2009

July '09 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Greetings in the Lord!  This month we would like to continue with Part 2 of our Uncontacted Expedition AMAZON.  We want to thank you for your prayers and support.  We can truly feel them as we venture to these remote lands and are so grateful for your love and commitment.

Uncontacted Expedition AMAZON Part Two: We enter the jungle.  The triple canopy has a cool breath as we walk into its shadows.  Somewhere in this green world is a tribe that has never made contact with the outside.  Our investigation has led us to this specific area and now we must walk deeper, hoping to make peaceful contact.

Picture 1

Day 1 Jungle: (After investigations and interviews in surrounding villages.)  No rain today.  Food provisions doing okay.  One can of tuna a piece for 8-hours hiking.  Can’t take any extra weight.  Having to conserve water as well for hike back.  First destination—creek bed where multiply sighting happened within the last 15 days.  Bushmen Pepe and Felix lead the way.  Their machetes clear the twisted vines.  We cross a creek and see a Coral snake glide through the water.  Highly poisonous and if we take a bite this far in—it is over, unless we shake it off like the Apostle Paul.  Someone back home is praying for us so we tiptoe over the log with confidence.  We hike and hike until we reach a small creek.  We hear whistling and bird noises all around us.  Pepe and Felix are spooked.  Monkeys chime in as well.  Then silence.  We look at the creek bed and notice footprints.  Felix almost destroys it by accidentally stepping on it, but pictured on the right side of photograph next to the large boot print there is an outline of a small child’s footprint.  This is our first sign.  Everyone is excited.  We mark it on GPS.

Picture 2

Day 2 Jungle: We hike on an alternate path.  This is the location where four uncontacted tribe men were spotted fishing with spears.  We round a ridge and hear the bush rustle.  We come down to the creek bed.  Large prints, not human, but that of a Leopard.  It is a big one too.  Fresh it must have just been here.  Pepe and Felix, say this area is very dangerous because these animals don’t come into a lot of contact with humans and might consider us prey.  We pray to not be prey.  Pepe shows us the sight and takes us to the place where he says he saw more foot prints 5 days before we arrived.  Nothing there anymore.  Footprints, if found are always fresh, because the rains will cover them each night and erase evidence. We hike back to camp.  Will takes a nasty fall into a branch of thorns.  Picks them out with his head light at camp that night.  Doesn’t get one the stickers out until two weeks later.

Day 4-6 Jungle: Food provisions getting lower.  Still on the one can tuna diet.  Hiking everyday. Muscles used to jungle now.  When we march it just feels like a trance.  We come to a beautiful lagoon and rest for a moment.  20-meters further on, as we hike up the riverbed, we notice a fresh human print in the water.  They are close?  Probably watching us.  They are people of the jungle, they know how to disappear, and they know how to observe.  We hear more noises, and then head back to camp.

Picture 3

Day 7 Jungle: Getting to our furthest points in the jungle.  Leaving a gift hung in the trees.  A metal pot, plastic cup (both items they would recognize as similar to their crude instruments), and a pictorial of us and them greeting each other.  Pictures are the only language we can both understand (we drew the pictorial based on the tribe’s description).  We leave the gift. We take a hunting trip on the main river at night for meat. No motor just paddles.  The darkness and quite is overwhelming and peaceful.  1-hour later a violent downpour of rain breaks the serenity.  We spend the next terrifying 5-hours bailing water making our way back to camp.  Water comes within a half inch to totally submerging canoe and drowning.

Day 8 Camp: Although we do not make contact we are all positive of the tribe’s existence and their territorial range.  The unusually high water volume and unseasonal rains would make the best opportunity for contact in late August or September this year.  At the village camp we minister at church and pray for the sick.  Members are excited that we have done this mission, as many are fearful to undertake contact.

Picture 4

Day 10 Camp: They are out there.  Close.  We pray we will be able to return and make peaceful contact.  We pray the Holy Spirit will guide this tribe and prepare their hearts.  We pray for those who have not heard the gospel.

Picture 5

To step out and attempt what no one has attempted before we must give our all.  How can our conscience be clear if we have the ability to reach someone and fail because of fear or discomfort?  You get one pass at life.  Life it to the fullest for Him.  Let not fear rule you, but live in such a way to accomplish the mission you were sent for.  Step out in boldness and don’t worry about the results.  God works by faith, not by sight.

Our mission is to accomplish Mark 16:15 and with your prayers and support you are with us as we bring the gospel to all creation.  Together we are accomplishing much!  But without your help we cannot do any of this.  It is your continued support that opens doors and prepares the way.  Please consider supporting our upcoming missions and current expeditions (Anti-Narcotics Colombia, Island Revival campaigns, uncontacted journeys.)  You are in our hearts always and we need your help to go further and reach more.  Peace be with you!

In Him, Tim and Will