Missionary family escape Amazon riverboat disaster

An American missionary and his wife who escaped a burning boat on the Amazon river with their young family have spoken about their incident, in which several died.

Ezra Brainard, a distant relative of 18th century missionary to the Native Americans David Brainard, was on the boat with wife Joanna and four children, including a young baby, on 29 July when it caught fire, exploded and sank. The couple’s two-and-a-half year old slipped away from Ezra after they jumped into the water, but someone pulled her into a canoe and took her to shore.

The Brainards are missionaries in the Amazon jungle with CMML (Christian Missions in Many Lands). In a statement shortly after the incident, CMML-US said they had been on a nine-day boat trip from Manaus back upriver to Benjamin Constant.

It said: ‘The boat caught fire, resulting in significant loss of life. By God‘s grace, the Brainards were rescued and transferred onto a military vessel. They are doing well. They were fed and given a new set of clothes and were housed by families in that town. Pray for them as they evaluate their lost possessions, their peace of mind, and for the renovation of all their paperwork, which will take some time and cost.'

Ezra’s father, author and Bible teacher Lee W Brainard, wrote on X: ‘They escaped with only their lives and the clothes on their backs. Not everyone made it.’

Recounting the incident, Joanna said before they jumped, ‘I started to have a growing feeling inside me that this was how our family story would end. Every one of us has a day to die, this was our day. It’s hard to describe how that thought made me feel, I knew we have the hope of eternal life, but neither burning up nor drowning sounded like fun ways to go.’

Just as the boat exploded, the family jumped into the water, all were pulled out and taken to shore. Joanna said: ‘I started to share with those around how those of us who were still alive were only so because of God’s mercy, and that this was the day of salvation.’