The Great Adventure
Our Life Among Brazil's Canela People
by Jack Popjes

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We lived with the Canela people to give them the same life choices billions of people around the world already have: 1. To use modern medicine, or not. 2. To learn to read and write, or not. 3. To read the message of love from their Creator, or not. The Canelas gladly used modern medicine when they saw the wonderful results. They taught us their language and accepted the alphabet we developed. We experienced no major problems. When we began to provide God’s Word in their language, however, powerful unseen forces blocked progress. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil.” (Eph 6:12 NIV)

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Jack and Josephine Popjes, joined Wycliffe Bible Translators after serving in a pastoral position in Innisfail, Alberta. They moved to Brazil, learned Portuguese, served as Bible translators from 1967 to 1990 among the Canela people. Jack was President of Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada for six years, and of Wycliffe Caribbean for three years. After that, he travelled throughout nearly all the provinces of Canada and most of the states in the United States for over five years speaking at fund-raising banquets, church services, and Bible Schools from seventy to ninety times a year. During that time, he published three books through Wycliffe Bible Translators: A Poke in the Ribs, A Kick in the Pants, and Bonk on the Head as collections from his weekly blog posts. He self-published two more blog post collections: A Tickle in the Funny Bone and The Why and How of Bible Translation. His first memoir, The Misadventures of Hansje: The Boy Who Kept His Guardian Angel Busy is a book of true stories for children from his childhood. His second memoir, The Adventures Begin, is the story of his arrival in Canada at the age of twelve, his conversion, his first love, and his arrival at Bible school. Two to Get Ready is his third memoir about how God chose him and life-long love Josephine, to serve Him in Bible Translation in Brazil. Jack has been married to his wife, Josephine, for over sixty-two years, and they currently live forty kilometres west of Edmonton. Jack and Jo have three married daughters, eight grandchildren, four married, and two great-granddaughters.

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Contributors

Author

Jack Popjes

Editor

Josephine Popjes