Hola hola mis chamos

read in sections or if you have a lot of time, read it all.

I hope everyone is doing well, I'm finally writing one of the last emails for this trip (although if you would like to hear more details feel free to write and ask, as I can't fit in every story in this email).
I thank everyone for their prayers and support, they were very much felt when I was down there, especially in the Amazon where God threw in a few rough spots and obstacles to test my faith.

Los calles de Maracaibo
The month I spent in Maracaibo, VZ prior to the Amazon was amazing (and hot!). I was able to take a few days and share on the campuses of LUZ (University of Zulia) and URBE and there were a few who accepted Christ which was very encouraging. I found the biggest obstacle in sharing was not the language or them having other beliefs...but their cell phones. It made me think of times in the US when I've tried to share and technology some how got in the way. But they didn't bother God and many received Christ despite the distractions.

Amazon Preps and Threats
Prepping for the Amazon was fun and tedious as we had a number of studies to do prior to going. Also this was a time God really began to teach me a lot about faith and stepping out in faith as I spent this time seeking his will concerning what I'm going to do missions wise after I graduate this December.
God really put my faith to the test on the way down to the Amazon. We had a 24 hour bus trips (9 hours from Maracaibo to Valencia and 12 hours from Valencia to Puerto Ayacucho...with a few stops in-between). Venezuela, along with Colombia, is one of the few countries where you need to have your real passport with you at all times, even traveling within the country. Most other countries recommend you bring a copy if traveling within the country, and only bring your real passport if you are crossing country boarders (on the advice that losing your passport is more of a hassle).
I left Maracaibo on this assumption. But realized very quickly, as there are security checkpoints multiple times on the roads, that in Venezuela one needs their real passport with them and not having one could result in some pretty hefty consequences. I thank God the Venezuelans protected me many times and kept me in constant prayer at each guard stop. God had his hand in the whole situation and kept me under his wing of protection. However, the threat intensified the first week I was down in the Amazonian state. We spent the first week together as a whole team working in Puerto Ayachcho (the only city in the Amazonian state) and worked with the local communities and prepared to split into three teams to reach 3 indigenous groups the following week. I realized very quickly that it was a large possibility that I couldn't go to the Amazon as a North American because of the dangers of the guards and the possible consequences that could follow if they stopped me. I began ! ! to pray about it and seeks God's will in the matter. I was encouraged as the Venezuelans took on the matter heavily in prayer and in encouraging me individually as I sought God's will. I continued to focus on Matthew 10 which is the passage where Jesus sends out the disciples for the first time and tells them of what may wait them as followers of Christ. God brought back what he was teaching me about faith prior to coming down and I really felt God leading me to take that big step of faith and go. After all, going to the Amazon was the whole reason I came down to VZ this summer in the first place; there was a reason why he had me there.

The ride
My trip down to the Amazon was incredible.  With the help of the Venezuelans, sweaters, hats, sunglasses, and a sudden episode of narcolepsy...I made it down to the Amazon with no problems.  And was able to view the most beautiful and breath-taking views on the way.  Entering into the Amazon was from a literacy sense, ironical.  As we drove down into the Amazon from Puerto Ayacucho, the sky was bright, cloudless, and displaying the most beautiful sunset as we drove down on the back of a truck.  On the road in front of us, the sky darkened very quickly and we could view thunderstorms and rain hovering over the land off in the distance.  It was almost as if we were entering into a territory where God was not fully known.  I spent the ride in awe of the spectacle and in constant prayer and praise to what God has done, is doing, and is going to do.  I entered the stormy area with eager anticipation.

Seron
They separated the 24 of us into three groups of eight to go minister to three separate tribes.  I was elated when I found out I was assigned to the most primitive/least advanced of the three tribes-Paraguasa.  The group that went to the most civilized of the tribes left the day before and went to a community within the Coripaca tribe called Esperanza.  The rest of us headed out to another community within the Coripaca tribe to a community called Seron.  We all spent the first night there as my group (going to Paraguasa) couldn't leave until the following day.  We woke up at 4 the next morning and went to the church (a place with stakes and roof) to pray and worship God.  Women sat on the left of the church and men sat on the right, and we spent the next 3 and a half hours kneeling in prayer.  I was able to watch the sky go from stars everywhere, to one of the most beautiful sunrises I had ever experienced.  So beautiful it literally too! ! k my breath away.  Afterwards we spent about 2 hours cooking breakfast, packed up, prayed with the group staying in Seron, and headed off for another 2 hour ride on the back of the truck to Paraguasa.

Paraguasa Highlights
There is so much I could write here but I'm just going to pick out a few highlights.  Please I want to tell more, so contact me later and ask.
We arrived in Paraguasa in the late afternoon.  It was raining and after we turned off a bridge out truck could go no further due to flooding (it was like a swamp).  So we grabbed all of our stuff and hiked in thigh deep water out to the community.  Many kids and men from the tribe came out with wheel barrels to grab our supplies.  When we arrived to the community, we were wet, our boots were soaked, tired, and the mosquitos were beginning to bite (our community had the biggest problem of the three with mosquitos and malaria).  The Pastor and his wife and a few within the community greeted us in Spanish and lead us to out "casa" to hang up our hammocks and to settle down.  They told us they would try to wire a light in our house so we could cook at night (the community only had a generator that would supply light to a few houses and would only turn on around 9 or 10 at night).
The rest of the week went by so fast we were leaving before I could even really get to learn some of the common phrases of the language.  The were part of the Piora tribe and we had a translator with us as only a few in the community spoke Spanish.  We split the 8 of us in groups to help with the children, groups to help with the young people, and groups to help with the women (we tried a few with the men but the men weren't very involved...and there were so few).  All in all the tribe, without the kids, numbered to be about 30 (men, women, and young people).  Many would have to cross the river to come to where we set up our activities, others would walk a good bit from all around to reach us.
We had Bible Stories, lessons, and activities for each of the groups that fit their age level (and gender for the women).  The young people were probably the most difficult to reach as they were very timid and shy and only some spoke Spanish (we found this to be the case in all three of the communities).  However, by mid week we were able to get them laughing and talking a little more about their live; although not to the extent we had hoped for within their tribe it is not custom to talk about personal things.  I was able to share and build a close friendship with one girl in particular who approached me while I was fiddling around on the guitar one day (I'm learning guitar and she was learning to and she wanted to play together).  Her quiet spirit yet eager personality (to learn....she was planning on leaving the community to attend school and learn English) encouraged me beyond measure.
There was a little girl there named Milagro that really touched my heart as well.  She was about 5 years old, she didn't speak any Spanish (only the Paraguasan language), and she was very, very quiet and timid.  Her curiosity in the "gringa" (I stuck out like a sore thumb with my blonde hair and blue eyes) caused her to begin to follow me from the very beginning.  Yet when I tried to approach her she would run away.  About the 3rd day I was able to get a smile out of her (with her fingers stuck in her mouth) with the help of my camera and a horrible off key song I sang.  I felt a connection.  I was able to talk to her mother and found out that a few months prior to our coming, a bat had flown into her and hit her in the forehead in the middle of the night.  Since then her mother informed me, she had become very quiet and would often run off along and sit in a dark spot and just tremble for hours, not responding to anyone.  We brought thi! ! s before the rest of the group and we embraced Milagro in prayer as we all surely felt it was more of a spiritual warfare than just a physical fright.  We all made it a point to reach out to her in some way as well as pray for her whenever we were near her and could hold her (while we prayed).  The last night we were there she walked up to some of us and sat on one of the group members laps.  Although we couldn't communicate verbally, a lot of communication passed through smiles, hugs, and body language.  Her mother had said about mid week she had quit going off by herself and trembling.  We weren't sure exactly how to feel but we all felt that God had put his hand on the matter and allowed the barriers to be dropped and he used us to work in her life.  She was all smiles when we left.

A last minute visit
There is so much more I want to write but I know this email is getting long.  I just want to write about one more incident that God had his hand in concerning one of the team members.
On the last day we were returning to Seron from Paraguasa to pick up the team there and return to Puerto Ayacucho to ron-de-vous with the team from Esperanza before we all headed our separate ways.  When we arrived to Seron I found that a close Venezuelan friend had been taken to the hospital on the assumption he had a parasite.  We spent some time in prayer over him and returned to Puerto Ayacucho after we fixed and ate lunch (another 3 hours to do...I really got an appreciation for what a home cooked meal is).  When we arrived to Puerto Ayacucho I pushed to go to the hospital and visit my friend and see how he was.  When I arrived, I found him in the waiting room filling out paper work.  We hugged and said out hellos only to have him the next minute whisked away into surgery with the doctor saying it was his appendix and he had to have surgery immediately and spend at least 2 days in the hospital recovering.  I canceled my bus tickets back to Ma! ! racaibo (that were to leave the next day) along with the leader of the group and a friend and spent the night in the hospital helping him recover (and boy was it a tough night).  When he got out of surgery they brought out the appendix and informed us that if it had bee another 2 hours it would have exploded (it was huge!  like a worm!).  The funny thing was, I was informed that he had awaken that morning at about 2 am with the incredible pain and had been taken to 2 different clinics, and no doctors were present at either of them.  He was then taken to Puerto Ayacucho (the only town in the Amazon and thus the only place with a hospital) where everything happened.  We all spent the time after his surgery in prayer of thanksgiving that he had been in Seron (and thus closed to help) and not in Paraguasa, and that it had no happened on the 24 hour bus ride back to Maracaibo, for he may not have been with us today.

Wrap up
The rest of the trip was all in God's hands.  My friend and I stayed down a few extra days to help him recover (which may have caused some panic on my parents part when they hadn't heard from me until 3 days after I told them I would call).  We bought new bus tickets and began the long journey home only to have our bus break down at 1 in the morning out in the middle of the Amazon and were told we would have to wait for the next bus (6 hours or so).   We prayed and 30 minutes later another bus showed up (although full) and all those with children loaded on first and God had me push to the front to get a place on the bus, which I am thankful for because they only took 10 more people and the rest had to wait for another bus.  My natural instinct would have been to wait, but since my flight home was leading in less than 36 hours I had to get home and thus we spent an uncomfortable 6 hours of sleeping in the aisle way of the bus...without stopping to use t! ! he restroom (and no bano on the bus!).
My last few hours in Maracaibo were difficult as every part of me screamed not leave: to accidently loose my passport, to break a leg, to miss my planes....but I know God has plans for me to return.  He has put a desire in my heart for the people of Venezuela and for the people in the Amazon, and although I don't know exactly where I'll end up, I know within the next 6 months, if God wills it, I'll be back.

Well thats a wrap, I'm off to college for my last semester.  Again I thank you for the prayers.  Please continue to keep me in your prayers as God is calling me to take a big step and apply with the IMB to go out for 2 years to go hiking through Peru and Bolivia to reach the unreached indigenous groups in the Amazon and the Andes there.  I will keep you updated on that.

If you want to hear more stories feel free to email or contact me at 757-288-6422.  I love and thank God for you all!

                                                         En sus brazos,
                                                         Cassandra McCarty