Turning off the lights

And now it's really time to say goodbye, for real. After a weekend of resting and preparing ourselves best we could for our going home and the final goodbyes, final coffees and meals with bestfriends, Monday morning 3am and Caitlin and I saw our last 8 friends wave goodbye as they left to get their early morning flights. Our flight was hours later so we didn't go to the airport with them, it would've been just two much as as it is I have two full days and four international flights to take before I get home.

And then there were 2, with us being left to literally pick up our bags, close the door and turn off the lights. 

An end of an era, it's hard to say exactly what my next steps will be. For now I'm on my way home to my beloved Africa, to friends and family, some good home cooking and some much needed rest before I go back to the field come January. This journey isn't quite complete, we still have to fulfill the last part of our vision, to continue sharing God's love and the fire of revival to the Caribbean.

But for now some final thoughts, through everything that I've been through, all that I've seen, all that I've learnt and all that I still don't (and perhaps never will) understand, I know my God and He is true and He is faithful. He is faithful to the end. 

Until January then.

With love,

Elizabeth 

French Guiana

Sunday morning and off we went to our 21st and final country, French Guiana. A three hour bus ride driven by Andy, also the pool cleaning man from our hostel in Paramaribo, followed by a short canoe ride across the river and viola, we had arrived in French Guiana. I think crossing a border by canoe is the most unique border crossing I've experienced, and definitely pretty fun!!

Technically we have finished South America 3 countries ago as Guyuna and Suriname are the land countries of the Caribbean and French Guiana is actually a district of France and thus part of the EU. Coming here we were a bit nervous about how expensive it would be as it's part of the EU and thus on European prices. We were correct, it's really expensive here! We were told accommodation would be like €40 a night which is true, although God really blessed us by provided a place for €7 a night. Ok so we're sleeping 6 in a 3 bed room, but hey! Massive blessing and one for which we are all extremely thankful.

We stayed in St Laurent du Maroni which is just over the border. We were also warned that the people would be really unfriendly here and speak only French. The speaking only French part is true but the unfriendliness no, everyone we've met have been really kind and welcoming to us, from the people we've spoken to and interacted with to the people we've passed on the street. And being French the food is delicious! Expensive but delicious. 

On Monday we went went to an indigenous village along the river. We literally just went to the river banks, found a man with a canoe and arranged for him to take us to an indigenous tribe. When we got there we really weren't sure what to expect. There were some cute kids swimming in the river but other than that... But as the Lord would have it He had a plan for us which included going to a house which had a lady who could translate from French into the local language for us (most people did not speak French in the village). She was an evangelical Christian who was happy for us to minister, to the point that while we were praying for her family she went round to the other houses to bring us more people to pray for!

All in all a man's ears were opened, as was another lady's. It was beautiful, when we left I could see tears if joy in her eyes after Jesus healed her ears. We also prayed for a lady who's husband passed away from cancer earlier this year, for the pain she was feeling grieving her loss. After praying for her she kept asking us to sing more and more worship songs to usher in the presence of the Holy Spirit into her home.

On Tuesday we went to the nearby very small town of Mana. This turned out to be a bit of a disappointment which wasn't helped by our bus driver leaving us there for an extra 3 hours, but eventually we landed up at a small village called Awala-Yalimopo which is where the river meets the sea. And this would be the furthest point of our journey. After pioneering and pushing forward into continual unknowns for the last 14 months, from now on we would be backtracking, heading back to Georgetown through Suriname before flying home on the 19th. A sobering thought. Even more interesting is that we later found out that at the time that we got to Awala-Yalimopo, our furthest point of the journey, Tanya went into labour and a few hours later Zion was born. So right at the moment that one journey would be coming to an end, a new season was beginning with the birth of Zion. 

Being super hot I headed to a local restaurant/shop to buy a cold drink. I landed up talking to the owner, Margaret, who'd just visited South Africa and LOVED it so much, highlight of her life, she's thinks its paradise. Anyway, somehow I've landed up agreeing to take back two postcards from her to give to two friends of hers she met in South Africa who sell African township guitars in a market in Cape Town. I'm not sure who they are and I don't have an address for them but hey, it could be a fun God adventure finding them when I get home!!

And Wednesday we headed back to Suriname, homeward bound, a 20min canoe border crossing, a 3 hour bus ride and we were back at our hostel in time for lunch. Thursday we took a rest day - we'd wanted to do some prison ministry but that unfortunately did not materialise, and Friday we headed back to Georgetown, a pretty long hot 10 hour travel day via bus and ferry and bus again. 

And this is getting close to where the story ends, with this being our last weekend together as the Iris Latin America family, before we'd fly out Monday 19th November. I was dreading going back to the hostel in Georgetown knowing that this time the rest of the team wouldn't be there anymore, but God was very gracious to me and it was actually ok. Yes there were the now to be expected tears and heartache a bit, but not nearly as painful as before or as I'd expected. Thank you God as I don't think I can keep going through this!

Suriname

Tuesday the 6th morning began with more raw emotions as we said goodbye to 3 more of our family before we got in the minivan and headed towards Suriname. Having not slept much in the last few nights, many emotional goodbyes, our hearts were all raw and through our exhausted state I knew it was a time to dig deep and fully rely on the strength of the Lord to get me through this time.

Our 12 hours of travel to Paramaribo (the capital of Suriname) went pretty well - a 3 hour tax ride to the border, a ferry crossing across into Suriname, only to find that the minibuses on the other side were full and there'd be no more buses for us for that day. Err. After some negotiation we arranged for some of us to go in the taxi and the rest would go in a different taxi. But first we all had to go in the one minivan to go meet the other taxi about 20min. How to fit 22 people plus luggage for all of us in a minivan meant for 15 people. This is how we travel...

Arriving in Paramaribo exhausted by 7:30pm and we can't find accommodation. Everything is super expensive and the hostels are booked out. 2 hours later and we eventually found one. It didn't have enough beds but thankfully they let us squeeze and sleep on the floor :) 

Our first impressions of Suriname were oh my gosh it's so expensive. Which was pretty accurate as it was expensive!! But God totally provided for us by providing accommodation in this hostel which was probably the cheapest we could get it anywhere and was a really nice place to stay. Thank you God :)

Ministry for the remainder of our time would and did look like "stopping for the one", with many people on the street to talk to and pray for at any time. I personally ministered more to the staff at the hostel, building up a bit of a relationship with Alma, the cleaning lady who was also a Christian. 

Guyana

Travelling from Santa Elena to Georgetown was one of the worst travels of this journey. We left Santa Elena at 7am on Tuesday to take a taxi to the border of Brazil. Over the border and into another taxi for the 3 hour drive to Bon Fin via Boa Vista before heading to Lethem to cross the border into Guyana. That was the easy part. From Lethem is where the challenges began. Basically we were deceived right from our first steps into Guyana, from the money changes, to the bus ride, to when we'd get to Georgetown... Our time in Guyana showed us that two of the biggest strongholds in this nation are deception and money.

We arrived at the border at 1pm, it was closed for lunch until 2pm which is when we would cross, get on the minibus and go straight to Georgetown, expecting to get there by about 11pm. It was pretty crowded with our group of 8 plus a friend we made along the way plus our luggage... At least that's what we thought until we crossed the border and another 3 men joined us. And so began 2 days of travel, me in the front with Ben the first day and Moose the second and 3 bags - so squashed I couldn't put my feet down but rather had them on the dashboard the whole two days.

We didn't make the ferry crossing at 6pm so we pulled over and slept in hammocks/in the floor in someone's house/restaurant. I was already feeling pretty carsick by this time so the next day of driving didn't help. Up at 3:30am and off we went to get to the ferry crossing by 6am. Before this time we had already passed through two passport checkpoints plus I was already throwing up from carsick. Eventually I had the routine of tapping the driver on the shoulder so he'd pull over, tapping Moose on the shoulder (I was sitting between the two of them) so he'd get out the car, and then I'd get out and throw up, get back in only to resume the routine in about half an hour. The journey was truly awful, terrible roads, incredible amounts of dust, we were filthy (covered in red dirt) by the time we arrived in Georgetown at 12:30pm and our bags were wet from when it rained.

Straight to hotel for a MUCH needed shower (actually we needed a couple before we were finally clean enough) and some rest. Thursday we moved to a hostel which is actually for missionaries. Here we had enough space for all of us - the rest of our team would be arriving in the next couple of days. 

Georgetown was really a family and farewell time as most of our team flew home around the 5th of November, if they hadn't already left the team. A time of loving each other, reflecting on the past 14 months of living together, learning to love each, through the good and the bad times, the easy and the difficult. It was a very emotional time for us all, savouring the last moments together, involving many tears of course!! Before we said goodbye we blessed each other as about half of the remaining headed home and the last 11 of us would head to Suriname on the 6th.

On the ministry side we chose not to do any formal ministry like church services, but rather rather ministered to those we met along the way, the street people, the average guy along the road, whoever the Lord put in our path. In hindsight this was really fitting as this is the heartbeat of our family, to stop for those who God puts in front of us, wherever we may be, whether being a missionary in a foreign land or at home living our regular lives.

Sunday we had a family day affectionately named "Fam Fest 2012" (Fam is short for family) where we shared stories of our journey, encouraged each with how we'd seen each person grow during their time on the team, and generally just hung out and enjoyed each other before heading out for one last family dinner. We stayed up all night to get taxis at 3am as the first people to fly out left at 6am. Tiredness, sadness, tears, heavy hearts, these are just a few of the things Monday the 5th of November involved.

I can't quite explain the amount of pain we each have been feeling in our hearts as we've said goodbye to what has been our family for the last 14 months. I don't think any of us expected it to be what it was, it far exceeded anything I ever could have thought of. These mighty men and women of God will forever have such a deep place in my heart. I can truly say I love each and every one of them so much it hurts.

Venezuela

Crossing the border into Venezuela from Brazil on foot was a piece of cake, way easier than when we've done the others with our cars. A 20 minute taxi ride from the border and we were in Santa Elena, destination Venezuela successfully found. The first night we stayed in a really nice (and cheap!) hostel to rest which was the smartest decision I think we made all week (other than leaving Manaus, it was so definitely time for us to move on from there) as since then we've been staying with the pastor's family and the pastora is a bit of a drill sergeant. 

Wednesday afternoon we chilled at the house while the pastor and pastora (pastors' wife) were at work. It's been a challenging few days figuring out what's going on and who's who as people keep coming and going in and out of the house and it's hard to know who actually lives here, who's part of the family, who works here and who's just here. I think I've figured it out that there're two biological daughters who belong to the pastora, the 13 year old has a different father and the 7 year old Deborah's dad is the pastora's husband. There's another 14 year old who lives there but her dad lives round the corner, I'm not sure why she doesn't live with him but I'm sure there's a good reason. 

In the evening we shared with the pastora and a couple of friends our hearts and what ministry we want to do, which was a really great time. It turns out we're an answer to prayer as their little church is crying out for revival and more of the Holy Spirit. 

During dinner we were called away, a family had just arrived and we needed to pray for them. Alrighty. It was a good time of ministry where we were able to pray and prophesy over them and they left encouraged and touched by the Spirit.

Thursday was an early morning start with prayer meeting at 5am in the house. 6 o'clock and off we went to the church to pray until 7:30am. 8 o'clock and we were in some other area having a local Venezuelan breakfast of beans, meet, cheese and artequipe (a bready type pancakey type food). Delicious. And coffee with a copious amount of sugar in it. Latin American food can be delicious but we are all struggling with ridiculous amounts of sugar in coffee and fruit juice, salt and margarine/oil in everything. Very hard to keep the extra pounds off with all the white carbs and sugar we eat. Oh well, just one of those things. When I am able to I  indulge in as much fruit and veg as I can get my hands on.

By 9 o'clock we were home, and ready for a nap until lunch. Our time here in the pastor's house is hard to know what's going on, like this morning (Friday) when we were whisked out of bed at 7am with 10min to get dressed before being dragged to the market, just us 3 girls and 2 girls who live here, without the pastor, not knowing why we were there. It was painful. We tried praying for people along the way but without much success. They looked kinda scared of us - not surprising in my opinion, how would I feel if 3 foreigners who look and speak very differently to me tried stopping me on the street in Cape Town to pray for me? By the time we met up with the pastora and told her about how the evangelising had gone she wasn't surprised, she told us we couldn't do street evangelism in that area, especially as we were foreigners, only house to house visits. Err, why were dragged to the market at 7am then?? We still don't know!! Eventually we got dropped off near the town centre and walked home. 

The craziness continued with us spending the day waiting for things to happen, which never did, and then in the evening we were whisked off to watch a movie without any notice in a local community house. It was fun watching a movie about rugby in America in Spanish sitting outside under the moonlight of the Venezuelan sky. The girls had even made us all popcorn and cooldrink!!

By the time we got home at 10pm we were exhausted, only to find that actually we were on our way to an all night prayer meeting at the church, with our prayer slot being until midnight. The pastora is a workaholic of note!! Thankfully for some reason the meeting was cancelled and instead we hung out with the family and chatted while they made us a traditional Venezuelan dinner of a hot oatmeal drink, deep friend corn bread with ham and cheese of a fish salad. 

Saturday and our 3 guys arrived safely from Manaus, having got their passports. Boy were we happy to see them!! They were lucky enough to stay with Norma, an amazing lady in the church. It was great hanging out at her house with the boys, a lot less stressful than being in the pastora's house. Our time was still controlled with plans we'd made or which had been made for us (for example that afternoon we were going to climb a nearby mountain to take communion and pray over the city) were cancelled at the last minute and we were instead taken to the church to lead a kids program which we had no notice of and thus had not prepared for at all. But it turned out well and the kids had a good time being played with and ministered to. 

Sunday we were given the opportunity to preach at the church service and then ministered to the small congregation afterwards. It was great to be able to pray and prophesy life over people as in many ways this was lacking a lot. Afterwards we landed up at community celebration lunch with food from different areas being served. Monday we finally had a day off where we could go sight see a bit. Norma drove us to some surrounding waterfalls (Venezuela is a beautiful country with many natural beauties like waterfalls) and we had a super fun day out. And Tuesday 7am we were off again, next stop Guyuna, via Brazil of course!

Manaus - jungle time again!

Monday 8th November and off we set, 6 of us to the jungle town of Manaus while the rest of our team stayed in Fortaleza. With Tanya (our team leader) being nearly 9 months pregnant a small team stayed back to help her with the birthing process (plan was to give birth to Zion in Fortaleza) the people who had the cars in their name also stayed back and then of course those who just wanted to rather than going to the jungle stayed as well. 

This was the packing challenge of the trip - how to fit all our stuff into one 21kg bag and one hand luggage bag to meet the flying requirements from Belem to Manuas. Good time to lighten our loads by blessing the new Iris Fortaleza Missions Base with things we no longer needed! 

After a 24 hour bus ride to Belem which actually took 27 hours we had an 8 hour layover at the airport before a midnight flight to Manaus, only to wait another hour and a half for two more members of our team to join us who'd found a cheap flight direct from Fortaleza to Manaus which only took four hours!! Well done Ted and Caitlyn :) Nothing like arriving at 3am to the hostel, hot and humid with air that doesn't really work. Welcome to a jungle town!

Wednesday morning and the research for a way to get into the Amazon began. We came in faith and by the leading of the Holy Spirit, trusting that He would direct us to where He would have us go. After much running around and false leads we got connected with Josiah, a wild YWAM missionary from Alabama (Josiah) who has a heart like ours, to share the gospel with the unreached people groups deep in the jungle. 

Saturday and we were on the Amazon River in a canoe heading to the Rouxinol village with the Barasaua trible. One year ago this tribe was unreached, but now thanks to Josiah going to them they know Jesus and have YWAM missionaries working with them on a daily basis. We connected with a group of 8 YWAM girls who were in the village doing their DTS training.

Trekking into the jungle

The jungle was hot, humid and a place where a day felt like a week. It was a great few days but very hot and very humid. By the end we were all struggling to function and I think we all had had heat stroke and dehydration to some level. Highlights include fishing with Santiago, the chief of the tribe. He is such an amazing man, I really enjoyed our time with him, and he enjoyed my obvious dislike of putting live worms as bait on my fishing hook, not to mention my strong dislike of fish, on my plate, dead or alive. Yes, going fishing on the Amazon river was another opportunity to do something I have a fear of! During this year God has had me on a journey of conquering some personal fears. So starting with some physical ones, in the last few weeks I've successfully made use of saunas, been hangliding over Rios, fishing with Santiago and dissected a raw chicken in the jungle. So far the chicken experience was the most traumatic!!

Fishing in the Amazon

The tribe performed their cultural dance for us which was great fun, even when Santiago asked me to partner dance with him! 

Santiago leading the tribal dance with me

On Monday we took the canoes up the river to hike to another village, the Gaudino Brancinho village with Piratapuxa tribe. This tribe was a lot more spread out, as I discovered when without any warning we were whisked off to invite people to that evening's church service, nothing like hiking an hour and a half through the Amazon jungle in the midday heat in my flip flops. i shouldn't complain though, Joanna (Santiago's wife) trekked with us, also in flip flops, crossing rivers via tree branches, with her 13 month baby on her hip or breastfeeding. Impressive. My hero woman of the group. 

Carrying the baby along a log over the river

Stopping at a house to invite them to the church service,

and sitting down for a quick rest while we're at it!!

One of the people we invited to church was an old women named Nasaria. Somehow in the midst of  sharing Jesus with her, praying for the pain in her knees and inviting her to church we offered to come plant her land with casava the next day. So off we trekked into the jungle first thing on Tuesday morning in the boiling heat to plant casava for her. It was back breaking working, not least because it felt like 40 degrees by 9am, but every time just as we thought we'd finished she'd bring another basket of Casava roots for us to plant! It was never ending! 

Planting casava is hard work!

That evening at church we prayed for healing in her knees again (I'm not surprised she had pain in her knees considering her age and the amount of hard physical labour she's done in her life!), and when I asked her how she was feeling she said all the pain had gone! Praise God!

Another weird thing in the jungle,

a chicken right next to the toilet!

By Thursday we had to head back to Manaus as we were invited to be guest speakers at a conference mobilising missionaries at Moises' church. The conference was over the weekend and was an interesting time, a different style of ministry to the way we roll but a good time where people's hearts were stirred up. Miracles took place as well, notably Phillippe who got out of his wheelchair and walked. He had been injured in a near fatal car accident a year before and since then had been in a wheelchair. There were some quite well known guest speakers there, a famous Brazilian pastor and evangelist from Ghana, so having us be included as the guests of honour was something else. It was a bit overwhelming when we'd arrive at the sessions if there weren't seats for us the ushers would ask the teenagers to get up and move so we could have their seats. We kept saying no no it's fine really, we don't people to move because of us, but what could we do.

Sleeping arrangements for the weekend were interesting. The 8 of us stayed in a one bedroomed house belonging to somebody (we never met the people who lent us their house!), plus Santiago and his family from the house, so we had about 16-20 people sleeping in a one bedroom house. Interesting. And I should mention Manaus is very hot and humid so that many people plus not so much AC and lots of mosquitoes... plus jungle people get up REALLY early!!! And our team is not made up of early risers :)

Monday and us 3 girls headed up to Venezuela. The boys had to wait in Manuas until Ben and Taylor's passports came back from the embassy (they needed extra pages for the visas we'd be needing for the remaining countries). With the end time of our journey looming, and our wider team being split in many smaller groups (by this time we had us in Manaus, 2 girls flying into Manuas in the next few days, another group taking a boat down the Amazon to Manaus and then the birthing team in Fortaleza with Tanya who was by now very very close to being 9 months pregnant), we'd arranged to all meet in Georgetown, Guyuna, by 1 November as the first half of the team would be flying home on or close to the 5th November. With us having the pioneering spirits that we had, we planned to squeeze Venezuela in the next week before meeting in Georgetown. There were many times we weren't sure if we'd actually make it (money, a lot of travel, limited time, going ahead of the team) but Tuesday 23rd November and we crossed the border. This much travelling was quite a task even given how much we usually travel, for example over the last 11 nights we'd changed accommodation 8 times. 

But our vision was there and we definitely had enough motivation so Monday night and Natalie, Caitlin and I were on an overnight bus to Venezuela. First and only border crossing for the team done by girls alone might I add!

Fortaleza

Sunday 30th September and we arrive in the coastal town of Fortaleza, way up north in Brazil, in what would later be our last road trip in our cars for the year. Yip, Fortaleza would be where we would leave the cars. Arriving in the afternoon first thing we did was head to the beach. Great idea!! After all the driving we'd been doing for the last few days since Rio it was nice to sit back and relax, enjoying some fresh coconut juice at the beach. We met our contact at the local shopping mall before heading to the church where we would be staying for the next two nights, not before we joined in the church service. Even though I didn't really understand what was going on (we arrived at the service late, we were exhausted and it was in Portuguese), it was fun being at a service outside under the moonlight with palm trees around us. 

Being close to the equator it's now hot all the time. It hardly gets cool at night even, the main weather changes these days are humidity. More or less humidity from place to place. Our time at the church was while we waited for our new accommodation, "The Mansion", to become available. While staying at the church us girls took the opportunity to have a pedicure and manicure time one evening, while the rest of us did a gym workout by moonlight!! Great fun and definitely needed (both the beautifying and body workout!!). 

 Katherine chilling while Natalie

gives Tanya a manicure

We went to Fortaleza to support Herbert and Lorelei, a young missionary couple who have started an Iris base in Fortaleza, partnering with missionaries from YWAM. They'd just been given the lease to a huge multi-roomed (12 I think!) house in the city where the vision was for them to live in a community of missionaries, in time bringing prostitutes leaving the streets to come and live with them. 

Cleaning madness!

When they got the keys to the house it had been abandoned for a year so was ridiculously dirty and rundown. We had some serious cleaning to do before going to sleep that day. Pity the water ran out right when we'd finished cleaning so none of us could take showers for the first 2 days!!! Going to sleep that dirty is not great!! But lucky we got the electricity and lights working so at least we had lights :)

A taste of what we had to clean!

One of the rooms where we stayed, while

cleaning the house to make it habitable!

Iris Fortaleza work in the local favela and with prostitutes, amongst other ministries. This is where my heart is as well so I really enjoyed my time there. The team are an amazing team of young men and women sold out for Christ, I really enjoyed being with them as well. Going into the favela was fun, getting to know some local families. Iris have a prayer house in the centre of the favela where we went to a few times to pray and worship. I love that the first thing they did before starting to minister is start a prayer house to intercede for the city and nation. Turns out their prayer house used to be owned by the main drug leader, as evidenced by the bullet holes in the walls when they moved in, the fact that the house is higher than neighbouring houses (so the gang members can keep an eye on the community and when the cops were coming), helped by a ledge almost all around the house which the watchman could run around to have a 360 degree of the community). 

Friday night and we went to the streets at 10pm to minister to prostitutes and transvestites. What an amazing night of ministry, one of my highlights from the whole year. We started by praying and worshipping together on the beach. We then split into small groups of 4/5 and went in different directions to minister. I had a great time meeting people, praying for them, giving them words of knowledge from God. Seeing people visibly encouraged and touched by the Spirit before my very eyes makes what we do worthwhile. 

Worshipping on the beach before going to streets

Much of our time in Fortaleza was involved in family logistics of planning the next steps of our journey. We have decided to break for Thanksgiving and Christmas so we really are onto the last few weeks of this journey. Some practical considerations at this time were what to do with our cars (it's not possible to drive them between the last countries of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana) so do we leave the cars or ship them. The problem with leaving them is that it's not legal to import foreign cars into Brazil. Hmm. We also have Tanya at 8 months pregnant so we needed to think about where she would give birth to Zion. 

In the end we decided to try gift our cars to the growing Iris base in Fortaleza as this is where they'd be best made use of, this of course would be dependent on the Brazilian government letting us transfer ownership to them. Tanya and a few people would stay in Fortaleza until she gave birth. On Monday I got on a bus with 5 other people and headed to Manaus, the jungle town in the middle of the Amazon, ready for my third and last jungle adventure.

A map of South America showing where we've been