Bud Simon

Iriri River Trip

Bud and a couple of his new friends on the Iriri River

I just spent last week on a great trip - two days driving and three days on the river.  It was rewarding to share the Gospel in new places, to travel new roads, and to see some new potential sites for churches.  I just posted some photos and I hope to post some complete stories in the near future. 

  Bud baptizing a new believer in the river

Another friend from the river - this woman is 85 years old and has lived along the river all her life. 

 Clyde Bergquist, a missionary from Oregon, and I relax  in the shallows of the river during the heat of the day

Family News

Hey, I have been trying for several days to post here, but alas, computer/browser difficulties have created problems for me.  That, plus my blog host changed their site for posting, which always seems to complicate things. 
The real news is that Anna had her 5th birthday last week.  We had the following conversation last week about her birthday.  

Dad -  'Tomorrow, when you wake up, it will be your Birthday Anna!  We have some special presents for you!"
Anna - "You mean it is my birthday in the morning?"
Dad - "Yes, it is!"
Anna - "And it is my birthday at the night time also?"
Dad - "Yes, it is, all day long Anna!"
Anna - "Ohhhh, I get two birthdays!"

Hey, let her enjoy the moment and "both" of her birthdays.  She was so happy.  We all were happy:)  It was a fun day and I was glad we could celebrate it together.  Suzanne did a great job of making it fun and putting together a great cake and fun "surprises" to make it a special day.  


Anna with her butterfly birthday cake - a special creation that Suzanne made for her


Singing happy birthday to Anna with some of the other missionaries and missionary kids

Anna and Suzanne - Suzanne made butterflies and flowers in streamers and hung them from the ceiling in Anna's room - definitely a fun surprise for Anna.  

Monkey Business

A troop of Black Headed Night Monkeys visit one of our fruit trees

We have a nightly routine with the kids.  I think many families have some type of routine in the evening.  This includes chores for our kids.  And one of the chores is taking care of the dogs. 

Well, recently one of our dogs had puppies and so the other evening, around 7pm, I was helping the kids with taking care of the dogs.  And, that was when I heard something in the trees on our side yard.  And then I heard a number of somethings.  There was still some light in the sky and I could see by the way they moved that they were monkeys, jumping through the trees to get to our jambo tree ( a fruit tree). 

I went into the house to get a flashlight and alert the family.  Daniel and I got a couple of flashlight and returned outside to the tree, where we could hear them "chattering" and moving around.  We saw several of them moving up in the branches.  Then I got the camera and took a few photos. Most of them were blurry, but this one turned out all right. 

These are Black Headed Night Monkeys.

They have visited our house before but never this early in the evening.  It was fun and all of the family got a look at the monkeys.  After 20 minutes or so, we left them alone to finish their meal.  They did not seem too disturbed by our attention, eating the whole time and looking us over and tossing the occasional fruit at us half heartedly. 

Things like this make it a pleasure to live on the edge of the jungle.  It is great to be able to share these experiences with the kids! 

Family

Tami, enjoying the ride on the roller coaster. 

Nothing profound.  Just alot of family fun.  Of course, some would say that in itself is profound.  However, that is too much thinking for this moment. 

We just went out, rode the rides, ate the food, laughed alot, both at ourselves and each other. 

Now, for those that are aware, once or twice a year we have the "parque" come to Altamira.  It is akin to the "county fair" or the, when I was a kid in Phoenix, think "Kiddie Land" out by Thomas Mall or Encanto Park.  Whoa.   That is like a flash back to days gone by.   Or think "Silver Dollar City" - except about 1/20 the size. 

Anyhow, this is definitely low grade family fun. 

We love the bumper cars.  That is where we all go a little crazy.  No photos though.  I was too busy smashing into people - mainly my kids. 

Caleb - Yes, I know, keep those hands inside the car.  I mean, that can not be safe... can it? 

Samuel was not so sure that he was enjoying this ride.  Suzanne took him but he was happy when it ended. 

Now, this truck, on the other hand, had a steering wheel for Samuel to hold on.  THIS was the ride for him.  He loved it and it took some work to get him off when the ride ended. 

Anna, riding on the motorcycle.  She was excited to ride a pink motorbike.

Daniel had the most fun on the Bumper cars.  However, there are no photos of that ride (like I mentioned earlier).  Daniel did go on this because it was the first ride we tried and so all the kids did it just for fun. 

Lydia - the painter.  She did murals on the walls of the kids bedrooms and did a GREAT job!

Tami painting the mural in Anna's room.  This was something totally creative and something that will be a reminder of her visit for a long time to come. 

Boat Trip

Daniel, jumping off the top of the boat on a river trip

This is the delight of being able to share some time along the river with my kids.  We had a fun time swimming and playing as we went out to visit a river community. 

My niece, Tami, and Lydia, our new friend, are here and it has been fun to be able to show her around.  The stay has been too short - it would be good to have them around for longer!

Visitors

Bud, Tami (my niece), and Lydia on a trip to Souzel

Hey, we have visitors!!  My niece Tami arrived a few days ago.  She came along with her friend, Lydia, and both of them have blended right into our family. 

The got here after a LONG trip, which involved some missed and changed flights, and quite a bit of time hanging out in airports.  Tami is 16 and Lydia is 17.  They are going to be staying for 3 weeks. 

Once a month, I lead a regional training for new leaders.  This time, the training took place in the river town of Souzel.  Tami and Lydia went with me and 35 Brazilians on one of the mission boats, the Maranatha 2.  We all had a great time.  It was fun having them along and a blast to see them interacting with the Brazilians.  It was great having them hanging out with me and keeping company.  There was some good laughs and good times. 

We look forward to a couple more weeks of fun!!

Lydia and Tami watching the sunrise during the weekend boat trip

The sunrise on the weekend boat trip

Photos from Maribel (Iriri River) Trip - May

Mountain and jungle mist on the road home from Maribel - this is outside the house where we slept as we waited for flood waters to subside

Fellow travelers along the road - we gave them a ride to the nearest town after crossing three flooded rivers

A bridge that had been washed out along the road (Josh Pflederer center)

Faces along the road - we stopped at this home to visit and pray for the family

Bud and motorcycle

First impressions - mud, water, mud, water, motorcycles, motorcycles, mud, water and friendly people. 

We stopped and visited many people along the road.  It was Great!!!  We prayed for many families and received many invites to return.  It really renewed my heart towards the thought that God is always at work. 

God is always at work. 

God is always at work.

River Trip Photos

Here are some photos from a recent trip.  I just spent a week out on the river.  There are so many good things happening - I will write more later.

Sunset on the Xingu River

Sunrise on the River

Traveling by boat along the river

A church meeting by candle light in the interior

Worship during a recent leadership training event

Why Plant Churches?

Kids along the beach in a river village

Boats serve as the major transportation along the river.  Here they "dock" at the door of a partially completed church building as the service is ready to start. 

Why plant churches?  In fact, what does that even mean? 

For the vast majority of us, there is no frame of reference for the concept of "planting a church". 

Allow me to introduce the concept with some thoughts that can hopefully clarify this concept.  We are familiar with the idea of when we are traveling on the road and we drive through a small town or approach one of those many off ramps along an Interstate.  As we look around we see nothing familiar.  And the thought floats through our minds and often passes from our lips, "This place needs a __________ (McDonald's, Taco Bell, Starbuck's, Tim Horton's, or whatever fills in your blank.)"  By casual observation, we realize that there is something missing that would improve the moment and the location. 

Now move that awareness into the spiritual realm.  Consider that there are places that have no church.  The thought process is similar when we consider the need that exists here in the Xingu region of the Amazon.  As we step back and consider the three dimensions of human life - physical, emotional, and spiritual - there is an awareness of a tremendous gap in the lives of these people.  The church is the only institution that tries to meet needs in all three of these dimensions. 

But often, we can not even imagine a place where there are no churches.  Literally, our imagination fails us.  Why? Because almost anywhere we drive in North America, we pass dozens of churches.  It defies our thought process to consider that there are corners of this world in which there is no church.   Or the thought of walking hours or paddling a canoe hours to go to church.  We are outside of our box, we are out of range of our reality. 

Of course, just because we struggle to imagine something does not make it less real.  This is where our faith moves into action.  We step out with the intention of helping change the story and reality of these people. 

That is one of the reasons that we plant churches here and why we need help working towards this goal that God has set before us. 

Angles - the lines of the boat come together

Storm clouds gather over a river community

ON LINE DONATIONS

Impressions

El Shaddai (El-Xa -Day) Bike & Tire Repair - It took me four days to figure out the El Shaddai part, you know, Hebrew spelled phonetically into Portuguese examined by the American mind

 Assurini Ferry Landing

Two days, one exciting night, alot of mud, a simple message, a team of eight people - this is the making of a good time.  I had the opportunity to visit Esperançinha, the location of one of our new church plants.  The seasonal mud gave the trip the characteristic that makes so much of the work here in the interior. 

There is a sense in which it is easy to view the work through a romantic lens.  Drifting carefree down the river, surrounded by white beaches, swimming in sparkling waters and sharing the message of love, hope, and peace with a people that delight in hearing it. 

Well, it just isn't always quite that simple. 

The truth is that most people in this region live the hard-bitten life of a pioneer settler carving an existence out of the wilderness.  The majority of people that live in rural area do not have access to electricity or running water, refrigerators, freezers, or motorized transportation.  It is the old tried and true of the last 20 centuries.  Horseback, water drawn from the river or from a well, and an oil lamp to burn at night. 

But, people still want to change.  They are passionate about finding the key to change in their heart.  And they enjoying seeing the human side of each of us.

Who we are with God.  Who we are to each other.  What we really want out of life and how we can achieve that end.  Those are thoughts and ideas that transcend cultural boundaries and touch lives. 

That is the goal of what we do, making a difference in the hearts of people.  Bringing hope to the hopeless and peace to the troubled.  Each of us need the option and the oppurtunity to be able to encounter that difference for our lives.  We ever we are in this world.

Anna enjoys a donkey ride in the community we visited

The Long Road