Who is your hero?

You guys are...how do you say in English, valientes? Heroes? Yes, you guys are heroes. A young woman said this to us as we rode in the taxi. Our team had just arrived in Bogota, Colombia, and she met us at the airport to take us to the YWAM facilities, where we would spend the night before continuing our journey. When we told her of our plans to stay in Leticia, the capitol city of the Amazon province in Colombia, for two months, she called us heroes. She herself had spent a short time in Leticia.

The following morning, I stood in line at the airport, now for the flight to Leticia. A young Colombian man stood beside me, and asked where our group was traveling to. "Leticia," I responded. He laughed and said, "That's funny." What is it about this place where we are going?

Fast forward nine days. We sat on the concrete bleachers of a small neighborhood soccer field. We were discussing the outreach so far; every one's thoughts and feeling up to that point. Tomorrow would be my last day with the team, and the first of my four-day journey home.

"I think I came here with expectations that I would be the 'superhero-American-missionary,' but instead all I'm doing is washing dishes, serving food, and cleaning bathrooms," said one student. The past few days had been difficult, with rough living conditions and a big lack in communication. Often we wouldn't know what our day's activities would consist of until an hour or 30 minutes before it happened. It required much flexibility on our part. It helped to talk things through, and despite the difficulties, everyone maintained a positive attitude.

Now, today, I sit in air-conditioned comfort in Ozark, Arkansas, while the rest of the team finishes out the second month of their outreach in Colombia. They spent two weeks in difficult living conditions, cheerfully serving, in Caballo Cocha, Peru, and then another two weeks floating the Amazon, spending two days at a time in villages along the river. Here conditions were even rougher. No electricity, no plumbing. Bathing took place in the Amazon and the bathroom was "in the jungle". No relief ever came from the vicious and plentiful mosquitoes. Yet they continued to serve and share their faith.

They recently returned to Leticia, or, as they put it, civilization. In my opinion, they are heroes. They all sacrificed so much to be there, maintained great attitudes throughout it all, and offered themselves as servants. So Abby, Matt, Ryan, Tonya, Jerod, and Johannes, if you're reading this, you are my heroes; I'm so proud of y'all. You've got a month to go, keep it up!

Our driver, Nelson, looks at me and points behind us. “Brazil,” he says. Then he points to our left. “Peru.” And to our right, “Colombia.” Wind in my face, I look around at the huts and shacks along the banks to which he referred, as we cruise up the Amazon in a boat.

The guys from our team were on our way to the boat dock, to clean and prepare the boats for our upcoming trip. We arrived at the boat dock, nothing more than a shack sitting on top of a wooden raft. Keep in mind, this dock sits out like an island in the river, off-shore, and what’s more, a young family lives here and calls it home. I assume keeping and guarding boats is the family business.

*One nice thing about their house is that I’m sure they never have to call a plumber. I saw the toilet, and I’ll let you guess as to the plumbing engineering.

Our driver pulls around the other boat. These are not your average speed boats. The wooden tank is painted sky blue, with yellow planks for seats, and has re-bar arching overhead with a tarp stretched over it for protection from the elements (it rains here a lot, and when the sun comes out, it’s intense!). My guess is that it could seat about 30 – 35 people, uncomfortably. I don’t know that it would seat any number comfortably.

Standing inside the boat, ankle deep in the murky water, Nelson hands me a broom, and says something to me in Spanish. All I understand is “limpia,” and “bote,” which mean clean and boat, respectively. How exactly am I supposed to do this? We get it figured out, dipping the broom in the muddy water inside the boat, scrubbing the sides and the seats, rinsing the broom in the muddy water in the river, and scrubbing some more. Let me tell you, that boat sparkled when we were finished!

We loaded up and headed back to the YWAM facility in Leticia. That was Saturday. Tuesday we head upstream to a town in Peru for a pastor’s conference.