More of God and Less of Me

Written by Jennifer Wilson, Serve + Study Women’s Amazon Trip 2024

As a child, I loved to hear stories from my aunt and uncle about their time living with an indigenous people group in the Amazon region. Their tales of snakes and piranhas and the uniqueness of the tribe’s language they were tasked to translate made an indelible impact on me. When I read Kelly Minter’s book, Wherever the River Runs, in 2015 after hearing her speak at a conference, those memories reawakened within me and opened a desire to experience these wonders for myself.

After a rough year, I decided 2024 was when I was finally going to join JMI’s Serve + Study Women’s Trip and see the Amazon with my own eyes. But to be honest, it had been more than a hard year – it had been a lengthy season filled with loss, disillusionment, and self-doubt. From the moment I paid the deposit on this trip to the moment I met up with some of my fellow adventurers in Florida, I second-guessed everything about this journey: Will I have everything I need? Will I belong? Will I be physically able to manage? Am I crazy to think I can do this?

I am reminded that when we have Jesus, we truly have all that we need.

Not long after arriving on the Splendor, I was pretty sure I had my answers: Will I have everything I need? Yes. I am a list-maker and chronic over-packer, so I definitely had everything I needed (and more!) for the week. But I know God desired to use this trip to take me way beyond my everyday worries about stuff. Being witness to the way God meets the needs of the faithful who live and minister along the river is such a powerful reminder that we who live with much can too easily forget He is the source of our daily bread. The overabundance of stuff in my life sometimes clouds my vision of God as provider. I am reminded that when we have Jesus, we truly have all that we need.

Will I belong? Yes. One of my hurts of the past few years was a loss of Christian community. I worried that on a boat full of Christian women, whom I assumed were more devout than me, I would feel awkward or like an outsider. But it shouldn’t be surprising that everyone was genuine, welcoming, and kind. In fact, not surprisingly, I learned after one woman shared on the last day that I wasn’t the only one with those very same concerns. Spending a week immersed in God’s word with my sisters in Christ and few distractions was truly a balm for my parched spiritual soul. The precious time we spent in small group fellowship revealed that each of us came with our own struggles, hurts, and grief. It was a blessing to get to know the other women on the journey – to pray with and for each other, and to be able to share these experiences even after the trip has ended.

On a more practical level, I wondered: Will I be physically able to manage the demands of the Amazon? Again, yes. While I struggled a bit with a sore knee on the trip and would, as is true not just in the Amazon, benefit from being more in shape, I managed the physical aspects of the trip and even the climate, although, during our VBS day, a Brazilian teacher who spoke English looked at me and told me I was melting! I guess it was quite obvious that the humidity was a bit overwhelming for a non-native like me at times, but ultimately, the Amazon weather managed to make me see the positive in the “dry” triple-digit heat awaiting me at home in California, so there was a silver lining.

Finally, was I crazy to think that I could go on this adventure? Absolutely not! To think that I could have let my fears or worries keep me from experiencing all that God had for me on this journey is a sobering thought. As I tried to encapsulate all that I learned during the week, a statement from John the Baptist kept coming to mind: “He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30)” or in my own words: more of God and less of me. There are so many ways I’ve seen this demonstrated in the Amazon, from the testimonies of jungle pastors to my own aunt and uncle moving their young family to a remote patch of the jungle to minister to people the rest of the world had ignored. And so, in these post-Amazon days, as I keep my eyes on God and seek to follow His will for my life, I will continue to remember that just like those whose faith I admire, I need less of me and more of God.   

Come with us on the Serve + Study Women’s Amazon Trip 2025. Learn more here.