Monthly Archives: December 2010

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Second Advent Sunday

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The first advent candle represented hope. This second advent candle represents peace. Last Sunday Monica gave an alter call after she preached. As usual, most of the church came forward for prayer. I asked a young boy what he wanted from God. “I want peace in our home”.

This same wild 10 year old started coming to our church last summer. One day he came up after church. When I asked him what he wanted he said his foot hurt. So I prayed for healing. He gently put his foot down. It didn’t hurt. So he did it again. Then he jumped on it. For weeks after that he I would find him staring at me with the strangest look in his eyes…a thinking look. Months later the pain came back. The prayer was not an instant fix this second time around. I don’t understand many things, including this. Reilan is now a faithful part of our community here. I often meet him while I am prayer walking, and he rides his bike alongside while I walk through the neighbourhood.

Reilan wants peace in his home. It is a reasonable and godly request.

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PS Here are four more 2010 Christmas paintings by our girls.

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Xingu Missionary Updates

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Bud’s writes: “I had the pleasure of traveling on the TransAmazon Highway for a week and doing a survey trip for church planting. The doors are wide open for those wanting to work to expand God’s Kingdom…” and more stories and photos if you scroll down the page.

http://budsimon.blogs.com/my_weblog/2010/09/open-doors-on-the-transamazon.html

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Marabá / Altamira Flights

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Deanna and Monica arrived home safely from a Pastor’s Wives retreat in Altamira. Our work almost always seems harder on the wives than on the husbands. Elba and Angelita planned the event. One of the themes: “Learn to Fight Well”. This is really a big problem in our neighbourhood here in Marabá. People often make difficult choices when responding to conflict or disagreements. Things escalate. Has this ever happened to you?

We discovered a new flight has opened up, directly from Marabá to Altamira and back. The first few seats on every flight are sold at the promotional price of a bus ticket. This was Monica’s first time in a airplane: a 45 minute flight, no dust – low risk of breakdowns – lower risk of bandits vs 14 hours of an adventurous bus ride home.

Deanna was able to celebrate American Thanksgiving with our missionary family in Altamira, and Monica was able to spend some time with her family. I am including a picture of Monica with some of her close relatives.

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Marabá: A Strategic City to Train Leaders

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Marabá is getting a shopping mall! According to the internet link below, the mall will open Phase One in April 2012. By the time it completes Phase Two two years later it will include almost 200 stores, parking for 1,100 cars and two towers, one as a hotel and one as office space.
We are excited about this for two reasons:
1. Now is a very strategic time to build a regional outreach and pastoral training center. People from the neighbouring towns will come in, train, and return to their home towns to reach their own “unreached” villages. With just a short drive from anywhere in our region we can arrive at places where horses and carts and small boats are the most common means of transportation.
2. Deanna and I will be able to go to the mall for date night.
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http://www.patiomaraba.com.br
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The Lift

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The president of Brazil, President Lula, came to our region this week as he opened the “Eclusa do Tucuruí”. This is a way for boats to pass over the Tucuruí dam. You might be more familiar with the word “lock”, as is used in the Panama Canal or on the Great Lakes. This lift, as they are called in English, has a much greater vertical distance than a more common lock. This lift is a two-stage altitude difference of 69 meters or 226 feet. This project has been underway for 20 years and is almost the size of the Panama Canal.
Apparently up to four line boats will be able to pass through at one time. I look forward to the day I see these boats passing through. As this gets going it will become possible for us to go by boat from Marabá to Porto de Moz and close to Altamira, and other places where we plant churches. The Tucuruí reservoir has a surface area of 2800 square kms, or 1,080 square miles. Most of the river villages are below the reservoir and along the tributaries and waterways directly linked to the Amazon River. 
We look forward to helping bring the message of hope along these waterways. Most of the villages near us are connected to the road system. The region is so vast. We are eager to go as far and as deep as we can with the people and resources God joins together, planting churches which builds stronger families, stronger communities. Less bad, more good.

http://www.brasilianasorg.com.br/blog/paulo-cezar/as-eclusas-da-hidreletrica-de-tucurui

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