This is the first time I have had internet since being in the U.S.! (I am at an internet cafe in a neighboring town.)
HELLO EVERYONE!
What’s going on?!
I am currently in a community (town?) called Huaticocha, which is in the Amazon Basin. Our team is staying at the Ninawachi Mission School site. (Another one of our squad’s teams—Team Reckless Pursuit—is in Huaticocha, as well, but they stay at a nearby church. We get to work with them almost daily, and it’s nice to have more familiar faces around.) Some of the dorm rooms are already built, so we get to sleep in those—the seven of us are split between three rooms. There is no real running water, unless you count the stream that feeds into the Amazon River that runs through the property. This is where we take our baths and wash our clothes! It’s kind of fun and our clothes actually smell clean after we wash them (unless it rains and they don’t dry…).
The weather is a lot milder than we anticipated—yay! The daytime temperature is probably close to 80 degrees, and at night, it’s actually pretty cool—maybe in the mid to low 50s.
It’s still unreal to me that I’m actually in the Amazon Rainforest. I am about five miles away from the nearest jaguar and anaconda, so I don’t anticipate to be eaten by anything, except for the millions upon millions of mosquitos and other bug-like things that are making us all go crazy! Luckily, I think I’ve only gotten sand fly bites; they’re not harmful (I don’t think…), but they still itch. There are LOTS of things that can sting you out here. Apparently, the caterpillars are very dangerous to touch, but the tarantulas are friendly as long as you don’t bother them—we’ve seen two already.
Food! There is a kitchen, and two of the workers—Fernando and Luisa—cook all of our meals for us. They’re awesome—and the food is literally ALWAYS delicious! We eat plenty of chicken, rice, and FRESH fruit!
Oh, man… so, on the property, they’re trying to grow a bunch of different crops. Over the past few days, Jim (one of the long-term missionaries) has taken our team out to harvest cacao (we’re going to make our own chocolate!!!), peanuts, pumpkins/squash-like things, and some other fruit that I don’t know the name of that tastes good. And yes—I’ve gotten to use a machete multiple times. It’s hard, man! My hand muscles hurt from gripping and swinging. That’s how we help with yard work.
Oh! So we actually have toilets! We’re VERY grateful for this. Again, however, there’s no running water, so the toilets are in an outhouse, and in order to flush, we have to go out of the outhouse, grab a bucket, fill it with water at the stream, then go back to the outhouse and pour the water down the toilet. It’s quite an endeavor, but it definitely beats a hole in the ground.
My (very rough) schedule:
5 AM – wake up to our rooster, then promptly go back to sleep
7 AM – actually wake up and wash up for the day
7:30 AM – breakfast 
8:15 AM – spend some time with God—praying, reading my Bible, journaling…
9AM– construction/maintenance/yard work at the mission school
12PM – lunch
1 PM – laundry, continue time with God
2 PM – prepare Bible lesson to present to the kids in neighboring communities
3 PM – arrive at neighboring community of Las Florestas or Diez de Augusto—play with kids, teach Bible lesson, make house visits
5 PM – return to the mission school
5:30 PM – bathe in the stream and simultaneously wash any leftover laundry
6 PM – dinner
7 PM – sit around a fire with all the workers, missionaries, and my team to pray and sing worship songs
9 PM – team time in one of our rooms to share, give feedback, and recap the day
10 PM – get ready for bed
Playing with the kids at Diez de Augusto
How am I doing?
Overall, I’ve been doing really well. I definitely feel prayed for out here. I have not had even the slightest hint of being sick! (Okay–one side of my nose is kind of stuffy, but let I believe that it is just dusty in my room.) I think I’m finally getting into the swing of things; there’s somewhat of a routine, now. During the first few days, I could feel fear stirring up inside of me—being in an extremely unfamiliar environment, getting flustered with all the bugs, not feeling confident in my ability to teach (we teach a Bible lesson/tell a story every time we go into the communities with the kids), missing comforts of home…—but each day, God has overcome all of that, and has gently been reminding me that I really don’t have to fear anything because He is with me. All I need to do is trust Him. Where is my faith?! God’s still teaching me so much about that. And I can already see how far He’s brought me.
As far as my focus on “hope” goes, I think—for this month at least—God will be showing me a lot through my interactions with the kids and other people in the communities we visit. Some of the stories I’ve heard are just unbelievable, like they were only meant for television or something (e.g. Fernando’s brother shot himself later last year and his family has been split up and he blames his father for his brother’s death, a 9-year-old boy named Daniel was in a horrible fire accident and has 2nd and 3rd degree burns all under his arm and around his torso on his left side, so many of the kids are sick/have parasites, and a lot of 10-year-old girls carry around their younger siblings because their parents aren’t around…) But before I left for the Race, I read something that said that the greatest danger a missionary can fall subject to is doubting God’s goodness. I know that over the next 10+ months, I’ll witness many things that could tempt me into believing that; but I cling to Him, knowing that He is good, and I will grow in my hope that He will take care of all the people that I encounter this year. Sometimes it’s hard to really believe that God can and will touch all these people’s lives; but this year, I’m asking that He’ll show me more of how He will do it.
My team has been really great, too. We continue to have team time every night—we pray together, share what’s going on, give feedback. We’re starting to memorize Bible verses together, too; we’re working on Pslam 18:2-3, Pslam 18:6, and Hebrews 10:23 by the end of this month, and Pslam 34 (all of it) by the time we leave South America. Love it.
I’m not sure what God’s main lesson will be for me this year. I know that He has something more to teach me. I feel like there is something deeply rooted in me that needs to be taken care of this year—not sure what it is, yet. It could have something to do with my physical comfort “needs,” me learning what it means to completely set myself apart from everything/everyone else except God, being freed from the constraints and traps of American culture…it could be any or all of these or something else that I haven’t owned up to, yet.
Forgive me for such a lengthy post, but it looks like I’ll only have one more opportunity to use the internet this month, so I’m trying to get in as much information as possible.
Again, I really want to express my appreciation for you following me on this journey. Knowing that you guys are there makes me feel more connected to home. I’ll write back when I can—probably in a week! I cannot wait to hear from you guys, too!
