time to visit families in their homes.
After we had gathered all our backpacks, mosquito nets, life jackets, many gallons of purified water (since it isn't available to buy in the remote villages), food for the cooks to cook (including 4 live chickens in wooden crates), dishes, a small gas stove, a propane tank, craft supplies for Kids Club, etc., etc., etc., we piled everything into the medium-sized wooden jungle boat.
Our first setback had already happened. One of our eight girls, Mary Eliza, developed a pretty bad, unexplainable rash, & because she had been suffering through other random jungle sicknesses, we felt it wouldn't be best to expose her to more bacteria & disease on the river, where medical attention would be hours away. So we left her at home, in the care of our neighbor, a British missionary.
So now we were down to seven of our girls, my co-leader Tiffany & I, Crystal (our ministry contact & translator who had already been to all of our river trip destinations), & a Spanish-speaking crew of two boatmen & two cooks – all beginning the adventure of our lives on the Amazon River. And even the fourteen of us weren't really alone, especially if you consider the hordes of mosquitoes, a tarantula, a couple rats, hundreds of giant flying bugs, black & white chickens, weird ducks, pink river dolphins, maggots & other unknown animals/insects that we encountered.
We finally launched. It felt like we were on an epic journey, & I was already feeling the weight of the epic-ness (as in, this is probably going to get rough, sooner rather than later, lol).
Yup, it was sooner, as several girls started realizing the food they ate the night before may have been a little sketchy & the motion of the boat was not helping. By the time we got to the first village, 7 hours later, girls were vomiting & experiencing terrible stomachaches.
We piled out of the boat, a sorry mess of sickies, into a beautifully remote village that was filled with jungle huts. The kids from the village ran down to the shore to help us carry our bags from the boat to our new home, a little jungle hut with a pointy thatched roof. EVERYONE in town stared at us as we trudged across the one sidewalk in town (of course, we are all pretty used to the staring by now; staring is culturally acceptable here in our part of Peru). Chickens & dogs & bugs were everywhere. It's hard to explain what it really felt like to walk into that place, it was just surreal.
Those of us who were actually feeling normal (not sick) had an incredible time there in the first village & we felt encouraged that God was working & that we had made some wonderful new friends.
I wish I could write more about the crazy misadventures that we experienced, like hanging up all of our very different mosquito nets in small spaces, bathing in the filthy brown Amazon River with a bunch of kids, eating jungle food every day & waking up all night to random roosters crowing obnoxiously loudly (sometimes they were right below us, since the houses were on stilts for flooding in rainy season & the animals could walk right under the houses).
But I really want to share more about our unexpected adventures on the next leg of the trip . . .
So Crystal, our ministry contact, had been planning all along to go home for the middle two days of the trip (our time at the second village) in order to attend an important meeting at home in Nauta & meet us back out on the river, bringing Mary Eliza with her, for the third & final village. But while we were at the first village, we had heard from Mary Eliza that she was not feeling any better, & we decided it would be best to send Tiffany home also to check on Mary Eliza.
So they both left. And then we were twelve.
The kicker is, I was the only leader left. So that meant I would be responsible for . . . well, everything. I was slightly terrified (!!!). I hashed through every possible bad thing that could happen in my mind & said lots & lots of prayers, begging God to get me through the next two days & keep everyone alive, at the very least.
Saying that I was overwhelmed would be an understatement. But God really came through for me in those two days, in the middle of my discomfort & feelings of inadequacy. He gave me strength, grace & encouragement. He even helped me with my Spanish so that I was able to communicate & have real conversations with our Peruvian crew, which I hadn't really been able to do before this time.
As great as it was, I was more than ready at the end of two days for the other two to come back lol! My responsibilities of decision-making, spiritual leadership, morale-boosting & all the nitty gritty details like where we were going to sleep, where we were going to cook, what time we were going to do what, etc., were heavy & I wanted to spread them around with two other people lol!
We arrived at the last village for our final three nights, expecting to meet Crystal & Tiffany & hopefully Mary Eliza there. But they hadn't arrived. I wasn't too worried, though; I assumed their boat was running late or something.
We were chillin' on the boat, taking some rest time, when one of our crew handed me her phone. "Hermana Crystal!" she said.
I took the phone, relieved to hear from one of the ones who was supposed to be on her way back to us at that very moment. But her news shocked me. "I realized I have a lot of urgent things to do at home right now, & I prayed about it & felt like God was telling me not to come back out on the river." Whaaaaaaat??? Then another bombshell. "And Tiffany wanted me to tell you that Mary Eliza is still not well enough to come on the river & Tiffany feels like she should stay home with her. So neither of us are coming back."
"Um, this is not okay!" I was thinking. But it was out of my control, the decisions were already made. "Don't worry," she added, "We sent you some more supplies & treats on a boat that should arrive this afternoon." Well, considering treats were really the least of my worries, that news didn't make me feel any better.
My mind immediately ran back to my fears of something terrible happening & me being the only one there to take care of everyone. I actually thought, "If someone dies, how would I get a body back to Nauta???" Yeah, that may have been a little dramatic, haha! I tried to put on my best confident-in-crisis face as I broke the news to our girls. Thankfully, none of them freaked out, they all stayed calm, amazingly, which helped me to stay calm, too.
And once again, God came through in inspiring & miraculous ways! He carried us through those last three days, as tired & mosquito-bitten & extremely uncomfortable as we were. We were constantly giving with little time to get recharged ourselves, but God supernaturally gave us energy & strength. He used my girls as a huge source of encouragement to me, also – they had so much grace with me & served me & each other so well!! 🙂
We shared the Gospel, the story of God's love, with three different villages. We shared our own stories of what Jesus has done in our lives. We met with them in their homes & spoke awkwardly with them in our broken Spanish, which they always found really funny, of course! We played Pato, Pato, Ganzo (Duck, Duck, Goose) over & over & over. We taught the children that God is their Father, Friend & Saviour. We loved on people & received a lot of love back! Those three villages blessed us so much in return & I will never, ever forget the families & our short but precious time with them.
Our last day, we took the boat back to Nauta, just a 3-hour trip. The kids & some of the adults came to send us off & wave goodbye & we waved & waved for a long time. It's strange to think about the fact that we may never see each other again on this earth.
It's also strange & kind of comical to think about how fearful I was, when, in reality, God had us in His arms the whole time & would never have let us go. Even if something crazy bad had happened, He would have taken care of us.
I instantly doubted God when I should have instantly trusted Him. But He is faithful. He is sure. He is always there for us. I'm so thankful to be reminded of that. It took the Amazon River to make me realize it again, apparently!
Would I do that trip again under the same circumstances? Yes, in a heartbeat. Because I have a God who is trustworthy.
And because . . . even though I hate bugs & dirt & stuff like that . . . sometimes we have to experience the bad to experience the great.
Take it from me, I know. Jungle sunsets are breathtaking. And adventure really is out there.
