Have you ever crashed in a jungle by plane ?
Well... neither have I.
But I think the adrenaline levels I have experienced, landing in Manaus are pretty much the same as before the actual crash...
Imagine a river so wide that out of the airplane you would mistake it with the ocean. And along the riverbed, an unending garden with all the shades of green you can think of. Beautiful from up there, but landing on what looks like to be on a bed of trees ( Because you see only jungle and no runway ), is quite frightening!
Jhup, that's when I KNEW "we are in The Great Amazon" !
When we landed, we were starving, so we had a quick lunch in the airport! ( 2min noodles in a pot with lukewarm water, I have you know! )
The guy from the YWAM base, where we stayed for our time in Manaus came to fetch us and so we were off...
We had the opportunity to serve the people at the base with some labor of love and to minister to them. We also went out with them, evangelizing in the community, serving in the river tribes, worked at the orphanage and just spent some time together in fellowship and Bible study.
Those people showed me a whole new picture of what God's love looks like. The way they endure and persevere with what God has given and shown them, blew my mind. They really are a lighthouse shining God's Kingdom in a dark dark spiritual realm..
Crazy facts.
-We played with a baby alligator.
-We swam in the Amazon river.
-I held a snake in my hands that was my length and a bit.
-We ate a cooked fruit witch looked like a prune, smelled like a butternut, had the texture of a pumpkin and tasted like corn.
-We were 14 people on 1 canoe, crossing the amazon river at night, without a light.
-We hiked 2hours to the river tribes and 2 hours back through the -----Amazon jungle.
-We got lost in the Amazon jungle.
-My camera fell off into the most filthiest longdrop at the river tribes but with a lot of trouble and VERY dirty hands I managed to get it out.
-My camera works.
-The Lord loves us very much!