Where Jesus goes, everything gets better!

After a long day and night of travel we slept in. We sorted the medicine we each brought into different bins based on the type of medicine. After lunch we began to sort adult and pediatric vitamins and pain medicine into sixty count individual labeled bags that were to be handed out when we visited the villages. As we continued to cruise down the river we took in the scenery.

Before dinner we had a map lesson of where we were and the villages that we would visit. We loved hearing about the CBM mission story. What an inspirational story to hear and know you are part of it!

We traveled down a narrow creek that was very far away from the Amazon River. We saw monkeys in the trees. These villages were part of the missionary Danielle has in his demographic region. Our first was the village of Santa Antônio do Panaurarû. We had seventy total villagers who saw the doctor and thirty of them visited the dentist before lunch.

After we finished seeing patients, Chris, Mary, and Marlo caught fish, mostly piranhas. It was fascinating to see the fish caught with the easiest process of just putting a small piece of bread on a hook lowered into the water off a spool. No fishing rods ever used.

Right before dinner we had a knock at the door since the boat was still docked at this village. A 13-year-old girl was carried onto the boat. They thought she had been bitten by a snake. We treated her and asked her to come back to the boat the next day.

Santa Antônio do Panaurarû invited us to have breakfast with them. It was such a nice gesture.

Due to the rain, we did not leave the boat but after we had lunch, they brought the food aboard and we had it as a snack. Our favorite was the root that was rolled out as a chip. Made you want salsa to go with it. The girl from the night before was seen again and once the swelling went down on her foot, they were not convinced it was a snake bite. The doctor thinks it was a thorn of some type that she stepped on.

Since we stayed overnight, another village arrived by boat. The new Villagers came from Nossa Senhora APAPECIDA. We had forty-two villagers who saw the doctor and twelve that visited the dentist. Mixed in with them, we also had another village show up. We saw six medical and three dentist patients from Sagrado Coracao. Between these two villages, many people over the age of forty had high blood pressure. There were many dental needs which made us pause to think if there was a correlation between the dental needs and the high blood pressure! We had a little boy who had stitches in his ear that needed to be removed. The story behind it was that he fell on a knife, but we all agree that his brothers were the cause of the stiches. He was so brave and cute! We were able to provide them with a soccer ball.

As shared, we were docked at the same village for two days, so we left early in the morning before anyone was up to travel to our next village. It took us all morning to travel. It was far down the tributary off the main waterway. We had team members in the skiffs that were sticking poles into the water to determine the water level depth. There was concern that it would not be deep enough for the boat to reach the village. We arrived before lunch but did not start treating until after lunch. It was fun to see us improvise and create our own anchor points by using a post hole digger. The name of Village was Nossa Senhora das Gracas. We started seeing patients after lunch. It took us that day and into the next morning until lunch. We saw ninety-one medical patients and twenty dental patients. Four of the team members went and played soccer with them after we were finished seeing patients.

We woke up at the same village and continued to treat them until lunch. During our

devotion time, we were all inspired by our leader Marlo reciting the book of James. We were all in awe of her deliberate practice to not only memorize scripture but to deliver a full book by memory and with love. During this time, we had the Lord's supper during our devotional. We left and went just around the bend where the river was lined by trees. It felt like the trees were perfectly planted in a row, it resembled orange groves. The name of Village was Divino.

They sent up fireworks to let people know we were. We saw 196 medical patients and forty-two dentist patients. 119 of the 196 was done between lunch and dinner. By far this was the largest village and the most hectic day of the trip. After dinner, six of us got off the boat to walk the village. We saw paw prints that were not those of a dog. They were huge! We stayed docked there through the night.

We stayed at this village and continued to work with the village of Divino. We also had the village of Bolivia join in with fifty-two medical patients and fourteen dentist patients. The village of Santa Rita joined as well with nineteen medical patients and nine dentist patients. It was a busy day since there were three villages being seen.

At the front of the boat, we saw a snake eat a bird or rodent. We were not sure; we only saw this happen because it was screaming. They said it was not poisonous. As he took his prey away, he had his head held high moving back into the tall grass.

What struck me most about Santa Rita village was there was a family of thirteen who all came in one boat. There were 4 generations represented on the boat. The grandmother was in her early sixties, the mom was forty-three with her youngest son at the age of four. Two of her daughters had 2 year olds. These girls would have been 11 and 13 when they were pregnant. While shocking to us, they were a family. They interacted with each other, they were kind, they helped each other and most of all they functioned as a single unit. It was nice to see. Before we closed for the night, the last patient was not able to leave his boat. Earl and Jim provided medical care for him on his boat.

We left early in the morning for the village of Saõ Benedito. We saw forty-six medical patients and ten dentist patients. It seemed like a slow day compared to the last two days. After taking care of these villagers, we had to sort more vitamins again since we ran out of what we had already prepared. By this day, we were out of toys, toothbrushes, personal hygiene items, children's cough and cold medicines. The stairs up to the village we straight up and in need of repair. We treated everyone before lunch. It was fun to see the kids in their school uniforms. They all left in their school boat to return to their homes. We treated the oldest person of the trip, he was eighty-three.

After lunch we traveled back out to the Amazon River. During this trip we saw monkeys again. We believe it was in the same spot where we saw them when we entered the tributary.

We arrive before dinner at our next village of Remanso. This is the village where Rose is from.

It had very loud green parakeets, wild horses and high cliffs which made it feel like a scene from Jurassic Park. Five of us got off the boat and went for a walk. It also had a beach. There was a local who lived on a boat that was docked to the beach. He invited us over for a drink, but we declined.

We woke up to the village of Remanso who were lined up at 6:30 am. At this village, seventy-one saw the doctor and twenty visited the dentist... This village has a very touching story. A family who had lost two sons to downing last year was very touched by the generously of CBM helping them to bury the sons that he decided to join CBM as a minister. We got to meet him and his family on this trip.

Daniel had left the boat on Tuesday but returned to the boat on Wednesday with his family. Alex, one of our dentists treated his son. We also got to meet his wife and their other son. Also, at this village we met the minster who runs the juice factory that will be inaugurated in July 2024.

We needed to leave by noon to make it to Saõ Sebastian by dark. Once we made it there, many of the team members went into town to shop at the local grocery stores. There was a beautiful sunset.

Pastor Earl left early in the morning to take an express boat to a town where he would pick up a car that would take him to Manaus to manage business. We went to the greenhouse in Sal Sebastian. Santana was ready to greet us. Junior gave us a tour of the greenhouse, the ministry houses and soccer field. It has only been two years since our last trip, we were amazed at the huge wall that was built to protect property. We had fun on our walk talking to the green parrots. They were hilarious! One of them sounded like a Star Wars character.

As we navigated up the river, you could not help but notice the erosion of the land. Trees were falling into the river. The root system was giving way to the river. Families were outside tending to cattle before the sun was setting, some were bathing in the Amazon.

We traveled all night and into the morning. At 6am kids were on the edge of the water waiting for the school boat to pick them up. We saw the Encounter of the Waters at 7am. We docked at 8:15 in Manaus to see the fish, banana, and mercantile market. After a few hours of shopping and lunch, we made our way to the Mosley Boat Dock for some water fun and a great final meal together.

Heading home with amazing energy only provided by Jesus! This trip demonstrated you only have to believe! God always shows up and allows you to be his hands and feet. We are asked to go, we responded! What an opportunity to serve!