May 2019 Amazon Update!!!

In the previous last 2 monthly blog updates I have written about our campaign to increase the number of home groups in the church.  To recap, the idea was to have Elba create a video series called the "The Real Jesus" based off The Vineyard Columbus rendition.  We would then distribute the DVD to members of the congregation that are willing to open up their home, serve a snack, and play the DVD.  We worked hard to produce the videos weekly and we got them completed.

1.      The historic Jesus

2.      Jesus the Master

3.      Jesus the Sufferer

4.   Jesus the Healer

5.   Jesus the King

During the campaign we created over 20 new groups.   This was very exciting and we were wondering if any of these home groups would continue meeting together after the campaign.  We are happy to report that 7 groups made commitments to continue to meet together.  We are very surprised by the result and look forward to seeing how these groups will mature, create community, and disciples.  In addition, some other churches are asking for the videos that were created so they could do the same campaign.  Awesome!!!

The Easter weekend service went very well and we had a large turnout not only for the evening service, but for the early morning service as well.  We encouraged our members to bring their friends to come and celebrate.  In the morning service, we had a nice time of worship, shared the Word of God and then we ate breakfast together.  It was a lot of fun, a lot of food, and a labor of love.  In the evening service, Camilly was part of dance team that performed for the church.  They practiced really hard and the result proved in their performance.  We were glad to see some new faces come to the church to celebrate Easter together.  It was a great service to celebrate the Lord's resurrection.  Praise the Lord!

Our church is committed to mission and one of the places that we go to frequently is a place called the Suribim.  It is about 100 kilometers away from the church and they have been thriving in this remote community.  However, some sin issues have presented themselves in the community and it has caused problems within the congregation.  Sometimes within these remote communities it is not unheard of for people to take the matters into their own hand to administer justice.  Sometimes this justice leads to death.  We believe that Jesus has touched a majority of the people in this community and he is changing people from the inside out.  It is amazing how when Jesus is introduced into a community and people take hold of His good news, a people group is changed…as well as the community.  However, we still ask you to pray for this community for healing and reconciliation.  The first picture is of Elba's twin sister, Nira. 

As mentioned above, Camilly was a part of dance team and they performed really well and the church loved the dance.  Actually, the following week.  A director at one of the public school asked if the dance team would come to their school and do the same presentation for their students.  That was such an honor, and a great way to show the love of Christ through the dance team.  Here are the girl's Mother's day picture together.  It is a great picture and they all look so beautiful. 

Please pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.   Please pray specifically for Elba.  She had been experiencing a lot of pain in her abdomen / back area.  We thought it was a kidney stone but that got ruled out.  The new thought is a herniated disk. 

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Livre de vírus. www.avast.com.

Happy Easter! Praise the Lord for He has risen!

As I mentioned last month the church started a new campaign to increase the number of home groups in the church.  The idea is to have Elba create a video series called the “The Real Jesus” based off The Vineyard Columbus rendition.  We would then distribute the DVD to members of the congregation that are willing to open up their home, serve a snack, and play the DVD.  We have been working hard to produce the video’s weekly and we have already done 3 videos to date.

1.      The historic Jesus

2.      Jesus the Master

3.      Jesus the Sufferer

During the campaign we have created over 20 new groups.   This is very exciting and we are praying that after this campaign the groups will stay together and continue meeting together weekly.  Below are some new groups meeting.  Please join us in this prayer. 

We also got the opportunity to visit our new church plant called “Mexicano” and Elba got the opportunity to share the Word.  It is still a small community of believers but there is great faith and fellowship.  It was exciting.  After the service they served a rather large meal for everyone that came.  I asked if they prepared a meal because we came, they said “no”, and thankfully I learned that on most Sunday’s congregants bring food and eat after the service.  You can sense that there is strong fellowship and community.  We could not be happier.  Please continue to pray for them. 

Camilly and some of her classmates went out to the local senior home to serve the men and women that live there.  The conditions are primitive and we felt welcomed by our visit.  One of the students read them a poem and then we began to serve cake and juice.  We thought we brought way too much cake and juice, but nope, they really enjoyed it and they ate it all up.  We were really happy to see Camilly participate in this outreach.   Alyssa has been learning how to draw digitally, and this has become one of her hobbies.  It is fun to see the creativity come from them. 

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

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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March 2019 Amazon Update!

One of the annual events that the churches participate in is our annual “Cristoval” 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 almost every city in the country shuts down allowing full participation by the people.  However, and praise the Lord, this was the 2^nd year that the mayor’s office did not fund any carnival event here.  The Vineyard churches combined efforts many years ago to begin “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 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.  Elba had the privilege to preach the first night. 

 

It was really powerful in the lives of the hundreds of youth and adults that participated in the conference.  However, there was one youth in particular that we were so fond to send to the event.  Yes, Camilly was old enough to participate and she had a great time being with her friends, and celebrating the Lord.  As parents, we got to experience Camilly for the first time initiate prayer for one of her friends on her own.  It was deeply exciting for both Elba and I and we were close to tears.  Unfortunately, in her 2^nd day at the event, she got very sick and we took her home. 

The church is doing well and we are in the midst of starting a new campaign to increase the number of home groups in the church.  Home group growth has always been a challenge for the church.  Challenges range from the home group leader feeling inept, to members not having time due to the busyness of life, work and such.  The campaign that we are using was developed by the Vineyard Columbus.  The idea is to have Elba create a video series and then we distribute the DVD to members of the congregation that are willing to open up their home, serve a snack, and play the DVD.  We are trying to keep it as simple as possible with the ultimate hope that the group stays together after the campaign.  In addition, once a month, we have been training our current small group leaders.  Please pray for great success and lasting results for the campaign.  I will keep you posted. 

During our time off we got the opportunity to visit the Maquine caves in Minas Gerais.  It was really massive, awesome and beautiful to see. 

We appreciate you so much for all your prayers and support.  May the Lord’s joy and comfort be upon you always.   

Please pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.   Also, please pray for Steve as he will be having a small surgery to remove a large varicose vein. 

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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February 2019 Amazon Update!!!

We have been traveling for personal vacation time which was very nice and needed.  We ended our time in Brasilia and the church asked Elba if she was interested in hosting a woman’s conference.  She agreed and spoke to the women.  During the conference she talked about the empowerment and transformation of women in ministry and encouraged the women to step up into leadership. 

As a strong woman leader in a predominant male hierarchy culture, Elba is unique because women in leadership is not embraced by everyone with welcoming arms especially in the North where we serve, but also in the South of Brazil.  It is a fight not only to be heard as a woman, but to be respected and to have authority.  Elba has done a great job in establishing and positioning herself as a woman leader, and is passionate to keep empowering and pushing through the resistance and removing all of the barriers.  We really believe that if we are to evangelize this world, we all need to participate and lead. 

After the conference, Elba spoke at 2 of the churches in Brasilia.  During Elba’s preaching she wanted to make it clear to the congregation by saying “you invited me to come and speak to the women and empower them, I believe that was accomplished, so now, let them do it.”  It seems clear to us. 

After the conference we went to our missionary care retreat.  The missionary care retreat is awesome as it allows all of our missionaries to come to one place and be with one another.  Our missionaries are now spread out distance wise and almost all of our missionaries are serving alone.  Serving alone in a foreign land with a different culture is difficult and challenging.  Day by day we walk out the call of God in our lives and our dependency to lean into the Holy Spirit is crucial.  Community with other missionaries who are walking out that same journey is incredibly refreshing, re-energizing, and encouraging.  We highly value this time.  We were grateful for Danny and Penny Meyer to come to minister to all of us.  

My sister Lynn came down as well, and she helped with child care at the retreat while we were in the meetings

Unfortunately, during our travels our cat, Bob, passed away.  It was very sad and there were tears.  He was a good cat, extremely smart and a good rat killer.  We will miss our Bob.  During that same time, one of our dogs had a litter of pups.  They are cute and are just learning how to start walking around. 

We appreciate you so much for all your prayers and support.  May the Lord’s joy and comfort be upon you always.   

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

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

December 2018 Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year from the Amazon

We experienced two very exciting things at the church.  The Xingu Mission is all about training leaders and planting churches.  Unfortunately, these are not instantaneous occurrences and they take time to develop, nurture, grow and release.  We just had 15 member of our church complete training through the Vineyard Institute here in Brazil.  Vineyard Institute exists to equip people through high quality biblical and theological education integrated with spiritual formation so that they are prepared for kingdom work at any level in the church.  We are hoping that one day they will be church planters!    

In addition, Cleiton and Cristiane have been serving faithfully as our youth pastors for many years.  They are passionate leaders and love the Lord.  We have a small group that is about a 20 minute drive from the church.  This small group has been growing and are developing into a large congregation that is outgrowing their small wood house.  We are sending Cleiton and Cristiane to be the pastors of this congregation to help in the work that the Holy Spirit is doing.  We are so excited about sending them and we are excited about what the future holds for this group of believers.  Planting churches and watching lives change to be like Christ is such a blessing and brings joy to our hearts.  Please pray for them and the new Mexicano church. 

 

The girls helped prepare the Christmas tree this year.  However, there was a lot of fuss because Mom wanted to put the tree up before December.  It just did not feel right to put the tree up in November for the girls.  But since it was just a couple of days before December, they conceded, and the tree was up and they did a great job.  The girls also did well in school and received awards for their grades and performance.  They had a presentation and everyone got dressed up for the occasion.  They are always excited if they can go to school events without their everyday uniforms.  We feel blessed!

 

Again, Merry CHRISTmas to you.  We appreciate you so much for all your prayers and support.  May the Lord’s joy and comfort be upon you always.   

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

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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November 2018 Amazon Update!

It has been another exciting month and one of the biggest excitements was the baptism we had at the church.  It is always a big celebration in the church, and praise the Lord, in heaven as well.  I love that during the baptism the church is singing and worshiping God and the symbolism of letting the person be completely immersed in water being baptized into Jesus’ death on the cross and no longer being slaves to self or sin.  When they are raised out of the water they are raised into a new life in Christ and are with Him forever.  Praise the Lord for these 10 people that made this public declaration of faith.  We are a bit partial for this baptism as Alyssa was one of the people who we baptized.  It was truly a blessing.  However, unlike all the others being baptized who walked down the stairs into the water.  Alyssa instead decided to jump into the water.  Yep, that’s the pastor’s kid.  :-)  Please keep these new believers in your prayers.

Elba went down to the National Vineyard Conference in Sao Paulo.  Elba has stepped into the National leader position temporarily in Brazil due to the death of our leader’s wife.  She helped coordinate the event and shared at the conference to the pastors and leaders in the South.  During the conference they had great worship, teaching, and time for prayers.  In addition, they introduced 5 new churches and 1 church plant.  Amen!!!

The conference was called “Why Church” which is an expansive response.  They focused on the topics “Church to worship, Church to reconcile and Church to serve”.  Another great benefit to the teachings is just being together with one another.  There is much encouragement, and refreshment when we can share our hurts, challenges, and accomplishments. 

This is what happens when you overextend your front flip on the trampoline.  OUCH.  She is doing much better now and it is healing.  She is a tough girl.  At the church, the girls participated in the children day celebration.  Children’s day is a National holiday in Brazil.  We hosted many children in the community with games, entertainment, food, and face painting.  It was a big hit.  

 

 

On a funny note, I was driving in town and saw this dog on the back of this guy’s motorbike.  I had to take a picture.  I was concerned the dog was going to fall off.  I followed them into town, and the owner was driving fairly fast, but the dog never fell and seemed to be having a blast.  

 

Please pray for spiritual, physical, financial and emotional health for us.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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September 2018 Amazon Update!

Thank you so much for your prayers for the dentist team that came and served.  It was another amazing time of serving the community and helping people with dental needs that otherwise would not be able to get easy access to this care.  This year the dental team went on the river with the Marantha III and VI to serve communities near Belo Monte.  The Marantha III was retrofitted to serve as a dental clinic and the team worked tireless hours serving the community needs.  In these short two weeks the volunteer dentist team served 353 people doing cleanings, repairing cavities, pulling teeth, and making dentures.  It was an incredible work and we pray the Lord’s continued hand upon them all.  It has been a pleasure partnering with our sister church in Brasilia to serve the people, and share Jesus Christ.




Here are the statistics of the people served in the last years.  Amazing work considering they do this once per year for 2 weeks.  Since this project is self-funded, they are limited to only once per year.

Coming right off the boat we got prepared for our annual pastoral training.  The retreat training was surrounded around various topics such as mental health awareness such as depression and suicide.  They also taught on ethics in pastoral counseling, and marriage and divorce in the church.  It is training that a lot of our pastors need to become more skilled.  There were more pastors wanting to participate but were unable to afford the travel cost to get here.  In some of those cases, we tried to at least help 1 pastor participate. 

In addition, the pastors did an exercise with some of the years written on the wall and they were asked to write significant events that happened during that time.  It was very encouraging for all of us to stop and look back and reminisce at where we have come from, and then, start pushing ahead into the work for the future.  

The girls are doing well and are participating fully at school.  One of the things that I think is cute is that the girls really like to listen to 1950’s music.  Camilly's favorite music is Mr Sandman, and Alyssa likes Lollipop by The Chordettes.  I think it is sweet.  Below is a picture of Camilly listening to some music, and Alyssa participating in her annual “Independence Games” competition at school.  

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

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa