Urucurituba

Pronounced EW-roo-koo-re-tuba (with latin rolled R's of course)  I'll call it U-town or some version of capital U for the rest of this post.

Anyway, It has been quite some time now since I've updated this thing, and I hope I still have some readers to write to! I've nearly finished editing my pictures from the U-town and Venezuela/Boa Vista trips so that explains partly why I've not posted something in a while.  The other part of me being MIA involves my computer catching some form of electronic Ebola and dying in a matter of hours on April 1st and I was still fixing it after we got back from our trips on the 13th.

So, back to Urucurituba; it's not only a word you won't hear every day but it's also a really cool town east of manaus on the Amazon River.  "Town" is probably an incorrect term from what we would think of a town in the states, but that's what the Brazilians call it so I'll stick with them.  Anyway the posibility for incorrectness in describing U-Town is because there is proabably a hundred thousand people that live in and around the community.  You wouldn't think so, by the looks of it, but the Big-U is busteling.  The most common form of transportation in U is by motorcycle or moto-taxi which consists of a motorcycle, the driver, and sometimes, white knuckled gringos :) .  For the record, the filmadores (Eric and myself) only got "white knuckled" with the hands that held on to our cameras that were rolling whilst we road on taxis.  

Anyway U-town is aproximately 3.5 hours by car and then 1.5 hours by fast boat from Manaus or 270 Km 1 way.  Once we got to U and met the pastor of the Church where we were going to be staying with I knew we were going to be in great hands.  They had hot lunch of rice and beans and other good stuff ready for us when we got there and they had hammock hooks in the

 school rooms of the church for us to hang up at for the night.  

We spent the first day talking with people that would come by the pastor's house, the second day out on a lake that is actually some of the backwaters of the amazon, and the third day was mostly used for rest by our team with portuguese being the predominant language for most of the time.

The nights were where we really got work done.  Once again our the main focus of our group is to tell the Bible orally using segments from the Bible as if they were "stories."  Most of the stories even have a hook at the end that keeps you wanting to hear more, and that hook caught several people's faith!  We also asked the people that we told the stories and who later learned them in small groups, to share the story with someone before they came back the next night.  God was working hard on that small town for the four days that we were there, because by sunday night our group of less than 20 turned into a packed house of about 50 or more.  

Also God showed up in a big way to me personally as well.  I've been focusing on Exodus 4:11-12 and God began a change in me that weekend.  Something clicked where I began to hear things better, remember words I have learned, and think in Portuguese which gave me so much increased understanding and more ability to communicate.  I can not describe it in anyway

 other than God tearing down walls that are in front of me to help me succede.  

He did so with 2 kids named Willy and Lenard.  They both were 8 years old and I quite possibly could have been the 1st american they'd ever seen in person, much less talked to or hung out with.  Eventually I got a chance to have them read to me, in portuguese, the stories that we were supposed to be learning to tell to people and they really liked that.  They also wanted to look at my Bible and the notes I have and wanted to know what the highlighted things were, so I got to minister to them in that way as well, by looking up the same verses in a portuguese Bible and showing them.  I explained to them in rough portuguese that God is very real and very cool and that He is ALIVE and uses His word to speak to us, just as we use the stories of the Bible to allow God to reach people that can't read.  I showed them Exodus 4:11-12 and told them that when I first read that, I felt like God was speaking only to me! They smiled really big when I said this and starting throwing really fast strings of portuguese at me wanting to know more! It was awesome!! Especially beacuse Willy is growing up in the Catholic church down the street and is currently going through Catechism (sort of) classes, and he said that he'd never heard of anything like how real God is at his church or in his classes.  He thought all you had to do to get to heaven was to be a good Catholic...  

That part of the trip really hit me hard, because there are soooo many people here all over South America that think the same thing.  I've never read the entire Bible cover to cover, but I'll say I've read probably 70% or more of the new testament and I've never seen anything in there dealing with eternal life coming from an active relationship with your priest.  It's not about us.  Nothing we can do, ever, is good enough for God.  Not a person on this Earth could do enough good to get himself to heaven, nor can any person on earth get you into heaven.  God is so immensely perfect in everyway that we can not fathom Him, His plans, or His concept of mercy.  All we can do is embrace Him as being good enough for us.  Enough preaching... back to U-town.

The morning after the night I ministered to Willy and Lenard we left to come back to Manaus and the long boat/taxi ride seemed much shorter because I had so much to think about.  My biggest praise from the trip is that God increased my knowledge and ability to use Portuguese 10 fold.  Anyway sorry this has been so long in getting out!  Hope everyone is doing well! A link to all of my U-town pictures is coming soon and so is some video from moto taxi, interior houses, and video + blog about the venezuela trip!! Stay Tuned!! 

Lemme tell ya how cool God is / Jiu Jitsu is a blessing

So today I woke up sometime around late morning like normal, if I don't have anything intensely pressing that needs doing early, and heated up a frozen pizza for my breakfast and eric's lunch (he'd been up for a while editing some video for the baptist convention on saturday night). I'd told him yesterday that I was going to try to help and stay out of the way as much as possible today so he could get stuff done without me holding him back any.

Post brunch I worked on a "under contruction" page for the portuguese version of our mission's website and later got out of the house with our missionary coordinator Aaron. Not a very busy day but rather typical for the most part. Let me clarify something tho real quick: it may not sound like that's very much for a "missionary" to do, but the way I see it if these websites and videos that we're doing are used by God for even so much as 1 person to come here to teach the Gospel to lost folks then I'm pretty sure we've got a job well done on our hands. Our job is to advertise that "the field is ready" so the sowers of seeds and the reapers of the harvest will know where to do their planting and such (read the story of Jesus and the woman at the well, the part just after the disciples get back to Jesus to know what i'm talking about)

All that aside, at some point in the day I remember praying and asking God to surprise me today. I'm pretty sure it was while i was asking the blessing for the brunch pizza. My collegiate minister Randy, got me into asking God to surprise me, and I can honestly say that every single day I have prayed that God has showed up and done exactly what I've asked. Lemme tell you about my surprise today.

The pre- 7 o'clock pm part of my day was none too exciting and almost a little lazy compared to all the stuff we've been doing lately, but Eric stayed home from jiu jitsu training tonight to try to work on the video for saturday some more, and I decided to go anyway. So, Aaron picked me up down the street from our house and I rode over there with him just in time to meet one of my normal mestre's (Master/Teacher) at the door. He informed me after a minute or two that I would be training sao zinho (pronounced "saow zeen-yuu" meaning alone or with no one else) and that he could call the owner of the gym he was going to work out at to see if I could come work out with him tonight. That sounded great cause I've lost about 20 lbs since i've been here in brazil (i'm down to about 165 lbs) and a lot of it has been upper body muscle, with a good bit of it being lost belly mass. I'll tell yall my secret later :D Anyway I was all set to do that and my mestre Gustavo went inside to call the guy and to change clothes . Well right when he got out another man came into the fenced porch/garage area that I was waiting in and Gustavo introduced me to him as "Mestre Tom" and as the former mestre of the famous Jiu Jitsu fighter Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza (a Jacare is like a mini alligator but extremely ferocious). Then they offered for me to train 1 on 1 with him, or I could go work out at the gym... It took about two seconds for me to decide what to do, and I definitely opted to train with a world famous Jiu Jitsu trainer.

So, we head upstairs to our training area which is a room with a metal roof and waist high walls that is padded all over the floor and covers the waist high walls as well. Above the walls are tarps on rollers like they have in classrooms that hold the projection screens except they are about 15 feet long a piece and there are 2 of them on each side of the room. Needless to say it's a sizeable training area and when we get there around 6:45 to 7 PM we normally catch the tail end of a brilliant sunset over the city of Manaus. It's awesome and pictures are coming soon.

We get set up, I borrow someone's Gi, or Kimono as they call them here, we stretch and then God showed up. I realize i'm being trained 1 on 1 by a WORLD FAMOUS COACH. I realize i've already said this and I don't mean to brag, but it hit me in all caps in my head just like that. God was surprising me with one of my most favorite activities. What a blessing. He ended up showing me how to pull arm locks and choke submissions I'd never even thought were possible, new guards like "aranha guarda or spider guard," and so much more for about 2 hours. Then it was time to spar.

This 41 year old beast of a man put a whooping on me like I have never received. It was like Joe Gibboni , Robo Cop, Arnold Guvenator, Michael Phelps, and "insert name" Gracie all rolled into one. The dude is a 6ft 3inch 230 + pounds of muscle, meat grinder bent on the destruction of Winston Christopher Edmonds. I have never been tapped so fast or so many times as I was tonight. I swear there was 5 minutes that went by that he tapped me out once every 6 seconds, and I defended and held off everything as hard as I could.

At one point he said something to me along the lines of "you are the first student I've had that can take a beating like this while smiling." And it was true too! I was grinning ear to ear the ENTIRE time because I was so blown away by the guy's skill both with a gi and later when we did no-gi sparring. It was like if you met DaVinci and instead of him painting you a picture, he painted your face, like they do at the fair, and it was a masterpiece.

God surprised me with so much today that i couldn't sleep until I had written about it. Oh and by the way, I still don't speak very much portuguese, but my entire training session (all 3 hours and 30 minutes of it) was ALL in portuguese and I spoke plenty enough to understand direction, ask questions, and even joke around some. It was like Pentecost meets the Royal Rumble!! Man o man what a good night! I even got to share a bit of what our ministry is doing and told him about my prayer for God to surprise me today, and that him (mestre tom) showing up to teach me was my gift from God. He liked that a lot. God is good yall, God is so amazingly good. ok maybe now i'll be able to go to sleep. G'nite!

Rain can't dampen The Holy Spirit

Right now in this part of Manaus it is absolutely pouring rain.  We're talking cats, dogs, and all of the critters of the Amazon, so since we're probably not going anywhere for a bit I'm taking the time to update my slightly neglected blog.  

I know somewhere there is an old addage that if you pray for rain you better prepare for "something," I think it may be prepare to bail water or prepare for dust, I dunno... Either way my prayers lately have been centrally focused on "doing" more and being more active in the ministry field, not only active with online ministry that I have been doing with some people other than just yall that read this blog.  I've been praying that God really start to open up doors now that I'm getting used to the culture and language a bit more, and since I was "praying for rain" this time I should have been "prepared to bail water!" 

God has absolutely "swamped" our little boat mission with opportunities and things to "go and do" in the community and with the people here.  Let me list some examples: Within the past 5 days Eric and I have met a group of 20 year old breakdancers, "breaky-boys" as they call them here in Brazil, who dance as the Holy Spirit moves them and want us to hang out with them, we've ridden hibeatas (think a 4 seater canoe with an outboard motor) and fished with Riberhinos (river people of the Amazon), we've begun Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school at a local gym and have made friends there, and we're having a LOT of stuff on our plates to do to where we're busy every day with something.  It has been GREAT to see God answering our prayers in such a real and personal way.  

Lately, God has also been giving me the words to speak and teaching me what to say like I wrote about in my last post, but not necessarily words to say to people to make them new believers, rather to chalenge those who already believe and have accepted Christ as their closest friend and personal savior.  I'm not going to get into it now, but I will give a glimpse into where my head is at. Click here -> Romans 10:14-15 and read that real quick.  That was a part of my Bible study the other morning and since then I have been given a sense of urgency to spread that message.

So to recap and your (that means you, reader) prayer assignment: Pray for the Breaky-Boys, opportunities to minister at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, for more interactions with people to teach and fulfill our purpose as "Missionarios."  God is good! and I'm praising Him as the rain is now lifting, with blue sky just off in the distance... Gotta love Him! 

Boas Novas! (Good News!)

Hey all!

I'm gonna make this a pretty short update (relative term with my writing if you haven't been able to tell already).  Tonight we went to the night service at Igresia Batista Boas Novas (Good News Baptist Church)  and it was a really cool time both experience-wise and me growing closer to God in faith...-wise.  Haha 

First off these churches in Brazil are not lavishly decorated or outfitted with particularly comfortable pews, although these had a slight recline to them which was nice.  But the things they feel they NEED for worship are 1) an awesome blow you away sound system 2) a digital projector and screen for lyrics for the "worship" portion of service (ie: singing songs for those of you who are used to hearing it refered to it as something else).  The projector is nice, so atleast I can read how I'm praising God and try to comprehend between verses haha.  

Speaking of music... that's how I knew tonight was going to be a great night.  The moment we walked in to Boas Novas I could here a song that I thought I recognized and, me being the musically inclined person that I am, it was both soothing and exhilerating all at once!  They were singing "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord" which is a commonly heard praise and worship song in most of today's American Baptist churches.  It was GREAT!! Finally, something I could sing in Portuguese that I knew what my words meant as I was praising God, instead of just trusting that He wouldn't let me sing anything that wasn't honoring Him.  Don't get me wrong I like trusting God to do His thing, but I like to know what I'm saying to Him as I'm saying it... does that make sense?  

Anyway we followed up that song with a song that I think is called "Firm Foundation" that I've known since the summer of the year I became a Christian (I was 11, for the curious minds :)  ).

We also sang "At the Cross" (possibly right name for the song?) and Eric recognized the tune and I think I may have heard it but I'm not sure.  It was so great to see these people worshiping the same God we do, singing about Jesus, and just letting the Holy Spirit move them... and none of it was in English! Man, God is soooo BIG and awesome that He's touching lives here on another continent from where most of us experience Him. Think about that for awhile. 

Next came the sermon, which during the first part I decided I was going to just pray for this church, these people, our mission, and my family and friends.  Well God had bigger plans and He moved the Pasto (yes there is no "R" in the pronunciation) to introduce us as "Missionarios dos Estados Unidos" (Missionaries from the the United States).  He had us stand up where we were as he talked about us for a minute and then we sat back down and then got to meet the church during a "meet and greet" portion a few minutes later.  

So, once everything settled back down into the real sermon I decided just to read instead of praying so it wouldn't appear I was asleep and felt a tug to check out Exodus chapter 4 where Moses is hanging out with God via the burning bush.  It was perfect because eventually I found myself reading Exodus 4:11-12 over and over and over.  I had been thinking about how Moses had said that he wasn't a very good speaker and he wouldn't have the words to talk to the people, and God showed me why He had me think about this section tonight; I truely had my own burning bush moment... sans flames.  I want you to look it up and read it for yourself (RightClick this and open in new tab or window) but this is my version, how I felt God spoke to me:

"CHRIS!! Who gave you your mouth?! Who allows you to hear or could make you deaf?! 

Who gives you your sight or could blind you?! ME!! GOD!! (VERSE 12) I have already sent you to Brazil! You're there! I will help you speak and teach you what to say!!! (flip to Matthew 6:25-34 "Do Not Worry" haha)

I could practically feel God shaking me by the neck like they do in the cartoons when somebody is being rediculous.  The language barrier thing is still rough on me but it's been picking up a little recently.  On with the story: Our translator friends Sarah and Rosiene invite us to come eat Acai with them after church and it was great!  Eric and I both took full advantage of learning as much portuguese as possible from them and we had a great time of mixing and matching portuguese and English to make sentences.  So it was decidedly a great night.... and then...

When we got home to Aaron's house that we've been house sitting, our security guard friends were hanging out in front of our driveway.  I guess they were wondering where we were since we weren't playing Futeball (soccer) on the court tonight haha just kidding.  Anyway we said our "hey, how ya doing" 's  and "good night" and went inside.  I had remembered Bill (the other missionary friend) telling us that bringing security guards a coke or something was a great way to make friends and make sure they look out for you as well, so I decided since they were so close by I'd bring them a glass of water each and low and behold it happened; God showed up with what He had promised. Eric threw me a couple of last second pointers as I walked out the door about how to offer someone something (literally last second) and God directed the whole conversation ranging in content of everything from the weather, to where we are from, to whether or not we're pastors or what (Nao Pastos, nos estamos Missionarios: Not Pastors, we are Missionaries) and a couple of other things that I can't remember right now.  IT WAS AWESOME!  God totally had everything exactly how He wanted it and it was great! I had my own little Pentacost tonight right there on the sidewalk infront of the house!!! 

I feel like I've been quiet for the most part this past month cause I've not really been able to speak to anyone that doesn't speak English.  I took this time to listen (which I don't do enough of back home) and mentally take in the people around me, what was being said, culture, customs, places, and most of all with what God needed to say to me.  Now I feel like I've been given the formal go-ahead to talk with people and to really begin to move and do the great things that He's had in store for me.

Two last small praises and then I'm done; tonight we took communion and it was my first time in a long time.  I didn't do it right, if you look at how everyone around me did it, but I'm pretty sure I did it right with God.  

Also, I witnessed about 20+ people acknowledge that they have recently recieved Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  God is so good and it is so great to see Him moving.  My prayer last night was from the song beg by Shane and Shane: "Lord, I beg for you to move. I beg for you to break through."

God said, "I can do that!" and BAM! Prayer Answered.

G'nite!

-Chris

A long, but awesome, day on the river, continued!

Hey again! you'll probably read this post before the one below it cause this one is at the top of the page, but If you've not read the one below I HIGHLY reccommend reading it first because it is way more inciteful than this post will be haha! Today, we went out for an adventure on the river and boy was it a great day!!  As soon as Eric edits and uploads the videos of us I'll make sure to link to it so you can check them out cause we had a blast!

Our day started around 8:30 and we were at the David (pronounced "dah VEED" cause it's in Latin America) Marina by 9am.  After loading up the stuff and Aaron's 2 older kids we set off for a day on the water.  We barely made it 2 miles away from our parking spot before we hit our first snag.  For whatever reason the motor began to make a noise like my lawn mower does when it's running out of gas and then it died.  So there we were 400+ yards off the shore line, which was trees on a 70 foot tall 60% grade hill with 2 plastic collapseable paddles, over half a tank of gas, camera equipment galore, 2 kids under the age of 5, Eric, Aaron, myself and some ominous clouds rolling in... I was sure we were gonna get wet one way or the other and kept the kids occupied while Aaron (our project director) and Eric took a look at the motor to see what was up.  After about 5 minutes of being adrift, some tinkering, and some laying-hands on the motor with solid prayer the thing started right up and only studder-stepped for a couple of seconds 1 time for the rest of the day! Way to go God!!

So we topped off the gas tank at a floating gas station and made our way east to the "Meeting 

of the Waters."  This is a pretty cool sight to see, lemme tell you!  These two rivers, the Rio Negro (Black River) and Solimose (pronounced "sol-E-moinz: I don't know the translation and neither did Aaron) "meet" just east of Manaus and where they join is actually where the "Amazon River" begins.  The cool thing is that the Rio Negro is black, and I mean BLACK water, and the Solimose is this tanish light muddy color and they run side by side not mixing for many many kilometers!  So naturally we had to jump out and swim in it right on the line! :D  

When we left the meeting of the waters we rode around for abit checking out some of the floating house communities near by and also happened upon some water buffalo! I'll put up a pic of them another time, because the next thing that happened was way cooler.  We were on our way to go get some food when we saw some hibaetas (small 3 person canoes with 5horse power motors on them) with some brazilian kids and their "pets." 

By pets I mean exotic animals that they'll bring right up to your boat to let you hold and play with for a tip of a couple Reais.  So we got to hold a couple 3 toed sloths, a cayman, and the amazon's most famous creature The Anaconda!!  I liked the sloth better cause I'd held snakes before, but never something as cool as a sloth, besides the tiger I got my picture taken with when I was 8, but that's a different story. 

 Anyway that was awesome and it made my day, but there was still more to come!

After swimming and videoing and taking pictures and playing with animals we worked up a good apetite and it was a good thing too, because we had one of the BEST meals we've had so far in Brazil! There was an awesome all you can eat buffet of fresh fried fish, peacock bass, some kind of tube fish and CLEAN, FRESH VEGETABLES!! right there on the backwaters, and apparently it's a pretty popular tourist stop.  There were atleast 4 big tour boats that came in while we were there for an hour. By the way we have not had very many good veggies since we've come to Brazil cause in this part of Brazil the ants are so bad they eat everything on the ground so it makes it hard to grow stuff.  If you couldn't tell by the exclamation points and all-caps I was excited haha.  

Anyway after eating we hit the raised trail that was set up behind the

 restaurant for some good rainforest exploration action and then set out on the boat again.  God made a perfect day for our excursion with a crystal blue sky overhead and big puffy clouds everywhere you looked.  We zipped around on the backwaters for a bit and stopped to get some film for some promotions for the project before taking a shortcut through a flooded area that during the dry season we wouldn't be able to take as we made our way back to Manaus.  

Today was a lot of fun and we got a lot done as far as pictures and video collection is concerned.  We've now got most of the media that we need for the website as far as video goes.  Still pictures are almost complete too except for some candids of people of the communities and possibly some missionaries talking to Riberinos (river people).  Anyway 2 posts in one day hopefully will hold yall over for atleast a couple of days while we're editing pictures and video and look for another one of these probably tuesday or wednesday.  I love yall and I'll talk to ya again soon!

PS: There are a whole bunch of people that visit this site and read

 my blog apparently (the count is on the + side of 220 DIFFERENT visitors but i'm only receiving emails from my parents and grandmother... I'd like to hear from any of yall about anything! I'm opening the comments section to any reader and, I've recently added RSS options to the right of the page to make it easier for people to get these posts on their "smart phones" while on the go as well.  Send me stuff! If you're praying for me I'd like to know it! and likewise if there's anything I can pray for you about please let me know! 

In Christ's love -Chris Edmonds

A long, but awesome, day on the river.

  Hi all!  First off, before I get to the good stuff from today, I want to talk about why my posts have been relatively few and far between in comparison to how many their could be.  

  If I would have kept one of these blogs last semester so I could compare what's going on in my life I feel like I would have written more in a week this past fall than I have since I've been in Brazil. Despite the fact that I was so busy last semester that I barely had time to breathe, much less keep a blog, I feel like God was leading me and speaking to me everywhere I went... The key difference between last semester's lifestyle and this semester's lifestyle (so far) is that fact that I was going places and doing things, as apposed to this semester where we have been behind our computers trying to get this website up and running asap.  So far this semester I feel like I haven't been "going and doing" in God's name as much as I have in the past, and yes I realize I've gone and am doing in a different country for those of you that like to point out the obvious.  But there's a difference between going and doing 1 HUGE thing vs going and doing anything as often as possible.  Someone recently said this phrase and I overheard it, 

"A brick doesn't need a steering wheel nor anyone to operate one, because it is a stationary thing."  

That really got me thinking, the reason that I'm finding it difficult to learn the language, study the Word, and get involved with people is because our situation has allowed (or in-part required) that we remain stationary, thus not having to have God steer us or have His presence on us in a magnitude that I've experienced in the past.  Basically we're not phisically moving very much, so it's hard to feel God rocking the boat.

All that being said, our two man team will be moving and requiring the freedom to move out from this place and into the masses that we were sent to reach.  We're going to start with the English language learning school in the area and go from there.  Major prayer is needed for our new short term goals.  We have some long-er term goals that don't include anything about the website, but I'll keep you in suspense until some of those begin to come to fruition.

I didn't expect this post to be so long, so I'm going to let it be it's own post and I'll write more about what we did today in a second post that will show up above this one.  Be thinking about the brick tomorrow: 

A stationary Christian will not need God for direction, because direction is only important to things that move.  The cool thing is, though, that if you are prayerful about your movement God will take over the controls and steer you wherever He needs you to go.  

Isn't God awesome?! I pray you readers don't become bricks in your faith and I'm praying tonight that God will throw this brick (me) and shatter something as only His awesomeness can.  God is a strong enough foundation for our faith; He doesn't need us to be bricks to hold the faith in place. As believers we are meant to move check out Luke chapter 10 and Matthew 28:16-20.  I love yall and enjoy the post that'll appear above with the pictures of the backwaters and more!! -later

Fun Nights and Wild Mornings

Hey everybody! We're having a great time down here in Brazil.  There's been lots going on and the website is coming along nicely, but anyway I wanted to share a couple of videos that we've taken just for fun.  The first half is us after playing soccer with the locals for the first time and the second one is us being attacked by a ferocious killer demon/dog.  Anyway I hope yall enjoy and I'll talk to yall soon!

*PS: still be praying for our missionary families here in Manaus especially and also for the families of all of us that are out here in the mission field.  It's tough on us and our parents both when we don't get to communicate easily. *

Camping and Revalations

So, we're back from the rainforest and playing in the Rio Negro, and it was a really good trip.  When we left I was feeling pretty tense and overall not happy with a lot of the way things were going.  Let me clarify, Eric and I both thought we were signing up for a program that was already started and we would be joining missionaries that were already active in introducing people to Christ here in the Amazon River Basin area, but instead we are the first ones here, other than the career missionaries who are already here.  Also, we knew our main job was going to be the development of a website to advertise the project to bring in more prospective missionaries, but we didn't realize that our missionaries didn't really have anything else planned for us other than that.  So we fill our time with wandering the city, practicing our portuguese, cooking, eating, and other random stuff. 

 Needless to say this much time in a big city like this had me a little up tight, because i'm not used to not having trees around, i'm not used to this much traffic, and on top of that i'm not used to NOT being able to communicate with the vast majority of people that are around me...

Begin rainforest excursion: Once we got out on the water and headed towards the camp it was like a 30 pound weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.  It was like I could actually hear God again, where in the city it felt like I had lost his presence and my purpose for being here other than the website.  I swear on the way to the camp I could hear a choir singing "Sanctuary" as I looked off the side of our small boat at the puffy clouds and crystal blue sky over head and their reflection on the blackness of the Rio Negro in the distance as they met on the horizon.  Yes the river is so big that in places you'll see the horizon before you can see land.

The camp area was nothing special, except it had it's own well, a kitchen with an outdoor dining area attached, male and female bathroom facilities complete with showers, and hammock hooks galore in the seperate male and female covered sleeping areas.  Needless to say we were far from roughing it.  Still, there is something about being in the woods, where there are trees and leaves and animal sounds that can make anyone feel renewed.  And of course there's nothing like drinking freshly sterilized Amazon River haha.

However even with being away from the smog and city I was still lacking the breath of fresh air that I needed from God to remind me of my purpose here in Brazil.  On the first day we were there God showed us that he is going to surely answer our team's prayers and bless the amazonian ministry by Him producing the absolutely most beautiful sunset that I have ever seen.  The colors from that sunset will be forever burned into my memory, as will my purpose that came through scripture the next day.

After breakfast the next morning the leaders of the Radical Amazonas project got together to practice Chronological Bible Storying with one another and I went to go read my Bible.  I read a couple of different things but mainly I found myself being drawn to the book of John.  I didn't know where in John so I just started reading at the begninning and eventually got to the story of Jesus and the lady at the well and towards the end of that story, when the disciples have rejoined Jesus, I read something that brought me nearly to tears because it applied so much to what I had been seeking.  Jesus said in John 4:34-38 basically that there are reapers of the harvest that didn't plant the seeds, there are sowers of seeds that did not till the soil.  My purpose here in Brazil is to help till the soil and make it appealing for the sowers of seeds, so that with God's help there will eventually be a good harvest that will bear much good fruit.  God has a purpose for every part of the Body of Christ.  Every... single... part.  I had forgotten that and I'm glad He came along at just the right time to show me exactly who I am and why I'm here.  

I'm praising God big time today, but I'm also asking that you readers at home begin to pray for my missionary family here as they have had an unexpected loss.  I won't go into detail but, I will ask that all of you be praying diligently that they might be comforted by the one they have been called to serve.  I will post video and pictures later but for now enjoy the sunset picture I posted at the top.

Website building and more

Sorry I haven't updated this in a couple of days!  We've been "busy" but not with much exciting stuff except for a couple of things which I'll tell you about now.  

First off we've mainly been working on trying to get this website together for the misionaries that we're staying with.  Eric's been using IWeb to get most of it together on the content pages and I've been working on the intro pages and the graphics for those.  So most of our time has been spent in our room just hanging out infront of our computers...

BUT! we've had some mini adventures too which have involved us walking a couple of miles to a walmart-like store called "Carre Four," a french owned walmart-like company that is all over Brazil, going to the downtown area known as "Centro" to buy some clothes that'll help us blend in more (although we're among the tallest people in the city so the clothes don't help), and eating at a great pizza place called Splash Pizza that was on the way to Carre Four.  

Now Centro is pretty cool and has just about anything you could want from electronics and bootleg DVDs to everyday clothes of all types.  It's not where you'd want to go to buy your "nice" clothes but you can get some pretty good stuff there.  

Splash Pizza was the only really notable thing that we've done.  Apparently it's not normally like the way it was when we went, but when we got there the place was empty and we were a little early for the dinner hour so they told us to have a seat (we think) and they'd get us something to drink.  We ended up getting some Guarana and waiting for a few more minutes and then they brought us a Pizza without us even ordering anything! The cool thing about this pizza was it was several different types of Pizza all served onto one tray and we could pick and choose what we wanted off of it! So they ended up comming around about 3 times and we both got a slice or 2 off of each and by that time were stuffed and they were still bringing us stuff and wanted to serve us a desert pizza but we started to get concerned about the price so we opted out.  Anyway that was that adventure in a nutshell.  I had some video for this post but I'll have to post it another time. 

We're officially missionaries... Where was spidey when we needed em?

Yes, Eric and I are officially missionaries, and as any real missionary will tell you that's not neccessarily a good thing.

The day started out with us sleeping in pretty good and then me possibly going through the begining stages of having a parasite or some kind of stomach bug... 

Anyway we decided to get out and go get some lunch at an outdoor foodcourt thing and we had a couple of burgers and needed to go grab some groceries while we were out.  So we had a fun time grabbing some stuff at the db Supermarcado and on the way back we found the Governor of Amazonias' house and just as we were getting back to the main road with all of the cars it happened.

Two fellas that I'd noticed ride by on a dirt bike circled back and stopped right in front of me just to my right like they were trying to block our path.  We didn't think anything of it and just stepped around them and took another couple of steps, when the guy that was on the back of the bike hopped off with a .357 revolver in hand and stuck it in Eric's back.  He then proceded to ask for Eric's money and bag he had with him and then hopped back on the bike and they rode off, but they didn't mess with me.  

We've talked about it since then and decided that if we'd done ANYTHING at all besides giving them the money there was going to be a very good chance that a round would have been fired.  God definitely had his hands on us "Hands-on" missionaries today hahaha! But yea we're fine and i'm gonna post the video of our shopping excursion and the reactions from directly after being robbed and stuff so check those out and enjoy em and I'll talk to ya later.  -Chris

Manaus Brazil and the Pertiest Pizza Hut Ever

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, the fun has arrived! Eric and I made it to Manaus today around 12PM Eastern Standard Time.  We're actually one hour earlyier than most of you reading this (GMT -4 hours) Anyway we flew for quite a while over the past 24 hours and despite my nap this afternoon I'm still feeling pretty drained.  

Our flights consisted of this... Quito, Ecuador to Lima, Peru 2.5 hours, then an hour layover in Lima followed up by a 5.5 hour flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil which arived at 5 AM local time which was 3AM Eastern Standard time.  We had a 2.5 hour layover there and then flew for 4 hours to Manaus, Brazil where we've been settling in for the rest of the day.  I napped for probably 3 hours + of the 4 hour flight and slept for atleast a couple of hours once we got here but I'm still exausted.  This heat and humidity takes a lot out of you.  The cool mountain breazes of Calacali, Ecuador definitely were a blessing, but I imagine I'll get used to this too.  

Anyway, we're here and we're doing great.  The missionary family that we're living with is awesome! They took us out to the 1st and only Pizza Hut in Manaus and it is gorgeous! I used to work at a pizza hut and you wouldn't think it was even owned by the same company. I wish I'd have taken a pic of the skyline from the back window where we sat but I got caught up with eating so I kinda forgot.  BTW the two pictures up top I know are horrible but one I highlighted the word PERU to show that I was there and the other I was trying to take while walking toward the door to the pizza hut. sorry for the bad quality of that and the video below but I was / still am very tired.

I'm going to try to upload a video that I took with my camera that will give you a tour of where we're staying too... By the way I don't know if i said it in my video but a general in the Brazilian army lives literally 2 doors down from us, so we have an armed guard that patrols nearby at night so we're pretty safe from anybody that might want some fresh meat american missionaries.  

Anyway I'm about to go get de-Jet-lagged.  I can't wait to see what God's got in store for us tomorrow.  More fun pictures and such to come, stay tuned! -later

1-22-09 Backpost

**1-22-09 Backpost**

So a lot has happened since i've last had a chance to write, so let me catch yall up. We've all been working pretty hard on learning Spanish and despite my opposition to ever learning it, I'm doing quite well and can hold a simple conversation with practically anyone I meet: ie shop workers, taxi drivers, restaurant staff, and I'm learning how to talk to people about Christ as well in Espanol.

So, this week we broke our group up into 5 teams and raced around the city to different locations that were awesome! The IMB Staff that set up the race did an amazing job, making us communicate in Spanish as well as take public transportation all over the city.

We also started doing “low-ropes” team building exercises, have taken over leading worship, and are now responsible for leading the Bible studying sessions. The Bible studying that we're doing is called “chronological Bible studying,” and it is really cool cause you can tell them in a way that suspense is built between one story and the next and it really gives people a since of urgency and an appetite for God's word.

I've also been leading worship at nights up until this point as sort of a way to summarize the day.  I don't know really anything else to write cause i'm tired so I'll write later

 -holla

1-18-09 backpost

**1-18-09 BackPost**

Today was another awesome day that has left me physically tired but emotionally and spiritually full. Ecuador is so amazingly beautiful. I've never been anywhere like this in my life, but it is so visually gratifying everywhere I look that its like my eyes have been closed my entire life and I'm just now being able to use them for the first time. The colors are so rich, the rolling mist blows in from a fairytale once every little while and my words are useless in doing any of it justice. There are no words in the English language that can capture the beauty and magnitude of this place; pictures even do not do this place justice. On top of today being another beautiful day, God decided that He'd bless us with some sun. I doubt many of you reading this have been to the equator anywhere in the world, and since you haven't I don't expect you to understand how intense the sun can be at 10,000 feet above sea level on or 3 miles from the equator. It's nuts, we'll leave it at that haha!

Today we went to Mitad de Mundo or “Middle of the World” at the “Cididad de Mundo” or “The City at the Middle of the World,” Quito, Ecuador. We actually got pictures of us straddling the true equator and the magnetic equator. We also got to try out some of our Espanol bartering skills such as “Quanto Questa?” or “How Much,” and “Pedra Darle ...” or “I can give you … however much.” Utilizing our newly learned bargaining skills Clayton and I managed to obtain a couple of authentic wool Gaucho Ponchos and I scored a sweet Indiana Jones-esq hat for my up coming commercials as Matt Rio: Amazonian Adventurer once we get to Brazil.

I was so pleased that in our adventures at the market how much the people were willing and eager to help us learn to speak Spanish and converse with us for what little we know. Most of our group is surprisingly from the South East, US and we all recognize the importance of the “Hey how are ya's” that go on in beginning a conversation or transaction, so I think that is really an advantage that we might have in understanding the more relationship oriented people that are in this climate. Unlike other cultures in the world the Ecuadorians are people first and business people second, and they expect to be treated as such.

I also love how our leaders are doing the orientation! They are both building us as a team through games and fun as well as through teaching us language and culture at the same time. Today our focus was on how differing cultures have different “World Views” from each other. For instance Christians might acknowledge that Christ dying on the cross as a sacrifice to save all of man kind from their own sin as the most awesome thing ever, but an ancient culture that has a history of human sacrifice might associate a man sacrificing himself as a thing that they would not want to be associated with any longer because of the social stigmas surrounding it or maybe to stay away from any God that would require a sacrifice.

I have decided that this experience in South America is going to be one of the most defining experiences of my life, if it isn't already. I am learning so much about people, different cultures, and myself every day. I love the people here and really have a changed and more open heart for a culture that I've never really given much thought. I definitely will never be the same after being here as I was when I left.

PS it kinda stinks that we don't have Internet here at camp so I can't upload these every night but once I get to Brazil that will be more of an opportunity so enjoy catching up when you're reading these haha -later

1-17-09 Back post

**Backpost 1-17-09**

So, I just read the end of my last journal before I started to write this one and I am beginning to notice a trend in my life here in Quito so far; I'm physically exhausted every night ha ha! However my mind is racing so hard with everything that has been happening during the day that it's taking me a while to mentally calm down and this journaling is really helping. You wouldn't believe how being on the plus side of 10 feet above sea level will tire you out. I also learned today that the equator is about a mile from here, and despite what you might think that implies (hot maybe?) the temperature has been an almost constant 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit and misty/rainy/cloudy.

Today we started learning languages and even though I'm going to Brazil where they speak Portuguese, we've been learning Spanish as a group because that's what the entire rest of South America speaks and it will help us over the next 11 days here in Ecuador with communicating with the staff here at camp and the people in the village near by. By the way: I say “Village” but really there's a hundred thousand people or so living 1 KM from my bedroom door.

We got to go into the village today and get to the Internet cafe (which is dial-up and not facebook friendly so sorry for the lack of updates thus far) to write e-mails and call parents which was nice. Until this afternoon, my parents actually didn't even know if I'd made it to where I was supposed to be. As it happens, though, I am absolutely 100 kajillion percent that there is no where else in the entire world that I am supposed to be right now. God has placed me here with a purpose and that purpose I've yet to nail down in my own head, but I know He is getting glory from my being here cause I'm constantly thanking Him for it. God is SO good!! :D

Our afternoon team building exercises consisted of trust building activities and exploring the vastness of what all our social contract actually covers. We played a bunch of those corny looking but extremely fun games that you play when building a team like this... you know the ones haha! But the thing is that we work really well together and we're all growing close already! I love these kids and I love it here!

I'll talk about the food later but for now I'm actually tired so I'm gonna take advantage of it and conk out. Good night (buenos noches en Espanol or boa noite em Portuguese)! I'm praying for yall too, that God will move in you tomorrow. Holla! -chris

Day 2 (BACK POST)

**BACK POST 1-16-09**

Today I woke up to probably THE most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. I walked out of the door of the room that they have all of us guys bunked down in, to see beautiful rolling mountains covered in mist completely surrounding us. God is a painter and I know He is proud of this particular Ecuadorian valley, He has to be because it is so intensely green and absolutely beautiful. It blows my mind to think that there are people in this world that do not believe that God created it all. I can't fathom how scary that would be, thinking that this all was made by chance.

Anyway today was day 1 of our 12 day orientation here at Camp Refugio and we learned each other's names: Chris(Me), Eric (the guy going to Brazil with me), Clayton, Jeffery, Jason, Ryan, Robin, Tiffany, Jackie, Mariah, Candice, Rachel, Valerie, Kristen, Amber, and Holly. I've written all of them here so you readers can be praying for the other 15 college students that will be all over in South America for the next few months by name, and I'll thank you in advance for doing that cause I know some of yall and how hard core you are with prayer. :)

We also developed a social contract that we have all agreed to live by for the next few months. It involves: Giving 110% all of the time, Being “Here” now mentally and phisically for each other and for the tasks at hand, Choosing Joy over all else, and Choosing choice and to acknowledge choices made by us and others.

I know that all sounds kinda weird but you'd have to be here to really get it, and I've not really explained it very well for brevity's sake. Anyway, I'm exhausted because of the long day and the altitude, so I'm gonna call it a night. Talk to yall tomorrow.

-later

Liftoff (Backlog)

BACK POST 1-15-09 

LIFTOFF

First off I wanna thank God for getting me here safely to Quito, Ecuador. I may not have arrived with guitar in tow like I had planned, but this whole thing is really not about my plans is it?

So after a pretty hectic morning of txt messages, phone calls, and general ridiculousness of getting ready to go on this trip I made it to the airport and through security with plenty of time to spare. Me and my folks said goodbye and that was for the most part uneventful. I'm so happy that God gave my mom peace enough to be able to let me go at the gates haha.

The flight to Miami was rather uneventful as well. I was kinda squished but ya know that's what happens when you fly commuter flights.

However I will say this, if you've never taken a plane ride on a semi cloudy day where you can see the tops of the clouds below you, you've never really lived. Just think about this, Heaven itself is going to be even more marvelous and beautiful than anything you've ever seen anywhere on this earth. Basically I could look out at and see a realm of no clouds for a hundred miles and it looked like you could just walk around on the patchwork clouds below me. Coming into Miami I got to see the ocean as green as an emerald, dolphins playing in the wake of a boat, and waves crashing across a reef. It was absolutely breathtaking! Just as nearly breathtaking was the sunset through storm clouds over Mexico as we flew over the Gulf, later on the way to Quito.

And just think, our God created all of this, everything on this world is a craft of his and it is PERFECT and beautiful. I've not gotten to see Quito very much because it's been dark since we got here but the ride from Miami was extremely comfortable because it was practically empty and the time flew by.

Anyway I'm exausted, so I'll write again when I get the chance. I love yall back at home and I'll talk to ya soon. -later

God is good and so is Ecuador

Hey yall! i´m still in ecuador and I´ve been journaling every day but my buddy eric has all my journals on his external harddrive and he´s at a different mall, here in Quito. Soo I´ll have to update those later, but for now i´m alive and well and having an awesome time playing in God´s country! I´m eating well and learning spanish along with portuguese right now so my mind is pretty frazzled all the time. For the most part i´m exausted come the end of the day. anyway i´m at an internet cafe and they charge so i´m gonna go for now. I´ll talk to yall soon! -later

T-Minus 2 days

   So I really wasn't ready for today.  Today I was all excited to get up and REALLY get packing and tieing down some loose ends, but I was even more excited about getting to go pick up my perscription sunglasses (THESE).  Yes I wear glasses and yes I'm aware that 90% of you reading have never seen me wear em.  That's because I really only wear them to drive or read like #4 font size at 6 feet away.  

   Here's the thing tho, I was REALLY excited about getting them and in the process I think I subconsciously may have made them a mini Idol.  I know I'm not the only one that ever puts things on a pedastle, but it doesn't make me feel any better.  God decided that He'd say "Ok, here's the glasses you want... and oops they broke!" all within 30 seconds of the lady putting them down in front of me.  I hadn't even gotten to touch them yet.  There's a blessing in that part of it though because if I had touched them I'd be up that brown creek everyone talks about without a paddle.  But, the other problem was that I leave at noon the day after tomorrow and there is ZERO time to order replacements.  Thankfully I was able to convince the manager to write me a check for the amount they cost so I could run to the mall and grab them a replacement pair.  As soon as I got back I handed over the replacements and the thought crossed my mind "Don't you think these things were a little TOO important?" 

   Immediately I knew what that thought meant, that I had basically made a little mini idol that I had put before God in my addoration because I wasn't thinking about him.  I was so enamored by them that I forgot to thank God for the opportunity and give them over to God as a tool for Him to use.  Once I realized this I began praying for forgiveness and that the breaking of the other ones was just a reminder for me not to store treasures up on earth, but in heaven where they'll never break, get lost, get stolen, or anything else like that.  

Matthew 6:19-21

-holla 

T-Minus 3 days

So I slept like a rock last night and woke up at 10:30 this morning after my folks had aparently (pardon the pun) been trying to get me up for quite some time.  I wanted to make it to church on time for my last sunday in the states for a while so I blazed through a shower, decided to go with a bit of scruff for the day, jumped into some church clothes and dashed out the door with my mother in tow.  

  We made it in plenty of time and got to hear an amazingly preached sermon at Calvary Christian Church in Columbus.  The sermon was on the differences between the books of Joshua and Judges and how in Josh, people actually followed God's commandments and in Judges, people sucked... That's why they needed "Judges" I infer.  However because people sucked as a group at following God's commands, He decided that He'd glorify Himself by showing us what happens if we are completely faithful and we get what are considered to be "Biblical heroes" like Samson.

   Anyhow, I hung out with the folks and then recieved a call back from the folks at Westview Baptist in Milledgeville, GA that I could come be a part of their sunday night service and they would happily take up a love offering for me.  So I grabbed my guitar, a cd, and my best smile and set out for the long 2.5 hour haul to Milly-V.  I arrived just in time to take a breath and a seat as the best praise and worship I've been around in a while unfolded before my eyes.  Those people were moving in the pews, clapping, and singing with an enthusiasm that I've not heard in a while and it was AWESOME!

   Needless to say I was pumped when the music pastor called me up to introduce me.  I prayed for us and me as we got started and thanked the Lord and the church through prayer.  Then I basically zoned out.  Chris Edmonds ceased to talk anymore and God must have taken over, cause I don't really remember much of what was said (maybe a good thing, maybe not) but either way I was on autopilot and going full speed ahead with info about the mission, the projects, what God is doing in my life, and my plea for them to pray for me and my family while I'm down there.  God is great and God is SO good! He blessed me big time tonight with exactly what I needed both spiritually and monetarily.  

  Practically the whole night was a blessing, from seeing my closest friends, to eating at the brick, to getting in some awesome time in God's house.  Man all I can say is Praise the Lord for today!

*Matthew 7:7 came true for me today. I challenge you to pray for it to come true in your life whatever it is you ask for, seek to find, or the doors you knock on.  May the Lord of all Creation bless you in His time.*

**Praise Report: I was informed today that MANY MANY prayers have been answered and another person that is close to me has begun attending church recently, has been for about 3 weeks, and is learning and enjoying it.  PRAISE THE LORD GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!!!**

T-Minus 4 days

*Warning its late and my diction, as well as my expression of thoughts, becomes quite the bit more colorful than normal.*

    Well today was busy and lazy all at the same time.  I awoke groggily this morning around 9AM-ish after getting home quite late, to my wrist watch alarm that I bought for the trip (and am just now getting used to), and my Dad telling me that I had a busy day ahead of me.  "Busy," I knew meant today was going to be full of taking care of picking up some last minute things for the trip as I was busy trying to shake off the grogg.  During my father's call to attention he managed to remind me of one of my ticks on the to-do list, my second least most favorite activity on the face of the earth, going to the doctor to get a shot.  

    Even at 22, I hate shots and I hate needles.  Nothing good ever comes out of being shot nor out of any needles.  Being shot is obviously never good and all of anything that comes out of a needle is illegal to posess except in doctor's offices, so it can't really be all that good in my opinion either. 

   So, in seeking to off the haze from my slumber and prep for the day, I wandered the house for a bit and found my way to an empty coffee pot; I guess that will teach me to sleep late, or what stands for late around my parent's house haha.  

   Anyway, I got cleaned up and headed off to get vaccinated and recevied both the easiest and the most painful shots I've ever had within 2 minutes of each other.  The Typhoid Vaccine felt like they just squirted me with something on top of my skin.  But the Hepatitus A vaccine felt like they shoved a full sized dull number 2 pencil in my arm.  It's still a bit sore even now while I'm typing this (now a day later).

   Next, I went and got my malaria meds perscription filled and became rediculously drowsy all of the sudden so I subconsciously decided to take an hour long nap in the car in the walgreens parking lot, because when I woke up I never really remember decideing to take one.  *NOTE TO SELF/READERS: taking 2 vaccine shots withing 30 seconds of each other with very minimal breakfast will make probably make you crash.

   The rest of the day proceded like this: Got some batteries and gallon zip loc bags at walmart, installed the new anti-bug flak turrets on my hammock (aka hard core bugspray), beasted some Ruby Tuesday's with my parents and caught the 7:15 showing of Marley and Me at the theater.  By the way, if you have a dog, ever wanted a dog, ever seen a dog, or even know what a dog is either leave halfway through the movie or be prepared to have a lump in your throat.  Marley looks exactly like my dog Tucker, who is getting on up in years, so needless to say my folks and I had lumps in our throats.  

  All in all it was a pretty lazy but busy day. Now if only tomorrow could be as fun! 

T-Minus 5 days

So here I am at 5 days left untill I go... and ya know I'm not even freaking out really.  I was just telling someone yesterday how for the first time ever I'm not really freaking out about getting packed and traveling and all that.  Normally, I tend to get a bit edgy around any time I'm leaving on a trip, things sorta have to be my way or I'll leave you kindof thing, but this time I'm a lot more calm.  I'm not necessarily collected or packed really but I'm calm-ish haha.  

Anyway Fedex just delivered my passport back to me from the Brazilian Consulate so I'm glad to have that back.  I'll post pictures of all my gear as I'm starting to pack it tomorrow.  I've actually still got quite a bit of prep work to do on my Hennesy Hammock Tent with bug proofing it, and I've still gotta waterproof my guitar case, along with several other things.  

Anyway I've been going between 4 parts of the Bible over and over lately, and I guess that's why I'm so at peace with leaving but basically here's it is, my God's Word Survival Pack:

verse 1: Matthew 28:18-20

verse 2: Matthew 7:7-8

verse 3: John 10:1-18

verse 4: Luke 9:57-62

This is where I'm at right now and what is giving me comfort.  I gotta run, lots to do, so yall have a good one. -later