Amazon Adventure
It was certainly a trip that we were excited about…we had been holding our excitement for this experience for what seemed like forever and the time had finally arrived. We were going to spend 4 days and 3 nights on a boat on the Amazon river, sleeping in hammocks and engaging in conversations, while simultaneously looking out onto the waters and into the mystery that is the infamous Amazon rainforest. What a dream. The Lord had opened this door for us and we knew that He had a plan…like He always does of course.
We arrived on the boat on Day 1, set up our hammocks and took a moment to take in where we were and the beauty of what we experiencing. The idea was to take the next few days slow..to engage in a bible study and worship every morning as a team, thereafter we were going to focus on being intentional with the people around us, and perhaps creating opportunities to share the gospel and to build relationships. We were expectant, and again, extremely content with where we were. The first 2 days, consisted of the daily planned time in the word, worship, breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, Brazilian music that played for the full length of the day nonstop, and a lot of wonderful hammock naps…it was refreshing and restful.
I must say that I do wish, you had seen us in the mornings. Personally, it was a beautiful testimony of what it meant to be unashamed of the gospel in the simplest way. There wasn’t much space to isolate ourselves to worship etc, so the only choice we had was to form a circle in the middle of the floor amongst all the other people and to do our bible study as usual and to worship no differently to how we normally do it…with a guitar and with all the breath in our lungs. We were a site to see… but we were unapologetic about it, and that was beautiful. Our Lord is constantly working even when we don’t realise it and by the 3rd day, we had attracted enough attention to draw in the curious folk. It’s funny because even though we were looking for people to talk to, what ended up happening is most of the people the Lord had a divine encounter with came to us.
One morning our bible study was interrupted by a man that came offering us some sort of fruit pudding…he was curious about who we are and needless to say, we ended up engaging in conversation with him for a while. He was a major conspiracy theorist and had fascinating views and concepts. That conversation attracted someone else…which then attracted another person, which then attracted another person, and then ANOTHER PERSON. In total that one conversation was the reason, 4 other people approached us. That day, amongst those 4 people was the conspiracy theorist, a freemason, a Christian that was seeking more and a pastor. From the early morning till after lunch, approximately 6 hours, we spent our time conversing and breaking down scripture for these people. It’s almost like God had brought the people who were buried in the lies right to our doorstep…and we hadn’t really done anything out of the ordinary…at least for us.
The next day, we had gotten up to do the same, bible study and worship. What happened seems insignificant but it is a beautiful testimony of how important it is to be bold and unashamed of the gospel. The freemason and a few other people we had met on the boat ended up joining us for worship…5 people we had basically just met sat in a circle with us as we worshipped Jesus unapologetically.
We have no idea what was happening in the hearts of all those that sat around us, but I know for sure that the Lord did not bring them to us in vain, we can trust the Lord to continue the work that He started in each one of them…This is only one example of the many encounters we had on the boat
Although we had so many conversations with interesting people with interesting world views, I suppose there are several things we can look into in terms of what God was trying to teach us.
Perhaps one of them was to listen. So often, when people have opposing views to us we quickly cut them off and try to budge in with the truth. The truth is, sometimes the best way we can serve unbelievers is by listening to them and revealing the truth to them in a loving way… a way that doesn’t make them feel insignificant or unheard. The other thing that perhaps the Lord was trying to reveal to us is that we do indeed carry light, and it’s our responsibility to make sure we aren’t allowing our fear of man to dim that light. Most times we won’t even have to do much before people can see the Jesus in us, but if we are concerned with what the world thinks then we need to rethink if it is truly God that we are worshipping or the world. We must be prepared to be fools for Christ.
Even though the Amazon was a time of rest and pondering…we’re grateful and privileged to have been used by the Lord during this time. It’s always so amazing to see how the Lord uses us to reach His people. May this be a constant reminder of how He is constantly pursuing us.
The people, the sun glistening on the water, the never-ending Brazilian music in the background, the delicious food, the friendly lunch ladies and waking up to the sunrise are just a few things we’ll take with us as memories of this adventure…
Unfortunately, we didn’t see Piranhas, we would’ve loved to catch one as a souvenir, for those back home who immediately think of Piranhas when they think of the Amazon (it’s okay so did we lol)
We’re excited for the adventures that are to come as we head off to the Middle East!