In just 3 days, I'll be boarding a plane for my mission trip to Manaus, Brazil! I'm really excited, but I'm also leaning on God to fill in a lot of the details of the trip. All in all, it's going to be a great adventure!
At this point, I'll be leaving Sacramento on Tuesday night with a 1-day layover in Miami, meaning I should be in Manaus by Wednesday night. At the same time, Tim (my brother-in-law) is flying up from Sao Paulo and will meet me at the airport. From there, we will catch a bus, and then a boat to make it to the town of Urucurituba (where the orphanage will be located).
Our week in Urucurituba will be a busy one. While there, we plan to meet with the mayor, present the orphanage plan to the local partner church, tour the building site and try to take care of other loose ends. I'll also be working on getting footage for a promotional DVD that I'm putting together to raise money for the first phase of the building project.
At the end of the week, we'll be heading back down to the airport in Manaus via the Amazon river (a 15 hour boat ride!). Ever since Sarah and I met 12 years ago, she has told me so many stories from her time living on the Amazon, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it in person! I'm also excited to see what ways God will work while we're in the country, and how he'll prepare Tim and I for sharing the vision with others when we return (especially as we begin fundraising for the building project).
If you would help me by praying for this endeavor, I would greatly appreciate it! Here are some specific ways you can help pray:
-First and foremost, for God's will to be accomplished
-For safety while Tim and I are traveling
-For our families as they'll be at home without us for an extended period of time
-For all the travel connections to be completed without problems
-For financial support (God has already provided a few different avenues for fundraising and support, but I'm still working on raising the remainder of the costs)
-For our ability to communicate with the locals (For some reason that only God knows, all of the English speaking missionaries we were planning on staying with happen to be out of town while we're there. Although they're still letting us use their homes, there is a lot more pressure on Tim to do all the translating... and he is still learning Portuguese.)
I hope to send one final update before I go, but incase I'm not able to, I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. I look forward to sharing pictures, stories and updates on our website (www.aointernational.org) after I return on Nov. 7th.
In Christ,
Kevin Lockwood