Published on July 8, 2009
in Lives.
The day after helping Joaquim and the short-termers with the finishing touches on our new church plant in Iruçanga (see the last article), I went out with Joaquim again, this time on the flooded Amazon River to go visit another church construction work in progress. The community of Piracaoera lies along the Amazon River and is completely under water. PAZ has been helping this area recently because of the devastating floods that have destroyed many homes. In the midst of these floods, we are also building a new church! This church was recently featured in a video I put up on the PAZ website – click here to see it. The purpose of our trip was to prepare for the next work team that will be helping soon.
We piled into the little speedboat and went out into the great Amazon. I was amazed by how high the water is, even after it’s gone down by about a meter. So come with us now on the flooded Amazon River. Just click the first picture below and advance the slideshow with your arrow keys. ?????? ?????? ????? ??????? ?????? ?????
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The PAZ hanger is so flooded that our boats actually float inside without assistance. Although this isn’t ideal, it sure makes it easy to store the boats!
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The PAZ water filter factory – under water and out of operation
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Out on the river you pass many a line boat transporting people and goods down the highway of the Amazon
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The river has gone completely over these islands – only the trees and tallest houses stand out
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This whole area is usually green pasture
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Many of the trees remind you more of the midwest, not the Amazon
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A lot of this grass isn’t rooted in the ground- its a unique kind of grass that grows and floats in the river
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Joaquim and his son enjoy the shade
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A bird takes off from a patch of floating Amazon grass
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Arriving in Piracaoera, the church is the only building above water level
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Inside the church, Joaquim and the local church worker talk about the construction
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Local fisherman use the church to mend their nets
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I couldn’t help but to feel like we were in a modern Noah’s Ark – a great wooden refuge in the midst of a great flood
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The worker’s wife and another local believer were there helping in the work
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Right out the front door of the church line boats would pass by – a surreal experience to say the least
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Done with our preparations, we head back to Santarém and say goodbye to our brothers and sisters in Piracaoera
The floor of this church isn’t even done yet, and people and fisherman are already using it for shelter! It’s one of the only places for miles around that is above the water. Because the church has opened its doors (that aren’t even hung yet), good will in the community has grown greatly, and by God’s grace we will see this church grow greatly because of it.
Thousands of years ago, Noah built a wooden ark as instructed by the Lord. It was a refuge to him, his family and all sorts of animals. Today we are still building arks as instructed by the Lord, but now for people. These arks are called churches and are a refuge for those in the flood; a place to find salvation in Jesus Christ.
The brand new church in Iruçanga has doubled in size since this building was built just one month ago! We're here to put the finishing touches on it.
Project AmaZon (its missionaries, pastors and churches) is working hard at the ambitious goal of planting 500 more churches by 2014. This short term goal is a part of a larger goal to reach the Amazon Basin by 2045. To do that, we need to maintain a 15% annual growth rate, or in other words, every church needs to plant another church every 5 years. Wow! What an awesome goal! Our goal for this year is 75 new church plants, and earlier this year I wrote about it and even made a wallpaper on the PAZ website. You can read that article by clicking here.
When I’m not busy with my responsibilities with the church (leading and overseeing cell groups, discipling, playing in the many services at Central church, etc) and when I’ve got most of my work with the mission done (promoting PAZ), I get to go out and actual help with teams to build the very churches we’re working to plant! Recently I went with our Construction Coordinator Joaquim and a group of short-term missionaries to put the finishing touches on one of our new churches in Iruçanga. This is a new church under the supervision of fellow missionaries Josiah and Jennifer Huber (Josiah is the son of Luke Huber, founder of PAZ and Ruth’s uncle).
The rest of this story will be told through the pictures, so go ahead and click on the first picture and follow along! Use your arrow keys to advance to the next picture and enjoy. Please be praying right along with us for the health and growth of these churches and that we can have God’s strength, grace, protection and resources to accomplish these goals for His purpose!!
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Load ‘em up! Here we go, all stuffed in the van and ready to go.
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This is one of the few churches that we plant that can be accessed via road – half of it is even paved, if you can call it that.
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Along the way we came accross this snake, dead in the road – someone (not us) had run over its head
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On the way we passed the land of another future church plant in Pindobal
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The brand new church in Iruçanga has doubled in size since this building was built just one month ago! We’re here to put the finishing touches on it.
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Stephanie, a short-termer, gets crackin’ on installing window latches
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I was chosen to do the high-wire trimming act, so I passed off the camera to show proof that I too work
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This little guy prefers his sandals on his hands, not his feet
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This pet monkey was less than friendly to short-termer Ben
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A local brother hard at work mixing concrete – the hard way
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Joaquim sets the new concrete entrance
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As night falls, work on the lighting begins – but better late than never!
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The new church shines as a beacon of light and hope
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The thought of food, shower and a bed just really excited Ben and Stephanie
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The new doors for the church were prepared and ready for installation
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The team celebrates a job well done
Click to view the July 2009 Paperback Reutter
Dear friends and family, here is the latest Paperback Reutter mailing that just went out! Hopefully you received it, and if you didn’t, here’s a chance for you to see what you missed. Click on the picture to view it on your computer. It’s not the same as paper, but it’s good too! Please click here to contact us and let us know your address info if you didn’t recently receive one of these. Keeping up a mailing list, whether it be email or mail, can be a great litmus test of one’s patience! We’d be thrilled to update your information or add you if you’ve never ever received one of these mailings. God bless!
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