Hello, friends and family!
It’s been a couple weeks since I last updated you all, so I want to tell you a little bit about all that God has been doing.
Firstly, we spent about eight days on different boats, taking a seven day boat from Manaus to Tabatinga (a border town where Brazil, Colombia, and Peru meet) and then a twelve hour speed boat to Iquitos, Peru. The time on the boat was both good and hard. While it may seem restful, it was only restful in some ways. I got to read quite a bit (see a list of books below), continue leading our Bible study (we finished 2 Corinthians and are now moving on to 1 Peter), and spend time with other girls on the squad (four of the five teams traveled together). Sleeping was difficult and we were beyond exhausted once we finally arrived in Peru.
Once here, we continued on in expedition work, living day-by-day and letting God lead us to contacts in Iquitos. And lead us He did. After being here for only 24 hours, two of the girls were walking in the street and a guy started talking to them. At first they ignored him but finally gave in, and he took them to meet his boss. His boss ended up knowing Seth Barnes personally. Seth Barnes is the founder of Adventures in Missions and the World Race. So I don’t know if you understand how crazy this is, but we showed up in the biggest city in the world that can only be reached by boat or plane, we randomly went walking in the street, and met someone who is friends with the founder of our organization. Cra-zay.
So Demetri (the man we met) set each of the teams up with a local pastor here in Iquitos, and we have been working with them for the past week. My team got partnered with Pastor César and his church, a Baptist church called “Iglesia Esperanza,” or “Hope Church.” We have passed out hundreds of invitations to his church doing door-to-door evangelism, and we have also attended multiple services throughout the week. It has been a joy to work with Pastor César and his church, get to know the people in his family and in his congregation, and be blessed by them.
Pastor César was so grateful to have us in his church, praying for us sometimes three and five times per service. He really looks forward to having future missionaries come work with him, so please pray the World Race will be able to send some more missionaries his way in the future. Also please pray for the softening of hearts in his community and that his church would be able to do some outreaches in the community. Finally, please pray for Pastor César, his wife Irené, and their family. Some of their children are not walking with the Lord anymore, and it breaks their parents’ hearts. Please pray God brings these precious children back to Him.
Many people have invited us over to their houses for meals, whether it be people we met on the street, people in the church, or people we met through connections. So we have spent a lot of time forming friendships and relationships with people, as well.
One of these relationships was formed with a guy named Jasiel, who works at the front desk of our hostel. After spending one night in a little bit of a rough place when we first got here, we headed out the next day to try to find somewhere new to stay. As I’ve mentioned previously, expedition is quite difficult because $5 per person per day is a little challenging for lodging. But, as always, God provides.
After visiting about seven places, all were completely out of our budget. We finally showed up at “OK Hostal,” where there was a/c, beds, towels, showers, and a Laundromat next door (these are big things, let me tell you). Some of my teammates hadn’t had a full night of sleep in over a week at this point, and we were desperate for rest. I felt some kind of connection to Jasiel from the moment we talked to him at the front desk, but the hostel was still double our budget.
Then as I was texting Julie, one of my friends back home, she didn’t even wait for a response before she completely blessed us and paid the difference for us to stay in the hostel for four nights. At first we had a hard time deciding if that wasn’t trusting God to provide, but finally we got over our pride and realized that that WAS God providing. Just because He used someone in the States and not someone on the streets here did not negate His provision.
So we stayed here and in the meantime started our work with Iglesia Esperanza. One day we went to a café to get some Internet and we met Kayla, a sweet girl our age who is here working on her thesis and who also graduated from Texas A&M (very important detail 😉 ). I left my water bottle at the restaurant by accident (something I never do), and SJ and I went back to go get it a few hours later. Not only was Kayla still there, but she blessed us with enough money to cover a few more days in the hostel. We have spent multiple times going to meals with her and hanging out with her since then, and it has been beautiful to mutually encourage one another in faith this far away from home. Lastly, Hannah’s mom had wanted to bless us for awhile, and after hearing about the situation and after our stay got extended, she paid the difference for us to continue staying in this hostel.
A BIG THANK YOU to all of these wonderful people who blessed us and allowed themselves to be used as God’s hands and feet!
Also, please pray Kayla gets good enough Internet to turn in her thesis to her professors, that she continues to grow in her faith, and that she can continue being a light wherever her future may take her in the study of epidemiology and beyond.
Back at the hostel, we continued to form a relationship with Jasiel, and he told me that he was from a village across the river and that he takes a boat to work every day. He told us that his village sometimes caters to tourists, since there is still a local tribe there. Feeling led that God wanted us to continue being friends, I asked Jasiel if we could come see his village one day. I think he was a little taken aback, as he had never taken people from his hostel back to his hometown, but he agreed and we ended up going for an afternoon one day after he got off of work. Not only were we able to talk to Jasiel and form a friendship, he also took us to see the tribe, where we saw them perform some of the ancestral dances passed down through generations. On the last dance they even pulled us up from our chairs to dance with them! It was definitely one of those moments that I never want to forget.
Expedition constantly reminds us that ministry is anywhere and everywhere. We just have to be open to who God places before us and be faithful to build relationships with them. Ask God to show you who He wants you to build a relationship with this week. You might be surprised! Also, please continue to pray for Jasiel even as we leave Iquitos. He has dreams to be an owner of a hotel company, and he is an absolute sweetheart. Please pray God continues to make Himself known in Jasiel’s life and that he continues to pursue his God-sized dream!
Another ministry opportunity we had came once again through the Catholic Church. Chrissy reached out to a local priest who invited us to come talk about what we could do in the community. I went with Chrissy as the “translator,” and then when we got there the priest introduced himself to us in perfect English. While my language services were unneeded, it was cool to hear about all the local houses the parish has set up for the homeless, the elderly, and the sick.
Thanksgiving morning we returned to the church to head out to one of these houses, “Algo Bello Para Dios,” or “Something Beautiful for God.” This place housed around 14 HIV/AIDS patients, many of whom had developed tuberculosis as well. We spent the morning cleaning their house and playing Uno with them. This was one of the most eye-opening experiences we have had so far. While we were cleaning, I realized everyone at home in the US was huddled around tables eating turkey, and these men were in a house, alone except each other, waiting to die. Each man was in various stages of the disease, but a couple were so frail that I’m sure I weighed double if not triple what they did. I have never seen someone that skinny before.
Please pray for the men who are in Algo Bello Para Dios, that they would come to know their Savior if they haven’t already, and that God would give them grace to suffer through these trials until they meet him face to face. Also, we would appreciate you praying the blood of Jesus over our bodies, as we didn’t realize the men had tuberculosis until we got there and we did not realize the disease was airborne, thus none of us wore face masks. Thanks!
On another note, I have a few videos edited, but the Internet here is not strong enough anywhere for me to upload them. I also haven’t gotten any photos to upload, which is why there aren’t any in this post. Below is a video I uploaded while still in Manaus, as well as a music video my teammate Sarah made of us while we were on the boat. Hope you enjoy!
Finally, we are going to Ecuador on Monday! We have officially boated the entire Amazon from start to finish, but now we will take another river (and I think a few buses) up to Quito. Andddd….we are finally working with hosts again!! We don’t know which ministry we will be working with yet, but we are going to have a month similar to month one in Colombia, where we were partnered with a ministry host and we worked with them.
I am so stoked to be somewhere longer than a couple days or a week. I am pretty sure we will be in the city of Quito, but I’m not positive about that yet. I love spontaneity, but I also really love the comfort and routine of a schedule. I’m excited to be going back to the “normal” World Race for a little bit. I will keep you all posted as I find out more information.
Praises:
-That God has provided lodging and food for us in extravagance! (A BIG thank you to all who have given generously to our lodging and our Thanksgiving festivities!)
-That we were able to make contacts for AIM as well as incredible friendships while here
-That our team is closer than we have ever been before, and we genuinely love each other (month two was a little more difficult)
-That God is alive and active in Iquitos! The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
-God has done incredible things in our lives individually, and we can observe tremendous growth in each of us
-We have learned from other cultures, other people, and other perspectives
Other prayer requests:
-That we would continue to be open to what God has to show us
-My grandfather was hospitalized this Thanksgiving for his heart. I would appreciate prayers around him and my family
-I would really appreciate continued prayers over my health and everyone else’s, as well. I think I am going to have experienced quite a range of illnesses by the time we finish. I’ve had blood in my stool and an ear infection, and some girls on the team are dealing with stomach problems. Another girl on the squad even got a parasite. The boys’ team got stuck for a few days when their boat broke down on the Amazon, and they all got super sick, one even passing out in the bathroom. I guess it comes with the territory of the World Race, but we appreciate being covered in prayer nonetheless!
-For continued safe travel
-That God would prepare our hearts as we enter into this new season of serving hosts again.
Also, here is the book list I mentioned at the beginning. I am an avid reader, so I invested in a Kindle for the Race. After not touching it the first month, I almost sent it home when we had a layover in Florida. I’m so glad I didn’t, because once we got to the boats we had enormous amounts of travel time to read!
Here are some of the books I have read over the past few weeks. I highly recommend all of them, for different reasons. I’m just sharing in case there are any other book nerds out there who need some good recommendations (and if you have any for me please recommend!!)
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (I read all three of these, but I’m debating if I’ll go back and read the Hobbit or not)
Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield
Seeking Allah Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi
Chase the Lion by Mark Batterson
Final Quest by Rick Joyner
I am currently reading:
Unshaken by Tim Tebow
Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
Captive in Iran by Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh
Thank you for caring enough to read through this blog post, thank you for your prayers, and thank you for your love!! We are heading into month five of the Race!! *high five*
Tera
