Jungle Adventures

a kid´s camp in quito, one quick day in lima, mountain towns near huanuco where we slept on sheep´s skin and used the privacy of a wall for our bathroom, a lovely conference, then a bus trip back to lima, a flight to iquitos and we´re ready to start with ¨recapping¨ our time on and near the amazon.

this is tuesday morning september 2nd--we were supposed to make it out of iquitos with themorning boat right after we arrived but that didn´t seem to be the Lord´s planning so webrought all of our stuff to a very nice hostal where we each got our own bed and a room with a private bathroom in it. we spent the rest of that day passing out tracts, sleeping, checking up onwhen we could get the next boat out to leticia, eating, and having a meeting. the next morninglydia and i woke up at 11:00 (much to our surprise) and grabbed some breakfast in the marketthen quickly packed all of our stuff up to hop on a 2 day boat to leticia. daniela, lydia, wilmer, anna, and i ¨saved¨our spots in the hamocks, although it didn´t seem to help one bit later on. meantime dave, franklin, lydia, ben, nathan, and daniel bought motorcycles and ate food. in the evening daniel took us out to grab one last ¨good¨dinner before being on the river for 2 days. then an hour and a half later than the time that we were supposed to leave (welcome to SA time!) we started our trip down river.

after getting ¨settled¨ if you can get settled with literally 3 people sharing your personal spacewe had a Bible reading with a young boy who seemed quite interested in the Word of God. afterthe reading we sat out on the deck for a while and watched the dark night slip by with the slapslap of the water hitting the side of the boat. finally after a long after noon of sitting in the hot wewere able to take advantage of the cooler weather and set to the task of finding a place to sleep. franklin had to sleep on the nice steel floor, anna and danna slept in the cabin (although they wanted to sleep in the hamocks), and most everyone else slept in hamocks. lydia and i had literally 6 people piled above, below, beside, diagonally, you name it around us. guess the south american men just really wanted to be close to the gringas. sleep did come though ,which was very surprising to me.

be this is now Thursday, september 4th and the morning on the amazon was very beautiful andthen the day turned HOT. we passed the day reading, writing, trying not to bump into too manysouth americans (although the task was next to impossible), playing games, sitting on the roof ofthe boat and getting laughed at by a dozen or so different people, and fighting...which seemed tothe most intereting activity for it took place the most often. :) in the evening we had a reallygood dinner (the food there was actually quite good). then, after another reading we went to bed. this time lydia and i got the cabin and the other sleeping arrangements for everyone else staying the same with exception to dave: he decieded to sleep on the roof of the boat if i´m not mistaken.

¨ Friday, the 5th happened just about the same as the previous day but had a little more suntanning or buring involved and also jumping off the railing (for nathan and dave). daniel met and talked to many south american people and planted a seed in many people´s hearts that we can pray the Lord will allow the increase. we were told we would arrive in leticia at 10:00 in the morning. we arrived at 6:00 in the evening in santa rose (just across the river from leticia). south american time agian for you. when we got off the boat and i was very happy to be on GROUND again. everyone got their passport business taken care of in santa rosa and then dave went down river with daniel to try to re-sell the motorcycles because the customs man was not letting them take them off the boat. daniel gives us instructions to meet paul at either the fruit market or the floating taxi dock. this then started an adventure including trudging through mud with our luggage (a backpack and duffle bag) plus daniel and dave´s for 1-2 a mile , franklin, nathan and i taking a few small backpacks up the road a bit to see if we could spot paul and get him topic of the others, not finding him, talking to several policemen for help, sending franklin back to tell the others that we´ll get them picked up soon, then nathan and i getting a ride to paul and martha´s house in a police car (what can i say, they´re famous here), and then finally getting a hold of paul to let him know where the other straglers were left behind. cheese sandwitches, carrot sticks, cucumbers, chocolate chip cookies, and juice has never tasted so good in my life! to be back with american food once again, we all were smiling and ¨ahhing¨like no other. their house was the best feeling we´ve all had in a long time. even nathan said after sitting down at the table ¨i think i´m going to cry¨.

the next day we had a late breakfast, got a grand tour of leticia , and enjoyed another amazinglunch. the rest of the day was filled with just relaxing and catching our breath from the trip. inthe evening we had a meeting on Acts 16. after the meeting everyone started to help with dinner.

the following days were not too busy because daniel had to go back to iquitos to return some bikes he and the boys had bought but the customs wouldn´t let them into leticia. so most of the time we wer just relaxing, at times cleaning, and eating. lydia and i got to teach and met some very interesting friends, lee and tanna chowning. the most significant thing about the day was that we were able to stand on the border of columbia and brazil--being in two places at once really isn´t all that bad! :) daniel got back the next day and started to plan some different outings with paul.

thursday the 10th finally arrived--the day we had all been waiting for: aunt cheryl joined us again in leticia. the whole brimlow family went to pick her up and i must say it was VERY good to see her again! the next day emily amsler switched her places with the united states as she went back home from visiting here in leticia.

Sunday was the first sunday with a sunday school and breaking of bread that i actually understood. it was nice to be able to pray and understand what you were saying ¨amen¨ to. the sunday school was a good challenge, specially for the younger generation coming from judges 17. we discoverd that sampson´s great great or maybe just great grandpa could´ve known joshua...and yet look at where israel was during his time. and here the challenge was presented by paul and dan to not let the ¨spiritual bar¨ fall from generation to generation as it had for sampson. after a very nice breaking of bread we at a delicious lunch with the Chowning family (a family that lives here and helps paul translate and teach). during the after noon the young people (which was actually a nice group: lee, sarina, tanna, and fairy chowning along with the 8 others from our group) played authors, ¨agents¨, then psychaiatrist. after the chownings left we went into town for some south american icecream. as we walked back to the house us girls (lydia, danna, bethany, anna, and i) started talking about making a fancy dinner for paul and martha and dan and cheryl. when we got back to the house we went to the internet and did some research and came up with a hawaiin theme and threw around ideas such as fruit salad, shish cabbobs, crepes, and then something for dessert. in the eveing we had a question answer meeting with the question ¨why do we keep sinning after we get saved¨ the answer that i most enjoyed was ïf things were perfect down here we wouldn´t want to go or look forward to heaven.¨ that answer pretty well wrapped up the question in my mind although we spent another 45 minutes discussing the subject...it was a nice meeting though. after meeting we made pop corn (one batch of kettle corn....SOOO good!!) and cut up cucumbers and watermelon for an evening snack. daniella did the dishes as she often does and everyone else watched her and cheered. just kidding...everyone is very quit to jump in and hlep out here (with exception to nathan who we have to bribe with something containing sugar to get him to work). after everything was finished up everyone was quick to get to bed for an early start the next day, we were all going to go down the river to benjamin constante.

everyone sleepy eyed and groggy rolled out of bed at 5:00--all 15 of us and after a quick reading we went to the river and met tanna and her father will. we were going to go down river with them to benjamin. well, will was not expecting such a large group so after an hour of standing around waiting for our boat man and for life vests and a very unhappy will comlaining about how he was supposed to be there in 30 minutes when it takes about 2 hours we were told that 5 of us had to turn back. dave, nathan, lydia, bethan, and i were very quick to offer. so we sent franklin, ben, wilmer, daniela, and unlce dan down the river for th rest of the day. meanwhile back in leticia we all spent a pretty lazy day, eating, sleeping more (which some of us did right after we got back), checking the internet, and doing some individual studying and reading.

the next day, tuesday the 16th was not much more of a ¨sleep in.¨ we had to get up at 6:00 thismorning. but the day it brought was MOST rewarding! we got to take a boat down the amazonfor the whole day and go to 3 jungle villages and pass out the word of God in form of tracts andbook marks. bethany gave me a good book to read on the boat and it was a very fun ride. thefirst town was fun but the second town we went to was SO awesome! there were 4 differentgroups, all with walkie talkies and we got to tramp through alot of jungle scenery. after gettinginto one of the villages my group passed out tracts and bookmarks and we even got invitied to gointo a house and have a little sit down chat. dave and nathan took a swim and after coming out ofthe amazon were probably more dirty than when they went in. the next stop aunt cheryl, bethany, and i took a nap on the boat which was heavenly and i woke up to the sound of children calling out to daniel and nathan who were throwing them candy. the kids would very excititedly run back and forth and up and down to beat the next kid next to them to the piece of candy. it made me realize how much we must be leaving an impression with them and made me pray that the Lord would be able to use our time here to help do a work in their hearts. we then turned around from this village to go back to a village we had had stopped at to have a meeting. the fact that we had a huge amazon rain storm changed our plans and wet and cold we all descided to got straight back to leticia. after a good dinner we all went to bed, very tired but all very happy.

the next day i was very sick and so i didn´t do anything all day except lie in bed, drink tea, readand occasionally walk around. near the end of the day i felt very ¨emptied of self¨ as daniel likesto call it. the rest of the gang, however (with exception to martha, cheryl, lydia and daniela) went to the kilometers passing out some tracts along the road as they walked from house to house. they ended at a Bible school where kids right from the jungle come and learn about the Bible. appearantly the gringos tried to play them soccer and got schooled...by just 3 guys and 1 girl. they then came back and had dinner. the girls and i talked in lydia and my room about some more details on the fancy dinner/when we could do it. it was decided that we would do it friday and therefore needed to tell the dads so nothing would be planned for friday evening.

thursday, the 18th everyone went to the orphanage for about 3 hours and talked to the kids. bethany and i stayed in leticia and did some cleaning up around the house. later in the after noon when everyone got back we went into town and helped paul teach at a fancy hotel called the yurupary. paul and dan were both informed of our plans for doing a surprise fancy dinner for the couples and after the hotel paul dropped us off in town to do some shopping for the decorations. we arrived back at the house, ate dinner and then had an evening meeting. paul informed us that he was going out early friday morning to buy stuff for breakfast so we could join him if we wanted. we then went to the internet in the eveing where all the boys were informed of the plans and that we would need alot of ¨human man-power the next day.¨ knowing that we were going to have an early start and a long day the next day we all tried to get to bed early... 11:00 sharp. :)

friday....a big day! the girls got up and we grabbed our shopping list. after 2 supermarkets, andgoing to the fruit market we had the back of the jeep full of food. paul remarked with a bit of a chuckle ¨i have never been shopping for this long this early in the morning...you women are remarkable.¨ we had bought food to make fruit salad, lemonaid with frozen raspberries, tunna salad, crepes (chicken, beef, and ham), white sauses (4 different kinds, white, cheese, sour cream, and onion), and cheesecake. when we got back to the house we smuggled all the ¨wastable¨items into our room and then paul very helpfully took martha out of the kitchen to wake everyone up for breakfast. we then smuggled the rest of the items into the refrigerator. the morning started with breakfast and a Bible time as it always does. then the rest of the day consisted of alot of prepping, cutting up meet, and cooking various things that could be stored in the fridge that didn´t need to be fresh. throughout the morning and afternoon lydia made tuna salad and our own invention of cheese cake pudding: cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, and uncooked crackers for crust. it was made into individual bowls so there wouldn´t be alot of mess serving it up. danna, bethany, and anna worked on the decorations which was to make flowers out of tissue paper to drape from the windows. nathan did his part in the dinner by setting up the lemon squeezer for us. then matt squeezed the few lemons that we had. we realized that we didn´t have enough of a few things so ben and dave went and did some shopping for us. they did a surprisingly good job at getting everything we needed...who says that guys can´t shop? i cut up chicken, beef, red and green peppers, and onions along with help from wilmer and durle (a girlfrom leticia, and a good friend of the robert´s and now of all of us!). at 2:30 everyone minus ben, bethany, anna, wilmer, matt, and durle went to the orphanage. the ladies were asked to leave during that time as well so they made good use of the internet café. matt sqeezed the rest of the lemons and made lemon juice. anna and bethany worked on stringing the flowers to a string and setting up the side table and other decorations for the dinner. i showed durle how to make crepes by pouring in a certain amount of batter, rotating the pan, and then flipping the crepe. she did her first one and was SO excited it was adorable!! she jumped around in a circle with her spatula waving above her head. then ben made the white sauces... i must say having him ask different questions from the recipe did make me laugh, but he did a great job. the cheese sauces were SO good. wilmer fried the green and red peppers in a sauce pan. and i cooked the chicken and beef, again, in a sauce pan. the moms walked in and the other people were not there... bethany was very nice to inform them that they had to be prisioners to their rooms until we called them back out. when daniella, lydia, dave, daniel, franklin, and the rest of the gang returned from the jail at 5:30 the house went into a hu-bub of excitement. dave and ben were put in charge of cutting up the pineapple, watermelon, papaya, strawberries, and peaches for the fruit salad. lydia went to work on her dessert...she was going to make some kind of pumpkin bread to go along with the cheesecake pudding. this task became a little difficult when she realized she didn´t have any of the 3 spices that normally go in the cake, so she improvised...the cake was still as good as ever! nathan, matt, anna, and bethany went to pick hybiscuss flowers from the median of a nearby street. daniela took over doing the ladies´ hair. i started blending the lemonaid and frozen raspberries and straining the juice. wilmer and durle watched the things on the stove-top. then bethany came and asked me to make the center peice for the table. the decorations that they had made were GREAT! they had strung up the flowers on the door way, set up the side table with a plant and 3 candles with a lace table cloth on it (concieling the cd player for their candle-light¨music), and then set up the candles on the table. i finished making the center piece by making a wreathe of greenery and then stuffing hybiscuss into it. the final product for the table was 7 white candles, 3 on each side of a tall candle (also the candle with the greenery/flowers) with each candle shorter than the previous, 1 green candle for each corner of the table, silver sparkles sprinkled down the center of the table around the candles, finished with a colorful menú card placed on a white napkin. i must give credit to a very beautiful idea that anna gave: to wrap the tallest, center candle with silver thread...which tied the silver sparkles right into the color theme of the evening. that was the encouraging/fun thing about the evening...there were some that didn´t think it could happen, and it was alot of work but everyone worked together and did their part SO well and helped pull off serving the food and making the place beautiful. getting back...the couple´s room was separated from the excitementof the dining room and kitchen by a lace curtan. nathan lit the candles and the men then went into get their beautiful wives (daniela did a GREAT job in their hair). when they came out we had to take alot of pictures of course then i intoduced the waiters: wilmer for dan, ben for martha, dave for cheryl, and matt for paul. the four waiters was to make sure that they all got thier food at the same time--no one was to wait longer than another. they were also informed that they were to check off what kind of crepe they wanted with what kind of sauce. then we all left and the dinner began. it started with the drinks and fruit, next was the tuna salad with melted cheese and parsly (courtesy of lydia...helping to make a very gormet look), and cucumbers. during the time of them serving the fruit we got their cards back with what they wanted on their crepes and after i flopped a crepe terribly (although it tasted good...it looked aweful) daniela was able to take over. she had just the right touch so i prepped 3 chicken crepes and 1 beef crepe and she cooked them. when they were done being fried, we smoothered them in the sour cream sauce that they had all requested. then the waiters brought them out. finally dessert was served with the help from bethany who decorated the cheesecake pudding with raspberries. lydia prepared a tray of her bread and the dinner was complete. after everyone recieved a crepe and food of their own we went and heard a very heart felt thanks from the parents. then we all sang ¨He brought me to His banquetting table¨and ¨emanuel´s land.¨ the kitchen was a MESS and after a lot of prepping/working in the kitchen the dishes were not looking too inviting. we was very happy when dave told us not to worry about the kitchen that he would take care of the dishes. and he and franklin did just that. it was fun to talk to all the girls after all the clean up had been done and just talk about the ¨miraculousness¨that the meal actually had worked out. it was alot of fun for all of us! after the big day when i laid down again i don´t think the bed has ever felt so good.
saturday was a fun day as well! we all had a late breakfast then after sweeping, dishes, and washing down the chairs we rented motorcycles and road into the kilometers. daniel took anna, dave took bethany, and nate took me. the rest of the people drove in the jeep. we stopped at a beautiful pond and since it was one of the warmest days ever we were all ready to jump in. some did jump into the pond just to get cool before we enjoyed a good pack lunch that martha had prepared for us. nathan and i swam across the pond and borrowed a paddle boat while others swam and lydia and franklin road motorcycles around a big soccer field adjoining the lake. then later everyone jumped in to go swimming and we enjoyed a fun time of just relaxing, swimming, and eating. after we had spent enought time at the pond and after dave and ben got back with the motorcycles we went to visit some other people further up the kilometers. then we returned for another awesome meal made with some of the left overs from Friday night´s meal. after a nice meeting with some other visitors we went to bed.

sunday the 21st we had breakfast, sunday school, breaking of bread, and then went to eat lunch at the chowning´s house. while there we had fun talking at watched lee do a puppet show. i think we should buy some puppets for nathan for when he gets bored since he seemed to be the one that enjoyed them the most out of all of us. :) we then returned to the robert´s where everyone took a nap or read and i came and spent the rest of my afternoon here at the internet. i just got paged: it´s time for dinner and meeting´s starting in a half hour.

thanks for all the prayers. God is working through all of us...but most importantly i see Him doing a beautiful work IN all of us. perhaps today we will be united with Him forever. until that day comes we must all continue on for His honor and glory.

-camrianne