Our 40th Anniversary Day

Since I can upload pictures on the blog here at this internet cafe I have tried to catch you up on some of the picture. I hope they are in the correct order but if not you will figure them out.

First is Cal and I on the Pacific coast in cold, foggy Lima, Peru. That is where we spent the day visiting the Inquisition Museum and the Catacombs of Peru. It was very interesting but the city is cold, dirty and foggy.

We flew from there to Pulcullpa, Peru where we had our first encounter with the motortaxis. That is Cal and Larry in one. Cal and I really like them, other than the noise of thousands of them. At Pulcullpa we got on the Henry 5. In the one picture I am in red getting on the boat. Other than the big hill to get to the ramp that was the easiest boat to get on.

I wanted you to see the sink that eventually blew out on the Henry 5. You can also see the conditon of the bathroom. However you will note the rainbow in the next picture makes up for the bad bathroom. The beauty outside was great.

We were in Iquitos until this past Thursday when we got on a fast boat to Tabatinga, Brazil. The fast boat took 10 hours to travel the distance a bigger boat would have taken several days. It was not a bad way to travel other than all the sitting. My feet swelled badly. They did serve us meals on this boat. Breakfast was a pulled chicken sandwich and coffee. Lunch was a "hot" (at one time) rice bowl with a piece of ham and a boiled banana and Inca Cola. Then later we were given a small package of cookies and more cola. We had to stop at Santa Rosa, Peru to go to immigration and change to a smaller boat to go across the harbor to Tabatinga, BRazil.

Fay and I stayed with the luggage while everyone else went up this steep hill to the immigration office. The guys took care of our passports. Then we got on a smaller boat. That is the picture of us in a boat with a tarp roof. Getting on was not too bad. I had Cal in front of me to hold onto and the boat was close to the dock. By the time we made the short trip across the harbor it was starting to get dark. Docking at the dock in Tabatinga the boat was just nosed in. So you really had to walk all the way to the end of the boat to step onto the dock. There were two men holding my hands to do that step. However because of my fear and my knee or leg did not want to work right I did not quite make it and landed on my knees on the dock. My shoe fell in the water. Fay saw it and someone grabbed it for me. We had to sit on this dock with all our luggage for over an hour while Larry found us a room, taxis, etc. There were 12 of us by now. The four of us, four indian pastors from Peru that had come all the way from Pulcullpa with us and Felix Valencia had joined us in Iquitos. The one picture shows the smaller boat without me in the water.

Since we have been here in Tabatinga we have found a place to stay at this hotel. I use that word loosely. The owner goes to an Assembly of God church. He has been very helpful to cut the cost for us. We all have rooms in his establishment. His wife is cooking meals for us. They have provided a room for the indians to have their classes in. The rooms are over a campaign headquarters for one of the Brazilian candidates. They play very loud music on speakers in cars, motorcycles, etc. almost all the time. There are fireworks often and it has rained everyday we have been here. Again this town is very poor, dirty and busy. Just down the road is Columbia. Cal rode on the back of the hotel owner´s motorcycle today to hold the food he bought. They went into Columbia. He has added another country to his list. He carried a bag of bananas, a bag of potatoes, a bag of pineapples, and a bag of manioc. On another trip he carried a watermelon on one shoulder and another green melon under the other arm. And he stayed on the motorcycle. It was a good thing it wasn´t me.

This afternoon the indians were ready for me to tell them about the pictures and how to teach the stories to children. There are now 6 indian pastors and two ladies that are taking the lessons from Larry. (The one picture is of some of the indians in our class today.) We had a good time in the session this afternoon. They were each given a lesson to prepare for tomorrow. We will let the kids choose which lesson they want to hear.

We plan to take an even smaller boat we call a peca peca because that is the sound the motor makes over to Philadelphia about twenty miles away. This is an indian village with a strong church. We will be conducting training sessions there for three days later in the week. They speak Portuges while the people we have now speak
Spanish. I am not looking forward to getting on and off the boat twice tomorrow and then again on Tuesday. So pray for me.

So that has been what our anniversary day has been like. Cal, Fay and I did walk to some shoe store nearby and Cal bought me a new pair of shoes. Maybe these won´t come off in the water. Hopefully I won´t hit the bruises on my knees on the dock again either. Guess I need knee pads.

Well I have been at this long enough now and Cal has promised me some ice cream so I will close.

Please continue to pray for safety on this trip and for all the details to be worked. There are four people coming from Florida next week to help with the teaching in Philadelphia, Brazil. Then we will be making arrangements to get to Manus for the conference.

I will try to send a blog on Monday before we leave but after that I don`t know when I will have access again. Thanks for remembering us.