Brazil Day 4: New Friends

Today, Monday, we met up with the rest of our team including more people from the USA and the group from Família da Fé. We met at a hotel that was in walking distance from the port where the boat was. The boat is owned by the Brazilian Bible Society (Sociedade Bíblica do Brasil). They use this boat with different groups who come so it is already set up for clinics and lodging.

Familia da Fe (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Brasil)

Mountain Christian Church (Maryland, USA).

Patiently waiting for our team to arrive at the hotel so we could load the boat.

Walking down the street from the hotel to check out the boat.

The entrance to where the boat was located. The right side wasn't open when we came through with our luggage so we squeezed through the tiny door to the far left.

The view from one side of the boat while docked.

Low tide. Little walkway.... Not as much of a problem until you try to carry your luggage up it.

Our new home.

Belem port.

Our new Brazilian friends greeted us warmly with hugs and kisses. The leaders from the Bible Society spoke and prepared us to go. 

Meeting Familia da Fe

Sociedade Biblica do Brasil sharing with us on the boat and Tom (from Baltimore, MD) translating.

The man in the blue who is speaking traveled with us and worked with the Bible Society. His testimony was very moving. He had been a very successful business man who lost everything when his business partner stole everything. Left with nothing, including friends and his girlfriend who left him, he was brought to his knees and began serving God with his life.

Books and Bibles provided by the Bible society that were given to everyone who we served in addition to prayer.

We had a few hour wait while we were docked so we chatted and actually watched and talked to the workers that were docked beside our boat and they gave us some Brazilian nuts.

The workers' dog.

The workers and the Brazilian nuts they gave us in a hat. We gave them Twizzlers in exchange.

This is the room where mom, dad, Julie, and I stayed. Julie put a mattress on the floor space. Our AC was broke and would freeze part way through the night. But we were thankful to have intermittent AC.

Some people slept in hammocks and on deck.

We were finally on our way just in time to watch a gorgeous sunset over the Amazon River. It was quite amazing as everything began to sink in. Such a beautiful time to share with my family.

Sunset on the Amazon River

"Be the change you hope to see in the world" -Gandhi

This pretty well sums up our fun Brazilian friends! This group loved to laugh and have fun. Although I often didn't know what they were saying in Portuguese, their joy and laughter was contagious.

A little while after being on the boat we the wind was against the current so it made for a very rocky ride. Pretty much everyone felt a little queasy. But as soon as it became calm, everyone was fine and no one was continuously sea sick PTL!