Okay, so I set out on an adventure this past weekend. Sadly Ashley was not able to come because she was watching Maya while Hayley and MJ celebrated their 5 year anniversary. I accompanied a few new buddies of mine to a small protected island (closed to settlement). We had to take these small wooden boats to get to the island before trekking for an hour and forty-five minutes through muddy jungle. IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT! We hiked to a lagoon on the island that is fed through a large hole in a rock wall. This place was like Paradise! We hung out on the beach, swam in the lagoon and then hiked up a mountain to get a 360 degree view of the landscape. This was the most beautiful view I have ever seen. I hope you enjoy the pics and videos!
The bay was filled with colorful boats.
Everybody wanted you to use their boat, but they all had their own price.
Nice and clean before the trek.
(Note: It is usually easier and faster to watch these on YouTube.
Just hover over the YouTube symbol and click "Watch On YouTube.)
Muddy, but excited.
Tree over the Lagoon.
At this point we had almost made it to our destination! When we did arrive, we quickly realized how worth the sweat and mud it was!
The pictures do not do justice to how blue and clear the water was. After hanging around the lagoon we climbed the mountain for a better view. Most amazing thing I have ever seen!
Put me on Survivor!
Great Guys.
After an hour and a half trek back, we said our goodbyes to the island.
Farewell..
Smiling but exhausted!
Thanks for checking in! I will publish a post later this week about my birthday weekend. I spent it working a Jr. High Church Camp. It went fantastic, so thank you so much for your prayers! I will put up some pictures of that and some from my birthday later.
Continue to pray for the harvest! God is good and doing amazing things. Find where he is working and join Him!
This is a picture of the language school where we spend 2 hours a day 3 days a week learning the native tongue. It is tough, but definately needed to get by here!
Our language teachers
These ladies are our language teachers. They are both so fun and we all love to laugh together while learning. They make going to class enjoyable.
Our home
Our helper
Here the whities and rich people have what are called helpers. The culture expects you to have them because it helps the local economy. She is such a blessing.
Celebrating a friends first birthday
At the party
Walking to church
After the service there was refreshments and fellowship.
Date Night
Cute Maya Pics
"Oh goodness Aunt Ash, what have you done to my hair?!"
Things are going great with us. It's hard to believe that we are half way through this journey. Time has flown by but we are excited about the months to come. March will involve many travels so check back for updated pics. Continue to pray for us and the team we are with as we discern how to best serve those around us. There is great need for both sowing and reaping and we desire to see this happen in an awesome way!
Last Saturday we went to a Garden/Park in a neighboring town. It is really the only large scale park where they have gone to great links to keep it nice and manicured. I would compare it to the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth. Anyway, the place was amazing!
This reminded me of a Narnia scene.
Daddy, Daughter, Horsey.
Mossy Path
The place was filled with random walking paths like this one. I loved the "pick your own adventure" feel it had. Took me back to the days of "Hardy Boys." (Children's pick your own adventure book) But I usually ended up captured or stuck in a cave in in those.
At the top of one hill you could look down over the rice fields in the neighboring countryside.
This is looking over that edge at the river that feeds water to the rice fields. I wanted to stay the night in that hut. Ashley didn't sound to thrilled about that idea.
In the center of the garden was a hundred foot row of assorted flowers. If you look closely you can see a group of students on a field trip. However, I had enough of flowers and wanted a rush so I decided to jump on the zip line that crossed this center section.
Maybe this was a bad idea?
I was a little unnerved when I realized the ladder was made of bamboo, the only thing stopping me from hitting a tree on the other side was a dude with a rope, and the fact that there was no release forms or safety codes, but oh well...
Oh, and we also had to wear bicycle helment's which I'm sure would protect my cranium in the case of a 50ft. drop. But it had flames on it so I'm sure it was legit.
Me cruising over MJ's giant head.
You've heard of backpacks, but this is the Mayapack.
"I am all that is man."
- MJ Perry
After thinking about it, I probably should have let MJ go first to see if it was safe. Maybe thats why he let me take the lead? Dang.
The park also had one of those boat rides where the boat goes back and forth up in the air. It was a small version of the one at Six Flags. It was also Maya's first "roller coaster," and she was a little freaked out, but had fun.
"What did you take me on!?"
-Maya
Isn't that a face that says, "I'm having a blast!"? She had quite the grip on the Mayapack.
Needless to say, this was her favorite.
This is at the front of that 100 foot center section.
After leaving the gardens we stopped at probably the coolest restaurant I've ever been to. It was made of bamboo and sat on top of a coy pond!
There was no floor under some tables, where you could look through the glass and see the fish swimming. But thats got to be torture for the fish who look up and see you eating their friends.
"My cup overflows." -Psalm 23:5
Feeding the fishies.
Poking the fishies.
We had a blast on this weekend outing. As the title of this post implies, we were amazed at God's handiwork. This country is beautiful and we feel blessed to experience it.
On Friday our language class took a field trip to 4 markets: the flower market, the bird market, the fish market and the big market. The point in this trip was for us to practice our language skills and barter for what we wanted to buy.
We began the journey by taking the public transportation to the flower market. The public transportation are these tiny blue vans that will drive around until you yell "kiri" which means "left." These vans were very tight and they have no problem fitting as many as they can into this space.
With a fellow language student on the public transport.
The tropical climate makes everything so green.
Tucked away was this flower shop where they made arrangements.
Thought this place was cool.
Fish/Bird Market
From there we moved on the the fish and bird market where they had a little bit of everything on display. It was a lot like an American pet store meets flea market atmosphere. It was the perfect place to buy a pet for MJ and Hayley to take care of.
This almost captures the chaos.
Handmade and Awesome.
Thought about buying this alarm clock.
This next scene was by far my favorite of the day. I was looking at a snake enclosure when I turned around to be face to face with this guy.
Thats right, it's a bat. At this moment I had a few things go through my head.
#1. Oh gracious.
#2. Why is this thing not in a cage or tied up somehow?
#3. If it bites me will I become Batman?
But that wasn't the best part. The best part was the community that he was a part of. Within 2 feet you had Batman, his sidekick Iguana, three groupie rabbits, and Rooster version of Alfred (Batman's butler).
God created us for community.
Ashley has this look she gets when she sees something small and cute which is then followed by the phrase, "Awwwww." Needless to say, this next photo invoked this reaction.
Who feels sorry for the one on his back?
If you Google "Owls as Pets," the first site you see displays the following message on the main screen: "It is illegal to keep owls without special permits in most countries." Now I'm never one to judge, but I'm pretty sure the guy selling this did not have a permit. Regardless, they were amazing to see up close and cost less than buying a dog...
Insert "Dumb and Dumber" joke here.
Big Market
From there we jumped on another version of public transportation, a "becak," (bay-chak). This is a modified bicycle with a two-seater on the front.
These guy's apparently don't have to obey any road rules.
Methodist Church next to Mosque.
The Big Market was complete chaos. Lets just say if you are claustrophobic or like your personal space, this isn't the place for you. They sold a little bit of everything here but we were mostly distracted by the foul odors and close quarters. However, we had to complete our task and barter for produce so we persevered. It really wasn't that bad, but I'll stick with H.E.B. in the future.
Where'd they go?
Ash successfully bought her "Wortel's" or Carrots.
They weigh everything on old school balance scales.
We had a blast on this outing. It was so much to take in within one day, but it was an awesome immersion into how many people live here.
We feel so privileged to be on this journey and are hearing God's voice so clearly. Our hearts go out to the millions on this island that do not know their Savior and we ask that you would pray with us for their salvation. However, we have been truly encouraged by those we are working with and see God moving in and through their actions. Pray also that the team here would be refreshed and renewed daily as they pursue His will and His heart.
Thank you for your prayers and stay tuned for more updates!
