The Amazon River right now is extremely flooded. Many people have lost their homes to the flood and have been displaced into other River Communities. As we traveled along the river, we saw the remnants of what used to be the place where families would tuck their children to sleep at night. It was heart breaking.
We arrived at the first village and broke up into teams. The boat was converted into a small medical center and villagers were brought on board to deal with all kinds of infections, worms, tooth decay, and disease. The womens team went and began to love on the women of the community, gave them all kinds of gifts, painted their nails, and cared for their basic needs. The children’s team went and did a ton of amazing activities with the children and hosting a VBS. I was with the guys team and our first task was to have the tar beat into us by the village soccer teams. Soccer is a HUGE deal there and everyone in that village could have played at the collegiate level. Needless to say, we got hammered. Within all of the ministry that was going on, the gospel was being shared as often as possible. We had the opportunity to partner with a church that was based in the jungle and come along side of them in their efforts to shine the light of the Gospel into the rest of the Amazon Jungle.
We ran into many of the same obstacles in sharing Christ with the village that we did Phillip. There is a long standing belief that one obtains eternal life and is made right with God by doing the right things. The result of that belief is a lifeless religion that is motivated by guilt instead of a relationship with our Creator. Through many different avenues, we had a chance to speak the truth of Grace into their lives and some came to understand it. It is amazing to me that something that is supposed to point towards Jesus point to the exact thing that He came to stand again. It was so cool to see them actually read the scripture and see them for the first time understand grace and forgiveness. The men of the village did not want much to do with the message of Hope that we were sharing, but the women, teenagers, and children were receptive. All together we saw twelve people place their faith in Jesus Christ. It was so awesome!!
The Brazilian people are such a beautiful and kind people. They welcome everyone into their homes with such joy and even though many of them only own the cloths on their backs, they have a peace about them that I am honestly amazed by. The distractions of the world don’t consume their lives and they live as a true community. It was very cool to see. God did an amazing work in their lives and we got to watch from really close up. Its awesome!!! More to come soon.
for God
for People
for the Nations
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