Steve and Elba Dolan in the Amazon

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

February Amazon Update! Steve and Elba

One of the events that the Mirante Church participated in recently 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.

As a church we are continually engaging our community to reach people for Christ. One of those ways is to hit the streets and pray for people for healing. We went to the corner grocery store and setup tent. We prayed for many people for healing. We also had a lot of people want us to pray for them and their family for peace and protection over them. The city is going through a lot of transitions and it is not safe with lots of robberies, and murders. We pray that this time that we had with them will draw them closer to God.

When the rainy season starts we have these large ants come out. They are large and have big butts. Elba told us that when she was a little girl they would pinch off their butt and fry them up and eat them. The girls and I winced but we were up for the challenge. We fried them up and ate them, well some of us ate them. Camilly chewed it up and spit it out. This was the first time that I consciously ate an insect and it was definitely different. It tasted like a peanut in the beginning, and then later it tasted like liver. It was interesting but I think it will be the last time we eat ant butts: 

We would like to ask you to join us in prayer for our dear friends and brothers in the Lord, Orlando and Mateus (father and son). Orlando needs lung transplant and Mateus needs a bone marrow transplant. They need a miracle. Please pray for them!!!

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

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

Friday, January 22, 2016

January Amazon Update! Steve and Elba

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

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

Thursday, December 17, 2015

December Amazon Update! Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year! Steve and Elba

Thank you so much for your friendship, and prayers throughout the year. 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 the Lord will bless you richly and that you have a great Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Again, thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

I love this. Just last week the Mirante church sent this mission team out to visit a community called Surubim. Elba’s twin sister Nira led the group as they traveled to this community which is about 150 kilometers from Altamira and has a thriving community of believers. We visit periodically to encourage the leadership, and the congregation. There were many people in attendance that came to have fellowship with one another, share a meal, worship the Lord and share the Gospel. One of the congregation members killed a cow and gave some of it to help with the celebration. One of the ladies who volunteered to go on the mission trip is 59 years old. She was a trooper as a good portion of the way is on dirt roads. They laid the bike over once during the trip but thankfully there were no injuries. However, her discomfort was not a hindrance to go and show the love of Christ.

Aside from CDR providing English and Computer classes, as well as teaching people how to sew, all at a deep discounted price compared to the other schools in the city, they also went to one of the local schools as they have for the last several years to teach the students about “safe touch”. They sang worship songs to the students, did a puppet show, danced Hip Hop, and taught the students the importance of safe touch, and then provided a meal. It is our great hope that by teaching these children some principles about what is safe, and general safety tips it will help prevent these children from being abused. Also, if abuse is happening, it may give the child the courage to tell someone in authority so that they can be helped and protected.

The school semester is coming to a close and the girls will be out for Christmas break. The school gave them awards called “Diamond”. It is the highest award that a student can get at the school. We are very proud of them for being such good students and doing their best at school. Also pictured are Camilly and Alyssa best friends. Camilly and Alyssa bought them all best friend necklaces. However, the fact of the matter is that they have many best friends to which we are grateful. Please pray for Camilly as she has been coughing for the last couple of weeks. Pray for her healing.

Prayer request. Please pray for our city and for us. The city has become very violent especially for a small city. In one night, 15 people were shot resulting in 7 murders. It did not stop there as there were additional murders the following days thereafter. Unfortunately, murder is fairly common here. In the last two months 4 police officers were murdered. We are not sure if this recent wave of murders is retribution to those suspected in the involvement of the police killings. However, we need your prayers for protection, and that the Lord will change people’s heart. Aside from all the murders there has been a sharp increase in armed robberies and motor theft. Just last Sunday someone came and stole one of our member’s motorbike. It is a significant loss because almost no one has insurance and they are expensive.

Please also pray for Osmana. Marcio and Osmana are the pastors at the Independente church. She has been fighting breast cancer and everything appeared to be in remission. However, the doctors just told us that they discovered 2 lesions in her brain. This is very disheartening. The family appears to be at peace and are praying with expectation for a complete healing. Please pray with them.

Please continue to pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.

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 43234

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

November Amazon Update! Steve and Elba

At the church we just recently had a community wedding with 6 couples getting married. It was a BIG deal and a great testimony to a culture that does not place much value in the sanctity of marriage. The even more incredible thing is that 3 of the couples live in a remote community called the Suribim. It is located about 120 kilometers from our church. They have a church there and we have been ministering to this church with visits for the last several years. The community continues to draw close to God and is evident in this wedding where the sanctity of marriage in the communities is even worse than the city. It is such a great thing when couples like these, even some who have been living together and have children, will step out of the cultural forces and make a bold statement to their family, friends and community. What a testimony to how God is moving in the midst of this community and changing people hearts.

The above is a panoramic photo of the couples on the stage with some of their family members while Elba conducted the service.

The weeks leading up the wedding some of the couples would come to our house for dinner and then go through our marriage preparation course.

Some of the dresses that the brides were wearing were donated by woman in the States. This is such a wonderful blessing as it is very expensive to rent wedding dresses in Altamira. The brides were very grateful and looked beautiful.

Elba and I just celebrated our 12th year wedding anniversary. Elba was traveling during our anniversary. She went to Ohio to participate in a meeting for the Vineyard Institute http://vineyardinstitute.org/ where she serves on the board. She then went to visit our friends in Canada, as well as our niece, Apolana. During her time in Canada Elba got the wonderful opportunity to preach at City Life Church. She was received so well and enjoyed her visit to the States and Canada immensely. I also surprised her with flowers while she was in Canada on our anniversary.

The girls missed their Mom while she was gone for 2 weeks. To help, we invited some of their friends to come to our house to play and have a sleep over. When Mom got home she gave them some play dresses and they loved them.