Project Amazon
August 10-17, 2008
A group of NCCers will be traveling to the Amazon Jungle Region of Ecuador to work with missionaries Joil and Leah Marbut who minister to the Shuar tribe.
Joil and Leah and their two sons live in Sucua, Ecuador. Their mission is simple: to take the Good News of the gospel to the people of the Shuar Indian Nation. There are over 100,000 Shuar Indians living in the jungles of the Amazon Basin of Ecuador. The Marbut family is committed to reaching these indigenous people with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. They seek our prayers and support as they carry out the daily work of reaching the lost, building churches, and training pastors.
The team from NCC will have the immense privilege to serve alongside of them for one week in August. We will be setting up temporary medical clinics to treat people who are days walk from a doctor or medical attention. We will also the doing some finishing touches to a few recently built churches in these villages.
Please join us in supporting the team financially and prayerfully as we prepare for what God is doing in the Amazon region!
Latest From the Journal
Medicine in the Jungle
Renaisa Anthony, M.D. · August 18, 2008 · 1:42 PM
When I arrived in Ecuador I had no idea what to expect. I’d agreed to come with the expectation that I would be joining other physicians caring for the Shuar people and quickly learned that I would be the only physician. As a women’s health specialist...I found this initially frightening. I knew only the basics about general medicine, geriatrics, etc. Fortunately, God had provided a physician’s assistant and pediatric nurse on our group mission trip as well. Together, we got in the trenches and treated “bechos” as the villagers call them (a.k.a parasites), impetigo, chronic pain, dizziness, headaches, anemia, malnutrition, fevers, mastitis, etc. Our team worked to install water filtration to improve the overall health of the village.
The children and their smiles will forever be paved on my heart and stored in my memory. We treated over 150 patients in 3 days. I can’t believe it! We brought our Western world medicine and “fixed” things. Yet, the Shuar taught me about plants that treat fever, ward off mosquitoes and help induce labor.
I know God is the greatest physician and we simply served as his hands, eyes and ears this past week. I am just grateful to have had the opportunity to serve, in the middle of the jungle, without running water, sewage, modern medicine and laboratories. We served, we treated, we loved, we learned, and our hearts were filled with joy. I look forward to returning to the village again to hug the Shuar and continue to build our relationships started just a couple of days ago.
While we left them with medical information, water filters and medicines...the best gift we could have left were our prayers. Thanks to the Shuar for impacting my life and confirming my purpose God has ordained...healing and serving others through medical advancements with love and compassion.
Reflections on Ecuador
Circe Torruellas · August 12, 2008 · 3:31 PM
Today was our first day in the jungle. The trek uphill to the village was long and hard, but worth it. As exhausting as it was, we all knew that our mission was clear, we needed to reach the village. No mud lakes, hills or wild farm animals would stop us. For me in particular the hike was somewhat of a welcome home. The smells of the jungle were familiar to the smells of “el Yunque” (the rain forest in Puerto Rico were I’m from), the fruits on the trees, the flowers on the way and even the animals we encountered were all familiar to me. However, I was not home. We were in Shuar territory. A people I had just recently learned about and in some ways a people that was still a mystery.
THE WARRIORS! That’s how the Shuar people are mostly known in Ecuador. This tribe used to practice “tzanza”or the art of shrinking human heads once they had killed their opponents as trophies of warfare. We were invited to the village San Jose Sur, to share the Good News of the gospel to the people of the Shuar Indian Nation and support the 20 member Shuar church in the village. There are over 100,000 Shuar Indians living in the jungles of the Amazon Basin of Ecuador. Our team was committed to reach these indigenous people with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ while at the same time helping them with their medical needs and the need for clean water.
As soon as we arrived the village, while some of my teammates trekked back down hill to go back to the river to clean sand; others (me included) started to set up the medical clinic in a school house the church had reserved for us. We set up curtains with cords and rope, exam tables with school desks, a pharmacy and waiting rooms for our patients. Our first clients arrived soon after we were done. We worked with church members from the 20 member Shuar church in the village to register patients so Dr. Renasia and Dr. Justin could take care of them. Long lines of patients formed, families came and left and many were asked to come the next day since it was already late in the evening. Word about the clinic/medical mission had quickly spread among the villagers and even surrounding Shuar villages.
As exhausting as it was, I could see it on my teammates faces- we were happy. Truly happy. God had used us. There was no question about that. We all could see it at the end of the day and in our patients’ faces.
Installing Water Filters
Lora Walters · August 11, 2008 · 2:21 PM
Today we had breakfast together, worship time, and shared a few testimonies. Sharing testimonies was one of the highlights of the trip for me. I was floored by the candor and honesty of my teammates, and inspired to try to open up a bit more myself. Monday afternoon we arrived in Sucua, Ecuador, home of the missionaries that we worked with. After a lovely lunch of chicken, rice, cucumber and plantain, we got to work assembling the 40 water filters which we took to the village (one per family). After assembling the filter shell, they still required layers of sand and various sizes of rocks and pebbles, which is what we spent the rest of the week working on.
Traveling to Ecuador
Lora Walters · August 10, 2008 · 2:31 PM
Packed and ready to go. The cab, Jennifer Beeler and Rebecca Millan arrived at my house around 3:15 am Sunday morning. (Or is that still Saturday night?) We loaded up and headed to Hillaire Clark’s house, whose husband had generously offered to drive all of us to Dulles. At Dulles we found a small band of merry travelers, but we were missing the blue shuttle group that left from Ebenezers—which included Christina and Dairo, our fearless leaders. We were milling about trying to figure out what to do as the Copa Airline guy is imploring us to start checking in, which we hesitate to do because everyone is checking a second bag or box of team supplies an they are currently in the blue shuttle van somewhere on I-66. The shuttle finally arrived, Christina has a scuttle with the airline about the size of the boxes (turns out she knows their policies better than they do!), on to security, then we were on our way.
Flight number one is a five-hour flight to Panama City, Panama. We were all seated together, which was nice. Copa served a hot breakfast! While not high cuisine, it is more food than I’ve received on a flight in a very long time. Every leg of every flight we were on included a meal, which was pretty shocking to a traveler used getting a Diet Coke and an occasional small bag of pretzels. After the Panama City stop, we had a quick flight to Quito, Ecuador.
All of our bags made it! Praise the Lord. Unfortunately, were not able to get the medical supplies through customs. Apparently the manager who can approve their release doesn’t work on Sunday, so they suggested that we come back tomorrow. Ha! On Monday we were half way to the jungle.
Thus began the first of many bus rides. At some point, we made our first “rest stop”—i.e., find a bush and bring your own TP. Nothing bonds a group like squatting in the bushes together for many days in a row! Dinner was yummy fried chicken, rice and French fries. Around 10:00 pm we made it to Hostel Germany in Shell, Ecuador. For those familiar with Jim Elliott and the other missionaries killed in the 50s, Shell was their flight home base. The next morning I got to experience God’s natural alarm clock, the rooster. Helpful roosters welcomed us to the morning every day of the trip.