Okay, I have to briefly touch upon this. The Pan American Games were going on when we were in Brazil. It was the only thing everyone was talking about. The missionary that was with us, Tom, who was our guide had brought Uno Attack. It is Uno with a machine that spits out cards at random. Here we are playing Uno for the first time at 11pm at night – well, we all loss to Tom and his family for two games. Then we finally got the hang of it, after we stopped laughing so much. Bill was just hilarious. I can’t count how many times he would say, “I have a funny looking card”. Well, to make this short we were on a winning streak and then someone had check the Pan American Games and it was told that USA was in first place with 66 medals and Brazil was third. Well, we are proud to say that USA had 67 medals because we won – Saddleback against the Turleys, we even beat out Alabama (long story). We are waiting on our gold medals. Apparently, we are not a force to wrecken with when it comes to Uno – who knew. Of course, had to go out and by my own Uno Attack when we came back home. Uno, anyone!

Now, onto the heart of the trip...the person that we were able to reach to get us into the tribe turnout to have crossed paths with the missionary that was with us 15-20 years ago. It was amazing to have that connection immediately and just to be in awe how amazing our God is, if that isn’t a lesson on patience I don’t know what is. We have made plans to return in two years to continue to work with Pastor Val who left his church to reach out as a missionary to the tribes in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest. The pastor said that if we had contacted him any other time, any other day, etc.. he wouldn’t of been able to get us in, but we had contacted him at the exact right moment. That is so…God. The missionary that was with us, Tom, and his family will continue to assist the pastor in our absence.

There are 450 tribes in the forest with a total of 186 dialects spoken throughout. 50% of the tribes have been evangelized to, however the government has since removed all missionaries and has military presence inside and around the parameter of the forest. Basically, if you could imagine a zoo with a glass window. The government will allow no one into the forest except to make the tribes more primitive than they are now and to keep them that way. It is more for an attraction than it is for the well-being of the tribes. The government has ordered that the tribes return back to their ways in excess of 50 years ago. The tribes are not allowed to step out of the forest and so therefore, they are in an invisible, but very real cage.

We were told of a tribe in the Amazon forest that Pastor Val knew of that had 100 churches within their tribe. Yes, that is not a typo folks, I said, 100! AND...once a year they have an indigenous tribe conference to where the pastors of these churches canoe to one location for this conference to attend—ALL IN THE FOREST!

It takes 5-years on average to work with a tribe. 1-year to build a relationship of good standing, 1-year to learn and be taught their dialect, then 1-year to teach them basic Portuguese so that both can communicate easily and effectively, and then the rest to teach the Word of God. Pastor Val has been kickout off of the reserve by the Federal Government 3 times in the past two months. Only government approved NGOs allowed for anthropological research on reserves. Not one known believer in this local tribe. Yet the Guarani are going to extremes to continue the relationship. Pastor Val is being taught the dialect by an older Indian lady believer who lives off of the reserve. The tribe has a path to travel to the training/community center off of the reserve that is literally being built by a man who has a dedicated servant heart for the Lord so the Indians can continue to be taught. This was done by the Indians own initiative. By law, Pastor Val can only do this if he teaches them Portuguese, first. The training/community center is located next to, but, not part of the local church.

We spent time with the children teaching on prayer (we had to cross this suspended bridge that was anything but stable to reach the children). We gave each a prayer rock that we had created earlier in the week. We described to them the importance of prayer and in appreciation, they each made us a special gift to bring back home. It was their way of asking us to pray for each of them.

We visited with the chief, each of us purchased a necklace/bracelet, etc… that was crafted by the tribe, about $5.00 each. We were able to take a few pictures as this is strictly prohibited but we were given permission by the chief. They have been given clothes, but other than that were very primitive in every other way. We viewed their spiritual worship hut that was newly constructed that later that evening they would fast and worship to spirits throughout the entire night. Pastor Val who has worked with the tribes for the past 40 years was amazed to witness the chief giving us a gift – bow and arrow that were handmade. Pastor Val had never witness a chief giving a gift so it was truly a honor to be respected and recognized by the chief and his tribe. We were later told that it was the chief’s way of saying we were welcome to return. We are making plans to return in two years.

An official report that was submitted to Saddleback Church/Purpose Driven written by Tom Turley on our team stated,“Pastor Valdeval was overwhelmed by the fact that God brought this group into his life to encourage him when he was low, spiritually and emotionally. As he put it, "God brought you here when I needed you most." The fact that the team would cross a daring swinging bridge, in a far out place, to teach 15 kids about prayer, was something he never imagined a group of Americans would do. Their desire to help a group of Indians was an encouragement for him, too.”