Our AVA HS & Jr. High group on the way to "our" islands. On Saturday, December 13th, we left the Bible Society's dock at 7:30am. After about an hour trip, we arrived at our first of two island communities.
Nathanael & Elisabeth with Belem in the background.
The students used the time on the boat to go through their last minute preparations.
Here's a bunch of excited "Paraense" girls! (girls from Para)
The State of Para's flag flies in the Amazonian breeze as we pull into the dock at Ilha Grande.
Ilha Grande
Both of the Brasilian Bible Society boats are tied to the dock. The tide came in quite a bit while we were at this island, raising the level of entrance to the boat.
Ilha Grande
Village Community Center
This is where we did the children's program.
Gearing up for the program
We had several fun clown skits with Joel Brandhorst (AVA parent) and Curtis, as our clowns.
Curtis the Clown with his Wordless Book puppet.
The Wordless Book story, lead by Carol Schulz (the clown's mom).
Lots of songs and motions helped keep the kids involved.
Puppets are always a hit for kids.
Pets take unusual forms in the jungle.
We also saw dogs, chickens, pigs, and water buffalo wandering through the village.
Elisabeth gives a little baby one of the rattles that was donated.
Toy distribution for the girls.
Toy distribution for the boys.
Nathanael shows us the book that the Bible Society gives out to all the children.
Bible Stories in Rhymes
Ilha Murutucu
On Murutucu Island
Jesus protecting His child from all the evil forces of the world.
(The "Everything" skit)
The two skits that our students did were pantamimed with English music songs. However, the message came through very clearly, even without Portuguese translation.
I helped the littlest guy here get the wrapper off his lollypop.
He later had a totally green face from it.
Watching the skits preformed by the students.
Dennis is next to an acai processing machine. Nearly all the palm trees that we saw on the islands were acai trees. Acai is making a big hit in the US as a healthy drink. In season, we can get pure, unchanged acai very easily and inexpensively.
Kim shows us where the local banheiro is. Thankfully, the boats also had bathrooms which were a bit more modern than this one.
Balls were the biggest hit for the little boys.
Andre assists some of the villagers onto the boat to go look through the clothing area.
Debbie Pinheiro, AVA teacher, assists a lady in looking for clothes. Each person was allowed to take 2 articles of clothing per person in their family.
Clothing donations were plentiful.
Each family was given a Cesta Basica, Basic Basket. It was filled with many main food staples.
Merenda (snack) was served to people as they waited for the distribution.
Small groups of people came from other surrounding villages on the island.
Thais, Mackenzie, Rachel, & Andrew enjoy a few moments of air conditioning while waiting for lunch to be served.
Lunch was served to all the volunteers after the distribution was complete.
Eating lunch in the galley of the Bible Society Boat.
This unique looking butterfly caught a ride on the boat on our return trip.
The Amazonian Rainforest covers a very large part of northern Brasil.
One of the many river taxis that we passed while heading back to the Bible Society's port.
Darlene, Mishaela, & Kim enjoy the breeze on our return trip.
Mateus, Freddie, Dennis, & Andre
The differences between rich and poor are VERY noticeable here in the Belem area.
There is a very small percentage of rich and large percentage of poor.
Notice the little dug out canoes on the left and the enormous speed boat.
Here's a river taxi that we'll pass as we come out of the channel we're traveling in.
Here is most of the group after our trip. It was a great day and everyone enjoyed being a part of this ministry adventure.
Go, Elisabeth!
The Cooleys jump for Joy!
It seems you can't go on any events without HS & Jr. Highers taking Jumping Pix.
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This river ministry trip was an incredible day. We were very proud of all the kids and their participation throughout the day.
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Below is a movie/slide show that I put together for AVA chapel. Enjoy!
1 comment:
Wow! This was amazing! What a special day. I love the you presented it here, as well. Good job.
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