Amazon Journal (cont.'d)

9 April 2010

1:50 PM

The great adventure has started!!  Our flight departed Asheville Regional Airport on time and we are 25,000 feet high on our first leg of our journey to Brazil.  We are scheduled to land at La Guardia airport around 2:30 PM EST.  Our first few hours together have been truly a laugh a minute.  We have all been mercilessly aggravating Josh about plane flights but he was a real trooper and gave back as good as he got!  I was a bit worried when we started to board the plane that he might freak out but he did great.  The first few minutes of the flight were amusing when Josh and Kim F. were shocked with some good old-fashioned April turbulence!  That had all of us giggling!  And poor Tony got placed at the back of the plane.  He says he is the bathroom monitor.  Ha, I wouldn't mess with him!

Any concerns I had about how the lone United Methodist would do among the Southern Baptists have been alleviated.  For all intents and purposes, we are now a mission team.  We also got word this morning that we will be coordinating a youth rally on Thursday night!  People know that engaging young people in growing their faith and serving the Savior are my true passions.  My heart is full knowing that I will get to do this on the mission field.  I know that dad would be proud of me on this day.  I remember that fateful last day he was aware of all of us that we promised him that we would continue his work here on earth.  Today, I have started a trek to fulfill a dream of his that was never fulfilled.  By Saturday morning, I will be a servant on a foreign field sharing the faith of my father and my own faith with children and adults who have so little.  May I do so in a way that would honor my dad's memory.

2:45 PM

Start spreadin' the news . . . . . We have landed at La Guardia after flying by the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan.  I hadn't seen either since I was a Junior in college back in the late-1980s.  It is truly a breath-taking view and was extra special knowing that the Twin Towers, which were there when I first visited, are gone.  I thought that Josh was going to float out of his seat!!  His joy of everything new is just so fun to watch.  We currently are sitting on the runway awaiting a gate opening.  And then, the all important search for some decent food!!

7:00 PM

Stage 2 has begun.  We boarded our flight to Atlanta around 6:30 PM.  I am on my second Starbucks Mocha so I am doing great!  Ha!  My traveling companions may be ready to throw me off the plane when that much caffeine starts to work its magic.  It was truly fun going via New York city because it was a treat to a number of the team members.  We are now preparing to taxi for our take-off on the second leg of our journey to Atlanta.  As usual, the Atlanta connection is a tight one which will leave us running to catch the flight to Brazil.  I am amazed to watch Kim D. out of the Waynesville environment.  He shared his faith with our waitress at Chili's in La Guardia airport.  She was very sweet, twenty-one years old, and a Christian as well.  Laura is exhausted and a little under-the-weather.  Both she and Tony slept for a while in the floor at La Guardia.  Laura has been coordinating everything for days and needs to rest during our overnight flight to Brazil.  Tony also needs some rest because he has worked and prepped materials and assignments for his classes for the past two weeks.

I am tired but am really running on full adrenaline.  It is good to be on planes again!  I guess it is true that there are two types of people:  those who love to travel and those who hate to travel.  I definitely am someone who loves to travel.  And this group has already proven that it is never going to be dull!!  We have all laughed so much today.  And yes, Chris is being remarkably well-behaved.  I'm definitely impressed.

The most amusing thing that we've seen was watching three Delta flight attendants try to figure out how to stow Kim D.'s fishing poles!  It took them about ten minutes to figure that one out leading to the inevitable jokes . . . "How many flight attendants does it take to stow a fishing pole?"  Hopefully, all will proceed smoothly and we will make our connecting flight to Manaus.  More to come later!

A Journal Relating My Experiences on Mission to the Amazon River Basin of Brazil

9 April 2010
Asheville, NC

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Matthew 28:18-20 (NRSV)           

There are times that experiences lead us to opportunities that we never would have expected.  I have often thought that my first trip abroad would be to Europe, most likely a visit to the home of some of the greatest literary authors known to humanity, England.  But, life has a way of sending us surprises as we progress through the journey of our allotted time on this amazing creation of God.  Such is the story of how my first trip abroad became participating as part of a mission team on its way to the Amazon River Basin of Brazil.  How did I end up going to Brazil??  It is an interesting story and one that illustrates how our best laid plans get altered by God.

When Laura and Kim DeWeese returned from their first mission trip to Brazil over a year ago, they came back to Balsam Baptist Church where they gave a presentation about their experiences sharing the gospel with the Brazilian people.  It was truly a fascinating presentation; and I found myself wondering what it would be like to visit a remote region of the world among the indigenous people of Brazil.  But, the very human side of me kept saying "no, you couldn't do that.  That's not for you."  Of course, I heard the clarion call as clear as day that this was something that I needed to do.  But being the rational person that I am, I kept finding reasons I could not do this (read that "excuses").  Indeed, I felt just a little like one of my favorite Bible characters, Moses.  My pastor at First Methodist said something in one of his sermons a few weeks ago that reminded me of my vacillations.  Sandy said that he had come to realize over the years that humans are exceptionally talented at rationalizing any and all of their actions.  It was a statement that rang very true for me, a statement that likely left me with a goofy grin on my face in the choir loft.

So, how did I end up yielding to God's call to go on this mission trip?  Well, God for some reason has this amazing ability to use mere humans to prompt us to do what he is asking us to do.  In this case, God brought a young man into my life that has become one of the best friends I have ever had.  I believe God brought him to me to help break me out of my comfort zone.  Tony Wing was the first volunteer for the trip.  As we chatted one evening, he told me he was going on the mission trip.  I told him that I just couldn't do that.  With his typical enthusiasm (and sometimes bluntness), he said "Well why not?"  It was at that point that I realized that I was putting up excuses to avoid launching out on faith and doing something that God wanted me to do.  If a young Christian could so easily commit to going on a mission for Christ, what was wrong with my faith?  At that moment, I knew that I would be going to Brazil as part of the mission team.  I had no job, no clue what I was going to do, but I had the faith to go ahead and commit to going on this trip.  It was one of the most uncharacteristic moves I have ever made but I can say that sitting in the Asheville airport with this group is one of the most peaceful moments I have experienced.  There is no fear, but there is an overwhelming excitement and anticipation to be about the work of the master.

Blogging the Amazon River Basin

Between April 9th and April 18th, I went with a group of seven other people on a mission trip to the Amazon River Basin.  During our trip, we visited two remote villages located approximately seven hours up the Amazon River from the city of Santarém, Brazil.  Our trip to this region included time spent in two villages, Curuaí and Aracurí.  While in Brazil, I wrote over 70 pages of journal entries detailing my thoughts, experiences, and observations about the flora, fauna, indigenous peoples, and the conditions in the villages.  Over the next few weeks, I will be bringing my written journal online in an electronic format for all of those who were interested in our experiences in Brazil.  The experience was life-changing in so many ways and causes one to reassess many aspects of life.  Naturally, when one writes a journal there are some elements of that journal that become very personal.  The most personal of observations that I deem something I do not want to share with the web community will remain in my written journal only.  There are things that are too personal to share (well, at least for some of us!).  I hope everyone enjoys my thoughts about what I experienced in the Amazon River Basin.  It was truly a time of discovery of many things about myself.  Stay tuned for more posts.