Welcome to the Jungle!!!

If you are wondering how we can update the blog from the blog from the jungles of the Amazon it is due to the miracle of techonology as we have a satellite router that is finally working. As of Tuesday noon, the team is healthy & safe. I will try to give another udpate tonight of todays events.

We made it to Brazil, at 5:15AM!! We went through customs and found our host, with no complications! Praise the Lord! We went to Hotel Monaco to eat breakfast and rest up after our long flight. After what we all agreed was the best nap ever, we toured the street market in downtown Manaus to buy lots of goodies. The town is beautiful, the hotel… not so much! We ate lunch at “Bufalo Churrascaria”, where they had authentic Brazilian food, brought out on skewers… they had everything from normal looking beef and chicken to cow tongue and chicken hearts… It was better not to ask what you were eating, but the chicken hearts were quite tasty once you got past the thought of actually eating a chicken heart! We went to a church service with our host church where we sang songs and listened to a sermon in Portuguese. It was so moving to listen to the service with fellow believers even though we couldn’t understand what they were saying! We sang “You are Holy” but in Portuguese, and a new song where two of our members helped lead the song. The whole congregation prayed over us for our travels. After the service, we packed up and headed off to the boat! We had a light dinner and went straight to bed, which we were all ridiculously thankful for, despite the reeeeally close quarters. The boat started on its journey down the Amazon while we were sleeping!

This morning we woke up and went to a village called Novo Airao to get some supplies and see the village. The Amazon River is bigger than you can imagine, but so calm for a river! There are so many trees, but all different kinds of trees next to each other, unlike in the states. We’ve seen some animals… dolphins and crocodiles and lot of multi-color birds. The Brazilian team that is on the boat with us is really nice and super helpful. We had lots of team building today and organizing so that we’re ready to go into the village tomorrow. We travelled up the Rio Negro 18 hours and will travel slowly back towards Manaus each day. Tomorrow, we will see all that the village of Abacaba has to offer! Can’t wait to meet the people and be able to love on them. I got to meet the dentist on board, Marcus, with whom I will be working. He’s from Manaus and is a full time missionary dentist. God has really been good to us and blessed us well already. I can’t wait to see what other miracles he will perform through us.

Story by Alana Macalik