09:16, June 15, 2008 - Bon Dia from Brasil!

Paz (Peade) is how everyone greets each other as they enter church.  You are in worship right now and I'm in Kid's Camp!  We have worship on Sunday evenings all over Brasil (and yes, I am spelling Brasil correctly -- Brazilian style). 
 
Ben shared his heart last night and Zeke gave an incredible message!  the place was full.  the Church's dance team shared a song involvind the cross which was excellent (tell Tracie that i have it on video).
 
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!  They celebrate Father's Day in August here so have a donut for me, too!  I went to a "wake" here last night with Richie.  They lay the body on the kitchen table and place lots of flowers on it (no embalming) and gather for mourning.  No funeral service and they are required to get the body into the ground within 24 hours (but the government is not strict with this.  The lady was 94 years old and was the mother of Jesus' wife (who I've told you about from previous trips).  I took a picture and printed it for them and I'll share it with you when I get home.
 
The team is pooling their funds to help a young couple get corrective shoes for their 2 month old baby whose feet are turned in.  The same happened to the mother and they did surgery that made her feet MUCH, MUCH worse and she does not want her baby going through life the way she has to.  She walks on the top of her feet they are so badly turned.  She is a beautiful young lady, though.  Pray for them.
 
We are going OUT to eat for lunch in honor of Father's day and will have worship tonight in both Porto de Moz churches.  Pray for Marcie as she preaches for the first time!  Tina and possible Zeke or Eric will be sharing their testimony (unsure right now).  Hot here today and pray for Marcie whose knee is causing her some problems today.  Pray for Cassie whose tummy is still upset.
 
PRAISE:  Marcie is going through a wonderful breakthrough and Tracey has NOT had a cigarette since leaving the U.S. and she has not had a patch for a week!  She's not even biting anyone's head off but giving God the PRAISE for the VICTORY!
 
Love to all! 

- Pastor Steve

17:46, June 14, 2008 - It's hard to believe that it is Saturday and we'll be heading back to Altamira this next Tuesday!  Zeke and I will board a plane on Wednesday Morning and the team will continue the mission and do some shopping before getting on the plane next Friday.  I seem to have a good connection right now and praying that it will hold for this update!  

I arose early this morning for a shot of the sunrise -- everyone else slept in (catching up from our river mission).  I have not had a good sunrise or sunset because it has rained and rained and has been constantly overcast.  The same this morning!  I walked towards the beach reading my Bible and Proverbs 14:14 hit me strongly.  Being satisfied!  Check it out.  

We had our first kids camp this morning and it was wonderful.  Everyone commented on the tremendous work Carole had done in organizing it and the missionaries want her to write a manual for all teams who come!  We had about 81 kids, 17 Brazilian youths who helped, the missionaries and the team (of course).  These children are beautiful.  Their innocence, their excitement, their curiosity -- everything.  Tracey asked how many wanted to accept Jesus into their hearts and arms went up everywhere!  Christie led them in the prayer of repentance and off they went.  Everyone worked hard but are excited to do it again tomorrow!  

We had a great lunch, an afternoon break, devotions led by Ben, went swimming and are now getting ready for the evening Youth Rally.  Zeke will be preaching and Ben will be sharing his testimony and the team will be there for ministry.  We plan to grab some ice cream afterwards (a unique experience here) and head to our respective homes for the mission.  Again, we feel blessed to be here and yet a tinge of home-sickness, too!  Do go to church tomorrow and keep the home lights burning!  Pray for Cassie -- touch of a stomach bug but ok.  Love you all!!!!  Tell Josh I'm prayingfor him (and of course Paul, the team, the workers, everyone!!) See you so soon!

- Pastor Steve

22:56, June 13, 2008 - Having unsuccessfully tried multiple times, I am now writing attempting again to update you on our
 river mission.  We successfully landed in Porto de Moz this afternoon and the whole team is fairing  well.  A couple of them have already checked into the web site and the stories/experiences they are having abound!  

God has carried us from Villa Mendoza where we shared a huge community meal, taught English classes, worshiped, led children's ministry and did street evangelism (more like jungle path evangelism).  I preached at the evening worship and Tracey shared her testimony.  Our worship team included missionaries, Brazilians, and Zeke and Ben!  The response was beautiful.  We then traveled to a new site, Maparacaia where we watched Ben come alive playing with the kids and some of the team (Randy, Zeke, Donnell, and Cassie) playing volleyball with the older youth.  We did a jungle walk to a nearby village and our first contacts into this community were very rewarding.  Randy shared his testimony and Zeke gave a wonderful message and the whole team jumped in for ministry.  Marcie, Cassie, Tracey and missionaries worked with the kids and 13 raised their hands to invite Jesus into their hearts!  

The next morning we gave them three of the Thirst Relief Water filters and Clyde (one of the missionaries) met with the leaders for some serious evangelism.  We walked along swamps and kept our eyes open for snakes.  We did encounter water buffalo!  We then traveled to Espirito Santo with great anticipation.  They welcomed us with open arms.  We again taught English (Tina and Donnell came alive at this.  Cassie shared her testimony and Eric and I gave the message together.  It flowed wonderfully!  The challenge was for them to get into their Bibles and have daily devotions and weekly home fellowship meetings.  I asked all who would be serious at this to meet me in the morning (this morning) at 8 AM.  The room filled and we handed out 14 Bibles (we ran out or would have handed out more!) plus materials for personal study, evangelism tracks, and group study materials -- all in Portuguese that I  found a couple months ago that the missionaries whole heartedly welcomed!  THEN we had a baptismal service in the river.  Ben told me that he was ready for Baptism on Monday and it was a beach side filled with spectators as Ben was baptized!  

Well, I'd better go before this this site crashes again!  God is with us and I can't wait for you to hear the miracles and the God-incidences that we are all experiencing.  Tomorrow begins the Children's Camp and Youth Rallies and Sunday worship services!  Pray for all of us during this and we will pray for you, too.

We love you and are praying for you, too!  Tell Randy Agin that we had a special time of prayer for
 him this afternoon.  Also ask me about the baby with the turned in feet and the teams response! 
 God is good!  God bless you all and PLEASE hold down the fort in our absence!
 In His love and service,

- Pastor Steve

15:31, June 09, 2008 - Update Praise:  We are ALL together!  We just arrived from Belem and are fully connected as a team.  The Tam  8 are out buying Redes (hammocks0 and Zeke), some of the missionaries and I are back at the guest house awaiting the pickup for our trip to Victoria and then up river to Porto de Moz!  We will be on the river from this point ALL WEEK!  Don’t expect any communication before Friday (and maybe not then because in PdM – the connections are always iffy at best).  We had a great morning at the fish market and bazaar downtown.  Several opportunities for street evangelism and ALL of our luggage and totes made it through.  

Your prayers are working and here are a couple of prayer needs:  Eric ankles are swelling due to too much salt in the foods, I have blister on my big toe, Tracey is struggling with some sinus issues, Ben is recovering from flu/cold or whatever but had some great prayer last night, Ervando said the last two days were the best two days of his life and said goodbye practically in tears and now pray for the villages we are to visit – especially Espirit de Santo!!!  

Please hold our church family back home in your prayers, too.  Step up to the bat and believe for miracles in Licking County, too!  We are a team on both sides of the equator.  I hear that it is as hot up there as it is here --- man!  If you want to see our experience thus far, just ask Randy – he’s has video taped EVERYTHING!  

We love you all and all is well!  Jesus Christ is Lord.

- Pastor Steve

17:34, June 08, 2008 - We had devotions this morning (led by Eric and he did a nice job.  He led us to doing some Kingdom praying for each other and we then went up to the every Sunday craft open market.  It was like a huge carnival including a parade.  We did street evangelism, saw beggars (blind and otherwise), and learned that Brazilians love to party.  The team had many good experiences.  Ervando traveled with us today and we had plenty of opportunities to try to reach out to him.  We went to lunch at the Churrasqueiria (Brazilian BBQ) again since Donnell and Ben missed it yesterday.  We came back to rest, swim, relax.  We will have a worship service together after while (around 7:30 or 8:00).  Tomorrow we will be heading back to Altamira in the afternoon.  All is well and the team is in good shape and ready to roll.

I guess that's all for now.  Hope you had great worship this morning!  We prayed for you!

- Pastor Steve

22:30, June 07, 2008 - I know, another one in the same day!  Well, I have internet and may not have it much next two weeks and today ended powerfully!  We relaxed, shopped and ate at a modern mall, some of us went to a Zoo/Aquarium (though Aquarium was closed) and saw all that a rainforest contains (was great) and then we walked down to the pier and saw Belem’s brighter side.  We then ate a Brazilian BBQ – man what a smorgasbord!!!  We ended the day with devotions on the front steps of our hotel (Zoghabe Apart hotel).  We sang, read 1 Corinthians 13 from Message Bible and then just openly shared with each other everything that God has done ALREADY to show us that He has everything under control.  Great  sharing and then Richie (head missionary who is with us) began to share the expectancy he has for a fresh love for the Brazilian people.  It was then that a poor beggar lady named Saundra approached asking for help.  She had been on the street for 8 days and was out collecting pop cans to raise enough money to appease her daughter to let her sleep in her house.  We talked with her, prayed with her, introduced her to Jesus and did some counseling with her.  She was so tiny and frail.  She had had 3 husbands who are all now deceased.  She bowed her head and asked Jesus into her heart.  We talked some more and asked Christ to give her answers we couldn’t provide.  We gave her enough money to be able to go to her daughters for the next couple of weeks (paying her own way).  Tears flowed as she hugged every team member and Richie.  I had just told the team to be ready to do some street ministry tomorrow morning and to be ready because God was going to surprise us with opportunities!

God is so good.  This team is pumped and ready to go.  Ben had had a word of knowledge regarding someone’s feet.  Tina identified that it was her.  He prayed, others laid on hands, I prayed – we waited, I watched – suddenly I felt God’s presence flowing.  I sensed that Tina was releasing a lot of fear and anxiety and relaxing for the first time.  I asked her if she felt anything and I sure wish I could remember her response because she expressed a wonderful overflowing presence of peace and joy.  Pat Berger’s prayers for Marcie the last couple of days, according to Marcie, were prophetic in helping her face the trials of the flights.  We got word from Zeke that he went spear fishing with Clyde.  I’ll let Zeke tell you the rest in his quiet descriptive terms!

Ready for bed and excited for tomorrow!

Love to all,