It was quite a day! We began by riding in the back of the truck in the pouring rain, as there wasn’t enough room inside on our two hour trip to a village just this side of the “B” border. Surprisingly, we had the most comfortable seats on the trip, for the truck cab blocked the rain as we sat on stuffed animals!
As we arrived, the village people began to come out of the woodwork. I don’t know if they were more amazed to see white people or were just curious to see what we had come to do. It was a village of only 100 people, but that day there were about 350 that had come to see us. We were told that word had traveled that we were coming and they had come across the river from "B" to see us and all the excitement.
We hiked through their village and across the creek to their open field to present our program. A couple of our team members needed help across the stream.
We performed a skit called “The Sin Chair” to demonstrate how sin separates us from God. Here, we're trying to unstick ourselves from all the things that hold us down.
The Oregon team followed that with a brief skit beginning with the story of Adam and Eve and ending with the resurrection. It had begun pouring rain so the villagers huddled under nearby brush so they could keep watching. Meanwhile, Anders had found a friendly neighbor who agreed to allow us to use his stable as an assembly place to hold the remainder of the message. After the rain, which had seemed disappointing, the stable seemed like the perfect place to be delivering the message of Jesus, even occurring on Christmas Day in America!
The village leader was the first to answer the alter call, followed by fifty to sixty other villagers who also asked Jesus to be their savior! A true answer to prayer!
We brought Christmas gift bags of cookies and toys including toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap to reverse the cavities we might have started. The little ones loved the stuffed animals. We discovered their creativity after recognizing that some had washed off our stamp on their hand verifying they had received a gift. All in all, it was an amazing day and great to play and become acquainted with this wonderful tribe and teach them about Jesus.
As we were admiring their beautiful beach and river, we hear this pig screaming and look up the hill to observe the locals beating this pig to death with sticks, as they were about to celebrate their New Year. The look on our faces must have looked horrific, as we couldn’t believe our eyes and ears. Thinking the excitement was over, we then observed the same locals bring a bull to the river trying to make it stand inside their little motorized canoe. Dave thought he would give them a hand pushing off from shore, but the bull stepped over the edge of the canoe almost causing the boat to tip over. Frustrated the locals held the head of the bull above water with a rope as they motored to the other side. We aren’t quite sure if the bull made it to the other side alive. But it sure was an interesting show for us. It is too bad I didn’t have a video of these events; I must have been too shocked to have thought to video it.
Nonetheless, the border was a beautiful sight. Even though it looks so beautiful, the hidden senimdnal detract from flavor.
One the way home, we made a quick stop by a humongous cave to take a quick looksee. It was incredible. We literally walked straight through the middle of a mountain! We hiked through rivers and over huge boulders, under and through small crevices, and finished up by hiking across a 20’ log bridge and down a dry waterfall…the adventure isn’t for the faint of heart, especially after learning there have been reports of piranhas in the river!
The cave:
Ok, ok, here is a better picture:
Sadly, this was our last day with the Oregon team =( We will certainly miss them dearly! This was such a vibrant sunset that we caught on the way to dinner. We had to share it with you:
