Amazon September update

Several months ago we wrote about one of our church plants in Palmas. Palmas is over 1100 kilometers north of Altamira. This new church is being pastored by Fernando and Marcia, who have been doing a great job drawing people to the Lord. When Fernando is not pastoring the church, he works fulltime as a janitorial supervisor at the regional hospital. One day, there was a patient who came into the hospital screaming and in complete agony with stomach pain. The doctors and nurses tried everything they could to calm him down and take away the pain but nothing was working. One of the cleaning people who worked with Fernando asked him to go and pray for the guy. Fernando was apprehensive and nervous but he sensed God telling him to go and pray. He entered the room where the man was screaming in pain. He placed his hand on his stomach and asked the Holy Spirit to come and heal this man. Immediately, the pain went away, and this man was free of pain! Everyone in the hospital was shocked and confused about how he got healed. Fernando, being a humble man, just left. When the man was being checked out of the hospital he wanted to meet the man that healed him and thank him. Fernando said “It was not me that healed you but Jesus. Give Him the praise and the glory!” Later, his coworkers asked him to lead a bible study and prayer time at the hospital, and he accepted. God is GOOD!!!! Please keep Fernando and Marcia in your prayers.

CDR was blessed with another generous donation from NCP leasing. NCP leasing has helped out our computer school tremendously by donating another 10 computers, 2 laptops and 10 monitors to upgrade the ones that they donated 5 years ago. Their previous donation was instrumental in starting our computer program. We are so blessed to have prayer and giving partners working with us to empower the Brazilians through education. Here is a picture of students learning basic computer skills on the computers.

I celebrated my 44^th birthday on the 22^nd of August. It was a memorable birthday in the fact that I was able to celebrate it with my family, my twin sister Lynn, her husband Scott, my Mom, plus Elba’s family and a lot of friends. We had a regional dish called “chicken in Tucupi sauce” It’s my favorite local dish, with a unique taste that makes your mouth tingle. Then came the unexpected bombshell! Lynn and I had just blown out the candle when “Wham and poof” we got smashed with eggs and flour! It was a mess. Smashing eggs and throwing flour on the birthday recipient is an optional custom here in Brazil. With Elba’s encouragement, my friends chose to exercise that option. This is the first time that they have ever done this to me.

Elba, the girls and I are going to go to Curitiba from September 25^th to October 10^th. Elba and I are going to participate in a three day meeting with Brazilian and US church leaders. After the meeting we are planning to take a short vacation with the girls. Please pray that we will have a safe trip and great time during our time of travel, meetings and vacation. Plus, continue to keep us in your prayers for spiritual, physical, and emotional health. Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

It was during the night that we went into our laundry room to find these little green lights shining on the wall. When we turned on the lights, we realized that it was a bug and it’s eyes were causing the green lights. Brazil, has some very unique bugs.