September update

Hello, how was your Labor Day weekend? Ours was good. We actually had a holiday as well but it was not Labor Day it was Independence Day for Brazil (September 7). Some of the people in Altamira celebrated the day with a small parade which consisted of a few bands, and children marching through the streets representing their school.

We are so excited to report something that happened this month for CDR. We received high speed internet. Can you believe that we have high speed internet essentially in the middle of nowhere? It is true, and trust me, we are elated. The state of Pará is pushing to spread internet throughout the State and come into the digital age. CDR was given the high speed internet because of our ongoing work to teach students basic computer skills. It has not yet been realized but CDR has also been selected to be a center of information for our neighborhood. Essentially what this means is that we will be a center that will teach students different aspects of the computer and will provide access to the internet. ALL FOR FREE! In actuality, we are already teaching around 60 children per week from a local school about the internet for free. We are really excited to see these programs blossom. Please keep this in your prayers.

This semester English was also a big success and we maxed out our enrollment. English is a hot topic and many Brazilians want to learn English in hopes of furthering their lives and careers. The CDR English program is also very favorable because we provide students with native speakers, excellent teaching material, good environment, and a low monthly fee of $16.00. We are proud of the work that CDR is doing and for being an extension to the church. It is a blessing and even though CDR and the church are legally completely separate, CDR is recognized with our church.

Praise God the girls continue to do well. They still love dressing up in their costumes and Alyssa is starting to learn how to finger paint. We just need to teach her how to apply the paint on paper and not her face. I have a suspicion that her sister gave her a helping finger.

I celebrated my 42^nd birthday on August 22^nd. Some of the guys from the church got together and made a surprise breakfast for me. It was really nice. I also received from my lovely wife a birthday car message. The car came blaring its music and birthday wishes. To say the least, it is embarrassing.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

August Update

At the church we had a baptism this month. We had 7 people make a public declaration of their faith in Jesus Christ by being baptized. It is great watching people come to the Lord and turn their lives over to Him. We have seen so many lives transformed by the power of God and we pray that we continue to see more. After the baptism we had a party with everyone at our house to celebrate their new life in Christ. It was a really nice day. The people being baptized below are Raimundo and Denise.

We continue to meet monthly with the married couples at our church. At the church we are constantly trying to develop strong marriages and family. It is one of our core values. When the couples come over, we sit and have a snack, play a few ice breaker games, teach the Word, and then allow couples to share their struggles and successes. The group is growing and we believe that the Lord is blessing their marriages. The picture below was a game the couples played. They were given a piece of candy and they had to open it up, and eat it without using their hands. It was hilarious to watch!

Elba celebrated her birthday on July 18^th with her twin sister Nira. Some of the church members got together and bought them a dinner at one of the local restaurant. Then they surprised them with a gift from the church. Both Elba and Nira were so surprised and grateful.

The girls are doing well. Camilly loves going to school and playing with her friends and Alyssa is started to form more and more words. In the picture below, Camilly and Alyssa, with the help of our neighbor, Sharon, made some bread with raisins on top. It was not your typical looking bread but it tasted very good. Not bad for their first go around.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers and check out the other pictures below.

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

We took this picture of a monkey in the wild when we visited Rio de Janeiro.

We really enjoyed this picture of Camilly. Alyssa is feeding her baby doll; she is such a good Mommy.

July update

We pray that you had a great 4th of the July. We did, we celebrated together by eating hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans and potato salad. For desert, we were treated to s’mors and rice crispy treats. It was great because we never get these types of treat here. After desert, we shot off a few fireworks. It was a good time.

We had our regional InterVinha this month and it was a huge success. We had over 170 people in attendance to hear some excellent teachings on the Kingdom of God, and to get an update on the status of churches throughout this community, Brazil, and the whole world. After the InterVinha here in the North of Brazil, Elba and I went to the Southern Regional InterVinha held in Rio de Janeiro. It was a great time as well, except the fact that I was sick pretty much the whole time. However, Elba and I were able to visit the Christ Redeemer which is one of the 7 modern marvels in the world. Pretty cool!

On the third Sunday in June, Elba preached about spiritual discipleship. She shared about the importance of having Godly leaders in our lives to help us on our journey with Christ, and to help us discern certain obstacles that life presents along our path. Plus, how we should follow the examples of Christ and follow after Him and His ways. After the service, we asked if anyone wanted to receive Christ and we had 10 people come up to receive Christ. It was a BIG AMEN!!! Please pray for these new believers as they begin their journey with Christ.

On July 4^th Alyssa celebrated her 2^nd birthday. She was so excited to be with family, friends and more importantly get to blow out the candles. She was also excited that the theme of her birthday featured Nemo. Every time she would see the poster she would scream “NEMO!!”. She really loves that fish. She had so much fun and we did as well.

As I was walking out to our gate to let some people into the house, I step right on this boa constrictor. At first I thought our guest put it there as a joke, but then it moved. I grabbed a broom to secure it but it was fighting me off big time. Finally, I was able to secure the snake and then I grab it right behind the head and put it into a box. He was one mad snake. I took it to a place outside the city and let it go.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

June Update

Matthew 19:14 “Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." At one of our church services this month during worship Elba sensed that we should let the children remain in the service. Normally, after we end the worship portion of service, the children go to their respective classrooms and are taught the bible. The service was a little noisier and personally, I was wondering if Elba had heard correctly from the Lord. At the end of the service, we asked if any wanted to receive Jesus into their lives. We had an older couple come up to receive the Lord. Then the next thing you know we had a whole swarm of children come up to the front. This is usually not our practice to invite children without their parents, but these children wanted to receive Jesus and they came up with fervor.

One of the mothers told us the other day that before coming to church that night her child was so disobedient, disrespectful, and simply just a troublemaker. She was at her wits end with him and did not know what to do. She felt hopeless and did not feel like she was a good mother. However, that night, her son was a one of the children that came up to receive Christ and he has not been the same. He is now one of the nicest, respectful and obedient children. She is amazed, and is praising God for touching the life of her child, as well as hers. God is good!

On the flood front. We have received an unprecedented amount of rain this year. It has caused a lot of problems not only for the people in the city, but also those along the river systems in the area. Most of the houses along the river have water to their window sills. However, the people do not want to move because they either have nowhere to go or they fear that their possessions will be swept away with the water. So they have placed wood above the water and are essentially living in the part of their house that is the window sill to the ceiling. Some are staying in their small boats. It is sad to see because you know that they are suffering. We were out on the river with a short term mission team from Columbus and we were able to ease the burden a bit by handing out food to many along the river we traveled.

Last month, I reported that Sydney went into rehab and was on his way to recovery. Unfortunately, we have just learned that he left the rehab center. We have not heard from him. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

On a personal note, Alyssa is going for the world record of watching Nemo. She is in love with Nemo and has nearly watched it every day for the last three months. Nemo is her favorite word. One of our friends found this fish in the river and put it in a two liter bottle, she loved it. She kept hugging the fish. Camilly is doing well and she loves going to school and playing every day

.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

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.