Jaime came to visit me last night. I have been visited him at the home where he is staying, but out of respect to the few in the village who have not forgiven him yet and would like to kill him, he is very careful going out. He waited until it was very dark before making his way over to our house. I was upstairs, Keila let him in, but she was careful to turn off the lights in our front room before coming and calling me. I led Jaime to our dinning room, and we set there in the dark having a cup of coffee and caught up on old times. Jaime is one of those people where you can just see Christ in their lives and manner. He is so gentle and soft spoken. His talk turned to Dad and how much he had wanted to see him before he passed away.
“I know,” I told him, “Dad really wanted to see you. He kept asking Gary and I where you were and told us that he really wanted to see you. Gary and I even called a village meeting and asked the Rivas family if they, out of respect to dad, might allow you to come back, but they said no, so we dropped it. We did not want anything to happen to you, and we figured that since Dad was going to heaven and since we would not be that far behind him, he could see and talk to you in heaven.”
Jaime smiled, the dim light filtering in from the other room played on his features.
“You would not believe how beautiful heaven is.” He said.
“Yes, the Bible says it is very beautiful,” I responded.
He nodded, then he went on, “you would have to see it to really believe it.” The silence hung between us, as I waited for him to go on. “Miquiwä, we have always heard how beautiful heaven is, but I had no idea what that meant. But I do now. God allowed me to see it.” He paused, “yes, I really believe it was God and not just a dream. It was like this. When I heard that my good friend, your dad, was sick, I so wanted to come home so I could see him. I longed to give him a hug and thank him for bringing me the good news that Jesus loved me so much that He was willing to die for me. This news changed my life and I wanted to thank him and hold his hand and let him know how much I appreciated him for coming. But I could not come home. You will never know how I wrestled with and begged God to just let me come home. But he gave me no peace for it that time. So I just waited.
Then I heard he had died and I was so sad. I cried all alone in that village far from home. But then, one night, I was in my hammock and all of a sudden I was in heaven. I looked around. The beauty was such that I cannot even describe it. It is unreal. I have no words to tell you what I saw, but only that it’s beauty is, well, all I can say is you just have to see it for yourself. But I was walking toward this beautiful house. Huge house, Suddenly, as if he had been told of my arrival, a man stepped outside to wait for me. I recognized him from a distance. Mike, it was your dad! A young, gloriously healthy, alive, handsome young Pepiwä. I ran up to him and he smiled warmly. Jaime! I have been wanting to see you. I am happy you are here!” He returned my hug warmly and we stood there chatting for a while. He was so alive! I wished I could have stayed there, but then I was back in my hammock. I have had dreams before, but never has one been so real and the details so sharp and clear in my mind. I know God allowed us the pleasure of seeing each other because I so wanted to see him, and now you tell me that he was asking about me, so God, because HE delights in pleasing HIS children, allowed me to visit him. What a place!” his voice trailed off.
Please continue to pray for Jaime and the situation here. We are encouraged by many of the Rivas’ response. Thanks for your prayers for us!

In April of 2006 a young man in the village got into a fight with his wife. He beat her savagely, and when her mother took up for her, he beat his mother in law, actually taking a machete and chopping her twice in the head. The lady’s husband, the boy’s father in law, was in church and when the service was over, people ran in to give him all the details. He told Gary and I that he was just going to go get his wife and go home that he had no desire to fight. When he did get to where his wife was, there was a large group of people all yelling at him to take his son in law in hand and show him he could not get away with chopping his mother in law. He insisted he did not want to fight and turned to go, but his son in law’s family insisted he take care of the situation. He finally gave in and took the offered pole and hit his son in law a blow to the head and much to his surprise, and to the surprise of everyone in the place, his son in law fell unconscious and died a short time later. As you can imagine, the village was crazy. We were up all night praying and counseling trying to find some way of diffusing the situation.

The next morning, Gary and I were two lonely guys standing between the opposing sides of the village. it was real ugly with people urging the Rivas family to just run over us and knock us out of the way. It seems like we were staring death in the face, and things were tense but finally with God’s help first one, than another turned to go home. I had hidden Jaime in my house all day and secretly got my boat and motor ready and found a neutral driver to sneak the boat away from the village and wait for us up river. Then we got jamie out of the house and spirited him away and up to where the boat was hidden. I can’t tell you how relieved we all were to have him safely out of the village.

He has been living in exile ever since that time and has had a really good attitude about the whole affair. He never had intended to hurt the boy and at the same time knew the family had every right to demand his death. He has repeatedly asked if there were some way that he could make restitution and has asked the family for forgiveness. He has spent the time since this happened working in the church up in yajanamateli and to be honest, the Lord has really used him up there. Part of the Rivas family are strong believers and they have forgiven Jamie and have urged the family to forgive him and to allow him to return but to no avail. It has been a closed subject.

Last Sunday, unknown to most in the village, Marcos, Jaime’s cousin, went up to Yajanama to get Jaime. Bautista, Jaime’s uncle almost died a month ago, and the family was worried that he was going to pass away and not get to see Jaime again, so Marcos took matters into his own hands and left to go get him. Like i said, most people in the village, Gary and I included did not know anything was going on. Well, they got home this evening and things are not good. We really covet your prayers for the situation. Gary and I met with the believers in the Rivas family and they are really worried that they are not going to be able to control the side of the family that is insisting on revenge. We prayed together asking God to intervene and show HIMSELF strong tomorrow morning. We ask that you all be much in prayer tomorrow right at dawn. This would be around 5 AM ven time, which would be 5:30 AM eastern.

Thanks for your prayers, this is of course only a brief accounting of all that has happened. This has been a black cloud over the village since the day it happened and we have all spoken about the need to forgive and restore. We have thought at different times we have been on the verge of a solution but it has always eluded us. Now for the last two months we have been meeting as a group of believers at 5:30 AM every morning and asking God to heal the village and give us a real revival. Honestly, looking at the last six years, this is where it does have to start, so my prayer is that this is God’s timing and HE is going to do a real work. Pray with us.

As many of you all know, we have purchased a “hut” for want of a better work in Las Esmeraldas and have plans to fix it up a bit and use it for ministry while we have to be down there wasting so much time getting fuel and for other things as well.

After using it for a while now, We are convinced that this is going to work. It is not exactly how we had planned our outreach ministry, but the excitement we feel every time from the people let us know this is really what we need to do. We are committed to being down in Las Esmeralda 3 or 4 days a month, Lord willing, holding classes with these guys who have felt so alone since we were had to stop the classes in August of 2007.

It has not been all fun and exuberance however. We had three of our very key guys admit they had gone back into the world of shamans and drugs and they saw nothing wrong with their actions. We spent a lot of time with two of the guys talking with them trying to counsel and encourage, but to be honest, we did not find much common ground. They have been deluded into believing that they can serve God and still have the jecula or spirits. Thankfully, Jesus Himself gave us many stories and parables that we could draw on for our counseling, and we spent hours talking with them. The interesting thing is, all three of these guys were very successful soul winners and, I thought, very on fire for the Lord when we were doing the seminars. I personally have seen Antonio heal sick people, but knowing what the Bible says, at this point, I can only believe they fit in that sad category of people Christ spoke about who were going to come to HIM saying, “I preached in your name, I cast out demons in your name, I healed the sick in your name,” and Jesus is going to have to say, “depart from me, I never knew you.” To be honest, those verses have always bothered me, because I wondered, who could be so deluded and they would have such power, but in vain, well, I think I know three of them. I know God, through HIS Holy Spirit, can show them how they have been deceived. Listening to them the other night, I could not help but remember my conversation with Carlos about how the demons would not get close to him because they could still see the LIGHT in his heart. I was, and am so disappointed that they could not see any light in the hearts of Antonio, Pajarito or Benito. Please pray for these men. They are great guys and close friends…

I saw a picture on the Drudge report showing the space shuttle on top of the NASA 747 that took me back a few years! Years ago, mercy, more than that, almost a life ago, I was working at Disney World in Florida. I believe it was in 1979 or 1980. It had been announced that the space shuttle was coming to the Kennedy Space Center and boy did I ever want to drive over and watch it land.

I put in my written request for a day off and also spoke with my supervisor at work asking him for the day off and also telling him how important this was. I mean, I told him, this is history in the making! He was not impressed and nor were the powers that be that made the decision about whether I could miss a day of work, because my request came back, NEGATIVE!

I toyed with the idea of just taking off anyway, I really did not need the job, I was working at the Kissimmee airport full time as well, but I did enjoy the job at Disney and especially enjoyed the perks of having a huge park like that to have as my own place to hang out. Besides, my upbringing as an MK, (missionary kid) went deep. It was just expected you would be responsible in your work, so although I did toy with the idea of just taking off, I showed up at my regular time and was dressed in my “captain Nemo” uniform and ready to take my charges for their adventures 20,000 leagues under the sea.

I was very disappointed though, I can tell you what. I really, really had wanted to see that shuttle come in on the back of that Boeing 747. But I was at work. I was on my first break and instead of going down under the park where Disney employees normally eat and take breaks, I was just up in the park enjoying the beautiful day. The sky was one of those beautiful blues that you get in central Florida and I am not sure what caused me to look up, but my eyes must have bugged out. There flying toward me was the 747 with the space shuttle on it’s back! Just beautiful! Back then, the air ways were a bit less restricted and the huge 747 made a graceful turn and flew around the park not once, but twice. What a show! I could not help but realize that the show I was watching was giving me a far greater opportunity to really see the shuttle. It seemed as if they were putting on a show just for me. It was just unreal. How I thanked the Lord that I had stayed at work. I remember being so grateful and could not help but think how I would have felt if I would have taken the day off and come back to work with a mark against my record and then have to listen to everyone tell about what a great show they had gotten watching the shuttle. But there I was enjoying the show! Finally, just about the time my break was over, it turned and made it’s stately way on east heading for the cape!

On the 11th of March, late at night, while he was returning from Tijuana, Mexico, Pastor Von rolled (5 times) over an embankment and onto the street below. His SUV was totaled! In spite of his fear that there would be no one at the bottom to help him out, especially if there had been a fire, God had someone there who was able to help him out of the jammed door. Praise the Lord pastor Von is OK and escaped with only a few scratches and some stiffness. We praise the Lord for the safety HE has given pastor Von in his years of working in Mexico with the orphans and the very poor down there.

I met Pastor Von probably in 1971 or 72 and he has been a great friend and mentor since that time. In spite of his ongoing work in Mexico, he always had time to visit the different fields and pour his life into the lives of the many missionary kids he encountered. Now we have a chance to “give back” a little. Pastor Von needs to replace his SUV. AS I understand it, he has gotten a “new” used SUV. His insurance covered $7000, leaving about $5000 still outstanding on the new vehicle. A group of Venezuelan MKs (missionary Kids) via Facebook, raised $1925 toward this project, leaving a large portion still to be funded. I would love to help Pastor Von.

Here is what I would like to do. for the month of April and until middle of May, all proceeds from the sell of my two books, Growing UP Yanomamö, and I Can See the Shore, purchased through this website, or via email from book@missionpadamo.org will go towards helping Pastor Von pay for his SUV, or if enough funds have come in from other sources in the meantime, to go toward his ongoing ministry in Mexico. If you have read these books and enjoyed them, please consider telling your friends about this effort. Help us by posting this on your own Facebook page or other social media. Help us more, by buying the books and using them as gifts. This is a great cause. I know alone, I can’t do much, but if all my friends buy one or two books, we can make a huge difference to someone who has made a difference to many, many people.

Seems like the river, and traveling on it, defines me in so many ways. A good case in point is a trip I was doing not too long ago. Well, actually, it had been the week after Dad died and that was march of 2011, so I guess it was a bit longer than “not to long ago.” While coming back up river one night, it was actually three am, so it was not really night, but it was dark, so as far as I was concerned, it was still night. I had taken the position at the front of the boat to make sure we stayed in the channel at about 11, so by 3 am the sounds of the water rushing past the prow had about put me to sleep. I kept shaking my head to wake up and wished I had a cup of coffee, but even with all my head shaking, I was barely staying awake. I knew the guy back driving the motor was depending on me to keep him in the channel and was probably more asleep than I was and the last thing we needed was to ground our tank boat on some lousy sandbar or worse yet, some sharp rock, but anyway, it was awfully hard to stay awake.

We had started our trip the day before at 2 am when we loaded our barrels and headed down into the night hoping it was not just a rumor that the people in Tama Tama were selling 2000 liters of diesel fuel. Our tank for our village generator was getting dangerously low and we had no idea when the gove tanks in Las Esmeralda were going to be getting any fuel up, so if we could get this fuel, it would really help. We were hoping that by leaving early, we could get down there and back in the same day. We knew with the bote tanque, our fuel barge, it would take us about 10 hours to get down there and about 14 or 15 hours to get home.

We made it to TamaTama about 12 noon and found the guys that were selling the fuel and Praise the Lord! They did have it to sell. We ran the hose down to our barge and started the fuel flowing. I kept my eyes on the skies to the east, as there seemed to be a huge storm brewing. We finally finished fueling and we shoved out about 5 PM heading back up river and into the teeth of the storm. I stoically refused to even worry about it as I have found out a long time ago; it does no good to worry about the weather. (Most times, I have found, it really doesn’t do much good to even pray about it, and that used to bother me, until I read a verse in the Bible, that says something about “it raining on the just and the unjust.” So I figured just one of those “life” things and try to ignore it, but I digress.) it will get you or not, (most times it will, especially, if by soaking you, it can make you more miserable, I would be willing to bet, if you were in the desert or out on the ocean, and saw storm clouds gathering, you could start praying and wailing, and it would probably go right on over you, but again, I digress. Sorry.) Sure enough, a wall of rain came sweeping down the river barely giving me time to get my hammock down and into it’s water proof bag. In seconds we were all drenched and shivering in the cold rain and high humidity of the Amazon evening. Gone and barely a memory was the sun that had beat us all day. At noon, I had longed for some coolness, and now that I had it, how I wished for the sun. Such is my fickle life. Seems I am always longing for something I don’t have…anyway…the rain quit and we all stood there like half drowned rats…it was going to be a long night.

Well, the moon finally came up after 11 and life was pretty good. I would have loved a cup of coffee, but I was actually pretty comfortable. I had dried out by this time, I had my headset on and was listening to my iPod and just thinking about all that had happened this last week with Dad passing away. And now it was 3 am and I was still thinking about Dad and what all he must be seeing and wishing I could have hidden a camera on him so we could be sharing his joy. You just wonder what it must really be like…Who met him? I knew our little Mikeila who had left us in 2006, loved her grandpa, and Dad had told Mikeila at her funeral, “watch for me honey,” he had said, I won’t be far behind you.” Like I said, I was just setting there, half asleep, guiding the boat and making sure we stayed in the channel, wondering about heaven and Dad and missing my beautiful little blond haired, blue eyed, Mikeila.

All of a sudden, with barely a ripple, so great was it’s speed, a silvery object left the water in front of the boat. It hung suspended in the moonlight and it did not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the trajectory of this object was going to make contact with me in less time than it took to register that there was “Incoming!” With a thud it smashed me in the chest, my arms flung involuntarily inward to try and protect myself only to find out I was now hugging what ever it was against my chest. Since most jungle fish or what ever it was bite or sting, hugging it against my chest was the last place I wanted this thing, but the way I was sitting, I was almost trapped in place, if I moved to much, I might find myself swimming…It seemed like an eternity, but I am sure micro seconds had only gone by when I finally flung off whatever it was to the floor of the boat. My friend, Esteban, seeing my gyrations jumped to his feet. By this time, I had found my light and was shinning around. Another friend, who had been driving until just a little bit ago, upon being relieved had come up to the quiet of the prow and had just fallen asleep. At the commotion, he jumped up yelling… “Watch out!” Well, Esteban got a hold on the fish, by this time we had figured out it was a Payara, sometimes called the saber toothed fish because of it’s huge teeth, anyway, Esteban was having a hard time holding him, because he was afraid of being bit. Now that I was no longer in any danger, I was offering him all kinds of advice which he choose to ignore, and to his sorrow, he watched this beautiful two foot or more fish slide over the side of the boat and was gone.

We started laughing, my jacket was covered in fish scales, Davie was trying to explain what he had been yelling about. Come to find out, he was dreaming he was still driving and thought all the commotion was because he had run us up on a rock, Esteban kept looking over the side of the boat where the fish had disappeared as if it might make another appearance, but that was it, the highlight of our night, gone as soon as it happened. At 3:45 I was once again fighting sleep, so I woke Gary up and told him to watch the rest of the night and I went back and went to sleep. I love sleeping in a moving boat.

My good friend Nando was out hunting with three friends of the Yecuana tribe. They ran across fresh pig tracks and were soon hot on the trail. The Yecuana people, are more a river people, and are much bigger stature than the Yanomamö and Nando is even small for a Yanomamö. Well, sometimes size or lack of, is a good thing, and running through a dense jungle, Nando’s small size was a huge help and it was not long before he found himself running all by himself and he realized he had not even heard his hunting buddies for quiet some time. Coming to a small stream, he hesitated and stood to listen, both for the pigs, and also, to see if he could hear Fortunato, Mario and Dejai. Standing for a few minutes, he heard nothing. Looking at the dark waters of the creek he started down the bank and into the water, but something didn’t feel quit right, and he stopped again, and made his way back up the bank. Looking back down, he decided to retrace his steps and find his friends first. Something about the water did not feel right. Turning, he swiftly started back down the way he had come.

A few minutes later, he found two of the guys, they were beat and had decided to forget the pigs, but Mario had left them and was following Nando’s trail. Nando had taken a shortcut, since he was not following pigs, so had not seen Mario. Telling Fortunato and Dejai that there was a stream up ahead where they could drink their yucuta, and that Mario would probably stop there anyway, they continued back up the place that Nando had turned around at.

Before they arrived, they were shocked to hear a yell of desperation. It was Mario and he sounded like he was in big trouble. They increased their speed and came to a screeching stop at the bank where Nando had just been a few minutes earlier. They were shocked to see Mario thrashing around in a desperate battle with a huge jungle monster. It had bitten Mario high up on this inner leg, and Mario, in a desperate bid for his life, had grabbed the huge snake by each jaw and was straining to rip it’s teeth out of this inner thigh. Mario is a huge burly guy and yet he was losing ground, the snake’s strength was incredible and it was obvious Mario could not last long. Dejai and Fortunato jumped into the water with their razor sharp machetes, they had only seconds before their friend was drowned. He was already almost totally bound up by the huge coils of the snake and the only reason the snake was still fighting and had not already killed him was the death grip Mario had on the snakes mouth. Dejai and Fortunato both were swinging with a will and before too long, they were able to extract Mario from the coils of the huge anaconda. The half carried, half dragged him up the bank where he slumped down in exhaustion shaking all over at his close brush with death. As he slowly regained his breath he explained that he had been following Nando and coming to the bank, he saw where Nando had gone down and had assumed he had already gone across. “I started across,” he said, “when all of a sudden, I was attacked by the snake. Somehow I got my hands on his each side of his mouth and tried to rip it open, wow!” He said, “what power. If you all would have been a little further away, I would be dead!”

Nando looked down at his friend. “That should have been me,” he said. “If I would have kept on going, I would be dead! I am so much smaller than you are, I would never have been able to hold his mouth open, I would be dead!” he repeated. “I wondered why I just felt funny started across the creek, that had to be the Lord stoping me. I was already in the water, and got back out. God protected me!” he said again.

In a previous post, I posted a video of us losing control of our boat and bashing it against a rock wall. We were returning from a week long hunt where we were hunting to get meat to feed the people from all over yanomamö land whom we had invited to come to a conference. With our boat stuck against the rock wall, and us stuck out in the middle of the river on a rock the day before the conference was to start, we wondered if we were even going to make it home to have our conference, but God was good and we were able to get the boat free and limp it home.

We did have our conference starting on the 24th of December and we ended on the 1st of January. We had invited people from all the major river systems around here and made sure we had enough food to feed the amount of people we thought would come. As many of you all know, a few weeks before our conference the gov had a huge get together of the more primitive villages. It ended in disaster with finally 4 people being killed and the entire upper Orinoco and Ocamo river area now embroiled in a shooting war. Due to this war, we felt we had to retract our invitations to all the villages on these rivers as we felt it was too dangerous for people to come from these areas and also, even to travel through the areas. The villages were disappointed but accepted it as they too were very aware of the dangers. To make a long story short, we ended up with people from 10 villages attending. We had a great time with them. The dates, the 24th of December to the 1st of January don’t sound like great dates to be having a conference, but to be honest, it actually works very well with the people in this area. They have seen all the parties that the nationals do, and sad to say, many of them are trying to copy that, well, this way, we gave the Christians something to do at church instead and they really appreciated it. I felt it was a real encouragement to them and to ourselves. At the end of the week, we had 59 people come forward and make a public confession of faith in Christ and ask to be able to follow the Lord in believer’s baptism. We we thrilled! When the war broke out, we had almost canceled the conference entirely, but as we were listening to them pray, how thankful I was that we had carried on.

Then last week, we were invited to the village of Seducudawä to hold another meeting with them. The young man in charge of the little body of believers up there sent word down that he had been holding meetings with his village telling them all he had learned during the conference and he wanted us to come up for the last day, which was last Sunday. To be honest, I had felt a little put out, as when the invitation was delivered, they told me they had also invited another village to come down and they had told them that I would give them the gas needed to go home plus the gas they needed to send hunters to go hunting for a meal. Well, gas is hard enough to come by when it is my idea, now to have someone else volunteering what tiny little bit I had left was almost too much. But I bit my tongue and we went up after our church service on Sunday and I was, well, I was totally blessed. We had a meeting from 11:30 until almost 5 PM. It was not that Timoteo or I were that longwinded, but after we both finished, first one, than another stood up and either asked the Lord for salvation or prayed to get back in a right relationship with the Lord. I set there almost the entire time, shaken at how close I had been to make an issue of someone having the nerve to volunteer my fuel. Praise the Lord, HE continues to work here, sometimes in spite of ourselves.

This continues to be a difficult place to work with much tension and shortages of almost everything. Rumors abound and right now, we are waiting to go out to town for paper work and a much needed, and I might say, a well deserved vacation, but the air taxi company that flies up to the little gov airstrip down river from us has not had their air worthiness certificate renewed. The owner told me it is all political and is mainly because they have continued flying for us. Please continue to pray about our lack of our own air support. This remains a huge issue for us and is our most pressing prayer request at this time. Thanks for joining us in praying about this with us.

Back when we had air support, one of the missions that was providing us with air service had a plane crash on landing at a small jungle strip in Amazonas. After months of trying to get it out, they asked us if we thought we could bring it out by dugout. We were doubtful but agreed to try since there were no other options. Realizing that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity I took my camera.

 

Still not sure how this boat got away from us, but the results were awe-inspiring!