long trip into the Amazon. started on an airplane.

I was just reading my journal and in january 2008 I started writing about possibly going to Brazil. I had never really thought about it before. I just really wanted to go on a missions trip before I have kids, and I felt like God told me Brazil. I asked some friends at work and Sarah told me she thought I should go to Brazil. It was kind of crazy because I hadn't mentioned to anyone that God had told me to go specifically to Brazil. And if you know me, you would know that trekking through the middle of the Amazon jungle is not what I would choose to introduce me to missions work. But Sarah also had had a dream a couple nights before and saw me and Stephen in Brazil doing missions together. So, I prayed about it and applied and made it on a team. So, that's how this started.

So, September 2 through September 4 we were traveling. Airplanes. Airplanes. Airplanes, Two Prop Airplanes. Buses. Blur of people. Taxi cabs.

We flew from columbus to north carolina, layover and switch planes, then on to Miami. From Miami to Manaus,Amazonas Brazil. We arrived in Manaus at about 1am?! It was such a blur. Then we flew to Belem, Para Brazil and got into cabs at about 4am and went to our hotel. Then we slept.
One of the missionaries from the Xingu mission met us at the airport and was going to stay with us until we flew out the next day. His name is Rick Bergen. (http://www.xingu.org/Missionaries/bergens.htm)

The next day Rick took us into Belem. We met a guy at the bus stop who learned how to speak English by playing video games, X Box, specifically he said "double Oh 7" James Bond.

The first pic is me missing Stephen and smelling the scarf I sprayed cologne on. The second is my friend Laura's brand new husband, Dave. They had only been married for a couple weeks when we left for Brazil. We helped each other be pathetic the whole time. Dave is incredible, I'm glad he was on the trip. The girl in the pic is my friend Erin Lamb. She is a gem.