Amazon connect 2022

 What an absolutely amazing trip! The people I had the opportunity to meet, the memories we made and the impact that was made… God truly worked through every aspect of this trip. Everyone involved was used in a mighty way. I want to give a short rundown of the trip and what was done: 

Monday——

I left MD to meet up with the group in Miami. Most of the group came from the states and that was our main meeting spot. From there the group flew out to Bogota, Colombia, but not without two members nearly missing their flight and literally running through the whole airport to make it! Two in our group did miss their flight and ended up coming later. The rest of us took a short flight to Bogota and then got a hotel for the night. 

Tuesday———

The team got up and made it to the airport by around 9am. We had nearly 30 bags to check between all of us, and it took us nearly 3 hours to get them all checked correctly, and even then we had a bag FULL of hand tools that was accidentally taken through security and was confiscated. By the time we got all of the hiccups smoothed out, we had 15 minutes to grab a bite to eat before our flight boarded. 

We landed in Leticia, Colombia that afternoon and crossed the border into Tabatinga, Brazil. We were all so tired that night, but we had our orientation meeting and were split into two broad teams, and then from there were given our specific responsibilities for the clinic. The divisions were as follows:

• Medical team  
• Triage
• Nurse station
• Doctor
• Pharmacy

• Evangelistic Team 
• Balloon animals/ prizes
• Teaching 
• Singing 
• One on one evangelism 

And of course both teams need as many translators as possible. This trip, I was officially put on the evangelism team, but I also had the opportunity to translate several days and work in triage. 

Wednesday———

First official day! Always so exciting to get the ball rolling on the different things. The main thing we needed to do was organize all of the medical supplies and donations that the group brought from the states. Repackage what needed to be, and consolidate everything by group. So the Medical team spend the morning counting and bagging medications into individual bags, while the evangelistic team went to have a ‘VBS-like’ program at a local public school in Brazil. We had a group of upper elementary- middle school in the morning and then the high school in the afternoon. I was asked to give my testimony in the afternoon for the group. What an awesome opportunity from the Lord! There were over 500 people in attendance that afternoon, and I had the opportunity to get up and give a clear presentation of the gospel. It was an amazing start to the week. The evangelistic team had the opportunity to see where we would each be used and be able to serve. 

Thursday—————

Our first clinic day! Early Thursday, we walked down to the dock, loaded all of our supplies into a boat and went about an hour down river to a Brazilian village.  I had the opportunity to translate the childrens program, songs, lessons and games, into Portuguese. After the first run of lessons in the morning, I switched to personal evangelism and was able to see two people trust the Lord as Savior! An older lady and a teen girl. This was the first time I ever won someone to the Lord in Portuguese! What a blessing to see the Lord use me in this way. After the evangelism team was finished having organized programs, we went out in a sort of, door to door, type evangelistic outreach. I took a group and we walked through the village, giving out tracks, John and Roman’s, and inviting people to the clinic the next day. At about 4, we wrapped everything up, loaded the boats back up, and went back to the hotel. 

Friday——————-

Most of the morning was the same as Thursday, we went back to the same village. The evangelistic team ran some programs, with Bible lessons, testimonies, songs, games and balloon animals. Again, I had the opportunity to translate for several people. My Portuguese is nowhere near where I would like it, but it was neat to see the Lord allow me to use it when I gave it to Him. Because we had been in that village the previous day, we only stayed until 2p before packing up and going back upriver. When we got back to the Hotel, I needed to do my laundry, because we are pretty much in the jungle, typically we just do our laundry by hand, but I had forgotten to bring a clothesline… so after I washed my clothes, I had an idea to ask the front desk lady if there was one at the hotel I could use. While she was taking me to the back to hang up my clothes, the Holy Spirit was provoking me to witness to her. So I began to ask her about church and eventually about her eternal security. She told me she was Catholic, and that no one had ever asked her about going to heaven. I then began to witness to her, she let me go through the entire plan of Salvation with her. At the end I asked her if she had any questions, and she said no, but that no one had ever told her anything like what I had explained to her before. She said that the Bible had never made much sense until then. Even though she did not pray with me to be saved, I truly feel that the Lord is going to use this planted seed in her life. Please pray with me that someone else may have the opportunity to witness to her and that she would give her life to the Lord. 

Saturday—————

Quite a busy day! For this clinic day, we were in Peru, ( the part of the Amazon we ministered in is the meeting point of Brazil, Peru and Colombia).  I was so excited to be able to speak in Spanish. We took a boat up the river a ways, hiked a little farther, and then got into small, 4 person boats to get even farther into the jungle to a Village called Fujimoro. I started in Triage, since we were only able to come up in groups of 4 at a time, but later on moved on to Evangelism. I loved getting to minister in Spanish, It had been so long, I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it. I hadn’t thought I would be using it on this trip so I didn’t take the time to brush up on it at all. Praise the Lord, it all came flooding back, the more I spoke, the more natural it came. Once everyone arrived, I was able to go down and translate for the evangelism team. They had a couple Portuguese speakers, but I was the only one fluent in Spanish. Again, I praise the Lord for His provision. The only bad part of this day was it was so so HOT! Everyone on our team was trying to run around with the kids, playing tag in the HOT Amazonian sun. I’m pretty sure 2/3 of our team got some kind of dehydration or heat exhaustion on Saturday. But a few packets of Liquid-IV and we were all ready to go again! 

Sunday—————————-

The highlight of my trip was Sunday. We were in another village in Peru, not much farther up the river. We got to the village early in the morning, and held a short service at the church before transforming it into the medical clinic. As soon as we got there, I felt the devil fighting me. I was so tired, I thought just from being worn out the day before, so I just downed some more water and Liquid-IV and prayed it would go away. About 2 hours after we had started, someone brought me this deaf man to take through triage! I was completely shocked! Not because there aren’t deaf here, there are so many, but because he had just come on his own. I was shocked not only because he was there, but also because we could understand each other. His sign was so similar to what I had used in the Dominican, years ago. I began talking to him, trying to figure out where he came from, and where he learned sign. But before I knew  it, he was through triage and disapeared. I was disappointed he left so fast, but I had a lot to do, so I got back to work. The next thing I know, I turned around, and one of our guys is signing with a group of 5 deaf men, including the man I had just finished putting through triage! So I went over and the two of us from the team were signing back and forth with these men, trying to make some sense of the differences that there were, and then 3 more came! Some of the men were married to deaf women and they had called their wives over. Some of them were from Peru, some from Colombia and one from Brazil. I instantly recognized Satans influence I had felt earlier that morning, so praying for strength, I worked at getting the group registered, and to see the doctor. (I don’t know if you are bi-lingual, but medical things are HARD! Praise the Lord he was with me)   Once we had done what we could for them, I gathered all 8 of them into a circle and shared the gospel with them. Every single person outside in the general area was deathly silent as they watched these deaf men and women receive the gospel. Some of them had been a part of a deaf church in Peru and had received the Lord as Savior, but one of the men, was intently watching the whole time I was explaining it, and at the end raised his hand to be saved. God is so GOOD! 

Monday———-

I was so exhausted Monday. We were in a smaller village this time, but one that demanded so much more than the others. The evangelistic team realized that whenever we did not have a program running, we were being swarmed by people for whatever we had left in our bags: candy, balloons, hats, toys…etc. We learned that we needed to keep something running at nearly all times for both the children and the adults. Some of our workers were taking turns out on the soccer field running around with the kids playing, we had a rotation of men, with me interpreting, preaching to the adults, as well as a rotation of others teaching and singing songs with the kids. We did not have a lot of down time. It had been so hot on Saturday and Sunday, I think Monday was when it all caught up to some of us. While the clinic was winding down at the end of the day, again the evangelistic team went out ‘door to door,’ leaving tracts and inviting people to the church there in the village. Before we left, we all had an opportunity to see some animals that a family in the village owned: a monkey, a sloth, and some parrots.  They were cute, but the sloth was a little mean. Great way to end our last clinic day!

Tuesday———-

Slower paced day. I am glad because I was completely out of energy. The group had planned to reinventory our supplies and store them for the next trip, as well as go do a school program in the afternoon, but Saturday and Sunday had been too much for me and I ended up sleeping the whole day. I heard the school had a great turnout though and they were well received. 

Wednesday——————

Last day on the ground. Pretty slow, touristy day. The guys went zip-lining while the ladies had a day out getting nails done, shopping and getting things ready to go. That evening we had our final meeting together and what a sweet spirit was in the group. Testimonies from the week were shared, blessings, encouragements and things we had learned. How sweet to hear how God had worked in the hearts of others as well as myself. 

Thursday—————-

The group left for the airport in the morning and flew to Bogota, Colombia. We had an 18 hour layover. I think the longest I have ever had. We had a good time in the airport though. The spirit of the group carried through, it was as if we were all one family. We hung out at the check in for about 8-9 hours and then checked all our bags before going though security. That’s when the day got interesting. It was about 10pm by the time we were going through, one of the guys in our group had purchased a large replica of a tribal bow and arrow set. It was completely wooden, an obvious decoration, but he wanted to take it as his carry on. Well the security department did not like that at all. As the only Spanish speaker left in the group, I spent about 2-3 hours talking with security, going all the way up to the security director of the airport trying to get permission for him to take this thing. Because we had gone through customs and had our passports stamped, they would not allow any of us to go back and check it, they just wanted to throw it out. Finally at the end, they allowed me to take the bow, and just leave the arrows, (which were also completely wooden and very fragile). But praise the Lord we got any of it! I honestly wasn’t sure for a while what was going to happen. For the rest of our flights I was very protective of that bow though lol. We got through security with still several hours to kill before our flight, which was supposed to leave at 2 then 230, then 3. We finally started boarding at around 330, but even then the plane didn’t leave until after 5am. What a blessing! 

Friday—————————-

Too be honest, it still feels like Thursday at this point. No one in our group even realized that after we boarded the plane we sat on the tarmac for over an hour. I fell asleep and then thought I had missed my stop and was bound for another airport when we finally took off. I was able to sleep the whole flight and we finally got to Miami. By the grace of God, no one missed their flight after so many delays! We are all overwhelmingly exhausted, but at the end of such a successful trip, who could possibly complain about that? 

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Thank you so much for your support! Whether you donated money, medicine, glasses or prayed for me, you played a massively important role in this missions trip and in my life. Our team saw 33 souls saved! Each one personally dealt with by one of our team members. Thank you for doing your part! I pray that God blesses each and every one for their sacrifice, and I know that there will be a reward in heaven for everyone involved in this trip. 

-Beca