Doorn Album (566 photos), by Margaret Doorn

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We're Home! <><

Can't believe it--but we are back home after nine days on our mission trip. We praise God for Peace Church and for the opportunity to serve in Brazil!

Friday night was hard--preparing to leave new friends and getting packed up for the big trip back home. It's amazing how close you can become on a mission trip--and we all became very close to the boat staff. There was a beautiful young boy named "Levi". He is 12 years old and every day just blessed us with his smile and service. From helping us all on the boat with our luggage, to helping us every day in Bible School (Levi read the Bible story/scripture to the children in our class)--he was just a special joy to all of us. Levi was also doing his best to teach me Portageuse. He would even test me with telling me "good afternoon" when it was morning--making me correct him. He was just a joy to spend time with. His dad, "Dayba" worked on the boat and daily served in the duties of keeping the boat in order (the boat was just immaculate!). It was great to see father and son working together. Everyone on the boat was wonderful--and has such a heart for the Lord. What a blessing it was for us to share a week with them!

Late Friday evening, after our last day of work, I went off onto the front of the boat--just looking at the beautiful night sky and the full moon. We had a wonderful week of learning and serving. God has been so faithful to us! I shed some tears as I needed to prepare for our leaving--and our mission team had our last team meeting on the top floor of the boat. It was a beautiful evening of sharing our experiences of the week/day.

Saturday was a great day--we were able to see the "meeting of the waters"--where the Negro and Salimones rivers meet. From Manaus we took a speed boat out to the middle of the rivers to see this phenomina. There is a distinct difference between the black and green waters caused by water temperature, acidity, soil and current. It was amazing to see--really a miracle that God created for us to just admire and awe in wonder. After that adventure we headed back to the church in Manaus (where our luggage was dropped off after being on the boat) and had time to rest before we met one of our guides (Heyde Marques) for dinner. She was taking us to a "Brazillian BBQ". Um--IT WAS AMAZING! The food was incredible. In fact, the entire week's food was incredible. Here we thought we would loose weight from not feeling 100%--when in fact we all felt great and enjoyed the wonderful food prepared every morning, noon and night! Unfortunately, I think we all gained weight from this mission trip! :)

After the BBQ we collected our luggage and headed to the airport. Everything again went smoothly through Customs. And, God had a great surprise for us--we did NOT have to pay and "exit from Brazil" tax! Wahoo! For our group that would have been a $418 cost. God again has proven He is in ALL the details!

Our connection flight to Atlanta and then to O'Hare went perfectly. We traveled through the night and many of us actually slept pretty well! :) I'm home unpacking now while Jim is sleeping--and had to give a quick blog. I am just so excited about the trip and how God was able to use us. We received the following stats from our boat captain, "Hi":

Vessel Name: BHJJ Mesquito: June 29 through July 2, 2009
Construction projects: 3
Haircuts by Anita: 98
VBS children taught: 210
Hygiene kits distributed--
Baby kits: 40
Family kits: 110
Medical Clinic Patients:
Children: 80
Teens: 38
Adults: 120
Decisions for Christ Made: 10

Well, that's all for now (I have to continue to unpack)--thanks for your prayers and support. Praising God this moment for His faithfulness to me and our Team!

Margie and Jim
Psalm 9:2

P.S.: Prayer requests--please pray for Anita--she has a rash on her arms and went to the clinic this afternoon to have it looked at. Also, if you could pray for "Nett" and her 7 month old son, "Lucas". Nett's husband, Frank, has abandoned their family. Can you please pray that God will still in Frank's heart. Thank you.

Exciting Last Day of Evangelism!

A message from Susan R. -

Today, we woke up in a village called Arada. It’s a village that has about 35 families living in it. We did vacation bible school and clinic again. Yesterday, we had given audio bibles to several blind people and as we were walking around today, we heard the woman playing hers. We were very blessed by that.

Jan is doing fine in nursing. She worked with a man who has cancer and helped him make arrangements to go to a hospital that is near here.

We saw a real rubber tree and were actually able to pull some of the rubber on it. Heather got a real kick out of that!

Matt is doing phenomenally well. Besides entertaining us (he is such a fun young man), he also blessed us by preaching last night at our service. We have a budding young Brazilian missionary on our hands that may come to pass, so it has been fun watching him.

Today in our service, Heather and I gave our testimonies. It was very heartfelt. Everyone was very humbled that this is our last day. Yes we want to come home, but everyone is sad as well that we have to leave.

We took a break and many of us swam in the river, including Heather, Matt and myself. Even Anita went in. We had a wonderful time just hanging out together and swimming before going into the village to evangelize.

Our service this evening was so beautiful because pastor had us sit in the grass with the river behind him. All of the sudden, Jayanne jumped and moved and there was a little scorpion right by her. It was getting close to biting her! So we thankfully averted having that happen, which wouldn’t have been a fun thing. We are all still very healthy and we praise God for that.

We are very excited that the trip went so well and we’re sad to go. We made so many friends here in Brazil that we are already talking about coming back. Thanks for everyone’s prayers and we ask that you pray for our safe trip back.

Posted by Sarah Leemon

A message from Jayanne –

Hello from the Amazon! It’s Thursday, July 2nd and we had another great--very hot--day in Brazil. Last night Margie and several others tried to sleep on the top of the boat. Margie was the only one who made it through the night, so great praise to her for being able to sleep outside all night.

It’s so interesting to see all the different tropical vegetation here and all the different people groups living in the villages. Today we met a 95 year old man and his wife, Mary, who have lived in this village for, well ‘forever’ (I believe). Please have everyone pray for her; she has a wound on her leg with an infection that needs to heal. She’s blind and he’s deaf, so she is his ears and he is her eyes. They live here together and they’re a great little couple and are just very interesting to get to know.

The nurses were really busy here today. We had a ton of people come into the clinic. It makes us realize just how blessed we really are to have such great medical care. There were people coming by canoe from all the different villages to get Tylenol and cough syrup because they don’t have those things in their medicine cabinets. It makes us very grateful for what we have back at home.

We had 45 kids at vacation bible school today. They were jumping around and having a great time. They loved having their pictures taken and we put the photos in little frames for them. We really had a blast with the kids today.

The guys were kind of free today since there was no construction going on. They just went around the village and helped out, hiked, and learned. They really enjoyed themselves.

We ask that you will pray for us as tomorrow will be our last full day here. We will be visiting our fifth village. We’ll start traveling back in the morning, so please pray that we’ll see God work in great and unexpected ways as we spend our last day here.

We love all you guys and miss our families. Hello to everyone and we’ll see you on Sunday!

Posted by Sarah Leemon

Many Blessings in a Rural Village on a Hill

A message from Margie -

The whole team had such a great day. We were visiting an Indian tribe in a village today that doesn’t get very many visitors. It’s in a very rural area on the Negro river. Anita Top gave 25 haircuts today, the clinic saw over 20 different people here on the boat, and Bob and Lois did a great job with leading vacation bible school.

This is the most beautiful country! I feel like we are in Hawaii. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but this is what I imagine it to be like.

The food has been amazing on the boat. All of us are feeling great and we are very energized. We are dealing with a little bit of lack of sleep, but otherwise, we are all doing well.

We are praising God for this blessing to be here. This is something that I have never seen before and I can’t believe that I get to see it and be able to share it with everyone.

The village is up about 30 feet from where we are on the river. There is no running water, but they do have a well. They have electricity that is run by a generator, but they live in huts and don’t have any windows. It is very rural, but very beautiful. There are several Christians living in the village and we will worship with them later tonight.


A message from Susan R. -

We sailed through the night and woke up in a village called Terra Preta. We had to climb up steep stairs to get to the village, which was in a clearing at the top of the hill. We started the day with devotions and breakfast and we are all healthy and doing well. The food here is tremendous and the cook is great.

After breakfast and devotions, we started our day with vacation bible school, show and tell, crafts and a puppet show. The kids are very eager to learn. There were 35kids in the morning and 35 in the afternoon.

Heather and Matt went swimming in the river with some of the Portugese workers from the boat, and Anita brought her hair equipment and gave free haircuts. There was a line of people all day waiting to get their hair cut. Girls, women, men--they loved it! We believe a new ministry has been born.

The clinic ran from 9:00-12:00 and 2:00-5:00. The people are very loving and respectful and grateful that we are here. There were many women with babies and various illnesses and skin rashes. At the end of the day there was a very old grandfather. He was a slender man with beautiful dark eyes and dark hair. He brought his four year old granddaughter who had an abscess on the back of her head. I ended up working with the doctor in the afternoon and helped clean the wound. At one point, she fell and it broke open. We had to hold her down while we cleaned it out. I had brought a stuffed animal on the trip that was too big for anything else, so I was keeping it for something special and was waiting for the Lord to show me who to give it to. She was crying and looking at me while we cleaned the infection out of the wound. She ended up looking at me lovingly and it was just a wonderful thing that I could give the stuffed animal to her. We watched them get in their canoe and go back to their little house they were living in on the river.

Matt and Jim did construction work most of the day.

NOTE: The phone connection was lost and I didn’t get the rest of the message.

Posted by Sarah Leemon

1st Full Day of Ministry & Work

A message from Susan R. -

We traveled through the night and landed at a town that was hit by floods. The water covered some of the houses and left many of them uninhabitable. As we were driving through, we could see where the river came to the tops of the trees in some areas. People had to move further inland due to the destruction from the floods. Prayers are needed for those who lost their houses.

We did ministry and vacation bible school while in the village. There was a doctor on board from Bolivia who was assisted by Jayanne and Marcia. Jan and I worked the medical part as well.
There is a huge problem with parasites here, so we are giving them medication for that. We are especially concerned for a teenage boy who has stomach pain and they fear the worms are going into his liver. They are very poor and they are very happy to see us. We had a time of worship with them and the group is getting along very well. They especially like Margie and her puppet show.

We are going to another town in the morning. There are supposed to be more ill people there, but hopefully it’s not too, too bad.

The weather is hot and humid, but is about what we expected. The nights are just gorgeous and riding on the boat when the sunset is hitting is beautiful. We are really enjoying seeing the scenery along the river and all the trees. The hosts on the boat are exceptional!

That’s all for today. We will check in again tomorrow.

Posted by Sarah Leemon

Floating Down the Negro River!

A message from Margie -

It's very, very late (12:45 am) and we are on the boat and going down the Negro River. We thought we were going to be on the Amazon, but we're on the Negro, which runs into the Amazon and is actually a cleaner river. We are feeling great and doing great so far. We will be arriving at the first village tomorrow morning. We had a great day today in Manaus and got to do a little sightseeing and then had worship at the Presbyterian church at 5:00.

We are now taking showers and getting ready for bed. We will have our first full day of work tomorrow. Breakfast is at 7:00 am and devotions are at 7:30. We will take our lunch at noon and then have a two hour break before getting back to work. There will be medical, vacation bible school and construction work going on.

The boat is wonderful and we actually have air conditioning in the little cabins that we share.


A message from Susan R. -

We had an awesome time in Manaus and got to shop at a market and bought some local native things. We are just in awe that we are in Brazil. It's a phenominal place! The roads are really bumpy and the drivers are crazy! We thought they were going to run off the road a million times on the road to the boat. We're in the jungle and loving it!


Monday, June 29 (12:45 AM CST)

Posted by Sarah Leemon