On Wednesday of last week, while we were on our mission trip to Ciudad Del Este, Paraguay, we took a day off from our performing to cross the border into Brazil to do some sightseeing.Our primary goal was to see Iguazu Falls, which, prior to the War of the Triple Alliance, belonged to Paraguay.  These falls made the list of the new seven wonders of the natural world as determined by the New 7 Wonders Foundation a Swiss-based foundation.    While the original seven wonders included the Great Barrier Reef, Mt. Everest and the Grand Canyon, among others, the new list has added Iguazu, the Amazon river, Komodo Island and more.  These falls are well deserving of the honor.

Iguaza Falls is a series of approximately 275 waterfalls on a span of less than two kilometers of the Parana River in the Brazilian jungle.  When Eleanor Roosevelt first visited these falls, her comment was, "Oooh, poor Niagara!"  We hiked the 1.6 miles of boardwalk through the jungle that follows the falls.  Before even seeing the falls up close, Sue was startled by a coati-mundi that came crawling out of the jungle near her feet.  Being winter there, there was not a lot of wildlife around (the good news is, this includes bugs) but the coatis were everywhere.  Rose and I had a good close up look at one foraging in the ground for worms and grubs.

The river was beyond our wildest imagine.  The falls,set against the lush jungle background were beyond words.  I will be setting up a file in the gallery section of our web page soon.  As we walked along, speechless at what we were seeing, I thought, "If God is in me, and God made this, then all the power of these falls is at my access."  Then the Holy Spirit broke into my thoughts,  It was as if He said, "No.  All this power is not at your access: The power of the one who created these falls is at your access.  These 275 falls are but a tiny trickle in the hands of God."

Now please understand that I am not talking about having access to this power in some "miracle working"- Benny Hinn -Pat Robertson way.  But when I need to forgive someone, love someone hard to love, give beyond what I normally would, or take a hard stand, the power of the Creator of all is available to do what I can't do myself.

We left the falls and made another stop at a bird sanctuary.  This was also set in the jungle.  Some of the birds: macaws, parrots, owls, toucans - were in cages while others were in large pens we could walk through.  One toucan was obsessed with chewing on my sneaker.  Also, because this park was set in the jungle itself, there was wildlife living in the trees beyond the pens.  We saw a variety of colorful birds, and, finally, when we were almost done, a monkey, climbing and swinging through the tree tops above us.  

Before heading back to Paraguay, we stopped at a street vendor and bought a hammock that is currently hanging under our apple tree back here in Maine.  We will always remember that day in Fos de Iguazu, Brazil, as a day we encountered the mightiness of God the Creator up close and personal.