May update from the Amazon

Wow, what a month of ups and downs.  The big downer was the flood that came through the lower part of Altamira and wreaked havoc on so many people’s lives.  The big uppers however were that we baptized 16 people, more than 10 people came to the Lord in the month of April, and Sidney, Elba’s sister's husband, who relapsed into drugs and alcohol and left his family, is now in rehab and seeking to be restored.

On the flood front, there still is no relief in sight as of yet.  Things were starting to get a bit controlled after the flood waters subsided but now the river is starting to crest and families are again moving out to safer grounds.  Fortunately, they have the time to move their stuff without anything being damaged unlike the flood that overtook them so quickly.  We are still serving many families with food, clothing and shelter and we have been trying to restore items that were lost and/or damaged during the flood such as stoves, and mattresses.  We are also now in the process of helping rebuild houses and work on structural problems.  Please keep us in your prayers for wisdom and that we are good stewards of the money that was given.  The pictures below are of a family that received a new mattresses and a stove.  The other is where a bridge existed but got swept away in the flood. 

 

On the church front, I would like to share the story of Ramires.  Ramires has been coming to the church for easily over a year with his wife and he was seeking God and really wanted proof that God existed.  Several months ago, Ramires went to the local doctor to have some tests run and they showed that he had some heart troubles and high blood pressure.  To confirm the test, he sent them as well to a doctor friend that is a cardiologist, to which he confirmed the results.  During this time, God was working on Ramires and he knew at some point he needed to surrender his life to Christ.  We had our church service and he came up for prayer but something was holding him back from asking God into his life.  It just so happened that we had a guest speaker that night at church and as he was praying over the crowd of people up front.  God stirred his attention to Ramires.  He walked straight to the back of the crowd and embraced Ramires.  Ramires weakened and said “I want to receive you Lord, I want to receive you Lord, I want to receive you Lord”.  It was a really moving moment and ever since Ramires has embraced Christ with all his heart.  We just had a baptism and we had the awesome privilege of baptizing him.  It has been a beautiful journey to watch him grow.  The good news does not stop there.  His cardiologist friend wanted him to go through another battery of tests for his heart.  He did and he sent him all the results.  The doctor called him last Sunday morning and asked Ramires “What did you do to your heart?”  Ramires responded “I received Jesus into my heart”.  The doctor responded “Well, science cannot explain those things, but by all indications from the test, you have a brand new heart”.  Isn’t that amazing!  God is so good!!!  AMEN!!!

Praise God Sidney has now sought out treatment.  He just started treatment on Monday May 4^th and the first days have been rough as he is going through withdrawals.  Please continue to keep Sidney in your prayers for a complete recovery, and full restoration.  Also, please keep Nira in your prayers as this is going to be a process.

On a Camilly front.  I say Camilly because she turned 4 years old on April 18^th.  She was so excited and she had a great time at her birthday party.  The party was only for girls except for me and Apollo.  She had been talking about her birthday every day for the last 2 or 3 months.   Mom and Dad were very happy for her but are glad that it is now over, we are just hoping that she is not going to start talking about her next birthday starting now.  Alyssa is doing well and is starting to talk and form words.  She is now saying “goodbye, obrigada (thank you), and sair (get out).  During prayer time last Sunday, Elba was praying for someone and Alyssa kept interrupting them by telling the person that Elba was praying for to “sair”, or “get out”.  

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. 

 

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43215

 

Or On-line donations at:

http://www.xingu.org/6_giving.html

Floods in Altamira

Easter morning started off like most morning.  We got up early and went to the church to have breakfast with the congregation and worship the Lord.   It was great.  We returned home and at 10:00am our electricity went off and that is when we heard the first reports that 2 dams broke above the city.  Within hours, the lower half of the city was flooded.  Unfortunately, there were a few children and elderly that lost their lives.  It is a tragedy.  Thousands of people are misplaced, and they have lost nearly everything of their already small possessions.  Personally, we are currently housing several people, and the church is hosting several families.   These situations become even tougher because the support from the government is very little.

 

Below are some pictures.  One is during the flood, and another is the house of one of our church members that is staying at out our house.  Her house and everything in it are completely trashed.  We know that we cannot help everyone but we definitely want to help as many families as we can.  Would you like to partner in helping these families?   If so, there are two ways to get this accomplished below.  

You can send a tax deductible donation to the Xingu Mission at

The Xingu Mission

PO Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio 43234

Attn: Altamira Base

Or on-line at http://www.xingu.org/15a1_altamira_donation.html

If you decide to make a donation, please let us know.  This will give us a general idea and allow us to start putting your money to work quicker. 

Please pray for all the displaced in Altamira, and pray that we as church can assist families not only physically but spiritually and emotionally. 

Thanks and blessings, Steve

Happy Easter!

We pray that you have a wonderful Easter holiday.  Needless to say this is such a special holiday for Christians.  Everything surrounds this moment in time and praise God, “He has risen”.  Jesus defeated death and for those who put their faith in Him can now have eternal life with Him.  Praise God. 

This month we had a children’s conference at the church and it was well attended.  We brought in Pastor Wanildo from Santeram, a neighboring city, to teach at the conference.  He has his Masters in child education and he has a huge heart for children.  Our children's ministry leaders were taught many new teaching tools to reach out to children.  They left the conference feeling more encouraged and excited.  It was a success!  As a church we are committed to raise our children in the ways of the Lord. 

To give you an update from an email several months ago.  CDR, our non-governmental organization moved to the Mission base because it would give us a better opportunity to reach more of the underprivileged.  We were nervous about the move because students believe that the neighborhood surrounding the Mission base is not safe because there is a lot crime.  We did not know if the enrollment would decrease significantly because of this belief.  Praise God, we are happy to report that we maxed out our enrollment for English as a second language with 170 students, and we have 68 students learning the basics of computer.  Please keep CDR in your prayers as we plan to open up a Christian Preschool next year.  Also, we have been promised from the government to receive high speed internet (YES!!!!) by the end of this month.  This would be a huge boost for our computer program.

 

Also, this month we had the opportunity to go to our sister base in Marabá and see the good work that Rick and Deanna Bergen have started, and now with the assistance from Clyde and Kelsie Bergquist.  Elba had the opportunity to share the Word to these new hungry believers.  It was really nice to see the Marabá base doing so well.  After we left Marabá, we got the opportunity to take a mini vacation at a place called Salinas.  It was really fun, and the girls were definitely addicted to the beach and the ocean. 

Again, we pray that you have a great Easter and that our Lord Jesus will touch you in a special way.  Check out the other photo’s below. 

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

 

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43215

 

Or On-line donations at:

http://www.xingu.org/6_giving.html

 

Check out our new redesigned website at: www.xingu.org

 

Here is a picture of a little monkey at a house in the Assurini.  Notice how I am keeping my distance.  That little sucker has some sharp teeth.  I did not want anything to do with him, but he wanted everything to do with my hammock. 

 

Picture of Elba and Alyssa on the beach

 

 

Here is a picture of Denise having some quiet time.  She is a beautiful woman of God.

 

Christoval

One of the events that we had last month at the Training Leadership Camp was our annual “Christoval” celebration. Carnival is Brazil’s annual “celebration of the flesh” before the initiation of Lent on the Catholic calendar. It’s a week- long party where “anything goes” and every city in the country shuts down allowing full participation by the people. The Vineyard churches combined efforts several years ago to begin “Christoval”, a retreat for youth, away from the city, with a focus on Jesus and having a lot of good clean fun. 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.

The following week after Christoval at church we had 7 people accept Jesus as their Lord (1st picture below). The church has been doing well and we continue to focus on the developing our leaders, praying for the sick, and reaching out into the community.



On a family note, Camilly and Alyssa really enjoyed being at the camp for Christoval as well. They had lots of friends to play with and they ate a lot of ice cream. It is hard to tell if Camilly was truly eating the ice cream or just putting it all over her face. Camilly was thrown in jail with her favorite friend Eliane. If you wanted to put someone in jail, you could purchase tickets for 25 cents and then someone would have to purchase another ticket for 25 cents to get you out. I got put into jail 3 times. I tried not to take it personally. LOL.

Please take care and thanks for your prayers and thoughts in our life.

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

PS – Check out a few of the other pictures below.

We caught this Mucura and her baby in our backyard. The people in this area typically kill them because they kill and eat chickens. I took the Mucura and her baby outside the city and let them go.



Chuck from the Vineyard Church of Delaware took this photo of some woman along the river while on short term mission trip. It is a perfect river community picture. I really like the photo!




Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:
The Xingu Mission
P.O Box 340785
Columbus, Ohio 43215

Or On-line donations at:
http://www.xingu.org/6_giving.html

On the road

This month was a month of traveling. Not for me, but for Elba, I stayed home with the kids because a man’s work is never done. Elba traveled to a river community along the Xingu called Souzel, then, she went to a small community called Aqua limpa and then we all went to the capital of Amapa, Macapa. They were all memorable trips but the trip to Aqua Limpa (clean water) was nothing short of an adventure. Now that we are in the rainy season the road conditions are challenging. Slipping and sliding most of the way until you arrive. The visit was very sweet because Aqua Limpa is one of the Mirante Church plants. The community is excited about us coming to train and disciple, and there have been salvations over the last 2 years.

We also had a conference for our church leaders at our training leadership camp. It was a good time for them to just stop, and connect deeper with God. We pray that some of these leaders will soon be pastors and start their own churches. This is our goal, to train leaders and plant churches. At the end of the conference, Elba and I, as well as the other pastors, had the great opportunity to model Jesus and wash the feet of our disciples / leaders. Personally, for some reason, I felt reluctant and apprehensive to do this, but when I did, it was awesome. Not only did the Lord touch them but in the moment of washing their feet the Lord rested upon me as well. It is just another reminder of when we give of ourselves, we receive so much more.

On the home front, Camilly started pre-school this month. We are just testing it out. The first day did not go very well and she cried most of the time. We took a week off and she told us that she was ready to go back again. She did and she enjoyed it. Obviously, only being three years old, we do not want to force it on her yet. Alyssa is doing very well and for most of the time is a very happy baby, but she also has a flip side to her that is very determined and can get very mad if she does not get what she wants. As parents, we are trying to enjoy each stage of their lives. Time goes by fast.

Thanks for allowing us to share our life with you month after month. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:
The Xingu Mission
P.O Box 340785
Columbus, Ohio 43215

Or On-line donations at:
http://www.xingu.org/6_giving.html

Check out our new redesigned website at: http://www.xingu.org/

This little animal is called a "quati".

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.

Merry Christmas from the Amazon!

We hope that you had a great Thanksgiving. We did, some missionaries and Brazilians in Altamira got together and we had chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and some dessert. It was a lot of fun and the meal really made me feel like I was back in the States. YUM! Elba and I also had our 5th year anniversary in November. We had someone keep the kids for the night and Elba and I went and spent the evening at a lodge. We had a really nice time. We hope that you enjoy the below email.

We realized that we have not written about CDR for a long time. CDR, our non-governmental organization has continued its focused on social service outreaches throughout the community and assisting the underprivileged. The computer and English school continues to teach the underprivileged in the community computers and English as a second language at an affordable price. The English school is at maximum enrollment with 140 students. These last semesters the English classes have been so busy because of the hunger to learn English. The computer program has been doing fine and we are planning on expanding. We are going to start an administrative assistant class and possibly a class to teach how to assemble and maintain computers.

Presently we are wrapping up this semester in preparation for our big move. CDR is moving to our Mission base because it will give us a better opportunity to reach more of the underprivileged. Plus, we are hoping to start an affordable Christian pre-school for working families, all the while, promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On a personal note, the girls are doing well. It is fun watching them grow and see their personalities coming out more each day. Camilly is still addicted to the trampoline, and Alyssa is right behind her. Alyssa loves jumping and getting wheel barrel rides from Elba’s Dad. Camilly loves to jump from the dead stump onto the tramp. She learned this from the neighborhood kids. This makes my heart skip a beat, and she is not permitted to do it until she gets bigger or I am present. She is very courageous for 3 years old.

We pray that you have a great Christmas and that our Lord Jesus will touch you in a special way.

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa