On New Year's Day, while in the jungle, all the guys on our team got in the boat to go fishing with dynamite. However, because we forgot gas and rocks, we found an adventure quite different than what we expected.
After about 45 minutes of going upstream, we ran out of gas. Since we were still an hour or so from the creek where we were to fish, we had no choice but to float back to the village. In order to take advantage of our misfortune, we all jumped in for a swim.
The boat floated as we swam, and I thought to myself, What other mission team would ever have such an experience?
We soon spotted a small lagoon that seemed likely to be filled with fish. We rowed to the bank, rigged-up the dynamite (using mud-balls as weights since we didn't have rocks), and prepared to jump in the river to gather the inconceivable amount of fish we just knew would surface. One loud explosion later, we had nothing but one tiny sardine and a bunch of mud. The lagoon was empty.
As we finished our failed attempt, it began to rain. I looked upstream as far as I could see, and I saw the rain drops coming. Like a white sheet, it approached slowly as the rain moved down the river to our boat. Like children on Christmas Eve, we stood bright-eyed, waiting for what was to come. A breath later, we were soaked.
Rowing back to the village in the rain, we laughed about how shameful our hunt for food had turned out. Not losing hope though, we stopped once more at yet another lagoon. This time though, the mud-balls were not a sufficient replacement for the rocks.
The dynamite didn't sink, and as it was floating in the water, so near our boat, we stood in shock for just a moment. Get down and cover your ears, someone shouted!
We all did, with the exception of one of our teammates, who panicked and jumped into the river on the other side of the boat. It was an explosion loud enough to bring down Jericho; and all near-by villages were alerted of the presence of ignorant missionaries, or at least ones who forgot to bring gasoline and rocks.
