Change of Address

Please note that we are in the process of moving. If you would like to send me a package, please write to me first so that I can send you the new address. If you send it here, they have no forwarding services. So it won't get to me :)
Thanks!

Back to the Amazon

Well, something funky is going on with the site, so the pictures are out of order...let's be flexible.

Tomorrow morning I will be heading out to the Amazon again. I am taking a mighty team of four women (including myself). Rachel (of course you know who Rachel is), Lorena (21), and Stephanie (aka Fefa 17). Some might laugh at the thought of receiving a team of counselors and then...surprise! They are four girls with the average age of...you do the math. But I have full confidence in our team and believe that He has given us sufficient gifts and passion to really bless the people there.

We are going to be going to different towns/cities along the Amazon River. I will have the HUGE blessing of being able to return to the little community where I was last year. We are starting our outreach there for two weeks, working alongside the DTS team (which should be interesting and challenging but good). Then we will be in Leticia, Tabatinga (Brazil), another river community on the Colombian side, and...other places that we don't even know because they are unconfirmed!!! Yes!!

We need prayer! Like crazy.

1. Pray for safety/health. Last time I was there we were drinking rain water. Yum. We can have a parasite competition in the group. Or maybe we can go to new frontiers like typhoid!! Weeee! Good news is that I have health insurance. Good stuff. They will even fly me back to Medellin if I need it. (Like THAT would ever happen...wait...this sounds oddly familiar...) There is also malaria, more dengue...who are we kidding. It is the jungle. Prayer for health is not going to be in vane.

2. Language/Communication Barriers. Guess what they speak in Brazil...NOT Spanish. So me, Rachel (who is still working on Spanish) and two Colombian girls are going to give conferences to people who speak Portuguese and Ticuna. If I need to translate, that is going to be interesting, since I haven't really practiced Portuguese in...six years? Pray that the three weeks that we are in Brazil would be amazing at that people will understand us (and that we would understand them).

3. Team sanity. I am leading. Enough said.

No seriously, when you are intentionally jumping into the middle of the hurt and sin of people and families, there is NATURAL emotional stress not to mention SUPERNATURAL opposition. We need spiritual covering.

4. Wisdom. Discernment. Boldness. Creativity. All absolutely necessary. Please pray especially for me as I am leading the team.

5. Pray that God would use us greatly and that we would allow ourselves to be used greatly.

Just pray alright? Why are you still reading this...you should be praying!

But first, I must address the burning question in your hearts. Did Desteni do something to her hair?? Why yes. I went to get the roots done again (since post-black hair trauma) and my hairdresser decided that I wasn't white enough so he went just a wee bit more blond that we were going for. But hey, it is still cute.

Now, with that inspiration...on your knees people!

Brigade Update...Finally

Clowns to entertain the people waiting to see the doctor.
My director and I. I am trying to stab him with my Peace flag.
Karen Lorena and I. She was a part of team Dengue when we all got sick.
Morning devotional.

This last brigade was amazing. God provided so much and so many things came together, that we knew that He was going to work in a special way. There is so much to tell...

Pre-Arrival

I had written to various supporters to see if they wanted to help with the brigade. Thanks to the offerings of a group of people, we were able to take hundreds of dollars of clothes and medication to the people of Tierradentro.

Adorable story I must tell. My beautiful, amazing, missionary nieces worked to be able to send special presents to the kids in this village. So this section is for them.

Auntie Xuxa (I) bought clothes and a special puppy to give to a little girl there with the money you gave them.

Xuxa crossing the river with puppy.
Puppy loved the river. She was there with my other team members.
I loved puppy very much and gave her one last hug before giving her to Adriana.
I told little Adriana that I needed her to take care of Puppy for me. She loved her, too. She even took her to the Pact for Peace event and had a little blanket to cover her from the rain! (Soooo stinkin cute).

Arrival-

We left Thursday night at traveled all night. (My non spiritual story that is a taste of what it is like to live cross-culturally...I went and got my seat on the bus in back. I go and a woman and her TWO CHILDREN were all in one seat. Like the kids are really going to sit stacked there for SEVEN HOURS. So the woman and her children, another adult woman, and I all squeezed into two seats. That was exciting. I, honestly, was furious. They also sold too many tickets and three people had to stand, yet pay the same price. I sat silently and tried not to breathe fire. The other woman made a bed on the ground for the children and offered her them her food. She showed me Christ.)

Other highlights- we were so tired that we slept on the ground at the bus station with homeless people. Then we got caught in mud on the way there are were stuck for an hour. (This will get more spiritual...I promise).

Look, Mom! I can mud skate!
Mom, no worries! Everyone needs to sleep on the ground in a public place at one point of their lives. Live on the edge.

We arrived and went immediately to work. I was working between counseling and with the youth. I did get to attend a couple of people, but it wasn't a very counseling happy place. So I put myself to work with the youth and WOW. I loved it! I even had a special class with the girls to talk about sex and relationships. It was so much...well, I was going to say fun, but that isn't the word. It was enriching. We had a time of ministering afterwards and three of the girls from the Cartagena team came up to me to tell me how much it had blessed them also. I got to talk to a 12 yr old girl and explain why it was not a good idea to run away and get married. She got it. I was glad.

I was also working closely with my friend Jhonny who also had a great time with the guys. There is so much need there among the youth. They have been through so many horrible things, and have so much immorality. We were really impacted by the need for discipleship there.

The youth we were working with.
I would be the white girl on the left. I think... No wait. That is another girl. Ha! So what. I was still there.
Team praying beforehand.

Me praying over people from the community.

We finished the event with a Pact for Peace. Members from the community, along with representatives from the government, schools, hospitals, etc came to make public commits to peace in their area of influence. There was also a time of forgiveness for those that had committed acts of violence against them.

God's Protection-
Tierradentro is not a safe place. The night before we left, a man was tortured and murdered in the village. We were assured it was an act of revenge, but still, I prayed to make sure I had God's blessing in going. I had a vision of a warrior angel with a huge sword to fight for me. So I felt confident in going. We went there and in orientation that pastor told us that we were not allow to leave the building alone. And we should try not to be outside too much. We (the foreigners) slept together next door to the military post. The intention was great, but the security sucked. The building was open to the street because the wall had been bombed out last October. The locks on the door were nails that you just had to push with a little force to open. The last night, two insurgents scoped out our night service, letting us know without using so many words that they knew we were there. The next morning, they sent us back early in a separate car to throw off any attempt at us. The pastors asked that, though they loved us and God used us amazingly, that they not send foreigners next time. It was a sobering time to know that God really did protect us. He knew we didn't know the degree of danger there and He honored us. So I will not be able to go back there unfortunately until it stabelizes more. That makes me sad because I really did love so many people there and have a burden for the work.

I will post more pictures soon to tell more stories.