In the last week of January 2024, I was in Bolivia at a summer camp for teenagers and youth of our Mennonite community. All services were conducted in the German dialect “Plattdeutsch,” and the theme was “In the Embrace of the Father.” I managed to deliver 6 sermons and two prayers in Plattdeutsch, which was no easy task.

Have you ever dreamed of visiting the Amazon jungle? Travel along the world’s windiest river, sleep in a boat in the jungle surrounded by wild animals? Get to know representatives of different cultures and indigenous people of the Purus, Rio Negro, and Juruá rivers, spreading the Gospel?

On October 19, I went to the Amazon along with three other brothers from our ministry. For 16 days, we visited village communities along various rivers, missionary homes, jointly planned, and experienced much. The first settlement was an indigenous village.

The day after lunch we continued our journey straight to the border of Uruguay. I have a bus driver’s license, so I was allowed to take turns driving our bus with students all night along with another missionary. We arrived safely and were able to hold a missionary conference over the weekend.

After completing our pastoral ministry at the Vitmarsum church, we accepted an invitation from a missionary organization to join their team on a permanent basis. We will continue to live in Vitmarsum, but our work will be in Curitiba, which is about 60 kilometers away from us

Together with a team, we flew to the Amazon for two weeks to prepare a group of young people from the Paumari tribe for ministry in churches. It took us two days to get there. The last part of the journey was covered by a ship owned by our ministry! 16 hours against the current.