NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Just wanted to let you know what is happening down here in Brazil, in our neck of the woods, (jungle, that is).

Mike left this morning for a four day trip with the two pastors and one more believer, to visit a village that has been asking to be taught God’s Word. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to lead and use the men as they teach and for open hearts of those who are hearing. These trips are as much for the training of the church leaders as for those who are hearing God’s Word being taught. Mike was not really looking forward to the long hours on the hard bench in the boat, or the food or living condition but he is glad to be a part of what God is doing in here. We find that we have more joy in living for things of eternal value than we would if we were living for our own pleasure. We want what we do to be gold, silver and precious stone, not wood, hay and stubble.

Thanks for praying again for me as I hold down the fort here at home. There aren’t very many people in the village right now as most have gone down river, so it is really quiet. This afternoon as I was doing dishes, I moved a pan and there in the sink was a bat. It was so creepy looking. Thankfully, I was able to call one of the Yanomami men and he got rid it for me. I am a not very brave! The women and children sometimes ask if I am afraid of the raiders when I am alone, I tell them that the Very Great One is very strong and He is taking care of me. So pray for me to “be strong and of good courage” as I trust in the Lord with the little and big scary things that happen!

Sure appreciate knowing that you are praying! Thanks so much for doing that for us!

Love,

Mike and Diane

Lots has happened in the last few weeks so I will just send a quick catch up of all that has gone on.

May 21- AM  Almost the whole village left to go about 8 hours down river to their new community gardens.  They had to go through some rapids to get there so we were really praying.  One man did overturn his canoe and lost most of his possessions and food but his life was saved.  Glad that wasn’t one of the canoes with young children and babies.

May 21- PM After seeing them off, in the afternoon the plane came and we headed out to town.

May 22- We drove all night and most of the next day to get to Manaus.  The road was terrible and it took an extra 5 hours or so to get there.

May 24-25 Lots of running around Manaus, getting parts of two of the Yanomami’s boat motors and other supplies for them and us.

May 26- We got on a boat heading up river to the small town where we would meet four of the Indian men with their large boat and send up supplies.

May 28- Arrived there and met the men.  One kink in our plan was that it was a holiday that day and most stores were closed.

May 29- Back on the boat to head down river to Manaus.

May 30- Arrived in Manaus.

June 1st- Drove up here arriving at midnight.  We were asked to host an English couple that had been visiting some tribal missionaries and we expected them the next day (the 2nd).  Due to rain in the village they were not able to get out that day, which gave us time to get rested up and more ready for them.  They were flying in to town on the 3rd, when they got to town it was raining, they were low on fuel so had to land on a dirt road out on a farm right as it got dark.  The folks in town had their GPS location but didn’t know what roads to take to get there so they were out there for about 5 hours.  They didn’t have much to drink before their flight and so by the time they were found they were very thirsty and she was very bitten up by bugs.  I made a list of what I want with me on every flight I take, water, repellant, tp and a flashlight!

They were good sports and ready to go and visit Guyana with us the next day, where we were able to buy peanut butter and a few other things not available in Brazil.

I could write a chapter on everything that has gone on; the boat trip, mattress smelling like moth balls, no seat on the toilet, the water in the sink and toilet is river water therefore brown….etc!  I once again realized what a spoiled American I am.  I had my own private bathroom and a bed, most people slept in hammocks and shared the bathroom with countless other people!  Mike could have left me in Manaus and made the trip himself but I felt very loved that he wanted me with him.  So I was glad to make the trip and happy to meet our Yanomami friends there.  (We just heard that they did make it safely to the village with the supplies, praise the Lord.)

One other interesting event was the one night in that small town, Mike went out looking for cough drops at about 11:00 and who should he see but other men from our village.  The second boat had also come down, they said the older people had sent them so we could send up another boat load of food!  We hadn’t planned on doing that, and in the end God didn’t allow us to.  Because of the holiday, the ATM machines ran out of money.  We were down to our last 75 cents when we got on board the boat to go home.  We had sent up about 200 lbs. of food for them, then ran out of money.  As we were looking through our wallets, Mike found a wet  bill worth about a dollar, I prayed I would find some money in mine but there was none.  A few minutes later, Mike found 500 reais (about $280) he had hidden in his suitcase so God did answer my prayers.  We were glad for that as we had to pay a little more on the boat for cargo and get a taxi to take us to the mission house.  It is so neat how God is sovereign in every detail of our lives.

June 11- We are planning to fly back to the village on Friday.  We just heard that a radio inspector has to go in on our flight to inspect our radio and its documents then will fly on to the next post.  The weight of this inspector and the extra fuel to go to the next village will really cut down on how much we can take in, it looks like we won’t be able to get in the food we were planning to get to last for two months.  So it looks like our next flight will need to be a lot sooner than we had planned.   Just another thing God has allowed to cause us to depend on His guidance.  It will be good to see how He leads and works this out.

On Sunday night, before prayer,  they told about a man from a village upriver who had died suddenly.  He had appendicitis, and was flown out to town but came back in a coffin. 

They don’t say the name of the dead so they said, the tall, thin one, that helped in the clinic.  They all know him and were sad.  Brais, the pastor, said later that he really feels bad, that village is wanting to be taught God’s Word but they haven’t gone there yet.

In the past, they taught at another village and the people listened but it didn’t go into their hearts.  He said if they died he wouldn’t feel so bad because they had a chance to hear but didn’t accept it.  They feel the weight of this man’s eternal destiny. When they made the trip a few weeks ago, this was the village they were wanting to go to but the people were all living spread out in the jungle looking for food so they went to another village.

Brais said the night before as he was laying in his hammock he was really sad about his garden.  The river has overflowed its banks and flooded some of the gardens.  Brais’ is one that is flooded.  He was thinking about all the hard work he put into it and now the bananas, corn and macaxeira (potatoes) were rotting. 

When he went to sleep he had a dream that a jaguar was swallowing his little girl, Ayda, whole, he was hitting it on the head but he couldn’t stop it.  It seemed so real, when he woke up he went to look at Ayda and she was still sleeping peacefully in her hammock.  He felt like God was trying to tell him that people were really of value to God’s heart,
gardens, physical things just aren’t as important as people.  They were more dear to God than gold.  Since then he hasn’t felt sad at all about his garden.

He went on to talk about the church being a body.  He says the hand doesn’t know it is going to get burned if it touches fire unless the brain tells it to be careful, or the foot doesn’t know it is going to step on a thorn unless the brain warns it.  That is the way with Christ, He is the head of the body and He is the one who can warn us and tell us what to do,
whether we are the hand or foot, or the toe nail!

This morning he taught about how in the past they were taught to take revenge for anything that happened.  If another village came on a raid and killed someone, then they would quickly go back and revenge his death by killing one of the other village.  This really made Satan happy, he knows he is going to hell and he doesn’t want to go alone.  He wants to do all he can to destroy God’s plan.  Brais said that when Jesus went to Heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, because on our own, just with God’s Word, we aren’t strong enough to stand against Satan and his lies, we need the Holy Spirit to
strengthen us.  Now, they know that God wants them to love their enemies and do good to them.  He said, “We still need to do better in this area.”  Don’t we all!

The people here continue to be very hungry.  The food in the jungle gets farther and farther away as they deplete it, so many families are living out in the jungle so they can be nearer to food.  The main thing they are eating are berries, including acai.  They make these berries into a juice that is healthy but you can imagine what it is like to only have some unsweetened fruit juice to drink, it  doesn’t really satisfy your hunger.  We have been able to order a boat load of food to come in for the village. 

On the way home, they have had boat trouble and were able to “limp” in to a village that has a radio so Mike was called to the radio on Sunday afternoon. Monday morning, Mike got a second boat sent off with material along to repair the other boat and they are going to divide up the food (over a ton), between the two boats so they won’t be so heavy going through the rapids. Please pray for them to arrive safely home without any further problems, maybe Thursday night!!