Hello Latin America...

Hey dear friends and family!  It’s been a while so I thought I’d tell you that I am still alive and kicking.. and have a lot to say and a lot to share...so hope you are ready for some reading...

PERU

Thought I would start off with Peru which I briefly mentioned in my previous blog. Just a recap – I joined the team in Matarani, Peru on 1 April, and was welcomed by my companions for the year, 7 lovely ladies and 2 manly men!

Together we are exploring the hidden treasures of Central- and South America. All of us are South African, which mean we can delight in speaking the Boere taal, or Africaan as most people here pronounces it. So grateful for the 2010 World Cup, because as soon as you say Waka Waka, Shakira or Vuvuzela most people immediately know where you’re from.

Andes mountains – Peru - what an amazing place to visit and distribute New Testaments among the schools and Quecha communities! We were travelling on the back of a truck, and we primarily use dances and dramas to minister here...as well all only spoke a little Spanish!

We made some interesting archaeological discoveries of the tribes that were there even before the Inca’s.. We also played a lot of soccer in Peru, and were blessed by new soccer boots by the people we worked with in Peru. I left a piece of myself there in Peru – in the form of my Springbok rugby jersey which I gave to one on the guys we worked with – David

AMAZONAS!!!

Next we were on our way to the thrills and adventures that the Amazon would provide. We flew from Lima to Iquitos in Peru, where the teams split up and half of us went on to Benjamin Constant, on Brazil’s side of the Amazon. Travelling there was quite interesting – we took a cargo boat from Iquitos, which took us about 3 days across the Amazon to get there.

It was such a joy watching the beautiful sunrise and sunsets from my hammock on top of the boat. Our team of 5 had such a great time getting to know each other, sharing testimonies and being served with breakfast in hammock.

After severe floods in the Amazon this year, most of the towns were flooded, and it was interesting to walk on the constructed wooden planks and bridges, balancing you backpack and the oncoming people-traffic. Travelling was quite easy for the locals, as with the flooded towns most places were now accessible with their wooded boats they use to get around. Getting to immigration to sign out of Peru, was very interesting – because of the floods you have to take a boat that takes you to right in front of the Immigration Police’s office.

Arriving in Benjamin Constant, we had an email in Portuguese with phone numbers of the contact person. With roaming so expensive and no internet cafe’s open, everything but fluent in Spanish with even less knowledge of Portuguese, we walked around the town on the Saturday afternoon/evening, looking for someone to help us. Luckily it is always so much fun travelling with God, He always provides and we found a guy outside one of the churches in town which could speak English and he quickly hooked us up, phoning out contact person and soon we were on our way! I was so excited that I only introduced myself to the guy when we shook hands to depart our separate ways.

So off we went, off to the Indigenous church in Filadelfia on the back of a motorcycle-driven taxi and a boat to get to the village where the church was. We were greeted by very friendly Indians, which mostly spoke Portuguese and Takuna, thus making communication very difficult, but fun! We would sit and church and only realise that they were talking to or about us when it either become very quiet, and everyone looked at us in suspense, or the pastor said something about Sud Afrika. Luckily you can just smile and wave and say muchas gracias, no entiendo, abella Espanol un poco and then everyone was happy. It is amazing how quickly you can build relationships and friendships across different age groups, cultures and language barriers. The church there is so on fire for God, with services almost every night, and singing in dancing – in which we gladly participated but did not understand much of.

We supplied the church with the building material to build a wall around one of their leaf-roof buildings, which they wanted to use for the dining hall the coming weekend for their Indigenous cultural festival, with people from the Indigenous tribes of Brazil, Peru (who didn’t manage to make it) and Colombia were invited to come celebrated the 3rd anniversary of the indigenous church there. So Monday morning we were off to go buy the stones and cement, and it was amazing to see the whole congregation coming together during the week to build the wall, level the floor and prepare the facilities and food for the weekend to come. What a pleasure to help them dig, chop wood, lay stones, mix cement and use these heavy cut logs to stamp the floor level. Must say my office hands took a flew blows, but just had to man up – cause we had a job to get done!

The cultural festival which lasted from Friday night till the early morning hours of Sunday was so much fun! We had to present them with a cultural show from South Africa, which we narrowed down to a few songs and dances, and joined in the excitement as they shared their culture, food and faith with us. These people can dance a lot – and I mean a lot! The band plays and then they start making different groups running around, each with a leader which the rest of the “train” will copy. It gets so crowded that you squeeze past one another, trying not to knock one another over, and every now and then you would see everyone scrambling to the ground when someone throws sweets into the group, and especially the children jump and contents fiercely to get their own! This carries on none stop till about 1 o’clock in the morning, and luckily now and then someone walks around spraying deodorant of perfume on all the participants. It was great to see the people coming together, singing and dancing till early in the morning, just full of joy and full of peace.

We experienced so many new things living in our tents in one of their buildings with its clay floor, and luckily, or unfortunately we had a cold shower and we didn’t have to bath in the Amazon. We did however wash our dishes in the flooded water outside the church grounds, where they also dumped the guts of the fish they cleaned as well as a few other things... We helped to gut the fishes they gave for us to eat, and barbequed them over the fire – head and scales and everything – must say that the eye is quite tasty!

A definite highlight of our trip to the Amazon was when we had the privilege to baptise some of the believers in the church on the Sunday morning, like Peter said in Acts 2:38 – & ldquo;Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of and release from your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. These people are so committed to the Lord and it touched me that, a few generations ago, someone was obedient to the call of the Lord, forsaking all he had and moving to that part of the world as a missionary, and perhaps seeing no or few fruit of his labor, still carried on, and now, years later there is a self-sustainable church which is on fire for the Lord and celebrating the fact that they were able to get to know the wonderful love of Jesus.

The Monday morning, after all the festivities and greeted by an awesome Amazonian rainstorm we left with happy hearts, at the same time sad that we had to leave but definitely enriched in experience. Luckily we will see our fellow believers one day in heaven again – and boy what a party we are going to have there!

COLOMBIA

We took the boat to Letitia (Colombia), for the last time crossing the mighty Amazon with its interesting pinkish dolphins you see on some days when you are fortunate enough, rushing waters and beautiful sunsets behind. There we joined with the other 5 members of the group and flew to Bogota, Colombia, ready for our next adventure. They said that we are going to do work in Colombia...but wow did we not know what work they were talking about!

In Colombia I experienced the full meaning of “how sweet is the rest of the laborer”. We spent our time in Colombia at a New Tribes Mission Bible Institute and training school, where they train young missionaries to go to the lost tribes, how to learn a new language, adopt to a new culture and then lead the people there to the Lord. Our mission for the week we were there – to continue working on the fence around the property. Not your ordinary fence, for this one we had to make the concrete poles, 3,5 meter poles, dig the holes, carry them to the holes, plant them and then put on some bob wire. Even though exhausting, it was a lot of fun and we had a great time together, making jokes and carrying the load together. The guy’s task was mostly the heavy stuff to making the poles and carrying them up to the holes (a few hundred yards), then planting them and putting up the barbwire... ‘I am not clever but I can pick up heavy things you know ’.

We didn’t travel around much due to safety concerns, with several kidnappings and murders of missionaries that happened in the past. Therefore also the importance of constructing the fence, as there was a break-in into one of the houses during the time we were there as well. We were so fortunate to have 2 Colombian women cooking our meals for us, so we basically only had to concentrate on working on the fence. After work we played indoor soccer with the students, which they beat us at badly, and watched movies regarding the mission work and unreached tribes getting saved in the evening.

The time flew and we got a lot done, and great relationships were built with the missionaries working in the Bible school. They had amazing testimonies of God’s faithfulness throughout their lives, and how God had guided them throughout their lives to where they are currently at.

The last day in Colombia was in the form of a challenge throughout the capital, Bogota. What a lekker town – I enjoyed the vibe, and it was good to see business people walking around in suits for a change! Below I am standing inside a real-life bull ring! Unfortunately the ring is currently under construction and therefore we couldn& rsquo;t watch any bull fights!

I want to say that God has been so faithful in providing our everyday needs, safety, finances, accommodation and an incredible unity in the group. During a year like this I think the biggest challenge, as well as biggest opportunity will be in travelling together as different people from different backgrounds, with different dreams, hopes and desires – most didn’t know each other before the year began – all just united and brought together by a love for God and a desire to follow Him wherever He may lead.

PANAMA

From Colombia we flew to Panama where we were met with humidity, and a lot of it! We stayed in the church in Gamboa, next to the Panama canal with pastor Bill, an American missionary and pastor - what a guy! It was so nice to stay in an air-conditioned room and we had a lot of time to be alone, reflect, relax, watch some great dvd’s and spending the midnight hours in continued prayer for the each other, the team, Gamboa and Panama!!

We made radio interviews in which we shared our testimonies, gave out tracts to the people we met, stayed next to the Panama canal, went for a Sunday afternoon stroll next to the ocean and “hiked” to an lookout point over the Panama canal, forests and villages.

From there we moved to the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base in Panama. We spent two days in one of the neighborhoods distributing bibles, praying with the people and taking a census of the people we met with. We also helped at the base with a day of landscaping and gardening, and over the weekend helped with the presentation of an evangelization course at one of the local churches.

There was a fundamental occasion that occurred in Panama, and it would utterly disgraceful for me not to allow you to share in the great joy we had the one night…when…for the first time since we started the journey…we had a BRAAI!!! Man that is probably the one thing that I really miss a lot about South Africa…it is to braai! At the YWAM base it was our turn to prepare dinner the one night, and we gladly introduced most of the staff there to a braai for the first time in their lives… and what an intro it was!

We went to stay at an indigenous village for 2 days and helped them with the construction of their church. There I realized that having sleeves on your shirt is overrated, so I cut it off with Geoff´s Bear Grills knife to design my new work suit… representing the SA work force with a V-neck essential of course!

We also did some prison ministry and attended the premiere of a group from Hawaii that did a documentary to speed up the time it takes to adopt children in Panama…and we left Panama on our way to Costa Rica with great relationships built, knowledge gained and things experienced from the people we dealt with!

The radio interview that I did with the Pastor, with my testimony and some of the group’s songs can be found at the following link:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24387528/Archivos Panama Today/PanamaToday 053012.mp3

COSTA RICA

So we took the bus from Panama to Costa Rica...and the town of Limon was where we were stationed for about 10 days!  And we had our own home to live in – how awesome that was!! We worked with 2 lovely children of God, and spent most of our time working on the church´s farm, attending the Sunday services, Bible studies and prayer meetings throughout the week.

And did I mention we stayed walking distance from the beach!!  And the waves were awesome! So after a hard days´ work which was frequently interrupted by eating and drinking coconuts, we could go to the beach for a nice dip and a body surf (a trade I am still not too successful at as my 2 chommas from Durban and Cape Town). A hidden pool between the rocks was specifically designed for ¨My culture¨, and was used accordingly as well…

And I saw, for the first time in my life a sloth! What a strange creature – if you don´t know what a sloth is, look for Sid in Ice Age! Only afterwards I realized that there are texts in the Bible relating to the slothful man…look it up, it´s very accurate!

Now for one of the most awesome adventures I´ ve had in my entire life!! I hope you are ready…

HITCH HIKE

From Limon, Costa Rica our next destination was Panajachel, Guatemala. Google maps tells you that it is 1318 km and should take you 17 hours and 39 minutes. Well we like to do things old school so we took detours, 6 nights, and our budget of $60 per person to complete our journey (that is for food, travel and accommodation)! The group was divided into 3 smaller groups, and I had the privilege to travel with Delaine and Marguerite.

Day 1

The awesome people at the church we were working with blessed us with a bus ticket to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. We packed and aid our goodbyes very early on Thursday morning, ready and packed for adventure

We walked, blocks and blocks, caught a ride for but a few km´s and then took the bus, as far as we could go. But where to sleep..? The bus dropped us off at some place, but with the price way too much for our $10 a day budget we sought the help of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Across the street from the hotel was a church, so we decided to go say hi!

They were having a bible study and in our broken Spanish we asked if we could join.. Well to make a long story short we met an awesome pastor, and spent the night at a lady in the church's house, who were so kind as to bless us with food as well.

Day 2

Day 2, or 15 June was long foreseen as it was one of the girls in my team's birthday, and bound to be a special day among the hipe of catching a ride and walking around with all you have. She loves horses I surprisingly remembered  from one of the previous conversations, and the thought was prompted when 2 guys with horses came strolling past the house, and I thought I would be like a big brother and I organised one for her. Needless to say after more than 5 years since we stopped farming I was itching for a ride as well, and that was awesome!

Someone picked us up and took us to Liberia, a very nice town where we walked around and got a place with Wifi, so that birthday girl could talk to her loved ones.

On our way out, I heard a HOE HOOOOEE HOOE!!! and there was one of the other groups, relaxing at the McDonalds and we met for a chat, and separated again. A taxi driver was kind enough to pick us up, and after bargaining and saying we have no money, the fellow brother gave us a ride for free! In La Cruz we wanted to spend the night…to cross the border into Nicaragua the next day. But where was the question… An English speaking lady saw we were bit lost, told us what the hotels cost, and needless to say we were a bit homeless. She did give us a few bucks with which we bought lunch/dinner. Let me say at this point, at the beginning I told the girls that we should pray that we don't get hungry...and well we didn´t eat a lot throughout the trip!

At the supermarket we asked where the beach was, and made our way over there. Someone said its 3-4km, but the sign said 17...well the sign was right! Luckily we got 2 rides down, the first on the back of a pick-up and then as we were walking along the gravel road awesome Americans stopped, and their sons were so kind as to move to the trunk so we could hop in the front. The lady was a CPA in the States, and was suprised that I quit my job to go travel, cause 'accountants are supposes to be boring people' well we all know that is not true at all!

The beach was beautiful!!! We camped there, made a nice fire and watched the lights of the fireflies (the girls said there were some), stars, thunder on the horizon and the phosphor in the water! Wow, was the first time I experienced it, as you go into the water at night time the water lights up with these little pieces of Phosphor.

Day 3

We unfortunately had to pack up at the beautiful beach, Playa Rajada and made our way back to the border of Costa Rica. Through the border (which took $13 per person out of our budget) we caught a bus just in time to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. There the bus dropped us of in the middle of the city – and we didn´t really know what was going on! We managed to get a taxi which took us to another part of town where we caught a bus to Esteli, where we were dropped off at the bus station at which we could get a bus the next morning to the border with Honduras. So that was where we were going to sleep…on the bus station for the night! The prospects for a safe place to lie down wasn´t looking too good, but luckily one of the bus drivers saw our need, and decided to meet it with free accommodation inside his bus for the night -  and now we can add a public bus to the list of strange places we have slept in!We got an early, over crowded bus to the border on Sunday morning, delighted in the fact that God provided us with a place to sleep safely, and we could go along to explore yet another country of God´s creation.

At the border of Honduras we saw a nice big Nissan pick-up and the owner, Uncle Balto was so generous as to give us a ride….all the way to one of his homes in El Salvador! He even bought us Pollo Campero for lunch and we were chowing chicken and drinking Pepsi on the back of the ¨bakkie¨ going at a rather rapid pace! We enjoyed the view of Honduras, very green and beautiful, and saw a completely round rainbow - something I have never seen before! Uncle Balto was so generous as to invite us to his home for a shower…and we spent the night there :)

Day 5

On Monday morning we continued our journey along the coast of El Salvador, and came across the very nice city of La Libertad. They had the prettiest benches etc. for the tourists to sit on, and it seemed like a definite for a return visit! But we decided to carry along to Acajutla, as we wanted to be closer to the border of Guatemala, with the prospect of crossing the next day. We were surprised to find one of the other teams alongside the road, and shocked about their bad experience the previous night. They got a lift with a truck to Guatemala, but unfortunately their truck broke down in El Salvador, and they spent the night alongside the road. To make a long story short, 3 guys armed with machetti´s and a home-made gun robbed them the next morning, and stole camera´s, cellphones, Ipods and a laptop. Luckily their lives were spared, and it was amazing to hear our leader´s testimony of being content after they had stolen her daybag with everything  - she had the boldness to ask them to give her back her passport=(

Arriving in Acajutla we found cheap accommodation for $10 the night, and met an English teacher named Louis, who made us feel right at home and also took us for a city tour that night. In the botanical garden of the town we got a nice view of the city, and coming back from the viewpoint we walked past a guy sitting there on one of the bench type things. We decided to say hi and was glad for this true God-given appointment which we did not expect. Carlos has been serving the Lord for several years and have gone preaching in the buses in Mexico, and was currently doing great work among the gangsters of his town in El Salvador. We prayed with him, and he got tears in his eyes when we gave him money to buy some Bibles! Amazed by the appointment we went home, and told him we would gladly meet up again the next morning at 10 if he could make it!

Day 6

Tuesday morning we set off to meet Carlos at the same botanical garden as the previous night…not sure if he would be there. On the roof of the viewpoint, all the pillars have Scripture written on them in Spanish, and one example was … John 14:6 Jesus says: ¨Ï am the Way and the Truth and the Light, no one comes to the Father except through Me¨.

Carlos was there, and we could bless him with some more funds to go buy Bibles! He was so happy, and we rejoiced with him! He accompanied us to the border of Guatemala, and went through with us to make sure we were ok with regards to getting our next lift on our way to Panajachel. We got a truck and had to say goodbye, but glad that we got to meet a man of God who was convinced that the three of us must have been angels  ;)

The truck was on its way to Mexico, and we got off at Santa Lucia, left with only about a 100km journey to our destination the next day!

Day 7

From Santa Lucia we started walking…and walking…and walking…

Till we were finally outside the town, on our way to the main road! Oh I forgot to tell this one! Yesterday, when we hiked from the main roan (Pan American 1) to Santa Lucia  we got a lift with the Police… We told them we are looking for a place to camp – thus my Spanish translation of camper…. Well they stopped at the fast food chain store Pollo Campero and we had a nice laugh about what got lost in translation! Now the Police came to our rescue once again today – they were the ones that picked us up, and they made sure that we got safe…all the way to Panajachel! Treated like royalty we exchanged one police van for the next, with one calling the other officers from the next district and organizing for us to be escorted all the way into Pana! I think we had 5 or 6 different police cars the day, and celebrated by buying one of the groups ice cream ;)

And so we arrived safely in Panajachel…mission accomplished! This house is where we stayed at for the next month, and we were welcomed by each having our own bed… and hot showers!!!

GUATEMALA

For those of you who do not know me that well, this is my second time in Panajachel. The first time was early in 2008 when I participated in the 80 days around the world expedition, also with Global Challenge. So it was great to be back, 4.5 years later and hopefully a little bit more mature than the last time!

The first day we were off I decided to go check if I could retrace our 2008 ventures, and crossed the lake to Santiago, where the wore the traditional pin stripe white shorts which I omitted to purchase the last time we were here. And I was searching for Franklin – one of the guys we met in 2008…

But where to start – the memories of the town was very vague, and I couldn´t even remember the church´s name with which we worked. So I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to guide me to the right place, as I didn´t know where to go. After walking up and down I decided that it would be better use of time to go Skype with my loved ones…as I just couldn´t find the church! Well 3 hours later, after walking out of the internet café Jehovah Jireh (God the provider) I walked right into the church, and the pastor was there who guided a taxi to take me to Franklin! I was delighted to see him again, and he told me the church of which we carried big rocks to lay the foundation of in 2008, was now completed and open! Wow, sometimes the tasks we are busy with may seem so small and insignificant to us…but when you see how everything fits into the bigger picture you cannot help but be joyful!

We went to buy my pin-stripe pants, and unfortunately spent way too much time doing that… So I missed the last boat that could take me back to Panajachel ;( So what to do…? Well I had to get back so I had to make it worthwhile for one of the boat owners to take me on a solo trip back to Panajachel…expensive…but definitely worth the trip!

So the question is…what did we do a whole month in Guatemala! If I had to go into detail of everything that we´ve learned I think I might lose most of my readers in many pages…but let me tell you that we have learnt a lot!

The main project for us to work on during our time here was starting the foundation of a mission home where the pastor´s house is currently situated. The plan is to build a three story building with training and accommodation facilities for future teams visiting Panajachel. So we started to tear down parts of the old house, and to dig and make the foundation for the new building. Now digging foundation s is a whole other ball game! The main posts had to be dug 2m by 2m, and the walls. Luckily we could utilize what was left of the previous home, so we could subtract 50cm from the digging! So after digging the floors are filled with steel grids, concrete is mixed and poured, and here you see me laying the first brick!

The work went along quite smoothly and we managed to build 5 rows of block around most placed – which means basically we are on ground level now! It is amazing to see how the pastor is trusting God to provide for the work. They set out with the plans and started to tear down their old home even while didn´t even have finances to start building the new place, like James 2:20 rightfully says that “faith apart from works is inactive and ineffective and worthless”.

We also had a great time of teaching during our time in Guatemala. In the second week of our stay a pastor from Texas came and taught on the subject of deliverance – and I must say I really learnt a lot during this time. He is basically involved in ministry in the States as well as Central American countries, primarily in deliverance for people who come to Christ but was previously involved in witchcraft etc. But I also learn that it is not only they that need deliverance – Christians also open doors to the powers of darkness in various ways, and based on the Bible he taught us how these doors can be opened, and how to get free. Basically it involves repentance – James 5:16 ¨Confess to one another therefore your faults and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored¨. Then it is breaking any covenants made, and casting out the demons!

The rest of the time we also learnt a lot – our day was basically working from 10 – 3, and in the evening having teachings form the local pastor which could carry on even till midnight. We learnt more about the Mayan culture, and even how to get a message from a movie like the Matrix.

We had one Sunday – Tuesday off for the last few days of the short term team that joined us here in Guatemala, and we went to Monterico on the coast. What was very interesting, apart from the massive and awesome waves, was that the sand on the beach was black – and is in fact old volcanic rocks. The most special part of our time there was the people in the group that got baptized in the ocean as Matthew 28:19 says ¨Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit¨.

I got a chance to preach in the church one Sunday night – preaching in English while the pastor was translating into Spanish. My message was simple – what do you fear; only perfect  love can cast out fear; and we must start believing Truth if we want to walk in victory – which all starts with what you occupy your time thinking about.

In one of the villages, where people whose houses was destroyed by floods was relocated to, the one lady was taking care of her 33 year old paralyzed daughter, but as the lady was too weak to pick her daughter up, she basically was left lying on the mattress all the time. We went to their house and installed a steel frame with a winch that can now pick her up by using a simple button. We were glad to be of help, and could help them with their everyday need!

So I hope you enjoyed it…and well done if you made it to the end! I also send out newsletters where the above is neatly formatted with pictures etc…so if you are interested, please send me an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We are currently in Belize…but for more about how God amazingly provided for us to be here, and what we are experiencing here…you will have to wait for next time!!!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and remember that you only live once – make sure it counts!

God bless you!

Lots of Love

Rihard ( Ricardo) de Villiers