The team prepares to leave in the Cessna Caravan from the executive terminal in Manaus. They include Dr. Pablo, an Argentine, dentist Dra. Daniela, dentist Dra. Delcé, Pastor Airton, and missionaries Asunta, Cecelia, and Ivanete.
Five villages of the Rio Uniní receive medical and dental clinics, health instruction, and evangelism during the mission of three days. Rio Uniní is just north of Rio Jaú, which is shown on a map on the next web page. Above is the Terra Nova community.
Left, Dentists Delcé and Daniela prepare for the busy day in the Presbyterian Church of Terra Nova. Above, Dr. Pablo makes notes and writes prescriptions to be filled free at our own phar-macy in Tapiíra.
Nete is quite lovely, and particularly talented with children. Darrel keeps saying that he can't understand why no one has married this young woman yet. She is a fine catch for some Christian man.
Left, Ivanete, better known as Nete, dramatizes her teaching for the children with hand puppets in Vista Alegre. Above, her group is coloring a Bible story in Alta Floresta.
Pastor Airton giving devotional time especially for the men.
You can look at this face and see that there are stories to tell here. She is the mother of the president of the village Terra Nova, and she likes to ask you to guess her age. Darrel, not wanting to fall into that trap, guessed 39, to which she laughed. She replied proudly that she is 85, quite an accomplishment for life in the interior of Amazonia. She went to her house and got her birth certificate and brought it to him. Eighty-five years old. Sure 'nuff.
Dr. Pablo and the pet parrot of a resident of Tapiíra.
The town of Tapiíra has a pet bull. It wanders around town and pesters people to pet it. It's big enough and strong enough that it often won't take no for an answer. These little boys are watching a strongly muscled daddy type firmly say, "No, leave me alone!"
Lunch in Tapiíra is prepared for the team by Asunta (on the right) and the lady of this home. The steamy feast includes tapir, fish, beans, rice, noodles, and farinha (a gritty manioc product).
Darrel returns to the same villages often enough to have a long term relationship with the children as they grow up. It is so encouraging to see the people grow in spiritual wisdom and find happy, clean children in better health as the years pass. Churches are built, lives change. There is evidence that God is an ongoing part of their daily existence. And the sweet children. So many children. It's worth everything we do for them alone.
