09 June 2015

Children of the Amazon

Boats are a way of life on the  Amazon.  Children paddle their way to school and home again. One school we visited was three classrooms, the only building in the area that was still above water and it only barely so.   Flooding this year was higher than in  many previous years.  We have taken some children of pastors into our program  for sponsorship. We hope to  help and encourage them in  their ministry work.

Amazing Amazon

  In the last week of  May 2015, I  spent a part of my life on board this boat.  We  zipped along  waterways, like roads, in the Amazon  River, braving  hot sun, sudden  torrential rains, fellow boaters and river creatures.  The driver, that is the man handling the motor at the back, used a GPS device to navigate  canals that looked identical to me. Unlike  American waters, there were no recreational boaters here.  Everyone was going somewhere, usually with boat loaded down as ours was--with supplies, livestock and children.  I noticed that dogs seemed to enjoy the experience more than other animals.  The best part was the beautiful scenery and of course the ministry among the villages. The worst part was sitting with no back rest for hours.  I suffered  from my lack of  Spanish fluency, except when we stopped in a village.  The indigenous people did not speak Spanish which put us all on a level field.  Life in the village was like villages in many places where we work.  Homes were simple shelters,  Food was home grown-- plentiful in harvest and perhaps scarce at other times.  Fishing is important. Many of these villages have a church building and a body of believers planted by the missionary who was hosting me.