The Jungle

I cannot even begin to put into words this past week. God has stretched me farther than I could have ever imagined! It started with us heading into the jungle to one of my favorite places on earth, a local Brazilian missonary’s home. This man is one of the most amazing men I have ever met and works harder than anyone I know. He has sacrificed so much to help the people in his village. It’s so incredible.

He runs a school and feeding program for the local village children. He normally has two groups of kids come a day. We were able to speak to the children about sexual abuse and explain to them that they have a voice and need to speak up if anyone is abusing them. We also were able to speak to some of the women and tell them they also have a voice and need to protect their children. God opened many doors for this and it was a huge blessing and eye opening experience for them!

While we were there we also focused on helping the missionary with different projects he needed done, but didn’t have time to do them by himself. We were so grateful to bless him. We also passed out many pairs of shoes to the children!!! I loved every minute we were there.

We spent two days with this missionary and then headed back deeper into the jungle. We found out that Amazon Xpeditions has been given land to open a discipleship training program for the people of the Amazon! Their goal is to train up locals to go out and speak to their tribes and to the places that we as Americans are unable to get to because of the government. We spent two days sleeping in tents, showering in the river, and getting eaten alive by bugs to help them fulfil this dream by clearing the area of trees. It was a lot of hard work but such an honor to help them start something they have been dreaming of for years!!!

We returned from the jungle yesterday afternoon, having only an hour to get our first shower in two days and get ready to go to another conference. At this conference the counsellor on our team was able to speak to local teachers and leaders of different churches about sexual abuse and also how they can prevent it. They were so receptive!!! It was amazing!!! God is breaking the chains of sexual abuse in this area and I am so blessed to be a part of it!

It has been an amazing opportunity to be here and to serve the people of the Amazon. I have never been as exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally as I have these past two weeks, but it’s all so worth it. You’re prayers are definitely needed and I am so thankful for them!! God is so good. He has given myself and my team supernatural strength to do all of the work we have done. There is no way we made it on our own. What a good God!!! Lives are being transformed and children are being saved from losing their innocence!! PRAISE GOD!!!

“Behold children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior so are the children of one’s youth. “  Psalms 127:3,4

May many blessings come you way!!

Krista

And the journey continues!

Hola!!

I am so blown away by God’s power and might! He is so good and has been moving in amazing ways down here. Our target on this trip is to break the sexual abuse that goes on, which is a subject that is UNTOUCHED in this area, and the enemy has been doing all he can to stop us. But we know that the Gospel cannot be stopped and that our God is more powerful and great than anything the enemy throws our way to stop us.

We recently held a conference raising awareness about sexual abuse. One of the women on our team is a counsellor and she was able to take her knowledge and teach the women that they do have a voice, that they are allowed to say no, and that it’s not ok. For most people they feel that they cannot say anything to anyone, and even if they do most would not help because it’s the “normal” thing to do.

We live close to a local soccer field and were able to go and play with the kids. One of them even accept Jesus into His heart that night! The following evening we held a youth event and talked to them about purity and remaining pure throughout their life.

The past couple days we have been helping a pastor move 150lb pieces of wood in the jungle. We had to hike through the jungle, clear a path and make small bridges across the water to the place where the wood was cut. Then from there we had to carry the pieces of wood on our shoulders back through the jungle. It was probably the hardest work I have ever done, but had we not helped he would have had to do all the work by himself. However, this pastor is amazing!! We were all struggling to carry one per 4 people and he walked past us carrying two by himself. Afterwards he was almost in tears expressing how thankful he was that we helped him out. He said he would never have thought God would bring a group of young people from the United States to help him! God is faithful!!

The ministry bags are still at customs in Bogota and we are believing we will get them back!! God has really been teaching us that He is all powerful and all knowing. Our faith and our trust in Him is really being tested.

Please continue praying for our team. We will be travelling to the jungle tomorrow and staying until Saturday. We will need prayer for strength and protection. I can’t believe it’s almost been a week already!! Love you all and I am so thankful to each and every one of you for your prayers!!

Krista

We have arrived!!!

I am here in Leticia, Colombia because of you! I cannot thank you enough. As our plane landed my eyes filled with tears and my heart full of joy to be back again. It took a lot to get us here! Every obstacle the enemy could throw our way to stop us came at us the past two days.

It started off with us losing a team member at the airport in Dallas. She is here in America for school and originally from Vietnam. A week ago, Colombia changed their regulations on how Vietnamese people are to enter into the country and we were not able to bring her.

From there, we arrived in Bogota Colombia and could not get through customs. We had each packed a personal bag and a bag filled with ministry items. Amazon Xpeditions has brought ministry items in this way many times and have never had problems. We ended up staying at the airport trying to get it through for over 4 hours, only to be told to go to our hotel without them. This morning when we returned for our flight to Leticia we again approached them for 3 hours trying to get them. After many threats and fines we had to leave without 15 of them.

We are so thankful for getting here safely and that we were able to bring our personal luggage with us (they wanted to take everything from us except our carry ons). We know that God is going to be doing amazing things on this trip and that is why it was so difficult for us to come. Even though we are without those bags (mostly filled with items donated to give to the children) we are still here and are able to minister and for that we are so thankful.

Tomorrow night we will be teaching at a church on ways to prevent child abuse. This subject is not brought up in this area. We also have been given favor to have that teaching broadcasted live in three major cities via radio. What a blessing!!!

I am so excited for what God has in store! Great things are coming! Please keep praying for us and praying that we will be able to retrieve the ministry bags from customs in Bogota. Thank you so much!!!

Leaving!!

Today is my last day in the United States for the next ten weeks! I cannot believe that the time has come for me to return to the Amazon, this past year has gone by so quickly!! I have been praying, packing, and preparing to g0 for the past 9 months and it's finally time. God is so good. He has brought all the provision I need in order to go! He is so faithful!!

Early tomorrow morning, myself and a team from Christ For The Nations will head to the Dallas Fort Worth airport where we will then go to Miami. From Miami we will head to Bogota, Colombia and we will stay there for the evening. We will then board our last flight to Leticia, Colombia on Wednesday morning.

Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers! Please continue to pray for us as we travel and as we minister in the Amazon region, and for myself the next 10 weeks.

Blessings!!!
Krista