Steve took a couple of nice photos of toucans. I modified the photo a little.

Family Update and Two Stories

Photos 2 – 4. Marabá Church Coffee / Tea Bar

JohnLennon called me aside after church on Saturday night and told me he bought an engagement ring for Miriam and was going to propose to her in front of their church “tomorrow night”. She knew nothing about it. He invited me and some leaders from our church to come to their church after ours got out to witness the great event.

Miriam said “Yes!”

They have been dating since she was 14. Now at the mature age of 16 she is engaged, and they hope to be married at the end of the year, when she will be almost 17. JohnLennon is in his young 20s. He graduated from high school last month. He is working for an air conditioner company, and will probably get ticketed and make a good living in this way. He has been saving his money and bought a little piece of land on which to build their home.

This is a very good story. We are very happy for them. Their parents are thrilled.

JohnLennon taught himself guitar, but since he is left-handed but only had access to a right-handed guitar, he learned to play it backwards. And he can really play! If you know anything about guitar, watch JohnLennon’s right hand play all the chords backwards, with the small strongs on the top of the neck. He comes from a long line of musician’s. His brother, Johnny, has a very popular band that plays in the clubs and bars every week-end and holidays. I asked his dad if he named Johnny after Johnny Cash but he said, “No. I just liked the name Johnny”. In the video below you can see John Lennon’s mom Penha worshipping God, and in another photo Johnny’s wife is there too.

JohnLennon spoke at our church last night. He was one of the key young leaders here during our first two years or so. This past year he joined another denomination, as you can possibly tell by the clothes he is wearing. He came to see if he can help us as our band has drifted into difficult waters (we are wounded healers). Ivanildo and Monica asked him if he would be the speaker at the Saturday night youth service. He ended with this song and an alter call.

At six a.m. this morning the guys loaded up a car and a motorbike for another survey trip. We have heard a big mining company found a large mineral deposit (gold?) under a village, and they are constructing a new village so they can raze the existing one. It turns out to be true. We can get 3 city lots for R$150 if we will build a church building. They are moving all the residents of the old community to this new location and they want an instant town. We have until the end of the month to get back to them. This is an unusual opportunity.

Our guys came back from this survey trip encouraged. Two buses full of local residents were leaving when the team arrived at the coffee shop, and then three more buses full of people pulled in. Ivanildo feels this is a real hub into the ranch country and settlements of that region. They pulled into a restaurant / bar alongside the highway that had a nice lake / swimming hole. Apparently the owner was a Christian but when the pastor put her under church discipline she left the church. She was playing Christian worship music in the bar.

To get started out there I kind of think we need to commit to visiting at least twice a month. It’s a two hour trip each way. We could start working on our property (if we make the deal). There are two suitable lots available. Each one is 100 feet square (three city lots). One is right downtown, in a lower piece of land, and one is a few blocks away by the main road in and gas station, and it has a nice view as it is higher up. We could get a fence or wall around it, and start out by putting up a roof to meet under and place to stay overnight. Then we could hang out and get to know the town people when we visit.

I don’t know. This is a prayer request. Is this our first church plant outside of Marabá? We are familiar with two ways to plant churches. One way is to look around, like we are doing, and then get to know the people where we want to start a church. The other way, which is much easier I think, is to go where we are invited. Sometimes we need to invite ourselves first, and as we get known we get invited out. Does that make sense? In Marabá, for example, we invited ourselves. Tres Poderes has some of the same feeling about it at a much smaller scale. So…what do you think?

We drove around the river downstream, over the Tocatins dam, and back again the same day. It took 15 hours, including some side excursions. This reservoir covers 2800 square kms, and is one of the largest dams in the world. It includes a “lift” which allows barges full of iron ore to pass over. It is still not open to public line boats or ocean going sea vessels. There is a 43 km rocky stretch between the dam and Marabá that needs to be cleaned up first. The last president guaranteed the money for the project, but the new President, Dilma, says no. Speculation on the internet says that they would like the big mining company in this region to do it.