Dallen Drollette – January 2010

After arriving to the Amazon, the first event that I was able to help with was an annual bible-training seminar in Sabonete Brazil. The majority of the students were Tikuna youths from nearby areas. A handful of the individuals there had to travel as long as two weeks by canoe to arrive for these classes. This was exciting for me because on my very first trip to the Amazon in May of 2006 I helped construct the actual building for this purpose. I mixed the cement and stacked the bricks for the walls almost four years ago! As the older missionaries taught I helped purify rain water filled with debris so that the students would be able to have clean water for drinking and cooking.

During the second day of courses I was extended the opportunity to help a team of Brazilian medical personal in Filadelfia, Brazil. I spent the next two afternoons checking the blood pressure of older patients. This was useful because it freed up the Doctor from simple triage duties and made her work a little more time efficient. I benefited from it by being able to practice rudimentary medical skills, and the best part is that people mistakenly called me Doctor all afternoon!

The days following the Filadelfia medical clinic and the bible teaching at Sabonete were spent helping with a Youth conference in a Baptist Church in Filadelfia Brazil. I helped a wonderful lady from Colorado named Connie perform activities for the youth, she would explain games and different activities in English and then I would interpret to Spanish. They understood very well. Filadelfia is a Tikuna community where the majority of the population speaks Tikuna. This is their mother tongue learned in the home and then the children learn Portuguese when they go to school. So because Portuguese and Spanish are mutually intelligible I was able to explain the games for Connie and during times of ministry pray for individuals without miscommunication. The last night of the youth conference was almost cancelled because of a community wide power outage. After walking to the church to see if anyone would be there we found a rather lively group of people waiting for a service. Adam Bostic a missionary from Iquitos Peru preached a very relevant message that night. He used sword fighting as an illustration. He literally used machetes to convey the sword-fighting as described in the text he was teaching. He was illuminated by flashlight and as soon as we finished praying for the people at the conclusion of his message the power came back!

After the youth conference we left Filadelfia to meet up with a medical team from Savannah, Georgia. The medical team consisted of one doctor, a pediatrician, three nurses and then more than a dozen mixed short term and long term missionaries ready to help with anything they could.

The first medical clinic was located in Islandia Peru. The next set of communities we visited were located off of the Javari river on the Peruvian side. Our final medical clinic took place in a Colombian community called Santa Sofia. During these clinics I helped by distributing reading glasses and Christian literature, and praying for the sick. A highlight for me was seeing an active church in Buen Suceso Peru. This is the same community where I was able to participate with YWAM and be a part of their medical clinics during June of last year. At that time there was not an established church in Buen Suceso. Now there are enough believers in this community to meet together and worship corporately!

I am currently enrolled in a river navigation course in Leticia Colombia, upon completion of this program I will be certified motorist! Another major endeavor I will assist with will be to store the fortified rice we use for the children’s feeding program. A huge shipment will be arriving by boat from the States any day now.

Thank you for being a part of Gods plan for my life and enabling me to work with the people down here once again. Your prayers and support made this a reality for me! I still have a little over a month to be here! Please keep praying!

Dallen Drollette
DallenDrollette@yahoo.com