3-What Did I Do To Deserve All This?

Our first trip into the jungle was absolutely incredible. This is a quick run down of all that went on in the jungle: Not only were we well received at every single village we stopped at along the way, a lot of the people are already asking when we are coming back! They are eager, which is exactly what I asked for yall to be prayin about. The Lord hears our prayers!!! We started off spending the night in our hammocks with about 30 other people at a boat station that looked out across the river. We could see the city lights from French Guiana reflecting on the river in the distance. The next morning we headed out and got to watch the sunrise on the river! We boated for 12 hours that day stopping at a few villages. That night we had rice and chicken on our boat on the river scoping out a bright shining full moon set right over the river. Day 2 on the river included another 8 hours or so of boating, with more stops at villages. The people are extremely friendly and have such bright face and laugh alot when we trie to say hello and good bye:) We got to a part of the river that is unpassable by boat right now, and unloaded everything and loaded it up on another boat about a quarter mile across an island. This took quite some time, which left Ryan, Charles and I knocking down fresh mangos out of a tree (one actually feel right in front of my face as I was searching…thank you Lord). We got back on the river about an hour and a half before sundown and there was a nasty storm brewing and our motor was not working. Luckily we made it back before the rain. We arrived at Diitabiki and spent the next 3 days going from hut to hut meeting different people. We even got to meet the Granman, who is the highest leader among the Aukan people. Some outsiders have been at Diitabiki for over a year and have never got a chance to meet this guy. Our supervisor got an instant invitation for us to come right up and sey hello at his quarters. Charles told the Granman what we were doing there and asked if we could stay at the village until June to learn the language. He replied with an instant yes. This just shows the incredible reputation that they have had at this village over the past years. God is good! Later I asked Charles what in the world would have happened if the Granman had said no. Charles just smiled and we went on. The rest of our time at Diitabiki included killing bats and vipers in our back yard, sleeping in the hammock, canoeing with paddles up river in the small rapids, going on a spontaneous bird hunt after a flock of kami kami (Surinamese Bird) came through a field close by, bathing in the river, practicing our canoe balancing skills, playing soccer with some local kids, devo time with the guys and telling my first Bible story to an Aukan (Charles translated). Our last day in the jungle was spent at the radio tower on a 2000 foot mountain top. There we did a little bit of work and had a whole lot of fun climbing the 300 foot radio tower. Talk about an incredible view. O yea, and I almost forgot….the jungle flights are amazing. We take off and land on grass airstrips on these 5-8 seater airplanes. Talk about a roller coaster of a ride. We had a 45 minute plane ride from the mountain top back to the capital and our jungle journey was over. Wow!!! "What did I do to deserve all this" I kept asking myself. Then I realized that I did not do anything to deserve all this. I just serve a really good God who decided to bless me...tremendously) The recurring theme from the Lord during this trip was the idea that “He goes before us”. I cannot tell you how many times He has reminded me over the past few weeks that He always goes before me. “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession. And through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” (2 Corinthians 2:14) Thank you all for praying. I could not do this without your prayers. By praying, you are just as much a part of this as I am. Know that you too are part of spreading Christ's love to the jungles of Suriname. Let us run this race together. To God be the GLORY!!!