Audrey and I travelled the long road to Sena Madureira and Manoel Urbano with Tom and Lucimar but this stretch was rather uneventful. There were the usual large potholes which Tom always the careful driver, was able to avoid. This journey was certainly a big improvement on our last experience as we bumped, slipped and slid our way to and from Boca do Acre. In Sena, the bigger and more prosperous of these two Acreano towns, we had an excellent meeting with about a hundred believers present. Many of them, including Pastor Joao Marinho Jr, are acquaintances of many years and it was great to renew fellowship with old friends. The pastor spoke with great sincerity of his gratitude for the missionaries of Acre International who had worked in the town and on the surrounding rivers for many years. Pastor Joao has just retired from the ministry and the church has already called one of our other workers, Pastor Ageu from Manoel Urbano to replace him. He will start his ministry in Sena in the middle of January. We had a very good meeting in which we were conscious that the Lord was speaking. After an overnight in a basic sort of hotel we travelled another sixty miles on the new road to Manoel Urbano. The last time I travelled this road it was a mud trail through the forest where swarms of biting and blood sucking flying insects feasted on us. Glad to say that has all gone. Pastor Ageu met us at the church on their prayer meeting night. About seventy believers gathered for this midweek meeting and a few Caxinua Indians also attended. The Lord has given very good liberty as we spoke of the changeless Christ. There was a conscious sense of His presence in all the meetings. After the meeting everyone was invited to stay for a hearty supper of hot soup, bread and rich fellowship. I should mention that the meeting in Manoel Urbana was remarkable for the thousands of flying ants in attendance. Thankfully they do not bite but while preaching I was afraid that I might swallow some of these black beasties. They were everywhere and outside there were millions of them hovering around the street-lights. On the morning after the meeting heaps of these dead insects lined the streets and people were busy brushing down the walls of their houses to remove the dead ants. These flying ants are always a precursor to a rain storm which we were hoping and praying would not come as we had to travel on the Feijo, which was a hundred miles away. Our prayers were answered for the first part of this journey from Manoel Urbano to Feijo as the rain stayed at bay even though ominous dark clouds hung overhead. Furthermore, most of the road was tarmacked and it was a smooth ride. Just as we hit ten miles of a dirt road the heavens opened on us. The clay road quickly turned into a quagmire and soon we were sliding from one side of the road to the other. If the ride to Boca do Acre was like a Disney World humpback ride this was more like Disney On Ice. Tom bravely tried to hold to the middle of the road and did very well until we came to steep hill where the wheels of the car just spun deeper into to the mud. Tom tried to reverse but with no success and he had to finally give up. As we sat in the stranded car the rain continued to pelt down on us. Four-wheel traction trucks were able to slide by without difficulty, but other vehicles, including some heavy lorries which were stuck in the mud, piled up behind us. We were well and truly stuck and remained so for the next hour and a half as the rain continued to pour down. We wondered what was going to happen. Naturally, all four of us were praying for the Lord’s help remembering Psalm 40 speaking of waiting for the Lord who hears us and takes us out of the miry clay. How we hoped it would happen. Eventually two men from a large truck which had slid off the road behind us, came to our rescue. Tom claims they were angels sent from God even though they were not clad in white nor did they have any wings. Their feet dug deep into the mud as they put their shoulders to the rear of Tom’s car and pushed while Tom put his boot to the board in first gear. We slowly began to spin forward sliding from one side the other as we went. As soon as we got over the brow of a hill we were on our way again for another few miles, still sliding back and forth and trying to avoid the sheer drop on either side of the road. We barely had time to shout our thanks to the two unlikely angels who had helped us. After another few miles we were stuck again with stranded trucks blocking the road. Tom felt it was too dangerous to try to maneuvre round them. Just then another two rustic looking “angels” who were covered in mud appeared to help us steer past this treacherous patch of the road. Within minutes we were out of this “Slough of Despond” and on a firm driving surface again. Within an hour we arrived in Feijo even though it was still raining. Lucimar’s sister had a sumptuous Brazilian meal ready for and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We relaxed and recovered in afternoon and then went to the meeting that night. It was great to meet with Pastor Ageu and his wife Razle at the church for their midweek Bible study. The Lord has richly blessed His servant and it is clear that he is a hard worker. Besides enlarging the building and making it look so good he has gathered a very good congregation. It was to meet a man whom I had led to the Lord three years ago. Today he is a deacon and a right hand man to the pastor. At the meeting we spoke of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus in view of so much superstition at this time with All Souls Day upon us. The cemeteries will be crowded with people burning candles for the departed loved ones. We drove over to Tarauaca after the meeting and are now here for the weekend conference to mark the forty-fifth anniversary of the commencement of the work here.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 14:13:07 +0000
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