Thursday, January 15, 2009

Happy New Years from the Amazon!

We hope that you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Ours was very good and the church service for Christmas was nothing short of amazing. I have never seen so many people in our church. We tried to count but it was impossible. We believe that there were close to 600 people at the church. I took pictures but unfortunately they were deleted. Sorry! A couple weeks before the Christmas church service the members of the church got together to pretty up the church and to paint it. We had about 50 people come and donate their time and energy and even Camilly got to chip in a bit. The end result was a beautiful church painted by the temples of God.





This month we had our second meeting focusing on the couples of the church. We are inviting couples over to the house to share a meal, followed by a teaching about marriage, family, child raising, and so on. It has been a good time to be with the couples, hear their struggles, and try to guide them in the ways of the Lord. These meetings will be a regular occurrence because healthy families are so rare in this part of Brazil. It is our hope, with the Lord’s guidance, to change this dynamic in Altamira.


The girls really loved Christmas this year. Camilly got some underwear, berets for her hair, and a doll. Alyssa also received a little doll and her own plastic cell phone. They were both really happy with their gifts. Alyssa is also fond of little kittens; however, she still has not gotten the knack of how to hold a kitten. Poor little kitty!





Well, I need to get going now; Camilly is calling me to do the time honored tradition of wiping her behind. Thanks for all your prayerful support in our lives. Love, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa.

Look who got sunglasses!




We caught this boa constrictor in our backyard the other day. We put it in a bin and set it free outside the city.