Life in the Amazon

 

Cool adventures and stories are neither the reason I got on the plane nor do they enter my mind when I think of the coolest things that have happened on this trip. As radically different as those things are from “normal life,” what´s far more radical is the what I´ve seen God do in this past month and a half or so. I´ve seen God work through my small faith to see backs straightened, chronic migranes released, urinary problems eradicated, an ear opened, stomach, head, back, and face pain all relieved. I´ve seen people recieve truth and freedom and prophesy. I´ve seen faith to raise the dead. And what I believe now more than ever is that although those things are incredible miracles done by God for His glory and as a display of His love for His children, what is greater than that is the love and faith that I´ve recieved and that I´ve seen evidence of in the people around me. What God is doing in the hearts of His people is mind blowing.

 

On a more personal note, God has shown me the confidence that I can have in my identity as His son. How much God blesses my life or my ministry has nothing to do with how good of a job that I do. I went into this trip basing a lot of my identity on my performance as a Christian. I thought I needed to do miracles, give good sermons, speak deep biblical truth all the time, and have it all together for God to bless me in what I was doing. Those things have nothing to do with it. Nothing at all. It´s only once I surrendered the idea that I have any righteousness or worth or goodness in my life aside from God. I had to surrender control and pride and ultimately the part of my identity that was rooted in how well I performed. As I´m continuing to learn how to do that, God is continuing to bless my with more intimacy with Him as well as more manifestation of His Spirit and His presence in my life. It´s basically th most flipping amazing thing ever.

 

Although, I do have to admit, those adrenalin-pumping moments have been absolutely amazing. So real quick:

 

In one of the villages a local found a 3-foot long cayman (basically a crocedile) and gave it to Susan who brought it to our team. Everyone thought it was cool and passed it around. While being passed it started clipping out and was dropped. My TV watching past was enough training to immediately try to catch it by picking it up by the tail. It then whipped around and wrapped its mouth around my hand. I tossed it, we recaught it, then released it… So now he has a memory and I have a scar. Yaayy!!

 

2 days later…

 

We were in between two villiages on a 2 or 3 hour boat ride when we spotted an iguana swimming across this really wide river. Odd sight. So we stop the boat and turn around to see if it will grab on to a stick, as it turns out iguanas are pretty good swimmers and as soon as it was 2 inches underneath the muddy water it was invisible. My first instinct… jump in after it. So I find myself in the water swimming in the water after an elusive iguana when it finally gets tired out and I palm it all the way out while narrowly avoiding its sharp tail and claws. Shortly after getting it on board we released it.