ARCHIVE 2006: Back in the concrete jungle

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and encouragement for our '06 Brazil Amazon Team. Everyone arrived home Sunday safe and tired. There are some remaining stomach issues and the team is in need of rest so your continued prayers would be appreciated. The most frustrating part of the trip proved to be the airfare problems coming home. Our TAM flight from Sao Paulo to i was delayed so by the time we went through customs in Miami we were late in making our Dallas connection. There were issues with our luggage so some of our team had to literally run through the airport trying to make our original Dallas flight while the remainder of the team had to fly standby on 2 later flights. Even though it was a hassle, I feel blessed that these issues were the worst of our problems returning home.

In my experience, it is harder to assimilate back into Dallas life than it is to actually go to Brazil. While in the Amazon, our team becomes very close. Except while we are ministering in the village, our team spends all our time on the boat so we get to know each other very well. After spending so much time together, we get home & each person goes their own seperate way. In Brazil, we spend so much time together and rely so much on each other but back in Dallas we fall back into our independent ways.

Seeing people in the Amazon that struggle to survive, I sometimes ask myself, "Who is better off?" Even though we have all the creature comforts of home, I see people in the Amazon who are genuinley happy. We spend so much time accumulating "stuff" and they spend so much time living in true community because that is all they have. We have all the technology and creature comforts that money can buy but I envy the simplicity of their life.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR:
Rest and renewal for the Brazil team.
Reflection on what God has done through us and in us.
New believers as they will experience trials because of the decision they have made.
IPM mother church in Manaus, Brazil.

I will update again in a couple days when I can give statistics of what we accomplished on the trip. Thanks again for your prayers and encouragement.

Tim Coblentz