Edna, Leão, Claudio, Clenildo, and Deanna

Edna and Leão are the senior pastors in Gurupá and the supervisors of the Xingu River churches.

Claudio is the national director of the Association of Vineyard Churches in Chile.

Clenildo is the pastor of all the pastors in the Northern Region of Brazil.

Deanna is awesome.

Edna spoke at one of the main sessions.

The church that hosted the conference has a round concept. The preaching and worship happen in the middle of a round room, so you always have your back to many people, and you kind of keep turning around as you talk. The worship team all face the center of the room as they lead from the perimeter of the inner circle. The chairs are close, about three or four rows deep, all around the center. There are five monitors hanging from the ceiling. Everything is live-streamed.

One hundred and fifty church planters and potential church planters participated in the conference, and many more were online.

Edna showed a before and after photo of the church in Souzel, demonstrating what happened there when they started doing Discovery Group evangelism.

One of the stories Edna shared was about Lene. The church in Souzel went through a situation and came into disrepute in the city due to a previous pastor. Lene struggled with mental health and traveled 13 hours by boat to Gurupá to spend some months with Edna and Leão to get healing. Eventually, Lene and her husband Vincent became the pastors in Souzel. They were at a loss as to how to reactivate an almost vacant church. Edna suggested Discovery Groups. “Do you think that will work here?” “Try it and see.” 

A short time later, Lene was walking to church one Sunday. She had her head down and was preoccupied thinking about what she was going to preach and the order of the weekly celebration service. (Edna walked around on the stage at the church-planting conference in Chile with her head down, pretending to be thinking as she demonstrated how Lene was walking to church). Lene suddenly became aware of many motorcycles, all parked close together by the church, and she distractedly thought, “Why are all these motorbikes here?” Then she saw a bunch of cars parked in front of the church. “Why are all these cars here?” When she walked into the church, it was packed.

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The church-planting conference was organized with three main sessions, each preceded by 15 minutes of testimonies. And three workshops on Saturday afternoon. Our little team was responsible for all the main sessions, the workshops, and we split up to preach in four churches on Sunday.

Deanna shared a story during the testimony time at a main session at the conference.

A Dream

We gave Lene and Vicent a ride for four hours to her daughter’s house after the pastor’s conference in Atalaia in August 2023. During the long car ride, we had time to talk about many things. Lene told us, “I had a dream one night. In the dream, God told me, ‘You will reach your vision/goal of 1,000 churches. I will give it to you.” Then she woke up. The dream was very vivid but puzzling. Lene thought, “I didn’t know I had a goal of 1,000 churches.” As she pondered it, she vaguely remembered that someone said I (Rick) had a vision for 1,000 churches. So she called Edna, who disciples her and asked her about what the dream might mean. “Yes, that is our vision. Rick talked about it, and Clenildo, and now we are all in. You are now part of this vision.”

An Opportunity

Edna also shared that her city of Gurupá is on the fringe of a large Amazon Region known as Marajó. “The Region of Marajó has 14 cities. Just one of those cities, Breves, has 500 (five hundred) communities and villages surrounding it.” Edna works in the public education sector of Gurupá, so discussing logistics is part of their work. Most of those communities of only accessible by boat. Edna and Leão want to reach the Marajó Region with communities of people who are connected to God.

Even in Chile, the North is considered rugged and difficult, and the South is wealthier and easier.

The Chileans consider Santiago, where we are, the South, and they do mission trips from here to the North.

The city of Santiago, 7 million people, stretches for 10 km in all directions from this hilltop. Most of the Vineyard Churches in Brazil are in or near this city, though some pastors traveled four hours or more to come to the church-planting conference.

Romans 1:11 For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord.

Paul thought writing letters was helpful, but a personal visit was way more powerful.

This is why we came to Chile.

It takes Clenildo 48 hours to travel by boat to Gurupá.
It takes us 8 hours by car, then 16 hours by boat to Gurupá.
It usually takes us two days by car to visit Clenildo and Angelita in Santarem, as we stop to visit pastors and spend the night at someone’s house along the way.

We all met at Steve and Elba’s for the afternoon and evening.
For Leão and Edna, that meant a 27-hour ferry ride.

Steve took us to the Belem airport at 2 a.m.

We flew to Brasília, and then to Rio de Janeiro.

Belem is far from our homes.

Deanna and I flew for an hour to get to Belem.
Clenildo flew for almost two hours.
Edna and Leão rode on a public lineboat with 1,000 other passengers for 27 hours.

Rio de Janeiro is even farther from our homes. It was two more 90-minute flights, first to Brasilia, and then to Rio.

Santiago is even farther, another five-hour flight over the Andes mountains. Rio de Janiero to Santiago is almost like Vancouver to New York City.

We traveled from Belem to Santiago in one 22-hour day.

We arrived at our hosts in Chile at midnight, the same day.

The Chileans love barbecues!

A pastor told us they consider the Christian life process like a barbecue.

1. People start out like frozen meat, rock hard.

2. As they experience God, and as people love them, they get soft and tender.

3. Then they start to give their lives for others. They become a living sacrifice, a pleasing aroma to God.

We officially completed thirty years in Brazil this week! That means we entered our fourth decade. And I have a feeling we’re just getting started. I clearly remember telling people in 1993, “We’re going to the Amazon to learn how to be missionaries. Our real ministry may only begin in 30 years.” We’ll see. We have great hope …

On October 9th, 1993, we arrived in Santarem. None of us had ever been to Brazil or South America before. Deanna and Karin were both pregnant, and we had a one-year-old. We could not speak Portuguese, and the girls would soon give birth. What were we thinking? Ross was my best friend in Bible school in Texas in the 1980s, and we are still best friends. I hit the jackpot when I married his baby sister, Deanna. After Ross and Karin’s daughter Janaea was born, they returned to Canada, built an airplane, and moved back to the Amazon to work with us for fourteen years.

Thirty years later, we were helping with a marriage retreat back in Santarem. Our four adult daughters all moved to Canada.

Deanna got to skip out of church and hang out with all the other moms with small children during our first year in Brazil. That’s how she learned to speak Portuguese without any formal lessons.

Anni, Elba, Bella, Via, and Emma (1998)
Elba came to live with us in Santarem in 1994. The following year, she moved with us 500 km East to Altamira to help start a new mission base and to go through Grade 12 at school. Elba is a role model for our daughters and has been all of their lives. When our youngest daughter, Bella, was here visiting early this year, 2023, she made sure we spent a couple of nights at Elba’s house. So awesome.

Clenildo organized a week-long retreat for the pastors in the Xingu Region called Return to Childhood in October 2023. The idea was to laugh, have fun, and remember when they first felt called to serve Jesus.

Kinin’s wife, Rose, was one of our first maids in Altamira. Their church has grown to be among the largest churches in Altamira. Kenim has led a city-wide prayer meeting on Monday nights for about a decade at a mountaintop location that looks over Altamira. He has lots of stories about God showing up at that prayer meeting.

Inilson and his wife Inilda pastor a Vineyard church in Santarem. Peacock bass are among the great game fish in the Amazon. You can see the peacock-type circle near the tailfin.

Clenildo was highly influential in how most of these pastors came to meet and follow Jesus and coaches them in their pastoral roles.

UPDATE 2023:

Clenildo told us we now have 20-something registered Vineyard churches, with boards and all, in Northern Brazil, but we have over 70 churches and church plants where people meet regularly to celebrate and learn to live in the Kingdom of God. Registering a formal church is helpful in many situations but not always practical or even possible.

I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see (Revelation 3:18).

“I want to buy gold, garments, and eye salve.”

“OK. Good… You don’t know what you’re asking, and things will get rough, but I’ll see you through as long as you don’t quit. I’ve got plenty of gold, garments, and eye salve for those who go the distance.”

“All right. I believe You. I’m in. How do we get started?”

“Psalm 1:2-3 is a good place to start. Meditate in My Word day and night, and you’ll become a Tree of Life to your people.”

But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, 
And on His Law he meditates day and night. 
He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, 
Which yields its fruit in its season, 
And its leaf does not wither; 
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Ps. 1:2-3

“That sounds boring. I don’t like being bored.”

“It’s not boring. Believe me. Hahaha. You’ll have many challenges, but one will not be boredom. Hahaha. I call it ‘Abundant Life.’ And since you said you’re in, I started the ‘Refining Fire.’ Hang on to your hat because it’s going to be a wild ride!”

Encouragement Along the Way

May 1, 2013. A senior Christian with a prophetic gift wrote, “…I felt God tell me, ‘This is going to be quite a ride. Hang on to your hat. There is a train full of blessings coming for you. God is going to take you to a whole different level of ministry and influence.’”

October 13, 2023 – a dream in the night – “…I didn’t know how we could keep going. Then I saw the boat was planing on the back upright piece at a high speed. We were all holding on for dear life, and it felt like my hands were slipping. I heard a voice saying, “Just hang on. That is your part. Hang on for the ride.” Then I woke up.

I have been on a wild ride since I first told God, “No matter what. I’m in. I’ll trust you to get me through” in Eagle Plains, Yukon, in 1984. These last ten years, since June 2023, have been at a whole different level, and I am so extremely grateful for all of it.

Lessons Learned

1. Servant Leadership

Learn how to serve and lead at the same time. Don’t dominate those entrusted to you, but don’t willingly be dominated by them either. A narrow trail exists between those two slippery slopes. A juxtaposition. Do what you can to stay on that trail. (1 Peter 5:3, Matt. 20:24-28).

2. Don’t quit.

Paul is a great example.

And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death (Acts 9:29). What?!

The whole city was provoked, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. While they were intent on killing him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. He immediately took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to the crowd; and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered that he be bound with two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done…. 
As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I say something to you?”…
Paul said, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people” (Acts 21:30-39). What?!

And he answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF” (Luke 10:27).

Paul understood how to (1) remain true to his convictions AND (2) stay close to his people.

Paul’s Secret

• Paul voiced his conviction when things were out of sync.
• Paul was not afraid his leaders or anyone else would frown at him.
• Paul examined his motives and directions from God and then acted.
• Paul challenged those who questioned his motives.
• Paul did not wait for permission.

When the system overpowered Paul legally, culturally, or physically, Paul did not whine and complain about being a victim. He did most influential work with a good attitude while falsely accused and in jail.

A Lesson from Paul

Go until you get physically or legally overpowered. When that happens, you’re into the paydirt, where you get the gold available on the other side of the refining fire. Hunker down and write stuff that will last for the next 2,000 years. We do not fear the end times because we are fully engaged in completing Jesus’ mission. God has work to do through us. He is counting on us.

Your thoughts?

Isa and Ribeiro were among our first and best Brazilian friends. Isa picked Deanna up each week, and they would buy groceries together during most of our second year in Brazil. We had no vehicle then, only a bicycle and a chariot we’d pull behind. Then Ribeiro sold us a Toyota Bandeirante 4×4 that served for years. Our third daughter, Emma Luisa, is named after Isa. Last week we spent a night with them.

A monkey (marmoset) fell out of a tree at Isa and Ribeiros. The dogs killed the mother, but Isa rescued the baby. She’d been feeding it for about a month when we spent a day with them. “It was so tiny when I started feeding it.” While we were there, they put it outside on a tree, in a closed cage. Its monkey’s relatives, who live up in the trees behind the house, came to visit, and the baby started learning its natural language. The Ribeiros have about five species of wild monkeys that live in the trees around their house. Within a week or two, Isa opened the cage so it could interact with its group. I haven’t heard since then what happened.

Ribeiro helped us find our first rental house in Brazil and sold us our first vehicle. One time they drove about 18 hours straight through from Santarem to Marabá to spend a week-end with us.

Clenildo caught 150 fish in 120 minutes. He is an expert fisherman. Then he descaled and cleaned them for hours in preparation for one of the feasts at the marriage retreat.

One time, a few years ago, I was driving fast through the dust partly because I was upset at a situation. I had just passed a big truck when one of these bridges suddenly appeared. I slammed on the brakes, and the car locked up and drifted sideways right up to the bridge. Oops. I still get that cold feeling in my stomach when I think about it, and I’m grateful to God, and I’m more cautious. It’s one of the benefits/challenges of getting older.

The giant trees are Brazil nut trees, protected by law. The wild jungle version only starts bearing nuts after 50 years. Modified orchard versions begin bearing fruit after ten years.

Part of our weekly sabbath tradition is cooking food by a fire. Life doesn’t get any better than this, and gratitude overwhelms me. This is a thin-crust pizza we learned about in Turkey, cooked in our clay oven. If you come to visit, we’ll make you one.