It is so good to be back in Marabá again!

Here are some photos of a home group last night.

My time in Altamira far exceeded my expectations. Highlights include:
1. Spending quality time with Clenildo and Angelita and their family as I stayed at their home.
2. Getting to know Rich Nathan better, and spending time with Craig and Linda.
3. Time to slow down and visit and eat and pray with all those who went on the boat trip for 5 days.
4. Renewing friendships in Ariruá.
5. The various board meetings and leadership meetings all went well.
6. Spending quality time with Steve and Elba as I stayed at their home.
7. Long talks with all the missionaries about a variety of subjects as we all seek God about how to move forward together as well as possible.

Here are a few photos of life on the chacará here in Marabá:

1. Ivanildo and Marcos race against each other on family day.
2. The soccer teams are still going strong.
3. Mangos on the ground by our soccer field.
4. Ivanildo and Zezym paint the church floor.
5. Last February two noni fruit trees for my birthday. They have fruit!

End.

“The only reason I haven’t started planting churches yet is because I am swamped right now. We need more workers.” Ivanildo and Monica are telling me, Art and Cyndi about opportunities that are knocking on our door.

1. We have been invited to start a home group 40 kms up the train track. There is also a road to this village. Home groups often turn into churches.

2. There is another group of one of member’s relatives that is not going to any church about 20 kms away, in another direction. They are inviting us to come start a group.

3. The biggest mining company in this region (and one of the biggest in the world), discovered an enormous gold deposit right under a village a few hours from here. They are relocating the village, forming a whole new one some distance away. We may be able to get some lots really cheap if we commit to building a church. The mining company wants an instant “small town” in this new place.

These are the newest opportunities. We still have:

4. One of the families who moved from here is inviting us to come about 4 hours to her village.

5. We have never followed up on the ferry crossing village, which had no church when we did our survey trip.

6. We really want to get out along the Tocantins River and the Tucurui Resevoir to see about church planting there.

Closer to home we also have many opportunities.

7. Just a km from our church on of the youth has a home group of about 50 or 60 children. None of these parents come to church. If we could get some land and start a church near their place that would be a great outreach center for our youth to start working.

8. We have a very “young” church, primarily youth and adolescents. Many adults are interested and come sometimes, but Ivanildo and Monica are chomping at the bit to start an Alpha Group Bible Study. When parents come to church with their children, marriages start to strengthen, families get healthier and so does the church.

9. We are planning a big 3-day Youth Retreat for the days when the country celebrates Carnival. This will be on February 19-22, and will need to be subsidized by the mission. We will charge a Retreat Fee and encourage the parents to help their youth celebrate in a healthier way, but we are still a young church in a high-risk neighbourhood.

10. Some of our youth are starting to get their driver’s licences. This is a big deal. It is very expensive and takes a long time. This will help with the outreach churches. In Altamira many church members have motor bikes and head out on week-ends. This is our dream too.

11. Ivanildo and Monica are dreaming of two other conferences later this year to help Train Leaders from within our church.

a. An Encounter Retreat brings powerful results in changed lives. It has been over a year. These Retreats involve considerable preparation and also renting a bus and off-site facilities, one for guys and one for girls. It is a week-end of focusing on God, life and eternity. We are thinking it might be best to wait for this retreat until after we (The Bergens) are back in Brasil.

b. The National Pastor’s Conference will be in early June in Brasilia, the country capital just over 1,000 miles South of Marabá. Their will be workshops on worship leading among other things. Events like this really inspire young leaders, and encourage those who already have some scars.

12. Some of the youth are starting to get jobs. Most of them are still in elementary or high school. Some dream of university. Some dream of a happy marriage. Getting jobs, learning to develop healthy families, learning professional skills, these are all part of transforming a neighborhood and building a church which will become an outreach and training center. Right now…zeal is high, local church offerings are low. As we work to maintain the zeal, the church offerings situation will change. We have seen it happen before.

Could it really be that the God who created the universe actually communicates with people? Individuals? Could it actually be that He wants to get personally involved? Jesus said, “…I will build My church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Matthew 16:18b In context, this was just after Peter received a revelation of who Jesus really was. People today are still getting that revelation. I remember when I first got this idea in the Yukon, as a young adult, where I was working right near the Arctic Circle. “Could it really be that the God who created the stars, this planet, all of everything, wants to talk personally to me?” Have you ever seen a cartoon where someone’s thought gets a dim light bulb, and then it turns into a bright light bulb? This idea, and the reality of what happened to me in the weeks and months that followed, put a fire in my soul. I watch this happen over and over. “Lord, please send more workers into Your Harvest fields. Please send out more revelation insight into who You really are, how much You love us, how kind and compassionate You really are. Build Your church.”

Max and Zezym