Quinten and I have returned. We spent 3 weeks exploring, hiking, climbing, cutting, sliding, falling, swimming through the nasty terrain of rivers, waterfalls, cliffs, slippery rocks, seemingly impassible spiny bamboo thickets, entangling vines, mossy ¨fall through the ground¨ mountain tops, ridges, cold rainy days, wet shivering nights, bee infested, clouds of mosquitoes, biting horsefly filled, mountainous jungle craziness. Our feet our repairing from the effects of walking in water everyday for 3 weeks straight, and we are gaining back the weight that we had lost. We ate half a cup of oatmeal for breakfast, a granola bar for lunch (a special thank you to those you have sent granola, Cliff bars, and Powerbars!), and half a cup of a mixture of raw rice and beans. We stayed on the move too much to set up good campsites, set up traps, and/or dry out wood for fires (although we were able to have a fire and warm cooked food a total of 3 times- that was a blessing from God!). We covered about 25-30 miles of terrain and were able to search thoroughly the area that was supposed to be the most likely of where this people group would be. But, we were surprised to find not even one sign of any human life. We came back with the feeling that this group is not in this area, or at least hasn´t been for quite some time. A future trip might be done during a different season to go back and search some of the areas that we didn´t. It is a huge area, and it takes a lot of time to find a people group such as this. If they truly exist, may God provide the means for them to hear his amazing story!
During our trip, it seemed that God didn´t answer any of our prayers. In fact, many times He did the exact opposite of what we had been praying for. Through this, and the constant hardness of the trip, God really broke Quinten and I and taught us a lot. He is a wild, crazy, uncontainable, uncontrollable, unable to be manipulated, fierce God that doesn´t have to do a single thing that we ask of Him. We are even called to suffer for His sake, and He doesn´t have to explain His reasoning behind the things he does. Yet through all of this, He still somehow loves us so deeply, wants what is the very best for us, and is working to bring that about.
Throughout the trip, the weather slowly turned worse and worse. Each day, and especially the nights, got colder and colder. The last week of the trip turned ridiculous cold, with rain each day and all night (causing the river to rise), and we were forced to stay in one spot on the river, trying to stay dry and warm. Due to the cliffs and thickness of the jungle, the only way out was to swim down the river. We had been walking on the river banks when we could, and we swam through the currents when we had to, but the weather had turned too cold to continue doing this, with a high risk of Hypothermia and not having the ability to warm back up (with all our gear being wet from swimming, and all fire wood being soaked). We had been trying to wait out the weather for a week, moving only a mile during this time, with 18 miles remaining to get back to civilization. Our food reserves were getting low, we had begun having 1 meal days to conserve rations. Our satellite phone rarely got reception, and there was one bar of power left on it (we had a solar charger, but we hadn´t seen the sun for almost the entire trip). If we had one week of sun and warmth, we were confident we could have made it out with our food supply, and stopping at 4pm each day to dry out our sleeping gear. But, such was not the case. With this week of bad weather (that we had needed to use to get out), we were instead stuck and forced to try and make the call that neither of us wanted to make. God gave use a few minutes of sky for reception and we called our base camp explaining the situation and the possible need for an Evacuation. Base camp didn´t know what they could do, but we said that we would try to charge the sat phone the following day, and that we would try to get down river 2 miles over the next few days, where we knew there was a possible widening in the river, with a rock island in the middle, the most suited place for a possible helicopter landing site. That night, it rained powerfully, and the river rose incredibly, forcing us to stay where we were. So we tried our best to charge the sat phone so we could make 1 more call.
After lunch, we heard a helicopter. We couldn´t believe it. We were expecting to talk again, and if there was any chance for a helicopter, it would have been days later, and down river. We didn´t get within site of the first passover, and he missed us the second time too. Then time passed. I was praying that they didn´t give up and go home. Then it came back. Thank you Lord! He dropped right down in the river gorge and hovered 3 feet above the water. It was amazing. And the skies were clear for the the first time in so long, so that he could actually see us and get close enough to us to pick us up (thank you Father for that!). The river had gone down a little, but the current was still so fast and the water was muddy and we couldn´t see where the rocks were to gain sure footing. We slowly made our way with our backpacks, trying so hard not to be swept away by the current that was now above our waists. We both lunged to grab a hold of the skids, someone helped pull us up, and we were off. It was hard to hold back the tears as we realized God seemed to ignore us throughout the whole trip, yet rescued us so quickly and awesomely when it was time.
The US Embassy organized the whole deal, after many calls were made back and forth, and they did the whole deal free of charge. Amazing. Thank God for an amazing country that sometimes we take for granted so many times.
When I got back, I came down with Typhoid Fever (fever, terrible headache, body pain, nausea's), but God made me feel so content and thankful in Him even as I was sick. I am a lot better now, though I still have to rest a lot to make sure I don´t have a relapse.
We are looking into what we might be doing next, I don´t know much right now. We will be in Puerto Maldonado at base camp at least for the next couple weeks. Thank you so much for your prayers, friendships, and support.
