Amazon Update

CDR, our community center, went across town to serve the people of the Colina neighborhood. Over 1000 people were served in a local school. The students and staff of CDR provided many services to the community such as doctor consultations, fluoride treatments, diabetes and high blood pressure testing, legal counseling, haircuts, a free meal, and a church service in the evening. It was a true blessing for those who served, and the people of the Colina were very grateful. Later that evening, we had a church service with the opportunity to pray for many people. The whole day was a success and a great way to express God’s love for His people.

The churches in the city came together for a March for Jesus. We walked along the streets praising the Lord, praying for City officials and for the sick at the hospitals. There were a lot of people, and it was a great demonstration of God’s community in Altamira. Elba preached and prayed on a large truck with speakers, and Camilly, Alyssa and I passed out water to those participating in the march. In the end, we pray that the love of Jesus was breaking down barriers for people who do not know Him, and between Christian denominations so that we can become more like the body of Christ.

Alyssa celebrated her 4^th birthday on July 4^th. It was a really fun day for her as she spent the day with her friends. She got a new princess dress and she ate a lot of cake. We also played games such as Cornhole. Yes, can you believe it? Elba has been asking me for months to make a Cornhole set (Clyde Bergquist actually made it) and it has been a real hit with the Brazilians! Who would have ever thought that Cornhole would be able break down cross cultural barriers?

Please continue to also keep us in your prayers for spiritual, physical, and emotional health. Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

Amazon Update

We’ve had a very special month at church. The Spirit of the Lord was moving within people to make decisions for Christ. It’s always wonderful to see people start this journey with Jesus and allow Him to work in their lives. One of the people that accepted Christ is a city council person. He is very good man and has helped the poor in our area tremendously. The doctors told him that he did not have much time to live because he has had three strokes, uses only 60% of lung capacity (heavy smoker), and has prostate cancer. The day he was leaving to go on the trip to see some doctors, he was so scared because he thought for sure that he was going to die. We sat down with him and listened to all of the struggles that he was going through. Then we shared the Gospel with him and he accepted Christ. After we prayed for him, Jesus renewed his faith and he was not scared. He went that day to see the doctors and they ran another battery of test for his prostate and lungs. The numbers for his prostate came back very low and he had improvement in his lungs. Praise the Lord for continuing to use our church to draw people close to Him and for his healing power.

Clyde and Kelsie Bergquist, who are missionaries planting churches in both Uruará and Maribel, found this little boy in desperate need of a wheelchair. Praise the Lord there was one available and we were able to bless this boy. Wheelchairs are cost prohibited and we were happy to be able to give a helping hand to this family. We understand this to be a very difficult situation for the family because the mom is very young and rebellious and doesn't take care of her son very well. The Bergquists believe that God is calling them to embrace this family and show the love of Jesus and His great mercy. In addition, since the Bergquist are just starting to plant seeds in Uruará, the wheelchair went a long way to promote goodwill with the people. Please pray for the Bergquists that the Lord will continue to move in power with their new church planting efforts in Uruará and Maribel, as well as this boy and his family.

Guess who lost their first tooth? Camilly came up to Elba and I and said that her tooth was getting loose. She continued to play with it the rest of the day and it became even looser. She was getting excited because she was moving into the next phase of her becoming a big girl. She wanted to pull the tooth. We got some string and tied it around the tooth. I then tied it to the bathroom door and then slammed the door as hard as possible….Just kidding….We then gave her the string and within 1 minute she pulled the tooth. She is so brave. She was so excited and almost immediately put the tooth underneath her pillow in hope that the tooth fairy would bring her a designer purse. Designer purse!!! What happened to the quarter that I received when I was a boy? In the end, she woke up to R$1.00 and complained that she did not receive her purse. Well, she still has 20 more teeth, maybe in the end she will be able to afford that purse. ;-)

Please continue to also keep us in your prayers for spiritual, physical, and emotional health. Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

Amazon May update

We had a really nice Easter Sunday. In the morning, some of the church members came to church to worship the Lord and break bread together. This breakfast broke a 21 day fast by many members of the church. Later that evening we had another church service and it was a great day to celebrate our Lord’s resurrection. Also, we had an Easter egg hunt, well let me rephrase that, a candy hunt in our yard with the girls and their neighborhood friends. They loved it.

Elba and I went to the capital of our State, Belém, to participate in a 3 day national leadership retreat. It was a great time to reconnect to all of our friends, and make intentional time to spend with God. Yes, even though we are missionaries and pastors, the busyness of life has its ways to draw us away from God and our relationship with Him. We learned different ways to pray and draw close to God through silence and solitude. One of the techniques that I thought was really helpful was called imaginative reading. Essentially you choose a bible verse, read it, and then imagine yourself as an on-looker or part of the action. It was really helpful to meditate in this fashion plus hear all the different perspectives of everyone from the group when we shared our experience.

Elba took the plane to Belém which took a little over 1 hour to arrive. I drove our truck and it took us 2 days with a combined total of 17 hours of driving. The road conditions are rough as you can see in the pictures below. Also below is a picture of the group at the meeting. Rick Bergen put this shot together by combining several photos.

During our trip in Belém, Camilly had a bad accident. She was playing hide and seek and during the excitement of the game she went to close a glass door and she put her hand right through it. OUCH! She was rushed to the hospital and received lots of stitches on her arm and thumb. By the grace of God, no veins or tendons were severed. THANK YOU JESUS! This happened a day before her birthday. Camilly turned 6 years old and she had a great time at her birthday despite the injury.

Please continue to also keep us in your prayers for spiritual, physical, and emotional health. Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

April Update

This month we had 40+ men participate in a conference called “Men’s Revival”. The teachings were about the role of men in the Kingdom of God, their home, and the community. One of the big problems with men in this community is that they have become lackadaisical in their roles as men. Typically, the women make all the decisions, care for the children, and work to financially sustain the house. (Personally, I thought this was the role of the women and I loved it! LOL.) The men’s attitude is “Heck, if she can do it, let her do it. Then I do not have to bear any of the responsibility.” The messages at the conference were tough about how we as men need to get back into the game of life and back to the plan that God has for us. The conference, as of almost two weeks later, seems to be sticking with the guys because we have heard positive comments from their wives and friends.

Another very exciting event this month was that 5 people were baptized into Christ. Some of the congregation came out along the Xingu River to watch their brothers and sisters in Christ make their public declaration to Christ. They worshiped along the river edge while they were being baptized. Afterwards, we all went to our house and had a big barbecue. It was a good day.

Jim, Sharon, Patty and our family went to the trash dump and to local houses to give away clothes, shoes, and toys to the adults and kids. The adults and kids work at the trash dump collecting aluminum cans, 2-liter plastic bottles, and anything else of value. We took Camilly and Alyssa because it is very important to us to show them that they are so blessed to have what they have and to demonstrate the blessings of giving. I think it worked because the other day, Camilly asked if we could bake a cake and bring it to the people at the trash dump. We plan to make another visit.

Please keep our church in your prayers. The church leaders and members decided that they would like to buy 2 evaporative A/C coolers for the church. The cost is R$20,000 for the both of them. The church is selling raffle tickets for R$1.00 and the grand prize is a Honda Biz. The church would also like to lay tile which will cost another R$20,000. Please pray that the church will make all the money necessary for these two projects.

Please continue to also keep us in your prayers for spiritual, physical, and emotional health. Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

March Update

As a leader of the National movement in Brazil, Elba is responsible to go and visit churches in the Northern part of Brazil. Last month Elba and I left on 24 hour boat trip to visit a church in Macapá. The main purpose of the trip was to encourage the church and appoint one of their leaders to be the new pastor because the church had been going through many organizational changes. Elba appointed Jeude as the new pastor. Jeude is a single woman and loves the Lord. Outside of Jeude’s responsibilities at the church, she is a fulltime teacher. Our visit was very encouraging and we have great hope that the Lord is going to build up His people through this church. We believe that with the new leadership that the church is going to take off. Please keep Jeude and the Macapá church in your prayers.

Fernando and Marcia used to be leaders at the Mirante church. They worked with us for many years and then decided to move to another city called Palmas over 620 miles away. Before they left we encouraged them to continue in the work of the Lord and to start a home church. A year later they now have a thriving little home church. We sent Nira (Elba’s twin sister) to go and encourage the church and to baptize some of their new believers. Personally, I love this church plant because it has had very little influence from foreign missionaries and was planted by the local church. This is great because it fulfills one of our biggest objectives as a mission which is to start a National church planting movement. Please keep Fernando and Marcia, and their home church in your prayers.

Guess who is going to school? Yes, Camilly and Alyssa are both going to the same school. They go to school in the morning which is always tough to get them motivated. But once they get there they really enjoy their time. Camilly is still scared that we are going to forget her and not pick her up. So, each morning, I have to give her pinky promises that I will pick her up. Once I give her my pinky promise her anxiety calms down. Please keep us as a family in your prayers. OK? Pinky promise?

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

February update

A couple of months ago, we wrote that we had 5 couples going through our pre-marital program at the church. In February, 3 of those couples came and placed their marriage before the Lord. It was a great wedding and a great testimony of the lives being changed because of Christ. Since it is acceptable to live together outside of marriage there is no real pressure to get married, but these couples wanted God’s blessing. They wanted Jesus to be the center of their relationship to bound them together tighter. We are proud of these couples for going against the norm by making a public declaration of their love to the community and to the Lord.

One of the big pushes at the Mirante Church is to be a part of a home group. Home group are good because it allows our Christian walk to be more intimate with other Christians. It allows us to share with one another our struggles and successes. Plus, we can share God’s word and allow questions and answers in a safe environment. Since the Mirante is somewhat of a large church, home groups promote community within the body of Christ. To some degree, the home group is another church service because we come together to worship the Lord, share the Word of God, pray, break bread and have community.

Here is Alyssa lying down with her new puppy. Actually, we got 2 Doberman pinchers puppies from a guy in the neighborhood. We took them to the vet to get their initial shots and soon after they got really sick. Our neighbor, who loves puppies, stayed up with them the whole night tending to their needs. We tried everything, but to no avail, and they both died. We suspect that they were overdosed with the vaccine. Elba and I were faced with having to break the bad news to Alyssa and Camilly. Even though we only had them for a week we were unsure how attached the girls were to the puppies. It was at bedtime that one of the puppies passed away and we were putting the girls down to sleep. We sat with both of the girls and gently told them about the loss of the dog. After a moment’s pause, Alyssa looked up at us and said “where is my chocolate milk?” Elba and I both looked at each other and smiled and said “we’ll get that for you right away.” Thankfully, it was not as traumatic as we thought it would be.

Here is a little snake that we caught in our backyard. Apollo, Alyssa and Camilly all touched it. It was the first time they ever felt a snake. For Camilly, she hopes it will be the last.

On our way back from Belém this truck crashed spilling all of its contents. Unfortunately, the contents that the truck spilled were hundreds of car batteries. It was a mess and very potentially lethal situation. The roads that we have to travel are dangerous. Please continue to pray for our protection, good health, and God’s success over our lives.

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa

January update

We hope that you had a great CHRISTmas and a happy new year. Ours was very good. Elba parents and brother came into town and we had a nice time visiting and getting caught up on life. We pray that you enjoy our latest blog.

Sex trafficking has been a hot topic in the United States and it is starting to really gain ground here in Brazil. According to Wikipedia, Brazil is considered to have the worst child sex trafficking record. Unfortunately, human trafficking is one of the most flourishing and profitable criminal industries of the world. We sponsored and held meetings at the church in an effort to increase awareness and to help protect children in Brazil. About 500 kids participated and we talked to them about sex trafficking and offered assistance to any child that was presently being abused. We also had the chance to pray for them. We pray that the children left more aware of the dangers of sex trafficking and that a little information will go a long way to removing this abuse in Brazil and off this planet. Below are pictures of our early morning session.

These couples, not all future spouses or husbands present, are in the process of getting married. They have been coming over during the weekends and we have been teaching them Godly principles of marriage such as intimacy, goals versus desires, purity, and finances. Even though these couples live together and have children, it is really important to reinforce these principles to help them start their lives as married couples successfully. In this part of Brazil, it is very common to live together and start a family without being legally married. Even though they are not legally married, they refer to each other as husband and wife which is always awkward for me when I ask “Are you really married?” It is awkward because I would never ask that question to someone in the US. Nevertheless, we are very proud of these couples for putting their marriage before the Lord and being a great example to the community. Please keep these couples in your prayers.

Camilly and Alyssa are doing well. They love playing on the trampoline. Camilly is getting to be a good jumper. Can you believe it, she is already doing front flips. Alyssa is not far behind her, however, she would much rather ride Dad like a horse. We always have a great time jumping together, but my knees are starting to pay for it.

Love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa