Project to complete the church in Atrocal

We left Santarem at 3:00am Monday morning. It was a 7 hour boat trip to the community of Atrocal. There is a small church established there and they are finishing the floor with concrete and putting up block walls. We are there to help with that project and to worship with the people.

The only way into this community is by boat and the people live off the land and the river. We started digging footings on the first day and hauled the tools (mainly the cement mixer and one cylinder engine to drive it)

Our project leader with Project Amazon - Joaquim - gave us his testimony in the evening.  He has been involved with building approximately 100 churches in the Amazon Basin and has an amazing God story in his life.  He was interviewed by a Billy Graham team a few years ago and his story is available to view at this link.

http://www.billygraham.org/articlepage.asp?ArticleID=1627

I've attached pictures of the cement mixer on the smaller boat that we took deeper into the jungle to get to the village.  Also attached is the picture of the "big boat" that we took from Santarem and a picture of the top deck where we hung our hammocks to sleep.  Finally, you can see the "before" picture of the church.