Amazon jungle city: Manaus

My time spent in Manaus was definitely one of the most interesting parts of my journey.  Manaus is a city on the edge of the jungle and has a really mixed feel.  I lived and worked with John and Kathy, long term missionaries to Brasil and uncle and aunt to Melissa, one of my team mates.  John and Kathy have pioneered work both in Sao Paulo and now in Manaus.  They blessed us so much with nice food and I had a mattress for the first time in weeks which helped improve my health no end!

 

As John is a co-pastor of a local church he asked the three of us to lead a morning for the teenage girls of the church.  I spoke (with the aid of a translator!) about the story of Esther from the Bible and we shared how valuable they are to God.  We then answered lots of questions about boyfriends and relationships and what it means to be a missionary!

The Amazon basin area is home to many indigenous communities, many of whom are Indian tribes.  Some of these tribes have sent representatives to live in camps in Manaus to show the government and others how they have been mistreated.  In the camp or settlement which we visited, living conditions are poor…little access to running water and very basic ‘housing’.  The settlement itself is fascinating as there are over 20 separate tribes amongst the 2000 inhabitants and they are choosing to live in community to make their voice heard.

Myself and Kathy visited the settlement a number of times and I loved it..well I didn’t love the fact that people were living in such poor conditions but I loved listening to peoples stories and helping practically in peoples lives.  One young mum, Regiana explained that her cousin had just had a baby and needed baby clothes and that she was also struggling herself.  As well buying the babies clothes I was also able to purchase jewellery made by Regiana as this is how she tries to make her living.  At a short service held in the community, Regiana gave her life to Jesus and others asked for prayer.  All in all a special time and really made me think about returning to Manaus in the future.

We then made our way to the Brazilian border on a night bus and crossed over to Guyana.