Well, I’ve been to Paradise and back. At least to a place that in my way of thinking is very like Paradise. I love rivers, rapids, beautiful mountains, etc., something that is in very short supply where I lived the last few years with the Katukinas. Up the Rio Negro (Black River) is some of the most beautiful parts of Brazil, in my humble opinion. What a privilege!

I mentioned in an email just before traveling that I would be doing some evaluations with the missionaries at one tribe, while Serginho, my boss, did evaluations at another tribe in the region. Because of traveling difficulties (lack of options, full flights, etc.) we had a bit of a rushed time. Despite this, God was good and we were able to accomplish most of what we planned.

I got an extra boat ride out of the deal since one of the missionaries had to take his visiting pastor to town in the middle of the time to catch a flight back home. That was even a blessing, having the pastor there during the evaluation, as he was able to see first-hand how the mission operates and is making a priority of accompanying the laborers in the field. He left very impressed and challenged with how his church can be more involved in missions.

Now I’m home again for 5 days before heading off on another trip where I’ll visit 2 tribes and do evaluations with 5 missionaries. I continue to covet very much all your prayers!!

Check out the “Pics” link at the side to see more details of this latest trip!

God bless!

Thank you all for your prayers for my latest consultant trip. As always, click on the “Pics” link to the left to see all the pictures and for more details about the trip.

God was good, and everything went well, including the 13+ hour boat trip upriver, and the slightly shorter trip back downriver. Some coworkers had recently made the same trip and had a major adventure on the river, but mine was a boring trip overall, just the kind I like!!

The time with the missionaries was very encouraging, and I trust that I was as big a blessing to them as they were to me. Please be praying that the things we talked about will be used by God to help them to improve their time of learning the culture and language of these two tribal people.

Once again, thank you so much for your part in my ministry!

Well, I’m finally back in Manaus after traveling all over the place. That is, traveling to the Peruvian border to help some missionaries who work with the Ashaninka tribal people, then to the Katukina tribe for my first extended visit since leaving there in February.

The time with the Ashaninka missionaries was pretty profitable, I think, even if it was my first ever consultant trip done alone. I hope the missionaries there feel it was as profitable for them, as they were the guinea pigs that I was learning on! All in all it seemed a positive time, and I was able to complete my evaluations and give them some suggestions that I hope will help them to better be able to spend their time of learning. If nothing else, everyone seemed to be encouraged when I left, which is my main goal!

My time with the Katukinas went better even than I’d expected. I was able to check all the portions of the Old Testament that my dad had sent down to be checked for comprehension. Now he will be able to move forward with getting these portions fixed up for the final okay by the translation consultant. I also had a very precious time with the believers there, with more opportunities than expected to teach. I would ask your prayers for the Katukina believers, as they are pretty much without teaching now during the time that I am gone. Pray that they will treasure what they have in terms of God’s Word, and that the Lord will continue to create in them a hunger to know Him and His Word better.

During this time I also spent time with the local Brazilian church that we had helped out while living near the tribe. I was pleased to see that the church is growing now with a full-time pastor. The same pastor decided to buy my house so that he could live closer to the congregation and be able to spend more quality time with them, so both he and I were pleased with that arrangement. I will be either staying at other peoples’ houses when I make future visits, or will build a small house a little ways away from the edge of the highway where I will be able to work with less interruptions.

Once again, thank you all so much for praying for me and my ministry both as a consultant, as well as with the Katukina tribe. Please check out the pictures of this trip by clicking on the “Pics” link at the left. You can see pictures of some previous trips by clicking on “Old Pics”.

God Bless!!

It was very good to be back out to the Katukina tribe recently. I made a 1-day trip before heading to the Ashaninka tribe to do the evaluations with the missionaries there. My heart is still very much with the Katukina people, and it was very good to be there among them, even if only for a short time.

The time with the missionaries at the Ashaninka tribe was also very good, a lot better than I expected for my first ever evaluation alone. We had a good time of fellowship and seeing what they are doing there in the work, and how they are progressing.

I am now getting ready to head back out to the Katukina tribe this morning to spend a little over 2 weeks working on the translation. Please be praying for this time that I will have with them. I did have an adventure yesterday (Sunday) as I went out there with my ex-coworkers, Robson and Alaiane. We had an old VW van that was falling apart, but it thankfully held together for the trip! Everyone enjoyed seeing them, and Robson got to speak in the local church while I did a little presentation with my dummy, Kotxo.

Thank you again for all your prayers, and feel free to click on the “Pics” link at the left to see some images. There won’t be a lot, since I’m still in Cruzeiro do Sul with the lousy internet, and have very little time to get anything uploaded.

Serginho and I just returned from another trip helping the missionaries that work with the Kulina tribal people. We had a quite adventurous trip to the tribe, ending up getting there a whole day late because of motor problems, but by God’s grace we did get there, and were able to do what we had gone there to do. At least most of it. Check out the “Pics” link at the left, where I’ll have pictures and details of the trip.

My latest adventure in the Amazon jungle?? Well, maybe the concrete jungle, but it is in the Amazon! For quite some time now, we’ve been without internet at the mission property where I live. There has been a new project to get internet connected to the main mission HQ here via an antenna system which a friend of our main IT guy here brought down. Unfortunately, there was some interference between two of the antennas that he installed on this tower, so the company that makes the antenna suggested putting a shield on them. That meant that someone had to climb the tower to do this, preferably someone with borderline insanity who doesn’t mind heights. At least not too much. Okay, I volunteered, but in my defense, I’m desperate to have internet at home!!

Go to the “Pics” link at the side to check out my photos and description of this wonderful adventure!

I just returned from a week of meetings of the consultant departments from East and West Brazil (New Tribes divided the country in 2 because of its enormous size). The meetings were L-O-N-G, but really good, and a lot was discussed and resolved that needed to be. That is a huge answer to prayer, since going into the meetings we weren’t really sure what all we’d be able to talk through in so short a time.

Of course, the long hours didn’t go well with the cold that I was coming down with, so I got back to Manaus with a sinus infection. Thankfully, we have a doctor here at the mission who was able to give me some antibiotics, and I’m already on the mend. Having said that, I’m heading home to take the rest of the afternoon off since I’m still feeling rather dizzy. Maybe right now isn’t the best time to be posting something on the internet…

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to be making a trip with my coworker to visit the missionaries in a couple tribes. One of the big concerns (for my coworker anyways) was the lack of a qualified pilot for the boat. The missionary who would normally take us is here in Manaus taking care of health issues, so he was unable to help, although he did lend us his boat and motor. Despite my 25 years without touching an outboard motor, I was still the most qualified person to get us down there. Scary. Oh well, God is good, and we made it there and back again without any major problems, though we did get soaked. Fortunately that was from rain, and not from tipping over.

The time with the missionaries in the two posts was great. We went first to the small town of Envira where the missionaries work with the Kulina people. There we stayed only for one full day, as our visit to them was more a strategy time for some teaching they were about to begin than an official consultant visit. We had a great time with them, though, and I trust were able to help them get some direction for the coming days.

After that, we headed to the Kanamari tribe to have our official consultant visit with the missionaries there. This is where the boat adventure came into play, but there was a lot more to the visit than that! We had several wonderful, productive, grueling, exhausting days there, but were able to accomplish most of what we wanted to do. As I am still in the training stage, the main weight was on Serginho, my coworker, but he managed very well to share the weight! It’s great working with someone who is willing to let you get your feet wet and learn the hard way – by doing.

I do thank the Lord first of all, and all of you who prayed as well. The trip really went without a major hitch, and of the many things that could have gone wrong, none did. Since I got back to Manaus I’ve been mostly without internet, which is why this has taken a bit of time to get posted, but we are working on it, and Lord willing, will have it back where I live in a few days.

Remember to click over on the left side on the “Pics” section.

I just got back from a trip across the border! The trip was for a seminar on CLAGE, or Classificação de Grupos Étnicos, or Classifying Ethnic Groups. The whole idea is to be able to survey the many different tribal groups in your country and classify them according to different criteria to be able to decide a strategy to best reach the unreached groups. It was a semi-new idea, and involved a LOT of preparation before going, and work while there, but was well worth the time. Unfortunately, I also brought back a nasty cold, so have been laid up for a few days (well, I did go to the office to do some important stuff, but then staggered back to my bed when I got done!) Anyways, this is why I’ve been a bit out of touch with everyone, but hope you’ll click on the “Pics” link on the left and check out the pics from the trip.

In the beginning of April (4 or 5) I’ll be heading off for another trip, this time a consultant trip to the Kanamari tribe, as well as the Kulina tribe. I’m at the point still in the training stage, but both myself and my boss/teacher, Serginho, are learning some new principles, so it should be interesting. Please PRAY!!