This month we have our squad leader, Hannah, with us and she gave the boat the loving name of…The Boot. Hannah is so funny, she always finds joy and the lightheartedness in everything, even if it really sucks. She has such a good attitude and she’s so intentional. She also has NO fear of mosquitos, spiders, roaches, bats or any other creepy crawly’s…having her with us this month to experience the boot life has been such a sweet blessing for team Fiercely Loved. We love you HAN!
The Creepy Crawly’s…
So…boot life…yeah, I already mentioned the creepy crawly’s a little…they’re creepy, they’re crawly and they’re ALL OVER! It’s basically impossible to avoid them. The mosquitos swarm and spiders will drop right in front of our faces during dinner and then land on our plate…right after we find a dead mosquito full of blood in the middle of our unfinished food…appetite GONE (this actually happened to Cam).
If a mosquito gets in the bathroom with you during shower time…you either kill it or you get a couple bites on the buttocks. Thankfully, we have these really nifty electric racket zappers that burn up any of the creepy’s that get in its path while we swing it around aimlessly in the air.
After we cleaned out the hull of the boat last week, the roaches started showing up in our living area as well…so we’re surrounded by the creepy’s but we’re all getting better at handling them, killing them, or just not freaking out when we see or accidentally get touched by one.
Last but not least…the ants. OH, the ANTS. They are EVERYWHERE. There are big ants and little ants, fire ants (that BURN) and sugar ants and they’re on the bank and on the boat, in our clothes and our food and I think they’ve infested the refrigerator…so that’s fun. But we’ve learned how to keep them away, at least a little.
Ministry…
Ministry is different on the boat! There usually isn’t a schedule just a to-do list and incentive. A lot of this month is sitting with the Lord, talking to Him about our identity and what He says about us and spending time as a team. Because of our constant time together, Fiercely Loved has been able to spend hours of uninterrupted quality time together.
But then, outside of ‘being’ with the Lord, we are given the opportunity to serve with Samaritans Purse and clean and do some repairs on the Ruth Bell medical boat. We are preparing the boat for its next medical trip in February and it makes all the sweat and dirt worth every second. We have cleaned out the hull, scrubbed and washed almost all the walls of the boat inside and out to make them shiny white and clean.
We have also been given the opportunity to do 3 days of kids ministry in our port and surrounding ports! It has been so fun to go on the streets and invite kids to these small events and see them show up in crowds. We have done dances and skits, colored with them and share snacks with them.
Our host, Phil, is a gem of a man. He has a heart for people and loves so amazingly well. He is kind and generous and he loves to serve. Phil is completely selfless and it has been so sweet to hear some of his stories from his life and the wisdom he has gained over the years from the Lord. Serving with Phil in this ministry has been such a blessing to my soul and I know he has and will continue to make Kingdom impacts all over the globe!
Sleeping…
Sleeping is always fun. Recently we moved to a different port for a couple days to get some repairs done on the boat and because of the move, we lost our already limited electricity connection. What this means…we have to periodically turn on the generator so our food doesn’t spoil, we don’t have any fans for night time, and ½ the lights on the boat don’t work. The main thing though is the fans. Fans here are NECESSARY! Without fans we go to bed hot and sweaty, it takes forever to fall asleep and we wake up multiple times in the night…sweating.
But last night…I decided, with a few of my teammates, to set my tent up on roof of the boat! There were a couple great things about this decision.
- It was still hot but not nearly as hot as in the room and my tent is basically pure mesh so any breeze that comes hits me.
- It was the night of the lunar eclipse and I got to lay in my tent, safe from all bugs and watch the moon as it turned more and more red.
- Apart from the moon I got to see the splendor of every single star visible to man.
- This morning when I woke up, I looked up and saw 30+ mosquitos just chillin’ on the mesh of my tent…but they weren’t on me. THEN, I looked to the east and saw the INCREDIBLE sunrise! WOW!
So sleeping can be hot…but we make the most of it. It’s also prompted a lot of hilarious conversations but Brook who is still adjusting to the intense heat and can be a little bit of a hilarious diva at times (totally understandable!).
Dropping things in the river…
This has happened a few times… To start off, we wash our clothes by hand and then hang dry them. Sometimes we want them to dry faster so we hang them on the rail instead of clipped on the line. And sometimes something falls in…
The first instance was with one of AbbyLin’s pieces of clothing. She came to get me (so I could ask Capitan to help us) and we took our little skiff to retrieve her clothes from the water.
The 2nd time I was sitting on the roof, in my swimsuit doing my God time and sunbathing and as I stood up a gush of wind came and my seat pad (like a workout pad) flew off the roof and into the river. Immediately the current started taking it away and I ran downstairs, too late to retrieve it with a stick, and I had to jump in the river before it floated too far.
And last night I was downstairs and I heard a yell and found out that AbbyLin had dropped her water bottle from the roof into the river…we considered hopping onto the boat next to us as it had drifted quickly away from our boat and decided to wake up Capitan instead. Again we took our little skiff to go get our fallen item.
Every time something falls, it’s always an adventure and it just adds to the excitement of the day.
The Roof…
The roof of the boot is like our safe place almost. To start it has a lot less mosquitos (usually) but it is the place a lot of us go to spend time with the Lord early in the morning. Sitting and looking out over the river, seeing cormorants diving for fish, an occasional pink dolphin breaking the surface of the water and some of the prettiest birds you’ve ever seen, makes this place a place of peace.
I’ve also taken a little time during our rest days to lay on the roof, relax and get a little sun.
And then our night time tent adventures also make the roof really fun.
Daily tasks…
Every day we have to run around with our electric mosquito killer and try to not get bit.
We have to pump water from the river and purify it every day or we don’t have enough to last us through showers, dishes, washing clothes and flushing toilets.
Cooking is a task because our kitchen is tiny but also gets VERY hot…and when the mosquitos get in it’s a war zone! We always make the best of these cooking adventures though and have learned to never take a shower beforehand if you’re the one cooking.
Life on the boot is uncomfortable. It’s sticky and hot. We don’t have electricity a lot of times and we have to strategically think about our food and if it’s going to spoil…but it has been such a rewarding month. We have been able to spend uninterrupted time with each other because of being secluded from everything and we have had more alone time with the Lord than we could have dreamed of the last 3 months. And above all we have gotten to be a part of preparing this boat for its next medical trip to reach remote tribes all over the Amazon Basin. Not much can get more rewarding than that.
I am so thankful for life on the boat…it has forever changed me and humbled me.
