Thank you so much for your friendship, support and prayers. It is such a pleasure to have you on our team as we continue to share the Good news of Jesus Christ and give a helping hand up to the marginalized. We pray you will be blessed by the below update.
For the last several weeks we have been on the road visiting churches with just a few days at home. Just before Christmas we drove 1120 km back and forth to Santarem. We had the fortunate opportunity to participate in Clenildo and Angelita’s renewing of wedding vows. Clenildo is one of the National leaders along with Elba. Clenildo and Elba have been working side by side since the beginning of the Xingu Mission. While in Santarem Elba went and preached at a recent church plant about 30 kilometers outside of Santarem called Jacamim. The leaders of this church plant are such loving and generous people. The congregation is growing and it is great to see God working in their midst. Before the service we visited some houses and as a family we prayed for this woman pictured below. During our prayers she felt her bones move and she felt her arm was completely healed. Praise the Lord!
We then traveled another 400 kilometers to visit 2 new church plants in Monte Alegre (Elba’s home town), and Priaina. Again, the Lord was faithful and blessed our time with these new congregations.
We just got home from our last trip a couple of days ago. We drove over 4200 kilometers to Brasilia and back. Once we arrived in Brasilia Elba got some dental work done and then flew to Sao Paulo to meet with Phil Strout and Milton Lucas to discuss our upcoming National Conference and the release of Brazil as a National Association of Igreja da Vinha. These are exciting times and we have been anticipating this release for many years. Once Elba returned, we then went with a missionary team from Brasilia to Palmas. It is amazing what God has done with this church. The Mirante Church sent a couple out a several years ago and they started a very small home church. God has been very gracious these many years and has helped this church come through many hurdles along the way. The Mirante Church just sent another pastoral couple to help in the work and this trip was very special because the Palmas team had a church building inauguration and we had the opportunity to see our friends. The team from Pacajá also came to celebrate in the excitement and encourage our brothers and sisters in Palmas. It was a great inauguration service and as a BIG bonus we had some people come up to receive Jesus as their Savior.
After our time in Palmas we headed back to Altamira. The roads in Brazil are adventurous and can be very dangerous. This bridge went out and unfortunately the truck driver lost his life. They then created a provisional temporary bridge which got washed out due to the heavy rains. We then had to pay an exuberant amount of money of R$150.00 to cross over by a make shift ferry. These trips were costly in that gasoline prices have been steadily increasing. It now cost around $4.35 for a gallon of gasoline. I understand the price is under $2.00 in the States. Lucky!
Please continue to pray for all these new church plants and works.
During our time in Brasilia the girls got the opportunity to go to the zoo, and go bowling. I know, bowling! Camilly bowled a 59, just edging out her little sister who bowled a 58. The girls also got to ride a motorized pink animal like thing around the mall. In the end, we had a lot of fun. Elba, Camilly, Alyssa and I also got to eat McDonald’s and Dominos. That was a big treat.
Please 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
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