Amazon 2008

Jillian MacKnight

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The mission trip to the Amazon was primarily to donate clothing, medical services, meals, and the love of Jesus. But God had many unexpected surprises for all of us.

The first day I got to see the enormous size of the Amazon River. Each morning I was blown away at the beautiful sunrises. While we were on the water, we had a breeze, but once we docked, the humidity was almost unbearable.

Our Team of over 30 people, interpreters included, Slept in very close quarters out on the open water swinging away in our hammocks. Our interpreters were amazingly helpful. They'd teach us Brazilian sayings, but to this day I can't remember one of them.

Each morning after breakfast, we'd have Praise and Worship, then devotions. Each evening one of use would give our testimony in a little village. The one day we got to visit a city, I was asked with 2 minutes warning to get up and give my testimony in front of 150 people!

The villagers typically lived high above the water level with a terrific ocean front property view. Once we climbed up to each village, we got to see their simple way of life as well as the many types of creatures: Alligators, Anacondas, Peronas, mosquitoes, you name it.

Each day we'd arrive at a village in the late afternoon, and just have fun. The men would all play soccer and the women would give them pedicures/manicures, back/scalp massages as we'd exchanges stories about our hectic lives in American, verses their much slower Brazilian way of life. By the time we came back the next morning, each of the villages would have doubled or tripled in size from word of mouth.

I was primarily involved in doing women's ministry, but tried to find a little time each day to work with kids in VBS. I absolutely fell in love with the children; they are a beautiful people. In the 10 days I was there, I only heard one child cry, and that was only because she saw the Novocaine needle before having four of her teeth pulled. We had a larger than normal medical team, 3 of our 4 nurses were ER Nurses, so they knew more than the Brazilian doctors that served with us.

The women of the villages would all report the same problems: poverty, sickness, death, their husbands being addicted to alcohol and drugs which caused horrible domestic violence in the homes after the men returned from a whole day of fishing. Our hearts would break as we heard and saw their way of life. Offering them food and clothing seemed so minimal, yet many of them would say they had enough, and to give it to a more needy village.

Their contentment was the most powerful thing I left with. They ministered to us in ways I never could have expected. God was glorified!

View the slideshow of all of my mission trip photos.