Our Amazon Amor Team and Amazon Outreach Team

This is our Amazon Outreach and boat team. We could not have done it without them. Please continue to pray for all of them as they serve other teams and for Erika, Emmanuelle and Vanderley (pictured on far right).

The Amazon Region

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11

The Beautiful Children of the Amazon

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.(Matthew 18:12-14 ESV)

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.(Matthew 18:2-6 ESV)

Erika, Vanderley and Their Daughter Emmanuelle

Emmanuelle, whom everyone loves...........she entertained us all!

Vanderley, ministering to the people of the village. This is a man who truly loves the Lord and he and Erika are a great mission team dedicated to spreading the Gospel in the Amazon. Continue to pray for them and little Emmanuelle as they do God's work. It is not easy with a two year old to do all that is required of them.

Erika, Emmanuelle and a village girl at our first VBS. Emmanuelle is the two year old daughter of Erika and Vanderley. She celebrated her second birthday on June 9th.

Dedication of Library

Vanderley and Jay and the famous ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the libaray.

The signing of the books by various team members.

The library. They don't have many books, but the cases of books we sent there willl certainly help fill shelves with much needed reading material for the villagers. This library is for their use to come and sit and read.

Jay spoke to the villagers during the ceremony about the team, where we were from and about the books and dedication of the library. Norman of course interpreted.

This was our first night in the village in which Erika and Vanderley primarily minister. The books that had been sent were being placed in the library. Standing next to Vanderley (behind pulpit) is Norman, who was part of the Amazon Outreach team.

Erika and Vanderley before we opened the box of books to dedicate the library.

Amazon Blessings

The 2010 team from Eastwood truly has seen God act in mighty ways. We learned a lot about each other and about ourselves. We truly learned how blessed we are to live in a country like America and how we take so much for granted without thinking that but for the grace of God, we could have been born in another country............a remote Amazon village. But, His hand was on all of us and His work is on going. We must keep Erika and Vanderley in our prayers as well as those in the villages we visited. The true message of salvation through Jesus Christ must prevail over some of the false doctrine that has been introduced to some of these people.

Please pray for them.................let's not forget them and those in all parts of our own country and other countries. We may never know the impact we had on anyone we met, but we do know that what we did, we did to the glory of God and God will work all things for good for the beautiful people of the Amazon.

Watch for more pictures tomorrow.

VBS In The Amazon

A picture is worth a thousand words............

The youth enacted Daniel and The Lions Den and the children loved it. Our youth did an outstanding job and were highly creative. Parents you are so blessed.

One of our translators was Camilla.............she and our other VBS translator, Raquel, were a true blessing to us and were a critical part of the VBS team. We thank God for sending them to us.

Our youth came up with the idea to use materials we found, bulletin board border. to make a crown for King Darius (Daniel and the Lions Den story) and for the precious children of Paradiso (Paradise).

The Children

These are the children of Paradiso. They, like all the children we were blessed to be with, were beautiful and loving. We had our VBS in their school room.

The Beautiful Amazon

The Amazon is truly a product of the Masters hand. All up and down the Amazon we saw the natural beauty that God created. Boats like this and small boats with motors are seen up and down the river and lake as this is a main means of transportation for those who live near it banks and in the inland areas.

The Amazing Amor

This was our home. The crew and staff of the Amor were wonderful and took great care of us.

Steps of Faith by Jordan Holley

I always had a feeling in my heart that God's will was for us to go. I was never worrried or scared. I had a contentment in my heart about God's sovereignty. It was hard to wait, though. Not knowing was the hardest part. However, God called us to step out on faith...to step out on his promises. By faith on Monday, we had our "packing party". By faith on Tuesday, we prayed and packed our personal bags. Wednesday, by faith we accepted God's will. By faith on Thursday, we sent Mr. Hinton to Houston (with much prayer added) and packed, prayed, and prepareed. And today, by fiath, we boarded our plane in Montgomery and headed to Atlanta. By faith, we waited and watieed at gate B20 for the "visa dude" to come.....and we didn't even know if he had them. This sounds like Hebrews 11 to me!
If God has taught me one thing, he requires us to trust Him and believe in His promises and continue to move forward in His will. Even when we can't see a few steps in front of us. The way may be foggy....even dark, but we must step out IN FAITH (to say again) on His word, promises, and love. There is nothing else He requires of us. If you want to know the truth, I feel like I'm living out a missionary biography right now. You know they say all the time things like "and we knew we didn't have the funds, but we decided to purchase this......we didn't have enough to share, but we gave anyway....etc. etc. etc" And God always came through; they stepped out on Him, and He provided because He never leaves His children. This whole visa saga has been an example of that.
As another thought, I've seen how God REALLY doesn't work on man's time. He works on His own. He doesn't work based on our clock or schedule....but upon His own...........which I like better.
Thanks for all your prayers. They are precious and lovely in the sight of God.

We Have Visas

well we have visas now!!!! we flew into Atlanta on the tiniest plane i have ever seen!!!! but we got there safely. AFter eating lunch we met the guy from the consulate who had our visas. he looked VERY relieved to be rid of us and the visa drama. haha. Now we are sitting at our gate waiting for our flight to Manaus to depart in 2 hours!!!! ~Ansley Kaye Markwell

Amazing Amazon Adventure

As I begin this posting, I would be remiss not to start at the beginning. The team was formed in early spring. How blessed we are as a body to have so many willing to serve and be a part of spreading the Gospel. Who would know the lessons we were about to be taught before the trip to the Amazon Basin even began!

After the initial meeting, we began to raise funds. These gave us an opportunity to get to know each other a little more and just have fun together. Then began the preparation process, getting necessary shots for trip, collecting items to take with us for the people we were going to minister to and Evangelism Boot Camp. Jay’s wonderful secretary Barbara, would e mail us advising of what we needed to do, how to do it and the dates for completion. Brenda Bailey from Amazon Outreach sent us words of encouragement and most importantly how to fill out our visa applications. Ah, visas, that a story unto itself…..and so the saga begins.

Things seemed to be “rockin” on just fine. Fund raising, collecting items for the Amazon people and visa applications were mailed, along with passports to the folks who were to process our visas for us. But, before I continue with my story of our Amazing Amazon Adventure, let me say that this is God’s mission trip…….and He is in total control of everything. As Christians we know that our God is sovereign and there is nothing He cannot do. But, often times we take Him for granted. We go about our busy lives and we forget He is there beside us, behind us and in front of us. We forget that we can do nothing without Him. How blessed we are when He reminds us!

Now to continue an extremely important chapter to our adventure….lets talk about visas. We had another meeting and we were updated on where things were at that time, including visas. They were with Universal Passports and Visas who were the folks contracted to do this for us. Ah, we placed our trust man because you do that when dealing with a business….you place trust in certain entities because that is their area of expertise. It is June 4 and our departure is scheduled for June 9. Visas, we cannot enter the country without them, are they here yet? In the afternoon we get an e mail, they are here. They were sent to the church. Hoorah! Oops…guess what, passport and visa applications are here which means no visas……………so we have approximately two working days to get visas. In the flesh, this appears to be an unobtainable goal. Jed Thompson is sent from Texas to Montgomery to Atlanta. In Atlanta Jed tries to convince the Consulate of Brazil to issue our visas. Jed returns to Texas after two valiant days of effort. No visas were issued. The team has a packing party on Monday June 7th to make sure the bags with medicine and supplies are ready to go……………….we stepped out in faith as we should.

When we first go the word that we had no visas, did our team get down? No! Were we disappointed? Maybe a little, but one thing we knew for sure, the one thing that was brought forward to us was that we control nothing. This is God’s plan, not ours. His hand was and is on this trip. Everything is under His control. Nothing happens without His reasoning behind it. He allowed this to happen…………….and we are grateful and humbled.

We had options that the Amazon Outreach folks came up with. Today, as I am writing this, Jay is on his way to Houston to meet with the Consulate there to get our visas issued. It is not important who created all this additional work and the blame game is irrelevant. What is important is what we have learned. Romans 8:28 tells us that God works good for all who love Him and are called according to His purpose, not ours, His. Psalms 93:1, “The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and is armed with strength.” God has gently tapped each of us on the shoulder and reminded us of the mighty God we serve and that He is in control. What a blessing! The team will be packed and ready to leave tomorrow for the airport………….flights are re-booked and God is at work. What more could we ask?

Only Two More Days

This past week has been one filled with anticipation and excitement. We pack tonight, knowing that God is sovereign and that He is control of everything. Romans 8:28 says that God works good to all who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. The events of this past week with our visas is an example of how the enemy puts stumbling blocks in the way of believers. So, stand back and watch God work! Whatever the outcome, we must remember man does not control this situation...............God does.

Look forward to our packing party tonight!