August 24th
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| Our boat before it was loaded up for the trip. |
Friday morning we had everything in order. The boat was finally fixed up and ready to go. We had 2 willing boat captains to drive us up river 5 days. Loaded down with 3 weeks worth of food, fuel and all the camping gear and school books we’d need we headed out by 9am.
We hooked up with our friend Palito(toothpick) who is a young fisherman, newly married and soon to be a Papai(Daddy) and who also is Pataca’s brother. Pataca is one of our boat drivers, friend and co-leader of our ministry in Maribel.
Because Palito was driving his boat up the river and knows it like the back of his hand, we felt it would be necessary to follow him up to the end where he goes to fish. Pataca knows the river to a certain point, but doesn’t know the channels further up. The river is super low...dangerously low and many rocks are the main danger to the boat we borrowed from a friend down river. Many said it was a crazy thing to go up the river with out any experience during a time like this. We knew the Lord was with us!
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| Palito's foot steering his boat. This was a constant site from my seat on the boat. |
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| Palito and his boat and crew with styrofoam coolers for fish and large drums for diesel fuel. |
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| Taking a break, Palito sits on the top of his boat and makes sure we're behind him and doing well. |
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| Leading the way are Palito and his fishing crew. |
We drove the boat from 7am to 6pm with little play in between for 5 days straight. We camped at several beaches where Palito and his crew camp as they head up to fish.
The scenery was to die for. Seeing rock formations that were impressive, water levels were so low, you could see the sting ray’s swimming below and rocks pass by that potentially could of put a whole in the boat in one quick hit!
We hit a few times that put slow leaks in the boat and we’d have to bail every half hour, but we stopped and patched it with cotton and with the quick experienced handling of a machete.
We had a few rapids that required the men to push the boat, an outboard motor and the main motor of the boat all to get the boats up the rocky rapids. I, Kelsie, was the only woman on this trip. I took the kids out and we’d walk along the rocks and sometimes had to walk in the swift current to stay safe.
The Lord provided help when we needed it and never were we in any crazy danger. There were a few white knuckle moments, but nothing that threatened our lives.
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| 3 Motors at once to get Palito's boat up the narrow rapid |
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| Palito drives, Pataca, Nathan and Clyde push to get it up the rapid. |
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| Nearly there! |
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| Going down another day in reverse with the motor running to help go down really slow. |
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| Using long poles to control the hits, all 3 guys prod and push to keep the boat safe |
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| Hung up, Pataca gets in and risks cutting his feet or stepping on sting ray's to get it done! |
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| One of our last big rapids needed these 3 guys to keep us from slipping down the rocks |
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| Looks mild, but you can't see all the rocks under us! We were hung up for a bit. We had 3 extra guys helping us get down this rapid! |
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| Dona Celia and Seu BB |
We finally arrived at the last house where Palito left us. We were barely introduced to the owners, but quickly received a welcome. The Dono(owner) of the house is well into his 60‘s, named Seu BehBeh(Mr. BB) and considered an old man. He has 14 children or something like that and all but 4 are sons. Of the 4 daughters, only one young girl remains in the home helping her mother at the age of 15. The first impression I had of this place was “wild, crazy and definitely needing Jesus because there were young people swimming in the river, doing somersaults off the big rock bed that spread out over the river in front of their home. There also was a young man, dark skinned, dark haired and definitely looked hard, who either didn’t know how to drive a canoe with outboard motor or was showing off, but he revved up the motor so loud and pulsated the engine and drove the large canoe all around where the people and even young children were swimming. Even Palito said “That guy is crazy”. It just looked like a classic group that had the partying thing all over them. We were shown an abandoned house we could stay in for our time there by a family friend named Cabeludo(Long haired), which he had short hair. It looked somewhat sound in structure, but needed a little womanly attention to be suitable. Makenna got on sweeping right away, we hung our hammocks and it worked just fine.
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| Our little house we called home for 3 days at Seu BB's |
We met the family by sundown as they all started to hunker in for their nightly routine of watching the national news on TV. I wasn’t expecting to see things of the nation and even the presidential campaign going on in the US. Seemed so strange to have traveled so far and be in the middle of nowhere and still get the nightly news. The house was cozy yet very simple. The Dona(Lady of the house) or wife of Seu BB, is Celia and she was relaxing in a reclined chair, hand made by her hubby. She didn’t seem very personable in the beginning, but once she got up to help us get a fire going in her kitchen, she warmed up real nice. Cabeludo was a big help for the first night, full of conversation and information about the region and such. We had a late dinner with BBQ’d piranha, rice and cold water. Seu BB pulled out a 2liter of orange soda for us. That was way generous for him to do that for us strangers. We weren’t expecting that at all. As we chatted a bit with the family that was there, they we’re very welcoming. We came as friends and neighbors who wanted to meet the folks up river.
That night we went to bed in our little abandoned hut that we made into a home for the next 3 nights.
At 3am, Pataca came to the door. “Pastor! There is a guy who is having a really bad stomach ache.” Clyde woke up and knew Pataca was calling him to come and pray. He went with Pataca and I was awake wondering what was happening. I could hear in the distance a moan that sounded unusual. It couldn’t of been human because it was too steady, rhythmic and sounded like a howler monkey in the jungle. It was so loud and yet I knew deep down it was someone having a fit of something. I began to pray. The noise disturbed me so much, I began to get an upset stomach as I prayed.
Clyde returned about a half hour later and woke up Nathan, our short termer from Grants Pass. He asked Nathan if he would like to go and pray with Clyde for this man.
Clyde informed me that it was one of Seu BB’s sons, the one who was driving the canoe crazy. He’d been partying and drinking alot and had arrived home with a bad stomach ache. It was so bad that the sound I was hearing was him breathing to cope with the pain he was feeling. Clyde said he was moaning in his hammock nearly throwing himself out of it in this fit. I asked him if it was demonic or what. He said the symptom was like a bad ulcer that the alcohol must have made it flare up.
Nathan and Clyde left and I continued to pray. It sounded like the poor guy was on his death bed or he probably wished he would die. Makenna woke up asking what that noise was. When I told her, she couldn’t believe it. We quietly prayed from our hammocks. Clyde also took some liquid anti acid I had brought on the trip. They prayed, gave him the anti-acid and a half hour later, the pain passed enough that the guy could sleep in peace in his hammock! By 4am, Clyde and Nathan came back to their hammocks tired and relieved that the poor guy was resting easier.
The next morning, we woke and went down to Seu BB’s house for coffee. The old man was sitting there already sharing stories with Clyde. I entered the house and said good morning to he and his wife. When I asked how their son was, Seu BB said “I’ve talked to that boy about choosing Life or Alcohol.” I could see his wisdom coming through and his fathers heart. There was a bonding that had happened for us through that situation that early morning. That night as well, it began to rain. It hadn’t rained in over 40 days. The rain came and it felt cozy and the drip outside didn’t allow for us or anyone to push off really fast.
That same night, another son, a bit older than the one who had the stomach fit, had come home with a cut hand. He was cutting a river turtle up with a machete to BBQ, which is a normal river event for them. The machete slipped and cut his hand so bad that it severed the nerves in his hand and left it without feeling in his thumb and first finger. He was so far from a hospital, that he couldn’t just pick up and leave for the hospital to stitch it up or have surgery. Instead he headed home and had it wrapped in a simple cloth. The pain was pretty intense and yet, he was up and around. He has 2 kids that he tended to. He and his wife, were separated and the kids were visiting him. He sat with them as they ate breakfast that morning. He said he’d head to the nearest health post(about 2-3 hours down river) to get stitches. He still was dealing with the pain and the fact that he had lost the main function of his hand.
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| The son who cut his hand still smiling with his children even in the midst of pain. |
By day 2 we had become better acquainted with Seu BB, his wife, Celia and their grandchildren and sons and their families. We had a service with them and it was a full room of family. After worship, I took the kids into another room as the house to have kids class as it was very spacious.
There were 2 young sons of BB,around ages 8 and 12, a grand daughter about 6 and grandson about 5 yrs old for a total of 4 kids. I had a great magazine with colorful pictures that shared the story of Adam and Eve and what happened with them disobeying God and His plan to send Jesus and it lead right into the salvation message! All 4 kids accepted Jesus and the oldest was so excited that each morning and evening, he would be in his room, listening to one of the solar audio bibles we gave his family.
We pray that he learns much from the audio bible and his hunger increases and that he will become a new creation from that of what his brothers have become but he will be able to reach his family as a leader.
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| 12 year old son of Seu BB, doing back flips after learning from his older brothers |
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| Nate found friends to run around with at Seu BB's house |
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| Seu BB's his youngest child, 8 yrs old |
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| Hannah and her friend found dollies in common |
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| First family photo for Seu BB and his family. The young man in the middle, back with green hat, black and blue shirt is the son who had the stomach problems. Cabeludo, standing to the right of him, is the nice family friend who greeted us first and showed us around. |
The rain let up and we were able to travel on to the next villages. Each place we arrived, we were warmly welcomed. Some places we arrived in time to see them play soccer which is usually about 5pm and it gave us time to meet people and get a feel of our location. Other times, we would arrive somewhere in the last few minutes of daylight. Many times, I felt very awkward showing up unannounced with 4 kids and 5 adults, with our luggage, that looked like a small move. But in every place but one, we felt warmly welcomed. The one place we landed at that we didn’t feel a connection was a village where they had a big birthday party planned and we didn’t know anyone. They allowed us to have a service just before the birthday celebration, but it didn’t go off like we hoped for and I personally felt very out of place. We were allowed to stay in the school and nobody from the village came to visit or invite us to their place. So the next morning, which happened to by Nate’s 7th bday, we headed out early and up to a new village. Clyde had met a family who had started their own village and shared that 2 years ago, they went to one of our city churches and recieved Christ. They really wanted us to come and do a service, so we did!
That morning we arrived and were greeted by one of the men in the village who was awaiting our arrival. The path into the village was longer than I’d ever seen. We walked through a very cool, jungle path for about 7 minutes before reaching the clearout where they had built temporary huts and were just starting on the framing of their more permanent homes. We did a service with them and they surprised us with a lunch afterwards. We ended up baking a cake at their village and celebrating Nate’s 7th bday with them. They were very happy to have us do that with them. They gave Nate a handmade beaded bracelet. He was pretty excited about that!
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| Birthday boy and new family puppy too! |
We left late from their place and headed down river to the next village that was expecting us. We got in late, but was warmly welcomed. They had a beautiful village, well organized and very comfortable. We stayed in the school for 2 nights and enjoyed meals and hanging out. They enjoyed our visit so much that they were willing to have us longer. They gifted us with handmade necklaces and other gifts for our trip such as bananas and potatoes.
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| Maddy plays with a river turtle |
From there we made our way going from village to village until we reached home in Maribel. The water levels were super low and many rocks in the channels. We didn’t have an experienced captain, but the Lord lead us through and prevented us from a few potentially disastrous places. One occasion we were heading at full speed when Clyde got a fish on. The routine was to yell when a fish was on and the captain would slow down and wait for the clear to return to normal speed. As Clyde yelled, “Fish On”, Pataca was driving and slowed down. As he slowed down, a few seconds after coming to a much slower speed, Pataca said calmly “Good thing Clyde said “Fish On””...he paused and I wondered why he said that. I looked up and there was a huge rock bar under us that if we hadn’t slowed down at that very moment, we would of surely wrecked the boat and been in some serious trouble. We giggled with joy that the Lord protected us yet again from such danger. It was totally unforeseen and He gave us a fish instead of an accident!!!!!
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| Makenna and Maddy with their first catch! |
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| Clyde caught this peacock bass with this rock in it's mouth!!! |
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| Pataca waking up in the 3rd story of the tree. |
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| Our tent was a life saver for the mosquitos that came out in the evening and morning! |
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| A sister moment on top of the boat. |
By September 13th we hit home sweet home!. It was a good feeling to be back in our neck of the woods where Pataca and Magno knew the channels. It felt amazing to be back in our house with our routine, bathroom and beds!
We made several new friends, we had many new experiences, had white knuckle moments going over the rapids and many fun times playing in the water. We praise the Lord for His unfailing provision from places to stay, food to eat and times when it was uncomfortable and turned our doubts into reliefs!
My prayer is that each time we see these people or they show up on our door needing a place to stay that we will remember them, our time with them and give them a warm welcome like they gave us! I also pray that we will be able to sow seeds and maybe even get to see them bear fruit!!!!
We are planning another trip in January when the water levels are higher and it will be easier to travel the river. Also to have a bigger boat to fit a larger team of Brazilians from our community.
