Many Blessings in a Rural Village on a Hill

A message from Margie -

The whole team had such a great day. We were visiting an Indian tribe in a village today that doesn’t get very many visitors. It’s in a very rural area on the Negro river. Anita Top gave 25 haircuts today, the clinic saw over 20 different people here on the boat, and Bob and Lois did a great job with leading vacation bible school.

This is the most beautiful country! I feel like we are in Hawaii. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but this is what I imagine it to be like.

The food has been amazing on the boat. All of us are feeling great and we are very energized. We are dealing with a little bit of lack of sleep, but otherwise, we are all doing well.

We are praising God for this blessing to be here. This is something that I have never seen before and I can’t believe that I get to see it and be able to share it with everyone.

The village is up about 30 feet from where we are on the river. There is no running water, but they do have a well. They have electricity that is run by a generator, but they live in huts and don’t have any windows. It is very rural, but very beautiful. There are several Christians living in the village and we will worship with them later tonight.


A message from Susan R. -

We sailed through the night and woke up in a village called Terra Preta. We had to climb up steep stairs to get to the village, which was in a clearing at the top of the hill. We started the day with devotions and breakfast and we are all healthy and doing well. The food here is tremendous and the cook is great.

After breakfast and devotions, we started our day with vacation bible school, show and tell, crafts and a puppet show. The kids are very eager to learn. There were 35kids in the morning and 35 in the afternoon.

Heather and Matt went swimming in the river with some of the Portugese workers from the boat, and Anita brought her hair equipment and gave free haircuts. There was a line of people all day waiting to get their hair cut. Girls, women, men--they loved it! We believe a new ministry has been born.

The clinic ran from 9:00-12:00 and 2:00-5:00. The people are very loving and respectful and grateful that we are here. There were many women with babies and various illnesses and skin rashes. At the end of the day there was a very old grandfather. He was a slender man with beautiful dark eyes and dark hair. He brought his four year old granddaughter who had an abscess on the back of her head. I ended up working with the doctor in the afternoon and helped clean the wound. At one point, she fell and it broke open. We had to hold her down while we cleaned it out. I had brought a stuffed animal on the trip that was too big for anything else, so I was keeping it for something special and was waiting for the Lord to show me who to give it to. She was crying and looking at me while we cleaned the infection out of the wound. She ended up looking at me lovingly and it was just a wonderful thing that I could give the stuffed animal to her. We watched them get in their canoe and go back to their little house they were living in on the river.

Matt and Jim did construction work most of the day.

NOTE: The phone connection was lost and I didn’t get the rest of the message.

Posted by Sarah Leemon