March Amazon Update!

Thank you so much for your prayers for our Cristoval event that took place during Carnival.  As I mentioned in our last update, 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 began “Cristoval”, 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 throughout the years, drawing kids toward Jesus and allowing an alternative during Carnival. 

This year we brought in Jim Anderson and his team from Life-line ministries.  Jim and the team, Jason and Sean, shared from principles from Jim’s book called “Unmasked: exposing the cultural sexual assault”.  This is such a great topic in this culture which is sexually charged and there does not appear to be many boundaries.  It is also very timely because of its complete contradiction of Carnival and the sexual temptations that lures so many to having a sexual relationship outside of God’s will and purpose.  Jim shared from his book the revelations about:

·         God’s gift of sexuality

·         The heart of a woman

·         God’s true design for men and women

·         How to be “men of honor” and “princesses of God” and to walk in the beauty of His creation. 

It was really powerful in the lives of the hundreds of youth that participated in the conference.  Even though it poured down rain a lot of the time, nothing was getting in the way of these youth getting to know Jesus more and His good plan for their lives. 

In order to accommodate the hundreds of youth at the camp.  They all sleep in hammocks.  They also played a lot of soccer and volleyball. 

As a follow-up.  Jim and his team preached at our church to the parents and pastors of the youth that were or were not participating in Cristoval.  This was key so that when the youth came back to their homes and their normal day to day life the parents would have a better understanding of what they were taught and then reinforce those Biblical truths on a daily basis.  They focused on:

·         A father’s role in protecting his daughters and training his sons in the ways of the Lord

·         A call to pastors and leaders to identify, confront, and tear down the worship of the sex gods in the culture and create a culture in the church to train God’s people in purity and His ways in relationships. 

On a personal note a statement that struck me during the conference was “I am not living for a feeling but am living for God”.  It struck me because sometimes I live with the notion that if it feels right, it must be God.  However, that can be far from the truth.  Just a good reminder how we must seek God’s will and desires outside of if it feels good or not. 

The girls are doing well and are back in school.  Since they missed some school due to our time in the States they had to cram to get caught up.  They just finished all their tests and praise the Lord they did amazingly well.  We are so grateful, and so are they.  Here is a picture of the girls playing with Sean’s hair.  They had a lot of fun with the team. 

Please also 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/

Jim and his team really wanted to see a tarantula.  It did not take long to find many along the ground burrowed in their holes.  Then we found this monster in the tree. 

February Amazon Update!

We made it back safely to Brazil and appreciate greatly all of your prayers.  We wish we could thank everyone personally for their prayers, friendship, support, and love while we were back.  It was truly a wonderful experience, and unfortunately the time went by so quickly.  We wish we were able to see more of our family and friends while we were back but the constraint of time makes it a huge challenge. 

We were very grateful to be able to see most of our family and friends, and have the opportunity to share at their churches.  It was a real pleasure getting to see our old friends, and making some new friends along the way.  Below are some pictures of Elba preaching.  She was very busy as she had the honor of sharing at The Vineyard Community church in Pickerington / Reynoldsburg, Madison County Vineyard and New Hope Vineyard Church.  Plus, she had a great time sharing at the Vineyard Church of Delaware County woman’s meeting, and then finally she was the key note speaker at the Vineyard Columbus woman’s conference.  Praise the Lord, the Spirit was alive at each of these churches and events. 

 

We are coming back running as the churches are preparing their Cristoval celebration this week.  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 began “Cristoval”, 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 throughout the years, drawing kids toward Jesus and allowing an alternative during Carnival.  Here in Altamira, we will be having Jim Anderson and his team come and speak about his book “Unmasked: exposing the cultural sexual assault”.  We are expecting the Holy Spirit to show up in a great way and the participants will respond by changing a culture.  Please keep us, and all the churches in your prayers. 

We were also able to get away for a little bit of time before coming back to Brazil.  We got the opportunity to go to the Creation Museum, The Ark, and then spent the rest of our time in Fort Myers.  The girls loved swimming every day, playing putt-putt, and going bowling.  They also loved the food…so did we.  Camilly’s favorite food was a bacon cheeseburger, and Alyssa loved tacos with meat, cheese and sour cream. 

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

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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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/

Here is Camilly at COSI experiencing static electricity first hand.   Alyssa tamed this wild horse as they rode off in the sunset. 

December Amazon Update - Merry CHRISTmas!

Merry CHRISTmas.  We pray that this Christmas will be very special for you and your loved ones.   We are grateful to be back in the States to see our family and friends like you.  I also felt like the Lord wanted me to tell you that He sees you, loves you, and that He is with you.   Pray you enjoy the below email and again, have a great Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Before coming back to the States we had a community wedding where 6 couples got married.  It was a really great time and we were very proud of these couples.  Two of the couples had been married at the justice of the peace several years prior but never had a formal celebration.  We also had a Mom and Dad get married, alongside of their son and daughter.  It was a really cool sight to see the Mom and Dad getting married with their children which is something that you do not see every day.  There were lots of smiles of happiness and tears of joy, and the Lord was smiling in their midst as they made their public testimony of dedication and commitment to Christ.  Another blessing was that all of the dresses were donated which went a long way to making this a very special day. 

Also before coming back to the States, Elba went to Porto de Moz to speak to their congregation and encourage them in the Lord.  Thankfully she was able to take a speedboat which only took about 4-5 hours to get there.  They were really excited about her visit and they had many performances and dances for the special time.  As a treat, Elba got to eat her favorite fish which is a hard shelled fish that is prehistoric in nature.  It is a bottom feeder and she grew up eating it.  Personally, I ate it once, and then went to the hospital….no joke. 

We drove up from Florida which had some great weather.  During our trip up we had many competing prayers between the kids and us.  They were praying for snow and cold, and we were trying to rebuke those prayers with warm weather.  When we arrived in Columbus this past weekend, it was a rude awakening, and the girl’s prayers prevailed.   However, we are still praying for warmer weather….brrrrrr. 

Please also 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/

We went on a little retreat with the church and I was just about to lay down in my hammock when I heard these plops on the ground.  I thought it was fruit falling from the tree but upon further investigation I saw that it was poop.  I then looked up and saw the monkeys just above me trying to mark their territory on my head.  Then they started to unleash a poop storm.  Needless to say I moved quickly from that spot.  This was my firsthand experience of an animal marking their territory….they won.  J

    

November Amazon Update and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  As you will see below, we will be coming back to Ohio around December 15th and staying in the Ohio area until February 5th.  We would love to see you.  If this works for you, please send me some dates so we can mark something on the calendar.  OK?  Thanks and we look forward to seeing you soon.  Pray you are blessed with the below email.

I started a small group bible study and we just completed our 26^th week.  This bible study is unlike the bible studies that I am used to as we adopted the Discipleship Making model.  It is a really simple model and one that is very easy to facilitate.  The model has been adopted in many areas throughout the world and has really caught on fire.  I cannot do the model justice in this brief email https://idisciple.cityteam.org/ but essentially we ask the same simple questions week after week like:

• What are you thankful for this week? (Prayer/Worship)
• What has stressed you out this week? 
• What do you need for things to be better? (Intercession) 
• What are the needs of the people in your community? (Ministry)
• Let’s see what the Bible teaches us this week. Read this week’s passage. (Scripture)
• What does this passage teach us about God? (Discovery/Scripture/Priesthood of Believers)

Our group consists of friends that do not attend church on a regular basis.  I am not sure of the reasons why they do not go to church, however, week after week they continue to invite us back to have home church at their house to talk about their lives, God, and the Bible. 

I like these questions because even if you know it or not, we are honoring and giving praise to God.  Plus, we get the opportunity to open up the scriptures to our friends that normally would not read the bible. 

Elba returned from London, England and we are glad to have her back.  Elba went to London because she serves on the international board for Vineyard Institute.  Vineyard Institute is an educational provider for the Vineyard movement, formed to develop leaders at all levels of church life through high quality theological training http://vineyardinstitute.org/ .  While she was there for her meeting she had the opportunity to go and speak at the Trent Vineyard.  She preached on “God’s People – A Missionary People”.  While she was gone we celebrated our 13^th year wedding anniversary.  Thankfully, I was able to send her some flowers for the occasion. 

The girls continue to do well and excel at school.  Obviously, we are very proud parents and are grateful to their dedication to school.  They won 2 gold medals for their school performance.  Camilly, with the help of Clenildo (one of her Brazilian Grandpas), made this replication of a river and Indian community.  They made it out of Styrofoam, paper, and wire. They did an amazing job.  Alyssa is also becoming an artist.  She painted this on Styrofoam tray.  Again, proud parents!

As we mentioned last month, Elba was invited to come and speak at the Vineyard Columbus woman’s conference to be held in February 2017.  Elba is excited about this opportunity and since it is coming up to our time to visit the States, we accepted with great enthusiasm.  We will be coming back to the States on December 10^th and staying in the Columbus area until February 5^th.  We look forward to seeing and spending time with our family during Christmas.  We also look forward to seeing you.  Would you like to get together?  If so, write me back and let’s get something on the calendar. 

Please also 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/

Richie Bouthillier took this photo while on a boat trip with the Dentist team.  The dog fell asleep like this.