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Stories From the Amazon - Starting an Equestrian Center

In my early twenties I came to a turning point in my life. I felt like I had two paths to choose from as far as which direction to go with life in general and as I prayed about what to do and asked God for clear direction I felt like either one was a path He would bless and allow me to walk on. My first choice was to go to Veterinary college and become a vet. Now in Brazil, to get into college is different from getting into college here in the United States. You have to know what degree you want to pursue and which college you want to attend and then you go take a long college entrance test for that degree and if you pass you are allowed to go to that college for that subject. Before this turning point I had spent about a month or so in Rio de Janeiro with some missionary friends of ours and I saw in the newspaper that a college there was offering this test and one of their degrees was Veterinary Medicine. I had up to that point never really considered trying to get into college in Br...
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Stories from the Amazon - Mandy

My first dog that I ever owned was a little tan mutt we brought home from the Indian village when I was 6. I named her Ginger because she was ginger colored. I don't remember a whole lot about that dog except that she wasn't very nice and she tried to bite and attack people. I remember we had to keep her chained up a lot. One day I went to school and came home and my parents had had her put to sleep because of her behavior. I cried and cried but looking back we decided that she was probably demon possessed because of the circumstances of where she came from. I wanted another dog so badly I almost couldn't stand it. When I was 11 another missionary family was moving back to the States for health reasons and they had a young German Shepherd dog named Lobo. They needed to find a home for him. I begged and begged my dad to let me have Lobo. He said that if I could promise to walk him every day, cook his food every day, bathe him every week that he would let me have him. I pro...
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Stories from the Amazon - Old wives tales

Our ranch in Brazil was given to us by God when I was 17. I was on a river boat trip with a group of young people from Canada who were showing the Jesus movie and evangelizing to the river communities. I had gotten invited to join them and help with translation. We spent a little over a week travelling down the river in a large boat and stopping at each small river community. We would go out among the village and invite people to come join us for the movie viewing and then evangelize afterwards. One day we had split up in teams to go hike along the trails by the river and invite the families. The girl I was paired up with and I got very thirsty so I suggested we ask for a drink at the next house we arrived at. The kind lady happily brought us a small glass of water. However it didn't exactly look like water, but more like yellow pee or something. But since we had asked and she had brought it to us with such joy, I felt obligated to drink it. I prayed before I took that first sip an...
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Stories from the Amazon - Favorite Rivers

In the jungle there is not much to do as far as recreational activities except going to the rivers. Of course in the Amazon, all rivers eventually lead to the great and mighty Amazon river. Even the smallest creek waters end up there. But I want to tell you about some of my favorite rivers that we swam in. To start with of course, the Amazon itself. I was born in a city right on the banks of the Amazon but never swam in it until my 8th grade year when I was 13 years old. My parents sent me to boarding school for missionary kids in that year. It was a beautiful location and groups of kids lived in a home with a missionary couple. This particular year something went wrong with the well or the pump and they told us that we had to bathe every day in the river. So every day we would get on our swim suits and jump off the dock into the beautiful river, attempting not to lose our slippery bar of soap. If you swam too far out the current would be strong but along the bank it was just like a l...
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Stories from the Amazon - End of the Rainbow

Foxy was a very thrilling horse to ride. You never know what to expect from a horseback ride on her. When I first got her she would never let me get on without tying her up to a post and doing a hop on one foot for a while until I could finally throw my leg over and get seated in the saddle. Then I'd have to make sure my feet were securely in the stirrups and a fist full of mane and then reach down with my other hand and untie the lead rope and hold on for dear life. She would take off at a full gallop in whatever direction I managed to get her pointed and usually I wouldn't be able to slow her down or steer her until she got the pent up energy that she was full of spent out a little. The adrenaline rush from that good gallop was intoxicating. One day we went through this silly dance and bolt and were galloping up a long hill near the school where the missionary kids studied. It was a wide open field and a good hill to run up no matter what legs you were using to run. At the ...
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Stories from the Amazon - Bucking Horse and crazy horse

During the time of this story I was in my early 20ies and living in southern Brazil working with the rodeo ministry. Every weekend we would go to the rodeos and minister to the rodeo competitors. Our mission base was in the city, a huge house that we all shared. The girls had rooms with 3 or 4 bunk beds per room and the guys had the same thing. There were a few couples who had their own rooms and we all shared cleaning, cooking and ministry duties. We were a very close knit group. During the time I lived there the mission base was able to purchase a property outside of town to build a bigger base for more training groups and better opportunities. They sent the rodeo team to live there first so I got to be one of the first group of people to live there. Southern Brazil is more similar to the United States as far as farm land and climate go, although it doesn't snow unless you get farther south then we were. I loved living on the farm property, since I've always preferred countr...
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Stories from the Amazon - Grit and Determination

Having a horse when you're the daughter of missionaries and when you live on the mission base requires a lot of creativity and determination. When I got my first horse, it was with the understanding that I would have to care for, feed, pay for feed, etc, all on my own. When I owned my first horse Nathaniel, we still lived on the mission base and I had plenty of areas to tether him to graze and I was able to babysit for all the younger kids that lived on the base since all the ones my age had gone off to boarding school. I was able to make a little extra money doing that to be able to buy him bags of horse feed whenever he needed it. However, when I was about 17 my parents decided to move to a house in town and God provided for us a house and also land. My dad always joked that we got a 10 star hotel because that's what it was before we purchased it, the 10 star meaning thats how many you could see through the roof. That wasn't really the case but it was a pretty simple and ...
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