So we are sitting at the house after ministry doing the typical thing- reading the Bible, listening to music, playing cards, and then the pastor walks in and tells us we are going to the jungle. Awesome!!! So we filled our packs with three days worth of stuff and got in the van. We arrived at one of the churches we have been working with this month and spent the afternoon playing volleyball with their youth. That night we went to their service out on the basketball court and spent an hour singing Christmas Carols over the loud speaker that broadcasted about four blocks. Well lets be serious, I don't know any Christmas Carols so I did a lot of smiling and clapping. That night we slept in the pews of the church (one of my favorite beds yet) and in the morning we piled into another van headed for the jungle.
About an hour later we arrived at a beautiful rocky river… which all 15 of us and our packs crossed… in motorized canoes. My teammate Jessica can't swim and had one of the most terrifying experiences of her life that day. The waters were really high, our canoes were really low, the current was going crazy and our driver was constantly bailing the canoes as we sped through the rapids. I loved every second of it- including the many times we almost flipped and/or crashed into the rocks.
We pulled up to a boulder on the side of a mountain, climbed out, and hiked up an incredibly steep and muddy hill. When we got to the top we crossed a sketchy broken bridge and then found ourselves in the exact situation you would expect to find in the middle of the Panamanian Jungle… on a cement sidewalk that led the rest of the way to the tribe. Random. Weird. Convenient. That night we played music with some of the community (they let me play the drums! … and yes the jungle tribe has a modern drum kit) and then had church with them. It was awesome!!!
Some of the girls on my team on the way out to the jungle
Our transportation out to the tribe
We made it!!!
