Amazon Update! August 2020

At the end of the month of July, our leadership team at the church decided to re-open the church and have our first church service on August 2^nd.  They were all excited to be able to gather again and do it in a very healthy and safe way.  The following Wednesday about ½ of the leaders came down with the virus.  We took that as a sign to continue to do on-line services and postpone opening the church.  Praise the Lord all of the leaders have recovered or are on their way to recovery.  So, we continue to press on with the on-line services.  We surveyed the congregation and about 85% of the congregants would like us to continue to do on-line even when we open the church.  So, we can see this being a reality for some time.  Also, below is Elba and the girls preparing food for the ones that are sick. 

Rick Bergen and I laugh together about the fact that we do not know any bad language in Portuguese.  Personally, we do not care to know it.  However, we have both been told that someone is yelling words of profanity at us because of our driving, or something.  We both said that we just smile, and wave at the person.  Since we do not know that part of the Portuguese language.  It has no meaning.  Since it has no meaning, we are not hurt, ego is not damaged, no feelings of shame, or even being embarrassed.  We just continue to have good-will towards that person, as though they were saying “good morning”.  As I contemplate this unique situation in our lives, I wonder if this is what it would feel like to be in perfect relationship with Christ. 

 

On the other side of the coin, the other day, someone did something to me that I neither provoked or incited.  I understood its meaning, and it came right out of the blue.  They made some assumptions and I really felt slimed.  I thought, why am I letting this bother me, and why is this effecting my day.  Why could I not just hang on and continue to receive the embrace of a loving God, instead of being ripped from His arms by my own insecurities and continue to entertain / mull over this offense.  It is a struggle. 

The girls just started back to school again.  They do not have long summer breaks like they do in the States.  They are not physically going to school but learning on-line with video.  Camilly loves it, and Alyssa wants to go back school.  Camilly is very rigid when it comes to the rules of social distancing.  If someone comes to the house, she is like “Why is this person here?” “Make sure they keep on their mask, and stay at a safe distance”.  All the while looking at you like you are an alien.  If you are looking for a warm welcome…..you are not going to get it here with Camilly.  We are thankful for her keeping us in line. 

They had a school project to paint their thoughts of the virus.  Here is what they produced.  Camilly is with the hand with the mask on it.  Alyssa has the one with the virus covering the world.  

 

Continued prayers request: 

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation that we help people draw close to God as we navigate this time. 

·         Please pray for wisdom as we navigate opening the church for service. 

·         Thanks for your prayers.  We heard back from buyers and it appears all is still moving forward.  However, no date.  Please pray for the Lord’s will, and for our buyers financial situation and that we could move forward soon with the sale. 

 Please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional and financial health for us.  

 Thanks and much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Amazon Update June 2020

This month we have had several congregants get the virus.  We also had our youth pastors (Lucas and Dayane) and their family, our church planters (Cleiton and Cristiane) and their family, and our associate pastor (Timoteo and Nilma) get the virus.  Our associate pastor, Timoteo, lungs were 50% compromised and he was sent to the hospital and put on oxygen.  This also happen to Pastor Felipe in Macapá.  Praise the Lord they are all feeling much better.  Not yet 100%, or some even 70%, but they are moving into healing.  Timoteo and Felipe have both been released from the hospital.  Below are their pictures if you would like to pray for them. 

 

This month the “lockdown” in our city ramped up and the authorities were getting stricter on people’s movement to only be for essential business.  If caught outside without doing essential business you were fined monetarily. 

Since the virus, we have only filmed our online church service at the church with a few people.  However, we were ordered that we could no longer do that during this extreme lockdown.  So, we had to do the church service from our homes.  Our worship leader did the worship portion from her home, and then Elba preached from our living room.  We are also doing our church prayers via Zoom. 

We respected the mandate from the authorities even though we believe that the risk was extremely low.  We want to believe in our hearts that everyone here, and throughout the world, are trying to do the best they can with the information at hand.  I have seen throughout the world that sometimes we get it right, and at other time, really wrong.  I TRY not to judge because I know that if any of us were in these positions.  We would have similar results.  I keep praying for our leaders for wisdom. 

On a funnier note, we were just about to go to bed when the girls got us to come and play a game with them.  We got to the kitchen, and there were 2 pillows with flour on them.  We were given a series of questions, and whichever daughter best represented the question, we got to put their head in the flour.  It was really fun for me and Elba.  I think Elba enjoyed it just a little too much.  LOL.  We posted it on Facebook if you are interested in watching. 

Thank you for your prayers for my trip to take the young man to get psychological help.  Praise the Lord he was able to get there safely, but, it was an adventure and stressful.  The doctor that saw him said that he is the 2^nd worse case she has ever seen in Brazil.  Please pray for Leandro. 

 

Continued prayers request: 

·         Thanks for your prayers.  We heard back from buyers and it appears all is still moving forward.  However, no date.  Please pray for our buyers financial situation and that we could move forward soon with the sale. 

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation that we help people draw close to God as we navigate this time. 

Please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional and financial health for us.  

Thanks and much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Amazon Update! May 2020

We continue to be in “lockdown”.  Still no church or large groups are allowed, and the use of masks in public is mandatory; very similar to other countries.  Here in Altamira, and throughout Brazil, the cases have continued to increase.  The pharmacies do not have the drugs necessary that doctors are prescribing to “combat” the virus.  They are prescribing hydroxycloquine, Ivermectin and Azithromycin as first line of defense.  One of the biggest problems is that we do not have much testing for the COVID.  The test they do have here requires you to have the virus for 8 days to be confirmed.  In light of waiting those 8 days to confirm, the doctors are essentially guessing based off of symptoms and prescribing the above medicine.  The problem is that it could be just a cold, normal flu, malaria, dengue, or something else.  I certainly do not give fault.  Everyone is trying to do the best they can with the limited resources at hand.  It is our reality at the moment. 

 

For Mother’s day we had a few of our leaders come to the house.  We had an online service to share communion and “be with one another”.  Before sharing communion we had a time of worship with some of our leaders at the church, and virtual congregation.  We look forward to getting past this time and being able to interact with one another in person.  Everyone is so excited to see one another even though it is on a screen.  The problem is that everyone wants to talk at the same time, and it becomes a mess.   Not a bad problem. 

We continue to do on-line weekly services and are using social media to maintain contact with our church members and friends for the last couple of weeks.  We have been making some home visits.  We do this with caution and do our best to respect others space and distance.  At the church, we are doing our best to make the worship and sermons pleasing to the Lord, and the best possible experience for the congregation.  It seems like it going well, however, it is a lot of work.  I have been working so much producing video’s for the church.  If you have never had the chance to work on editing a film, let me tell you, it is a long strenuous process.  Elba has been doing a series called “A Faith that wins”.  She has preached “A faith that leads during difficulties”, “A faith that wins over my weakness”, and “A faith that anchors me”

The girls spend their days doing homeschool via Zoom.  It is working well for the time being but I think they would like to be with their classmates in person

Continued prayers request: 

·        Update: The sale of the property seems to be on hold.  We have not heard from the buyers.  We understand that with the crisis they have been put in financial stress.  I am disappointed, but at the end of the day, God is still on the Throne.  Please pray for our buyers financial situation and that we could move forward soon with the sale. 

·        Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation that we help people draw close to God as we navigate this time. 

·        I may have to travel to take someone to a specialized hospital about 2k kilometers away.  Please pray for healing for this man, and for safe travels. 

Please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional and financial health for us.  

Thanks and much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Amazon Update - April 2020

Happy Belated Easter.  Praise the Lord that He is Risen.  Thank you Jesus!!!  As I mentioned last month,  let's keep praying to Jesus for His healing upon the world.  He is our only hope, especially with so much uncertainty, we need to be the light in this time of darkness.  Pray the Lord's peace and comfort over you during this difficult time.  If you need any prayer, please let me know.

During the past month our church family has been trying to adapt to "virtual community" as we make adjustments, along with the entire world, to adapt to this season of social distancing in the wake of COVID19.  Given the circumstances, I think we are doing the best job we can with the tools and gifting that the Lord has instilled in us.  However, we are still pursuing to do it better and stay connected. 

On Easter we felt that it was important to celebrate communion with the church but it was completely different than years past where we had a service at the church, and shared a breakfast.  This time we had some of our leaders and their families come to our house, and then we had a Zoom gathering with members of the church.  It was not perfect, but we were able to feel a bit more connected to the congregation to celebrate the PERFECT sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, and the resurrection of the Lord from the grave.  AMEN!

After the on-line celebration, we enjoyed a breakfast together, and then we had a candy search in the backyard.  This was nice, as this brought some normalcy to our situation. 

We have been doing on-line weekly services and are increasingly trying to use social media to maintain contact with our church members and friends for the last couple of weeks.  We are doing our best to make the worship and sermons pleasing to the Lord, and the best possible experience for the congregation.  It seems like it going well.  Below are some pictures of the production.  We have been working twice as hard as before trying to learn the technologies.  Elba goes over and over her messages throughout the week in preparation for Sunday.  It is whole different dynamic preaching to a camera, than to a congregation. 

We just started back up our men´s prayer group on Thursday morning at 6am.  It is a small group of men and it was really nice to be together and pray to Jesus to intercede for the church, the things going on in our lives, as well as the lives of others.  As you will notice we are trying to get together and pray in a reasonably safe way.

One of the other big highlights this month was the celebration of Camilly´s 15^th birthday.  The 15^th birthday for a girl in Brazil is HUGE.  I read that “In Brazil it is widely celebrated among Brazilians, the quinceañera marks an important milestone in a girl's life. Part birthday party, part rite of passage, it symbolizes a girl's entrance into womanhood when turning 15 showcasing her purity and readiness for marriage.”  Yes, to the purity, but the readiness for marriage…at the age of 15….let’s put that on the back burner until she finishes college.  Well, whatever they say, we know that we are very proud of the beautiful woman that Camilly is becoming.  She is a treasure and a true gift from God.  Personally, seeing her all dressed up, and looking way older than 15, I was taken aback.  It is going way too fast.  We did our best to respect the gathering rules in place.  Camilly only got to invite a handful of her friends.  Even though it was limited, we really pray that she enjoyed every moment.  We are very proud of her.

 

Continued prayers request: 

·         Update: Thanks everyone for your prayers on the sale of the property.  We are in the process of working through the language for the contract.  This is positive and we are thankful to God.  Since there is a financial crisis in Brazil due to the virus, the buyers are asking that we be patient.  So, I come to you again, and ask that you continue to pray for this to be finalized in its entirety, and that all parties will feel good about the whole process up to the completion of purchase and thereafter.

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation that we help people draw close to God as we navigate this time. 

 Please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional and financial health for us.  

Thanks and much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa 

Amazon Update March 2020

We are in quarantine.  We started our travels 2 weeks ago to minister to the Recife church leadership, and then to Joao Pessoa to have a 3 day missionary care retreat.  So much can change in a two week stretch.  On the way back home, we had two airline cancellations which forced us to travel by bus, and then finally, we rented a car to come home.  We are glad to be home, and the city has dramatically changed normal daily life.  There are no cases of the virus here.  Since the city only has 7 ventilators it does not want to be overrun by the virus.  It is also really hitting the people hard financially.  Thanks for your prayers.  We are praying for the world.

Reflection: I was asking God during prayer, why this was happening.  I felt like I got the response “it is so nice to hear from my people”.  Let’s keep praying.   

All of our missionaries were able to attend the missionary care and we were very grateful despite the virus.  Our main speaker was not able to physically attend the missionary care due precautions around the virus, but we are grateful for technology.  We were able to use video and it work out really well.  One of the teachings was on disorder detachments and we were posed with a bunch questions for reflection, like:

What might our attachments be?

Ø  What consumes my thoughts and plans?

Ø  What holds my allegiance?

Ø  Who or what tells me who I am?

Ø  What gives me security and comfort?

Ø  What makes me feel whole and complete?

Ø  Who/What meets my deepest needs?

Ø  Etc. 

Prayer for detachment

(Based on a prayer of Peter Faber, 1506-46)

I beg of you, my Lord,

to remove anything which separates

me from you, and you from me.

Remove anything that stands in the way of

my seeing you, hearing, tasting, savoring, and touching you;

reverencing and being mindful of you;

knowing, trusting, loving, and possessing you;

being conscious of your presence

and, as far as is possible, enjoying you.

This is what I ask for myself

and earnestly desire from you. Amen.

This will be a good exercise for me to continue, and maybe you, as we continue to walk out this life on earth. 

It is always so nice to be with our missionaries to reconnect.  All of us live far from one another and being together was very encouraging and life giving.  The Bouthillier family still has not made it home due to travel restrictions.  Please pray that God will open up a way for them to get home safely, and protection over their health. 

At the church, before social isolation, we were able to have a couples dinner for the church.  The entrance fee was to bring some food for all to enjoy.  Pr. Kinin came and shared with his wife Rosie.  The time was really special for all the couples.  As you may know, with the busyness / demands of life, it is sometimes difficult to separate time to be with your spouse.  We are very grateful that the couples were afforded this opportunity.  We were blessed that the youth of the church served the couples their dinners.

The girls got to participate in their first Cristoval.  It was three days, and two night of being with the Lord, and their friends.  They had a great time.  As I have shared before, Carnival is Brazil’s annual “celebration of the flesh”.  It’s a week-long party where “anything goes” and almost every city in the country shuts down allowing full participation by the people.  The Igreja da Vinha combined efforts many years ago to begin “Cristoval”, a retreat for youth, away from the city, with a focus on Jesus and having a lot of good clean fun (other than the mud obstacle course, Alyssa participated…not so clean).   It has been a great success to redirect the youth’s energy towards God instead of the temptations of the world and drawing kids toward Jesus.  During the three day retreat, the youth had opportunity to connect with Jesus through lively worship and dynamic teaching.  Elba had the privilege to preach one of the nights. 

We have an update, and continued prayers request: 

·         Update: Thanks everyone for your prayers on the sale of the property.  We are in the process of working through the language for the contract.  This is positive and we are thankful to God.  Since there is a financial crisis in Brazil due to the virus, the buyers are asking that we be patient.  So, I come to you again, and ask that you continue to pray for this to be finalized in its entirety, and that all parties will feel good about the whole process up to the completion of purchase and thereafter.

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation that we help people draw close to God as we navigate this time. 

Please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional and financial health for us.  

Thanks and much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa 

Amazon Update February 2020

Michael Hansen, the Lead Pastor in Delaware County, and Derek Blaylock, a Vineyard Pastor out of San Antonio Texas, came for a short visit.  They came and visited some of our bases located in Macapá, Pacajá, and Altamira.  About 20 years ago, God put Brazil on Derek’s heart and he has been praying for Brazil ever since. This was his first time visiting Brazil and it was such a joy to witness what God was doing in him.  Please pray for Derek to get more clarity on their call to be missionaries in Brazil. 

Michael did a leadership night at our church.  He was really impressed with the amount of young leaders we have here in Altamira.  He focused his teaching on how to construct a sustainable spiritual life in your marriage, family, and ministry.  During his talk he shared the following which was impactful.  “To be healthy as leaders we need to be alert to the enemy's subtle attacks, leaders must expect to be attacked, they should never be surprised or afraid.... leaders must maintain an attitude of humility, always recognizing what is our part in the Kingdom work.  We must have humility to recognize our limitations, because what we have to give will always seem small, and at times feel insignificant compared to the size of the need.  But it is all that God wants from us, so we need to know that we are loved, that the Father loves us not for what we do, not for our skills, nor for our "great achievements", He loves us because we are his sons and daughters, it is from this place of love that we must lead."

At the church we also held a new members class.  We had 25 new people become members of the church.  Praise God!  During the class they learn about the church, our history, beliefs, and ministries.  After the several hour class, many members of the church pitched in to cook and bring food so that we could have lunch together with the new members. 

That same night we had 4 people get baptized.  It was emotional for the ones being baptized into a new life with Christ.  During the baptism we had great worship and lots of people press up to get a front row seat.  Especially the kids.  They want to be right there. 

Please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional and financial health for us.  

Thanks and much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

November 2019 Amazon Update!!!

Elba and I were honored again to have another baptism at the church.  The church gets so excited for baptisms.  During our baptism the worship band was playing and singing, and lots of people run to the front to get a better view and pictures.   I know I have mentioned this many times, but I love the symbolism of letting the person be completely immersed in water, being baptized into Jesus’ death on the cross and no longer being slaves to self or sin.  When they are raised out of the water they are raised into a new life in Christ and are with Him forever.  We are so grateful and we praise the Lord for these 9 people that made this public declaration of faith.  Each of the people being baptized wore a shirt saying “I Decided”.

We had a women’s gathering at the church called “Cha de Rosa”, or pink tea.  The women in the church really worked hard to make this a beautiful and special moment for our guests.  The youth served a small meal while the women were enriched by the guest speaker.  The guest speaker was a psychologist in the city and she talked about emotional and mental health. 

Not to be too outdone.  While traveling to Joao Pessoa, and Recife.  Marsha Wilson, and Elba participated in another “Cha de Rosa” for the women at the Cabo church.  The women really enjoyed Elba and Marsha’s visit to pray, encourage and bless.  

We had a children’s day celebration.  This is a National holiday and there is no school, and government and private businesses close.  It is a big deal.  This year we used the mission property to celebrate the occasion.  Camilly and Alyssa helped with the celebration.  They played lots of games, including water balloon fights, which Camilly assisted.  Alyssa colored the children’s faces.  The kids ate lots of sweets and hot dogs.  It was a good time for the children in the neighborhood…I think also for the adults.  

We do have prayer requests and humbly ask you to pray for us:

1.      For Steve’s trip to Humaita to visit a church planting team.  It will take 2 ½ days to get there by truck.  Please pray for safety, guidance, peace, and wisdom.

2.      Elba just started getting a migraine again after almost a year without them.  Please pray for healing.  Below is a picture of children from our church family in Recife praying for Elba

Please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional and financial health for us.  

Thanks and much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa