About the Event

A Note from Doug Phillips

To My Good Friends:

Welcome to this private page for men who are considering becoming team members of the 2010 Amazon Expedition. Please take a moment to read all the information below.

Who Is This Trip For?

This is not a trip for women. This is an expedition for men and with men. For the better part of a week, our team will be living on a boat and in the Rainforest in the heart of Amazonia. We will debate, dialogue, explore, and investigate. We will build relationships like men and emphasize the importance of fathers and sons working together for the glory of God.

Specifically, this is an expedition for the friends of Doug Phillips and Vision Forum Ministries who: A) want to experience a once-in-a-lifetime manly adventure; B) want to learn more about the great battles with environmental pantheism from the epicenter of the fight; C) want to investigate mysteries of the ancient world and observe exotic and strange creatures, evaluating them from a distinctively Creationist perspective; and D) want to bless Vision Forum Ministries by helping us advance our Space Project film.

This trip is not a Marine bootcamp, but nor is it a waltz on the Riviera. It is a refreshingly vigorous, sometimes wet, sometimes sweaty, manly romp into a mysterious and unusual world. There are no air conditioners. There is no room service. The animals are far from tame. They howl, scream, hoot and bite.

The bugs are huge, exotic, beautiful, fascinating, and sometimes downright dangerous. If you paid to see Stephen Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, an unfortunate attempt to revive his famous franchise, then you remember the Amazonian swarming ants—well, they are real, and we will probably encounter them! They are called Eciton, and they appear in swarming armies of hundreds of thousands that sometimes reach a diameter of one hundred feet. That is why you will need to tuck your trousers inside your pants. If you don’t, the Eciton will swarm you and turn their impressive sickle-shaped pincers on your flesh.

Actually, these guys are friendly compared to the Conga Ants—those vicious little beasts are the most enormous ants you have ever seen or contemplated at a whopping two inches in length. Their pinchers are on the front and stingers on the back, just in case you did not take them seriously. If you cut them in half, they continue to come after you, but now as two entities. Then, of course, there is the Tangarana, or Fire Ant Trees—these trees enjoy a symbiotic relationship with the swarming red ants living inside them and possessing incredible stinging powers. Just don’t touch these trees.

I could go on, but I think you get the point! Along with the breathtakingly beautiful birds, pink dolphins, exotic plants and amazing animals, there are plenty of wonderful little beasties for us to encounter including anacondas, toxic ants, pirangas, vampire bats, chiggers, stinging plants, howling monkeys, egg laying botflies, and my personal favorite—the candiru fish (ask me about that one later!)

Of course, half the fun is trekking through this lost world like men and experiencing a unique adventure—as safely as possible. All of this being said, I am looking for men 12 years of age and older to join us. Special exceptions will be made for sons that are a wee bit younger, and full of mettle. But, Dads, you are responsible for making sure your son can maintain a can-do spirit as we explore in sometimes inhospitable conditions. Once in the jungle, there is no turning back.

Presently, the trip ends on January 7, in Cusco, after a day’s expedition to Machu Picchu, one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Those who need to return home early can skip the advanced trip to the heart of the Inca Empire, and return from Iquitos on the morning of January 6, directly to the United States through Lima. Sorry, but in order to streamline our cost model, we are unable to offer a discount to those who want to pass on the last leg of the trip.

What about Our Wives and Daughters?

If I am able to cover the expenses for this trip and have just a tiny buffer, I may be able to inform you of an opportunity for any of the ladies (wives of our team members) who would like to travel to Peru and join Beall in Cusco for a special adventure for the women and children who were unable to join us in the Amazon. This would include museums, Inca temples, lots of shopping, and a trek with the men to Machu Picchu. If this opportunity materializes, we will let you know. The men would join the girls in Cusco at the conclusion of our journey in the Amazon itself, probably on the 5th or 6th of January.

Price

There are two ways you can help me on this expedition:

The first option is to come with me. The price for coming is $3,500. This includes the cost of the boat, security, logistics, food, lodging, special events and projects on the journey, admission fees, and plane flight from Iquitos to Cusco, the gateway to Machu Picchu. It does not include air fare to and from our entry point or final destination. You will need to book your flights to Peru and back. Our logistics coordinator is happy to walk you through the process of obtaining the most advantageous flights.

Expedition Sponsor: The second approach is to become an Expedition Sponsor. We are especially interested in finding men because it is necessary for us to be able to raise the capital to cover the filming and travel expenses. To become an Expedition Sponsor , go to our online donation page and give to the “Worship the Creator, Not the Creation” fund located on the Vision Forum Ministries Support Page.

Refund/cancellation policy

All fees are 50 percent refundable if written cancellation is received by Peter Bradrick prior to December 13. No refunds on either ticket will be given on or after December 13.

For more information on Joining us on our expedition or becoming a Sponsor, contact Peter Bradrick, our Expedition Logistics Coordinator at peterbradrick@gmail.com.

Your Participation Allows Us to Bring a Defining Message of Our Generation to Film Screens across the United States

One of the missions of the 2010 Amazon Expedition is to lay the foundation for our Space Project, an ambitious, multi-million dollar, 3-D, theatrically-released documentary that teaches men, women, and children to dream big and wonderful dreams for the Lord.

The presently unnamed film traces the exciting story of four individuals—an expedition leader, a young girl, an astrophysicist and a businessman who have always dreamed of breaking the Earth’s atmosphere and looking back on this treasured planet from the heavens of Space. Their mission will take them from the Amazon rainforest—the epicenter of the battle between Christianity and environmental pantheism—to more than 330,000 feet above the earth as members of a flight crew breaking new ground in the realm of privatized commercial space aviation,and part of an elite group of humans that will be remembered as the first one thousand men and women in recorded history to break the earth’s atmosphere.

Along the way, they will interact with indigenous tribesmen living in the rain forest of Peru who recently survived a disturbing and unexpected vampire bat attack, will encounter some of the leading propagandists and activists of the radical Left behind the environmental movement in Hollywood and Washington D.C., will use advanced modern technology to see the fingerprints of God in the outer recesses of our Galaxy, and will ultimately enjoy the rigors of astronaut training preliminary to traveling at tremendous speeds in a space craft during which time they will experience more then seven G-forces on their journey to the heavens. Finally, the team of six (four passengers and two camera men) will float weightlessly in their craft as their dreams are realized and they observe the earth from the darkness of space.

Their journey forces the team to answer the question: Why is this complex, carefully balanced, glorious blue orb floating in space here to begin with? What is the Earth? Our mother? An object of worship? The product of an evolving universe? A rock in the solar system that we share with other creatures and plants of similar value to man?

Or is it something more? Does it represent most important location in the all of the universe because here God declared that man was to subdue it and exercise dominion over the land, the plants, animals and natural resources, for His glory. Is it even more?

Is it, in fact, the location of the greatest event in the history of the cosmos—the incarnation of God Himself, His death and resurrection, and by those acts, the true hope of redemption for man and the earth itself?

Those of you who attend the Amazon Expedition as sponsors will not only experience a great adventure and stand beside us as we capture rare footage for the beginning of our film, you will be helping us to make this dream possible.

What to Bring and What to Read

We will be providing those who register as a Guest or Expedition Sponsor with a list of recommended items to bring on this trip, including bug repellent, disinfectant, a few changes of comfortable clothing, swimwear, appropriate shoe wear, rain ponchos and hat, water bottle, etc. We will be recommending that you limit your travel gear to what you are comfortable carrying on your back and perhaps in one bag. Travel light.

In addition, we will also provide detailed information about the animals, birds, and bugs we may encounter in the jungle and on the river ways of Amazonia. Finally, next week we will be posting a recommended book list for those of you who would like to do some background study and research, preparatory for this great adventure.

Photography

The 2010 Amazon Expedition may prove to be the greatest photographic opportunity of your life. We encourage you to come prepared, including bringing special housing or plastic bags for your equipment which will protect them from the elements.