NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Yes, even though we live in the middle of the rain forest, we do have a “dry season”. We still get rain during dry season but it just isn’t enough rain to supply all of our water needs. We get enough rain so that we have enough drinking water but we don’t get enough water to supply water for washing dishes and clothes. So, for the last couple of weeks, Kris has been pumping water from the river. Our river water is VERY dirty but as it sits in our water tank, most of the silt settles to the bottom. The fork of the river we are on is pretty small and really low right now because of dry season. The kids have been enjoying playing in the river now that it is so low that Colton (our 2 year old) can walk across it. I keep a close eye on all of them while they are splashing around as the river still scares me a little bit. The tribal people love to watch Colton float around the river with his swimming suit that has floaties sewn into it. As you can imagine, they have never seen anything like it. However, as they do have fears about their little babies drowning in the river, they have asked us where they can get a floating suit like his. It is amazing how quickly the river can rise or fall. Just a couple of days ago, Sorayni (a 5 yr old Ash girl), almost drowned right where our kids play. There must have been some rain upriver and the river current became so strong that she couldn’t fight it. Thankfully, one of the young men saw her little hand sticking up out of the water as she was being swept away. He swam as fast as he could to catch her. She is running around today and feeling fine. We just praise the Lord for protecting her and we pray for God’s protection for all of the children as they play in the river.

Well, I wish I could say that two months have flown quickly by but that is not the case. ha We have had more good days than bad though and I am thankful for that. My newest adventure has been handling the medical needs in the village. My co-worker is the main medical person and she is out on a two week break so that leaves me “in charge”. Of course, I am not doing any major medical procedures out here, for which I am very thankful. I mainly am just giving antibiotics when needed and treating skin infections, etc. The only tricky situation I have faced so far was treating the witch doctor. He didn’t come to me for treatment but one night while I was over at their house, his wife whispered to me that her husband needed some medicine for his feet. She was boiling a certain leaf in some water and after a little while, she called him out and washed his foot with the cooked leaf. He did have a bad case of athlete’s foot and it had gotten to the point where he was in a lot of pain. Apparently, a lot of the people have a problem with athlete’s foot right now because it is rainy season and they always go barefoot so their feet never dry out. Ok, so I go and get a cream for him to put on his feet and then he shows me a place on his leg where he has a bad case of ring worm. I could tell by this point that his wife was putting a lot of pressure on him to tell me these things and he was feeling very humbled. I finally just left the two different creams that he needed with him and came home. I then proceeded to toss and turn all night, wondering if I had showed him the proper amount of respect. On the one hand, It is good to see the witch doctor admitting that he doesn’t have all the answers. However, we don’t want to offend or show disrespect. I certainly don’t lack for opportunities to “cast my cares upon Him”. Mary-Jane

Well, it finally did rain and things have cooled off really nicely. I was surprised that we went for 4 days without any rain, kind of strange for rainy season but I guess it is getting the end of the season already. There have been a couple of days that the bugs have just about been driving me crazy! Thankfully, we don’t have any mosquitoes in the house to contend with but we still have those nasty little biting gnats. In Portuguese, they are called meroim but I’m not sure of the name in English. Anyhow, they are really bad in the house and they start early in the morning and last all day long. I got so frustrated the other day because I was making bread and I had dough all over my hands but I could feel them biting the back of my neck and I couldn’t do anything about it. Actually, the worse thing for me is how they bother the kids when we are trying to do school. Hopefully, this is a bug that will go along with the rains and we will have some relief in dry season. The powder that I put on the kids seems to help with the chiggers and the sand fleas that were getting in everyone’s feet have seemed to lessen so that is nice. We continue on with school and potty training and there are many days that I think that I must be the WORST reading teacher and potty trainer. It is not uncommon to be sitting at the table with Dawson while he is crying about having to read and have to get up to clean up the puddle that Colton has just left on the floor! Yesterday afternoon, I heard this screaming coming from the jungle and I could tell by the sound of the voice that it was a little girl. Well, we had just seen two boys walk by our house coming from that direction and I decided that they had probably left their little sister there alone just to be mean. I told Kris that we should go out there and get her, I felt compassion for her as a fellow little sister with two older brothers Well, Kris walked down the trail and he eventually found her sitting in the mud, with mosquitoes swarming around her, throwing a big fit. He brought her back to the house and we fed her some beans and rice. She really did look like a wild thing as she was all dirty, of course, and she had her pet monkey sitting on her head the whole time. The color of the monkey and the color of her hair really blend together so if you don’t look closely, she just seems to have a really wild hair do. After she ate, I started doing my language study on the computer. I was sitting out at the dining room table. Well, she snuggled up next to me to listen to the familiar sounds of her language and before I knew it, she was laying on the table beside the computer with her ear right by the speaker. The monkey on her head fell asleep and I think she almost did until she heard her delinquent brothers calling her name. She kind of hid from them for a little bit but they finally realized where she was and when they found her, she was all smiles. She forgave them quicker than I think I would have.

It is definately a bug’s life out here in the village. The kids and I have a game to see who has the most bugs bites. Unfortately the kids have been winning that contest. There are a few new bugs in town from the last time we were here. We used to not have any grass around the houses. When it would rain the place would be one mucky mess. While we were away the grass came in, which is nice for the mud, but with it came chiggers. So our first days here we were getting chigger bites all over the place. Colton, bless his heart, even had some large welts on his head from the little red devils. Along with the newcomer chigger, there are the regular pium (biting gnat), no see ums (another biting gnat). But the latest gal to enter the neighborhood is a sinister little lady. She has changed our daily routine. We now have feet checks at night before bed. Suspicious spots are met with a needle and a ball of alcohol soaked cotton. The little sand flea has moved in. She will burrow into your feet, usually around your toe nails, and begin her family there. In order to get rid of her you have to dig her out with a needle and get all her little eggs out as well. “Bicho de pe” is her name and this literally means, bug of the foot. I have dug three out of my own feet, 2 from Baylee’s and one from Dawson’s. Thankfully it is not too painful of a process. Other than dealing with unwelcome bug visitors, we have also been getting our house in order. After being gone 9 months there were lots of things to fix, clean and arrange. We are more or less moved in and I am getting excited about digging into the language. No needle needed for that, just a big shovel load of God’s grace to tackle the complexities and sometimes painful learning of Ash. Thanks for praying…

Yes, as of today, we have been back in the village for one week. We had some initial problems with our email so today is the first day that I have been able to give any kind of report. I am sitting here under my mosquito net as I think back on the last 7 days. They have been somewhat of a blur and as my daughter says, it seems like we just go here yesterday. Its incredible to think about the way our surrounding have changed in just over two weeks. Not too long ago, I was drinking a Starbucks while browsing the book shelves of a book store with my husband and today we were sitting on a muddy log beside a tribal hut, swatting at gnats and trying to communicate with the people living there. The rains have been coming down heavy ever since we arrived and the area around the peoples homes is just a sloppy mess. It broke my heart all over again to see these sweet little children crouched in the mud around their fires. They are so accustomed to these living conditions that they would never complain. Ironically, as I was sitting with them, my own two year old slipped and fell and got his little hand all muddy. He on the other hand did not hesitate to complain! We feel encouraged about how “at home” we feel here. The kids have been so excited to be back. My six year old said, “It just feels so good to be back in the tribe.” They all seem to share his feelings. They have been romping around like they never left and exploring their old favorite places. Today the kids were out behind our house with one of the tribal children and he spotted a snake a few feet from them. My husband and his brother were able to kill it, thankfully, and I just felt so thankful for the quick eye of this little tribal boy. He knows the serious danger of snakes and he is trained to spot them at a young age. This incident was a good reminder of how God is and will continue to protect the children in a possibly dangerous environment. It took me by surprise that I felt joy in being back here. I know that there were many people praying for our transition back into the village and God has been SO good! His grace has overwhelmed me!