Gun Shots?

Transportation in the Amazon Basin isn’t always the easiest.  We’re always dealing with mud, torrential downpours, big rivers and waves and wind, and grass or other floating debris.  Up til now, the only incident I’ve been involved in was a trip where we were traveling to a community via speedboat (that’s what they call it here, but it’s really just an aluminum jon-boat with 30 HP outboard motor).  Somewhere in the middle of the Amazon River, we ran over a log in the water, jarring the motor and killing it.  We tried to restart it but to no avail.  So we drifted over to the side after about an hour or so and along came another boat that happened to be going by the community where we were headed, so we hitched a ride.

But this recent trip to Auerana adds another experience to my list of Amazon adventures.  We were using a similar boat, well, actually it may have been the same boat, to carry around people and supplies to install water filters in people’s homes.  We had just finished installing a filter, all of us sitting patiently in the boat waiting for the pilot to start the motor and for us to take off.  He was having a hard time getting it started, but I thought nothing of it.

The next moment, I heard a strange noise, like the motor trying to turn over, but not really making it.  Then BOOM!  People in the neighboring houses, almost a mile away, say it sounded like a rifle shot.  I turned quick to see the lid of the motor landing in the water some 20 feet behind the boat.  It still hadn't all registered what was happening.  But then I saw some flames inside of the motor compartment, which quickly led to flames leaping and dancing on top of the motor.  And soon the motor was completely engulfed in flames!  We were all scrambling to the front of the boat, while the pilot was trying to grab the gasoline can and pull it away from the fire.

The neighbors quickly jumped in their boats and came to help put the fire out.  Pr. Samuel was able to get the gas can away and one the neighbors arrived with an old shirt, dipping it in the water and then smothering the fire.

Everything happened pretty fast and the whole thing was over in less than a minute or two.  Unfortunately, the motor received significant damage and were not even able to identify what actually caused the fire.  But praise God that all of the people in the boat were safe!  The situation could have been much worse, but we were protected by the Hand of the Lord.

And praise God that even though we were short an outboard motor for the rest of the trip, one of the locals loaned us his own to use for a couple days with our boat!  And we went "fishing" with a net and found the lid to the motor.

Please pray specifically for the safety of our workers and their families as they traverse the Amazon Basin in the name of our Lord!