Around the world today, the Amazon region is commonly associated with thoughts of a dense, even mystical jungle that is home to a wide variety of vegetation and wildlife. Others immediately think of the rainforest and the environmental issues connected therewith. But for an estimated 225,000 Amazonian Indians, and millions of others who live in more urban areas in the basin, the Amazon region holds a much different meaning: it is their home, and their daily lives are often focused on survival.
The Amazon River and its tributaries are a mind-boggling natural phenomenon. The river is the longest or second-longest in the world (depending on how it is measured), about 3900 miles from source to mouth. And the Amazon is indisputably the largest river in the world in terms of the number of tributaries and the volume of water discharged. About one-fifth of the fresh river water in the world flows in the Amazon.
There are about 33,000 villages across the Amazon basin (only half of which actually lies in Brazil), most of which have less than 100 people. Because the jungle is generally too dense for roads, the river and its many tributaries serve as the highway system of the jungle. Villages are built along the water's edge, and small canoes or shallow riverboats serve as the primary or only means of transportation between villages or for bringing goods to the nearest city for sale.
Homes in these villages are very simple and very poor, and are typically built at the water's edge. The structures are often no more than bare
wooden structures on stilts that rise above the river banks for protection against the rising of the tide or flooding.
For many residents of the river, fishing is their primary means of survival. The Amazon contains the largest selection of freshwater fish anywhere in the world. Fish traps woven from strips of palm leaves are constructed along the river banks or laid across narrow streams. Baited lines, spears, and nets weighted at the bottom are also used to catch different types of fish at different times of the year.
Others rely on agriculture for a living. The acai tree is one important source of nutrition and income for the residents of the Amazon. The nuts and berries harvested from this tree have long been believed by local Indians to hold unique powers or, at least, a wide range of health benefits ranging from providing energy, helping women after birth, or even sexual vitality. Shimming up the acai trees, harvesting the berries by hand, and then selling them up river is a common enterprise.
The PAZ church in Castanhal has already planted about 10 churches along the Amazon River and its tributaries. In reaching these communities, a significant focus is on meeting the medical social and educational needs of the residents. Boats owned by PAZ are used by medical teams to much-needed medical care to villages along the river, and are also used to transport pastors and other workers to those communities.
Some of the children who will live at our future children's home in Castanhal will be orphaned, abandoned or abused children from the city of Castanhal, but other children will come from the various river communities where the church plants are located. By providing these churches with the ability to care for orphaned children who need a home, Arms of Love will a new dimension to the churches' efforts to minister to the needs of these river communities.
