December Amazon Update - Merry CHRISTmas!

Merry CHRISTmas.  We pray that this Christmas will be very special for you and your loved ones.   We are grateful to be back in the States to see our family and friends like you.  I also felt like the Lord wanted me to tell you that He sees you, loves you, and that He is with you.   Pray you enjoy the below email and again, have a great Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Before coming back to the States we had a community wedding where 6 couples got married.  It was a really great time and we were very proud of these couples.  Two of the couples had been married at the justice of the peace several years prior but never had a formal celebration.  We also had a Mom and Dad get married, alongside of their son and daughter.  It was a really cool sight to see the Mom and Dad getting married with their children which is something that you do not see every day.  There were lots of smiles of happiness and tears of joy, and the Lord was smiling in their midst as they made their public testimony of dedication and commitment to Christ.  Another blessing was that all of the dresses were donated which went a long way to making this a very special day. 

Also before coming back to the States, Elba went to Porto de Moz to speak to their congregation and encourage them in the Lord.  Thankfully she was able to take a speedboat which only took about 4-5 hours to get there.  They were really excited about her visit and they had many performances and dances for the special time.  As a treat, Elba got to eat her favorite fish which is a hard shelled fish that is prehistoric in nature.  It is a bottom feeder and she grew up eating it.  Personally, I ate it once, and then went to the hospital….no joke. 

We drove up from Florida which had some great weather.  During our trip up we had many competing prayers between the kids and us.  They were praying for snow and cold, and we were trying to rebuke those prayers with warm weather.  When we arrived in Columbus this past weekend, it was a rude awakening, and the girl’s prayers prevailed.   However, we are still praying for warmer weather….brrrrrr. 

Please also continue to pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43234

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

We went on a little retreat with the church and I was just about to lay down in my hammock when I heard these plops on the ground.  I thought it was fruit falling from the tree but upon further investigation I saw that it was poop.  I then looked up and saw the monkeys just above me trying to mark their territory on my head.  Then they started to unleash a poop storm.  Needless to say I moved quickly from that spot.  This was my firsthand experience of an animal marking their territory….they won.  J

    

November Amazon Update and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  As you will see below, we will be coming back to Ohio around December 15th and staying in the Ohio area until February 5th.  We would love to see you.  If this works for you, please send me some dates so we can mark something on the calendar.  OK?  Thanks and we look forward to seeing you soon.  Pray you are blessed with the below email.

I started a small group bible study and we just completed our 26^th week.  This bible study is unlike the bible studies that I am used to as we adopted the Discipleship Making model.  It is a really simple model and one that is very easy to facilitate.  The model has been adopted in many areas throughout the world and has really caught on fire.  I cannot do the model justice in this brief email https://idisciple.cityteam.org/ but essentially we ask the same simple questions week after week like:

• What are you thankful for this week? (Prayer/Worship)
• What has stressed you out this week? 
• What do you need for things to be better? (Intercession) 
• What are the needs of the people in your community? (Ministry)
• Let’s see what the Bible teaches us this week. Read this week’s passage. (Scripture)
• What does this passage teach us about God? (Discovery/Scripture/Priesthood of Believers)

Our group consists of friends that do not attend church on a regular basis.  I am not sure of the reasons why they do not go to church, however, week after week they continue to invite us back to have home church at their house to talk about their lives, God, and the Bible. 

I like these questions because even if you know it or not, we are honoring and giving praise to God.  Plus, we get the opportunity to open up the scriptures to our friends that normally would not read the bible. 

Elba returned from London, England and we are glad to have her back.  Elba went to London because she serves on the international board for Vineyard Institute.  Vineyard Institute is an educational provider for the Vineyard movement, formed to develop leaders at all levels of church life through high quality theological training http://vineyardinstitute.org/ .  While she was there for her meeting she had the opportunity to go and speak at the Trent Vineyard.  She preached on “God’s People – A Missionary People”.  While she was gone we celebrated our 13^th year wedding anniversary.  Thankfully, I was able to send her some flowers for the occasion. 

The girls continue to do well and excel at school.  Obviously, we are very proud parents and are grateful to their dedication to school.  They won 2 gold medals for their school performance.  Camilly, with the help of Clenildo (one of her Brazilian Grandpas), made this replication of a river and Indian community.  They made it out of Styrofoam, paper, and wire. They did an amazing job.  Alyssa is also becoming an artist.  She painted this on Styrofoam tray.  Again, proud parents!

As we mentioned last month, Elba was invited to come and speak at the Vineyard Columbus woman’s conference to be held in February 2017.  Elba is excited about this opportunity and since it is coming up to our time to visit the States, we accepted with great enthusiasm.  We will be coming back to the States on December 10^th and staying in the Columbus area until February 5^th.  We look forward to seeing and spending time with our family during Christmas.  We also look forward to seeing you.  Would you like to get together?  If so, write me back and let’s get something on the calendar. 

Please also continue to pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43234

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

Richie Bouthillier took this photo while on a boat trip with the Dentist team.  The dog fell asleep like this.

October Amazon Update!

We want to thank you so much for your prayers for us this last month as we were traveling to Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey.  The trip was such a blessing and we would never have had the opportunity to do this without the financial generosity of our Brazilian friend.  The trip was a whirlwind of different places and sites to see.  Elba and I went into this trip thinking that it was going to be a great spiritual journey, however, we quickly realized that this was going to be a tourist sightseeing journey.  Our schedule was packed.  There were days when we would not get to the hotel until 9:00 – 10:00pm to have to wake up at 4:30am to start again.  We never slept in once.  Thankfully, during the busyness Elba and I did experience some really special encounters with God.  One of those times was on a boat in the Sea of Galilee.  The Captain of the boat happened to be a Christian and he spoke Portuguese.  He sang a few worship songs in Portuguese as we sailed along the sea.  It was a really emotional time.  Below are just a few pictures of our trip. 

This month at the church we had our annual celebration of Children’s day.  Children’s day is actually a holiday and there is no school and some business close for the day.  The church did something different from years past.  Typically, the church will open its door during the day and have many games and activities for the children followed by a small teaching of the love of Christ.  This year the church had a slumber party and the kids spent the night at the church.  They played lots of games, danced, sang and watched a film.  The next morning they went to a little park and played more games.  They loved it!

Once a month, several men from the church who have construction experience help someone in need.  There was a couple that needed to complete one of their bedrooms before the baby’s arrival.  The men came and started plastering the walls.  Their help really sped up the process to get the bedroom and house completed.  Since I have very little skill when it comes to construction, they leave me in charge of buying the snacks.  J  These guys are very faithful and thank the Lord that they are part of the church, being God’s hands to the needy, and sharing the Good news of Jesus. 

Last week we had our annual missionary care retreat.  We invited Dan and Sandy Thiessen to come and do soul care for our missionaries.  It was a really special time; a time that was needed for our spiritual health.  Missionaries live a sacrificial life and they give up many things to follow the call of the Lord.  In addition, they are always giving their best and it can be very draining.  It is nice when we can all get together as a family, to hear one anothers heart, to pray, encourage, rest, and to just “be”.  The time went by so quickly and we are grateful that the Lord allowed us this opportunity to be together.  We have an amazing bunch of missionaries!

Elba was invited to come and speak at the Vineyard Columbus woman’s conference to be held in February 2017.  Elba is excited about this opportunity and since it is coming up to our time to visit the States, we accepted with great enthusiasm.  We will be coming back to the States on December 10^th and staying in the Columbus area until February 5^th.  We look forward to seeing and spending time with our family during Christmas.  We also look forward to seeing you.  Would you like to get together?  If so, write me back and let’s get something on the calendar. 

Thank you so much, and please also continue to pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43234

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

This is what happens when you are posing for a picture and the Camel decides it is time to lay down….and to lay down quickly.  LOL

At the pyramids.  The amount of resources and effort to construct the pyramids is mind boggling. 

Special time of prayer at the Wailing Wall. 

Spent the night climbing Mt Horeb where Moses received the 10 Commandments on camel and having a time of worship and prayer as the sun rose.

The Egyptian people wanted to take pictures with the Brazilians.  Our guide said we could have sat there all day taking pictures with people.  We asked this woman if we could have a picture with her and she was really nice. 

Just in case you need a cup of coffee…You can go to Stars & Bucks….they are distant cousins to Starbucks. 

September Amazon Update!

The team of dentists from Brasilia came again and they brought more dentists and more helpers.  Since the inception of this project the leadership felt God calling them to serve others to share Christ through acts of love by taking care of people teeth.  The teams t-shirts read “Because Jesus sent me”.  They had a busy two weeks serving the needy by providing dental services.  For the first week we converted CDR into a large dental office.  One room has been permanently transformed into a dental office for more upcoming visits.  We set up 5 working dentist chairs and the dentists worked almost non-stop each day, sometimes not ending until past midnight.  After the week at CDR finished, they went on the river to serve people in 2 river communities near Porto de Moz for another week.  Richie Bouthillier met up with them with his mission boat to help with the work.  They converted one boat into a dental office and they also went out into the community to teach the importance of dental care.  All in all it was a huge success.  I think it would be fair to say that they helped hundreds of people and performed several hundred procedures.   

Unfortunately, this year was no different than last and they had to perform many teeth extractions.  However, the dentist team came better prepared.  They brought 3 professional denture makers with all their denture making equipment.  They worked tirelessly trying to serve the needs of the people.  They setup up shop in our mission office where they would make molds of the person’s mouth, plaster the molds, set the fake teeth, and then polish and refine the dentures.  It was awesome and I believe that all the recipients were very grateful.  It was a monumental task but they were able to complete the goal and the results were amazing.    

Recently we had the death of a very nice man in a rural community that the church has been reaching out to in missions.  We had the wake at the church and he was surrounded by many family and friends.  To give you some insight, when someone passes away here the wake and the funeral happen almost immediately, and they usually have the body buried within 24 – 48 hours.  The family members will stay with the body for the whole time. 

Introspectively, death has a rude way of reminding us of our own mortality.  It is a slap in our face that says that we are mortal and wakes us up to the reality of death and what lies ahead for us when we die, like, will we go to heaven or hell.  During funerals here, Elba usually poses that question to the living and gives them an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Savior so that they can have the full assurance of a place in heaven.  Maybe, 1 or 2 people will indicate that they want to accept Jesus as their personal Savior.  At this funeral, we had many people stand and come forward to seal their destination with Christ.  In the midst of sadness….there was joy.  

Camilly and Alyssa are doing well and the latest thing going on their lives is Pokemon.  Whenever we are driving around we are always on the look for those sly characters.  We have even went out as a family to search for Pokemon.  I think the girls are on level 10.  Here are the girls with some of their friends waiting to see the dentist.  Alyssa looked scared…they did great.   Camilly gave me this sweet card for my birthday. 

Prayer request: Elba and I are going to Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey with some of our friends from the Brasilia and Central church.  We got the offer to go last year but refused because we would not be able to afford the cost.  Our friends came back to us and said that if we could pay for 1 ticket they would pay for the other.  WOW, what an amazing generous offer.  We accepted and we have been saving our money month, after month, after month and finally paid for the trip last month.  As you can imagine, we are very excited to go.  Please pray for our safety and peace to get there and back home, that the trip will draw us in deeper relationship with Jesus, that the girls will be safe and have a great time with our family here, and that everything will go along as scheduled without incident. 

Thank you so much, and please also continue to pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43234

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/