Our Weekend at Lake Jordan in Alabama

This past weekend we traveled to Alabama.  Our hosts, Jim and Carol Browder, are dear ministry partners, prayer supporters, encouragers, and friends. We have known them since our first term on the mission field and first hosted them in Guatemala back in 2007. They have since returned countless times. 

This was our second time in a row for them to host us at the lake during a Stateside Assignment.  If you would like to see photos and read about our previous visit there, click on this link: 2021 Visit to Lake Jordan.

Here is a look at this year's fantastic trip-

 

We left on Thursday afternoon as soon as we finished school. 

 

 

It was a five hour drive.  We arrived that evening to our beautiful lake house that the Browders had rented for us to stay in.  It was on Jordan Lake which is near Wetumpka. 

 

I loved all the windows in the house and the beautiful lake views we could see from several of the rooms.

 

 

 

The stairs that led down to the pier.  

 

There was a porch swing down there that was my favorite place to sit and enjoy the views. 

 

Thursday evening 

 

I was up early on Friday morning enjoying the views. 

  

 

 

We did some schoolwork on Friday morning and then that afternoon drove into Wetumpka to see the town.  It was featured a few years ago on the HGTV series "Home Town Takeover," hosted by Ben and Erin Napier. It is a very lovely place!!  Here are David and I in Wetumpka with the famous bridge in the background.

 

fall decorations in Wetumpka 

 

That afternoon the Browders pastor came over to meet us.  We spent some time visiting with him.  He is from Tupelo, MS and we enjoyed talking about people and places that we had in common.  Later, Mr. Jim grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for supper.  

 

Friday night lake view 

 

Friday night lake view 

 

We spent all of Saturday on the water.  We swam, kayaked, fished, and rode in the boat. The Browder's daughter, son in law, and grandson joined us for the day.

 

Cruz 

 

Ben and Cruz 

 

David and the boys 

 

David 

 

Cruz 

 

Ben fishing 

 

Mr. Jim drove us around on the boat.  My favorite part was looking at all of the other lake houses. 

 

Mr. Jim and Mrs. Carol 

 

 

 

us on the boat

 

a view of our lake house from the water 

 

 

The boys trying to throw David in the water. 

  

 

Ben's fish 

 

Cruz fishing 

 

 

Mr. Jim took the boys on a boat ride. 

 

  

 

These three boys played hard all day! 

 

 

us with the Browder family- 

Jim and Carol, their daughter Lindsay, her husband Jonathan, and son Brody.

 

 

us with Jim and Carol

 

 

the boys 

 

 

We ended the day watching football. It's my favorite Saturday activity this time of year. 

 

 

We attended church on Sunday morning.  Here we are with Pastor Brandon Wilemon.  

 

Here we are with Carol McGriff.   She and her late husband, Jim, are retired IMB missionaries and were our supervisors during our early years on the mission field when we worked with the Kekchi.  It was so good to see her!

  

Us with Carol and her son Brantley. Brantley was in high school when we arrived on the field, and we had no kids.  Now he's grown, and we have a high schooler.  Time sure passes quickly.

 

Just like we did on our last trip, we ended our time together with lunch after church at Habaneros.   We had a great meal, said our goodbyes, and then got on the road for the drive back to Mississippi.

 

We are very thankful for the Browders!  They have loved on us so well over the years and have always been very generous towards us. They are a blessing!!

 

a photo of the boys at the Mississippi Welcome Center 

Our Trip to the Amazon

In May we traveled to Brazil for a work meeting.  It was our first visit there so we went in a few days early to explore.  Although most all of our days were filled in meetings, they were fun and productive. We did a lot of planning, discussing, and praying for Indigenous work all throughout the Americas.  The team building side of the meetings was my favorite.  We work with some amazing people!  Overall, it was an incredible trip and one our family will not soon forget.

Here are some highlight photos of our time there.

 

ready to fly out of Guatemala City

 

We had a nine hour layover in Bogota, Colombia both ways. It's a small price to pay for cheap tickets.  Here is Cruz excited to eat at Guy's Burger Joint in the Bogota airport when we landed.

 

Hooray for burgers!

 

and who could pass up Colombian coffee?? 

 

 We landed in Manaus at 2:00 a.m. and thankfully slept in the next morning. All of our meals were served in an open air dining room.  As we ate breakfast that morning we not only enjoyed the rainfall but also the beautiful birds that flew in and out.  Here's a video showing the birds and some monkeys we saw later in the week.

 

 

After eating, we headed out to explore.  We went downtown and walked through this local market.

 

Port of Manaus

 

The market was next to the river.  We walked alongside it for a while and enjoyed watching the boats come in and out.

 

All of our meals were delicious.  This particular meal we got to try a local fish.  This was not all for me.  It was served family style so we all just cut off what we wanted.  It was actually much better than I had anticipated.

 

 

They eat a lot of fish in the Amazon.

 

turtle farm outside the restaurant

 

I loved the river views and also any views that included the bridge.

 

The sunsets were my favorite!!  Every night was breathtaking.  I think I took a photo every evening.  Below are some of them I took.

 

our family in Manaus

 

 

 

 We had a midweek break from meetings and spent the day on the river.

 

 

 

One of our stops was at a training center run by the Brazilian Home Mission Board.  It was very interesting to see it and pray on site for the many who pass through there.

 

I took this photo because I love purple and bike rides.

 

This reminded me of the phrase "bloom where you are planted."

 

prayer garden

 

Do you think he was having fun?

 

We stopped here to swim with pink dolphins.  David and I didn't get in, but the boys and a few others did.

 

flag of Brazil

 

petting the dolphins 

 

He is smiling, but he was not a fan.

 

 

Ben petting a dolphin tail.

 

We had lunch at this floating river restaurant.  It was delicious and probably one of my favorite meals.

 

buffet lunch on the Amazon River

 

 

 

Before leaving we walked along this treetop trail that was behind the restaurant.  We were looking for any signs of wildlife along the way but did not see any.  I will admit that I was not disappointed. One highlight of my trip was making it the whole time without seeing a snake. lol

 

It was soo hot there!!

 

lily pads

 

Our family somewhere out in the middle of the Amazon.

 

We stopped here to "fish" for pirarucu.  It wasn't really fishing.  It was more like feeding, but still a high adrenaline experience that we'll never forget.  They are one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. They can measure a length of nearly fifteen feet and a weight of up to 440 pounds.

 

 

 

Here's a video highlighting the experience.  At the end you'll see I even got in on the action. My heart is still racing!

 

We saw many big ships as we passed through the port area. 

 

We got to visit The Meeting of Waters. According to Google, the Meeting of Waters is the confluence between the dark (blackwater) Rio Negro and the pale sandy-colored (whitewater) Amazon River. For 6 km (3.7 mi) the waters of the two rivers run side by side without mixing.  It was such a spectacular thing to see in person!!

 

 

 

We all jumped in and swam.  What a cool experience!

 

On the boat ride back to Manaus we drove by this old airplane site that is now an Airbnb.  How awesome would it be to stay there? 

 

Here's a video highlighting some of the sights we saw as we boated on the river.  It was amazing!

 

 

And, lastly, one final sunset from our last evening there.