Back in Santarem…

Life is back to normal.  Which is somewhat of a relief for now.  Last weekend I was able to join a team of Brazilians to do some work on the new church in Piquiatuba.  This village is located about 130 km from Santarem on the Tapajos River.  The great part is that it is drivable and 2/3 of the trip is on paved roads!  Also a portion of the trip is on a new road through the Tapajos Forest Preserve, which is absolutely beautiful  as you drive through virgin rain forest.

Friday morning we arose at 4 AM and after loading up our gear and picking up some bread at the bakery, were on our way.  We stopped in Alter Do Chao to pick up a couple more guys and the six of us crammed into our Toyota for the remaining one and a half hours of the trip.

We got there and fueled up with some bread and coffee and then got to  work.  Since I had last been at the church, they had made some progress on the roof, but no progress had been made in preparing the floor for pouring.  Our goal for the trip was to finish the roof and pour the floor, so this meant we were in for a weekend of hard work!  So with the help of some of the men and women of the church, we started moving dirt to the inside of the church and putting corrugated panels on the roof.  God blessed the work and by the end of the first day we had the roof finished and a good start on the prep work for the floor.

Day number two was dedicated solely to preparing the floor for pouring.  A team of six Brazilians from Igreja Da Paz in Alter Do Chao brought a boat up the Tapajos River and joined us in the labor.  We were able to fully complete the stage and were even able to begin prepping the final grade of the auditorium.  The last couple hours of the day were used to  pour the stage.  In order to prep the dirt for pouring, we had to move dirt to the inside of the building from outside.  Now this is all done by shovels and wheelbarrows.  And as the dirt is brought in, we had to water it and use home-made tools to pack it  in.  Needless to say, this is a great workout!

Our plans had been to stay only two days, but we had yet to meet our goal for the work to be done, so we decided to stay for an extra day.  We got a good nights rest and started working the next day at 7 AM and began pouring the floor at 9 AM.  Seven hours later we finished the floor!  Now remember that we had planned to be there two days, but now this was the third.  God blessed the food of the community and we were able to be sustained on rice and farinha (product of manioc that has little to no nutritional value) and eggs for lunch.  Since we were pouring concrete, we didn’t even stop to rest.  Praise God for the work that was done, and the safety of the men and women performing it in the name of Jesus under the scorching equatorial sun!

So this sounds like all work, but we did have some good rest and  fellowship as well.  One afternoon, we were able to drive to a cold water jungle stream to relax and clean up.  In this culture, and climate, it is normal to quit working from noon to 2 PM.  A couple families from the church cooked our food for us and we had ample time in the evenings to rest and fellowship with the villagers.  One night we slept on the beach in hammocks in a malaca (a gazebo like shelter), but the second night it was raining so we stayed with the leader of the church at his home.

Sunday night we headed out after a bite to eat.  We stopped in the town of Belterra at the Paz church and got some fruit and then stopped again in Alter Do Chao for some ice cream!  Praise God for the little things in life that He blesses us with :-)  By 9:30 PM I was home and headed for bed, worn out, but blessed by an awesome weekend.

I’ve mentioned before that this church is the largest in the area.  Piquiatuba is a strategic location for PAZ and we are counting on this area being blessed and being able to use this church as a training center for area pastors and workers.  There are many smaller villages surrounding Piquiatuba that will benefit from this.  Please join us in prayer to affirm these plans and use this facility for the expanse of the Lord’s work in this area.  I know that the Lord has many souls in this region that he is planning to take His gospel message to via workers that will be trained in Piquiatuba.  How glorious it will be to see the growth of His church in this region!  Amen!!

Peace,

JAE