Tuesday, June 18, 2013
*these are slightly edited journal entries from our time with a tribe in the Amazon (6/16-19/2013) – so that’s why they are posted after the fact and in present tense. This was my first jungle trip! Loved it! We had so many stories from the trip that I decided to post a series of blog posts from my journal, of which this is the 4th. I hope you enjoy getting a more detailed, up-close glimpse into some of our adventures with this tribe – I know I did! Thanks for your prayers!
Today’s our last day here with the tribe… so sad! As I sit here in my
little pop-up tent with my flashlight handing down from the fabric top, I can’t
help but reflect on what God is teaching me here with these people.
Firstly, my mind constantly goes back to that moment when one of the
little girls here slipped her little brown hand into mine, interlocking her
fingers with mine. Oh boy…I was a goner from that moment on. I love these kids!
Wherever I go in the community now, I have two little hands interlaced with
mine. The remoteness and simple-ness of life here (before this trip, I would
have said “extreme-ness”) isn’t really that noticeable most of the time.
Occasionally, I’ll have a moment were I’m like, “Wow, this is so ironic! I’m 2
days from the nearest, moderately sized town, listening to the sounds of the
jungle, with a snake somewhere above my head (and thankfully so! He keeps the
rats from taking over the house at night and terrorizing us while we try to
sleep), hand washing my clothes, braving the enormous spider in the outhouse,
and all our cooking is being done over a fire with water that the boys haul up
from our swimming hole each day...” haha, granted, a little different from my
definition of “normal.”
Overall, I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that I not only could
live in a place like this, but I think I would love (with God’s grace) to live
here, if God gave me the opportunity.
little pop-up tent with my flashlight handing down from the fabric top, I can’t
help but reflect on what God is teaching me here with these people.
Firstly, my mind constantly goes back to that moment when one of the
little girls here slipped her little brown hand into mine, interlocking her
fingers with mine. Oh boy…I was a goner from that moment on. I love these kids!
Wherever I go in the community now, I have two little hands interlaced with
mine. The remoteness and simple-ness of life here (before this trip, I would
have said “extreme-ness”) isn’t really that noticeable most of the time.
Occasionally, I’ll have a moment were I’m like, “Wow, this is so ironic! I’m 2
days from the nearest, moderately sized town, listening to the sounds of the
jungle, with a snake somewhere above my head (and thankfully so! He keeps the
rats from taking over the house at night and terrorizing us while we try to
sleep), hand washing my clothes, braving the enormous spider in the outhouse,
and all our cooking is being done over a fire with water that the boys haul up
from our swimming hole each day...” haha, granted, a little different from my
definition of “normal.”
Overall, I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that I not only could
live in a place like this, but I think I would love (with God’s grace) to live
here, if God gave me the opportunity.