Hello, friends and family. This morning we start boating the Amazon! The Internet has been pretty terrible and I assume it is only going to get worse from here, so I wanted to send out a post before we left. We should be in Manaus, Brazil, by October 29 if you don’t hear from me before then.
Here are some updates since the last blog post:
Firstly, my grandmother passed away on Wednesday. It’s been really hard being so far away from home knowing that my family is in so much pain. Mama Tan was the sweetest person you could ever meet, and I hope if I live to be 90 I will have lived a life as well as she did. She is enjoying her eternal reward now, and I know I will see her again one day. This picture is from when I went to go see my dad’s side of the family before I left for the World Race. I’m grateful I got to see her again before I came here.
I suppress emotion a lot and I really don’t like grieving, so this has been hard to acknowledge and deal with while we are traveling basically every day. Please pray for my family as we grieve and for me that I process appropriately and don’t suppress things.
In happier news, a lot has happened since my last blog post.
We made it to French Guiana!
This is how we’ve been crossing country borders lately. Pretty epic.
Once we got to French Guiana, we had nowhere to stay. We went to the town of Mana because we believed that is where God wanted us. This is a pic from when a hotel owner was driving us into town in the back of his pick up truck. We ended up staying in a convent again (God bless nuns!) with this incredible view from our porch:
We hadn’t had a rest day in almost two weeks, so we took some time to rest in Mana. We also made a ministry contact for AIM with a pastor in town. He showed us all around the town and told us about the spiritual climate of Mana. We experienced a lot of spiritual oppression and the demonic activity in Mana was very physically manifested.
I found it interesting that we decided to make sure we got up in time for an hour with the Lord because we were so freaked out by the spiritual things going on. I think the war for souls is every bit as real in the US as it is in Mana; we just don’t see the physical manifestation of it so we live in oblivion. It was definitely a wake up call to me that I need to be spending that much time with God all the time, not just when I can physically see the war being waged around me.
Then we arrived in Cayenne with nowhere to stay. We were told it was impossible to find any rooms under $100 a night, while our budget was $5 a night. We split into groups and headed into the city. As we were walking, I heard people talking about God in Spanish (people only speak French here). We began talking to them, and their friend ended up letting all of us stay in his house for free.
Before starting our expedition work, I asked God to see a miracle with languages. That wasn’t quite what I pictured, but God has a good sense of humor. We ended the day having a picnic with our precious new friends and worshipping God by the sea.
This was the day my grandmother passed away, so this miracle was such a precious gift from a good Father. He knows our pain, and He knows when we need a hug. Nothing is too small or too big for Him to reach down to touch us.
Here is a picture of the group of friends who welcomed us into their hearts and homes. Pedro (on the right) is who graciously allowed us to stay in his house for free. We dubbed him our father and we are his American daughters. Karina even ended up cooking us meals (an answer to prayer because we are tired of cooking for so many people all the time) and she was basically a professional chef. Pray that God blesses Pedro, Karina, and Joerki, please.
And finally, we had a 24-hour travel day to get to Macapá, Brazil. We ended up staying at an Airbnb with a woman who has treated us like royalty. She cooked for us and let us swim in her pool and drove us all around town to let us see the city. This picture is when we went to the equator yesterday! The line runs straight through Macapá, so I got to stand on both sides of the world at the same time. Pretty cool.
So overall we are making contacts, seeing miracles, meeting men and women of peace, and learning that ministry can come in every shape and form. This expedition part of the journey has not looked like what I expected, but it has been better than I could have imagined. We end each day shaking our heads in amazement at what God has done and giving thanks to the God of the impossible.
Please pray against the spirit of performance, that we are able to receive as well as give, and that we are able to find rest amidst all of this craziness.
Please pray for our safety on the Amazon (in all aspects you can imagine).
Please pray God continues to do miracles.
I hope this post encouraged you today, and I will see you again sometime soon!
The video below is the only one I have been able to upload recently. It is short and is a compilation of some of the work we did in Guyana. The storytellers were asked to follow the theme of hope this month, so this was my little project. I hope it touches your heart today.
I will have more videos (which tell the stories and miracles as they unfold) whenever I get to decent Internet.
Thank you for being the best group of supporters I could ever ask for! I am praying God is doing marvelous things in your lives, as well.
Love,
Tera
