We recently journeyed to the flood plain with a team from Regina, Canada. They were a group of 9 young adults and virtually all interested in full-time missionary work. They were unique in their youth and in their remarkable global perspective.

The one thing that missionaries and prospective missionaries have in common is an understanding that suffering and inconvenience are a very real part of serving our Father. This group understood that the abundant life has little to do with feelings and comfort and is more about giving ourselves away. They handled the normal Amazon idiosyncrasies (it was quite warm and quite buggy) well and, even in the face of fatigue and illness (just about everyone got sick), still loved the people in the interior like most of our visiting teams do. They prayed and embraced and prayed and embraced. They poured themselves into the kids and into serving the adults in any way that they could. The impressive thing about this team was not as much what they did but how they did it. They demonstrated passion and concern radically, soberly and consistently. This was more than a trip for them; it was a pouring out, a no holds barred approach to ministry (that they had done before and planned to do again); one that involved tireless energy, frequent tears, much work, and many smiles and hugs, all while dealing with unfamiliarity, bugs, heat, and illness. They told of the Kingdom but more they demonstrated the fruit of walking with the King.

On our last night they asked to pray for me and for Zack (our 21 y/o nephew visiting for several months), Ben and Meredith (who accompanied me on the river trip). I don’t think I have ever been prayed for with such intensity and passion. I was left feeling so valued and cared for and Zack, Ben and Mer also were enormously encouraged and edified.

We saw between 200-300 people for health concerns and pulled more than a few teeth. Our work was received so well and with much expressed gratitude.

Visiting teams join us in our work for a week or two. They spend much to get here and then spend more in choosing to love and serve whether healthy, tired or sick. They leave an impression of Jesus with those visited and communicate about the Kingdom in few words.

Thank you, Regina Team, and all of you (who support this work) who choose to be change in our Father’s Brazil pocket, being spent by Him as He sees best, for the benefit of those we serve.