Meet the Mechanical Side of Boa Vista

Well, it's finally time to wrap up Boa Vista with some pictures of the maintenance project Jeyson was working on. I wanted to post this sooner but I've been knocked over by a serious cold! I am finally starting to feel better though and it's time to blog.



Here's the Asas hangar in Boa Vista where Jeyson spent most of the week.

He worked together with Vitor, a Brazilian mechanic (also of German descent) who serves at the base in Manaus. He also came over for the project and Jeyson really enjoyed working with him and learned a lot from him.

After my previous post saying that the project was not to fix the landing gear, Jeyson cleared me up and explained that I had understood exactly backwards...the project was all about fixing the landing gear. I"m not sure how I got that totally inverted....what can I say? I'm definitely not a mechanic :)

Since Asas's planes are always landing on really rough landing strips, after awhile the landing gear was starting to show wear from all of the stress on it.

And on a routine inspection, a crack was discovered inside one of the cavities that you can see on the floor of the plane above.

Here's the part that they took out that had the crack.....can you see it? (Jeyson's pointing to it)

REALLY tiny, huh? It is just to the right of my finger....super small and light.

However, when dealing with airplane mechanics, everything on the plane needs to be in PERFECT condition - this little crack could cause a serious problem and unlike a car, you can't pull over to take a look!


Jeyson really enjoyed his work in Boa Vista. He is very creative and mechanically inclined, so he really enjoyed the opportunity to improve his skills and knowledge.

But the part we enjoyed most about this trip was being able to be even closer to the "action" of our ministry. What a joy to know that when the plane is fixed it will be used to reach isolated people groups.

It is just such a joy to be part of that!

While Jeyson and Vitor worked on the plane, one of the pilots, Rodrigo, was getting ready to take off to one of the villages in the other plane. The first step is loading up the supplies.

The missionary on the left works with New Tribes Mission and he lives in Boa Vista. His ministry is shopping! Wouldn't that be a great full-time job and calling in ministry?!? The many villages where missionaries live receive a plane-load of supplies every two weeks. The missionaries send a list of everything they will need to this man and he shops all over the city for everything on their lists and sends it on the plane to them.

What's in the boxes? EVERYTHING you can imagine! Eggs, flour, medicine, diapers, nails, soap, meat, vegetables....

Every nook and cranny is packed...

And the back seats are taken out for more room. Things has to be packed very carefully though in order to distribute the weight evenly. The boxes are all organized by weight.

And off he goes! We met several missionaries who normally live in the villages but right now were in Boa Vista for various reasons. We had wonderful chats about their ministry, life in the villages, the tribe they serve, what God is doing, etc. They all say that without the ministry of Asas de Socorro their work would be impossible, all of the missionaries would have to leave the villages.

We are so excited and passionate about this ministry....thank you for being part of it!

You Know You Live in Brazil When....

These are two true little stories that happened to me on my way to Boa Vista.....Ahhh Brazil :)

As I was waiting for my flight at the airport, an elderly woman sat next to me. After chatting about where we were headed and why, the woman's plane was called for boarding. "Well that's my plane" she said, "It was great chatting with you!" Up to this point would be normal in the States, but I knew I lived in Brazil when she then reached over to me, gave me a long, tight hug and a kiss on not one, but TWO cheeks! If someone had taken a picture, it would have looked like this....

Then, a little while later I was on my plane to Boa Vista. Similarly, the gentleman next to me made a few minutes of small talk with me. He asked me where I would be staying and I said that my husband would pick me up from the airport and we were staying somewhere in the city, but I wasn't sure exactly where. (To me obviously meaning that even though I didn't know where we would stay that Jeyson did). However, this is Brazil! When the man heard that I didn't know where I was staying, without skipping a beat, he (as casually as offering a piece of gum) suggested "Well if you want you can stay with my family!"

Yes, at moments like these I know I live in Brazil....truly a warm, inviting country! And I love it!

City Sights

My first day in Boa Vista we went for a nice walk around the city to take in the sights and feel of the city. Here are some glimpses of what we saw.....



A street vendor with his bike cart....

A glimpse of the river that the city through the trees... (we found the official way to get to the river later :)

One thing that we noticed right away was the many nice parks and plazas around the city.

This is a big contrast to Anapolis and the other bases where we could be sent

Colorful, bright buildings, shops by the river....

There was a little scenic overlook for the river, here we're coming up to it....

Looking out on the river. If you look closely you'll see a sunken boat

This river is called "Rio Branco" meaning White River

It was so hot that at this point we had to restrain ourselves from jumping into the river to cool off!!! We fell in love with Boa Vista's quaint town feel, a rare feeling for cities here in Brazil. There's no mall in the town, but the river and nature more than make up for it!

While strawberries and apples are pricey here, star fruit is literally falling off the trees! I had never eaten more than a few slivers at a fancy restaurant, but I ate tons this past week. They are so sweet and juicy straight from one of the missionary's backyard.

They are called star fruit in English because when you cut them short-ways you it looks like a star. I didn't do any cutting though.....we just ate them like this!

Now for some sights of Asas in Boa Vista. The base is much smaller than the Anapolis base....in fact there are only 5 families serving at this base since the need is smaller than at the headquarters. Here is the office, which is a room in the hangar.

Here I am with Suzi, a missionary who recently moved to Boa Vista with her husband Heber. Heber and Suzi used to live in Anapolis with us as Heber was going through training (like Jeyson is now) and when they finished they were sent to Boa Vista. It was wonderful to see these great friends again and spend lots of time together. Who knows, maybe we will work together again at the same base in the future?!? Only time will tell!

Now for a quick glimpse of the hangar. I will share more pictures again soon when I post about Jeyson's maintenance project.

Here's the Boa Vista Anapolis hangar. As you can see it is pretty tiny, but just the right size for Asas's needs right now at this base.

One interesting thing about this base is that it's hangar is located right at the major airport in the city. Asas's tiny planes take off alongside this major Latin American airline plane....

And the military's cargo plane....this view is right from Asas's hangar door!!!

Of course though, when I say major airport, you have to keep in mind that Boa Vista is a small city! There are only 3 flights in and 3 flights out per day....and I was glad to be on one of them to visit this city! Our time there was incredible....more stories and pictures to come.

First Thoughts on Boa Vista

Hello from Boa Vista! As you can see from the map I found, we are very far from our home in Anapolis....in fact we are now in the northern hemisphere! Point A on the map is our home in Anapolis, and B is where we are now - Boa Vista. We're near the borders of Venezuela and Guyana.


If you were to ask us how the time has been so far, the first word that would pop out of my mouth would be HOT!!! I have never in my life experienced such heat and humidity! It feels like the most humid day in the dead heat of August when you literally run from your air conditioned house to the air conditioned car....except there's no air conditioning during the day :) The first night we stayed at a guest house where we actually didn't even have any air at night, but fortunately we were asked to housesit for a traveling missionary family who has an air conditioning unit in their bedroom and we have been able to sleep much better! Here, air is really a basic need, not a frill! Most people have a unit in the bedrooms that they turn on at night. Central air is unheard of, but we are grateful to at least be sleeping well. During the day a "sweat mustache" is constantly creeping onto your upper lip and there have been moments that my hand gets wet when I run my fingers through my hair! Yesterday I took 3 showers....all with completely cold water. It's been wild! Thankfully today has been much cooler since it is raining...it's been a welcome relief!



Well before you think we want to run back to Anapolis and never move to north Brazil because of the heat, let me just tell you - we are having a WONDERFUL time! Despite the heat, we are loving every moment of being here and very much hope that soon we will be here long term!

Since I just described how the heat can be rough, to balance things off, I'm going to tell how great it's been here in Boa Vista using the letters of HOT :)

First of all H is for Helping in the Hangar. Every day since Jeyson has been here, he's been hard at work with maintenance to get a plane back on it's feet/landing gear :) Actually the project doesn't have anything to do with the landing gear, but I'll tell you more about what he is actually doing with pictures once we're back in Anapolis. The high point is that Jeyson has been loving his work and feeling very fulfilled by being part of a challenging project that will directly allow isolated tribes and people groups to be reached.

O is for Open....we are completely sold out on the ministry that is done here in Boa Vista and very open and willing to come here and to give our lives to this ministry. It would take many many posts to share all of the stories and pictures of tribes and villages being reached with the ministry here in Boa Vista....but to put it simply we are very open to living here and being part of it every day.

T is for Taking it all in. Since this is a place where we very possibly could end up, we've been taking in very detail of information possible.

Here's some things we've noticed:

- Nice, medium sized city
- Right on the edge of a river (where you can rent small boats for fun)
- Lots of trees, plazas, parks,
- Very neat and organized and pretty (for Brazil)
- Produce market
- Downtown seems drivable for me (in comparison to the insane downtown of Anapolis where I still don't have courage to venture into and try to find parking on my own!)
- Lots of mom/pop shops

- The hangar is in the middle of the city so we could live nearby and not need a longer commute (like in the Manaus base where the hangar is 30 minutes from the city)

- Fruits and Vegetables - there are lots of them here but some things that we are used to eating cheaply are outrageously expensive. Some examples are broccoli, peaches, plums, strawberries. On a positive note, there are tons of new and different fruits here to try that I've never even heard of before. It's all about adapting to what grows in the area....but that might be hard in some ways.

- Bread is very expensive here! I was shocked to find that simple whole wheat sliced bread is 3 times the prices that it is in Anapolis! I think I will be even more thankful for our breadmaker if we live here!

- No malls or large/chain stores like Walmart or McDonalds

- Very few imported items

- Only a few hours from Venezuela and Guyana....easily drivable for a fun weekend.

Off to soak in the rest of our stay

Yanomami Pictures

Today I am heading to Boa Vista to join Jeyson. I'll leave the airport here at 7 pm and arrive at 1:45 am! Before I head off I just wanted to post a few more pictures of the Marari village that Jeyson and a few other mechanics are working hard for. Since I'm running out the door I'm just putting them in a random order. Enjoy and please be praying for us and this beautiful tribe.

Food "distribution center" in the village

The Bible in Yanomami

I'm not sure why this picture of one of the inside pages came out so small....click to see it bigger

The typical accessories that the Yanomami women wear

We're so glad to be part of this work

Thanks for joining us in ministry!