We have many options when it comes to Christian missions.
Partners who support Deanna and I are helping Train Leaders and Plant Churches.
We are working at planting and releasing church-planting communities where people can work out their faith and help others do the same.

1. We started by learning to work together with many people to plant churches from scratch.
2. We were instrumental in the beginnings of three, including Central Church, Mirante Church, and the Marabá Church.
3. We now use our experience and learning to help other leaders effectively Train Leaders and Plant Churches.
4. We are influencing an organizational culture where reproducible church planting can happen organically in many locations simultaneously.
5. In 2025, we will travel and minister among our people in Brazil. We have also been invited by Milton and Lu (the national directors of Vineyard Brazil) and Michael and Helen Hansen (pastors in Ohio) to go on another survey trip, this time to Portugal. 
6. Even as we want to release and bless leaders to plant churches in Brazil, we want to help Brazilians become cross-cultural church planters. In the abundance-thinking nature of the Kingdom, finding international God stories will increase our appetite for local God stories.
7. We have great hope for the future.

A Good Deal

Investing with church planters is a good deal because your investment continues to produce fruit for generations.

So then, you will know them by their fruits (Mt 7:20).

This is a historic photo of the beginning of the first Vineyard church in Altamira in 1996.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven… for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Mt 6:20–21).

If you desire to help with long-term community transformation and assist people in finding their reason for living, consider joining our us or other church planting missionaries with financial support.

If you want to be part of this ministry or to increase your involvement, please click on the donation link at the bottom of this email or contact me at rick.bergen@xtrememercy.com. 

In 1995, three of us went on a survey trip from Santarem to Altamira to determine whether we wanted to open a mission base in that region. Our goal was to prayerfully talk to the people, expecting God to reveal His will to us. We drove for 14 hours through thick dust, smoke, and fires.

I cut and pasted the following excerpt from a newsletter I wrote immediately following that life-changing survey trip 29 years ago.

One of my concerns was alleviated this trip…” Are we really going to move to an area that already has churches?”

There was about an inch of dust on everything in town. It had the look and feel of an old western town. Since we had only one full day in Altamira, we decided to save time by dropping Timoteo off to talk to the government agency involved with land while we fueled up the truck. After waiting in line for a while at the one gas station, we were told they were out of diesel, so we were delayed a few minutes as we located a different one. Just as we returned for Timoteo, he showed up a little red in the face. “This agency referred me to an office on the next street. Arriving there, I saw that the worker was drunk. Stepping in from the doorway to talk to him, I heard a commotion outside. Three men were robbing the bank next door, and one had an automatic weapon. As they finished, they shot a government employee who was entering the door right beside me where I had been standing just minutes before. He landed in the hallway with blood pouring out of his leg. I was a little concerned you would show up right then, yet I didn’t want to run as someone might shoot me for a criminal. The military police showed up, heavily armed, and I got out of there.” We were told by the town’s people that these occurrences were often.

Deciding it was not a good day to talk to that gov’t office, we decided to look along a relational track. Since we had given Timoteo’s friend’s brother and family a ride to Altamira, the friend’s brother, Vincente, introduced us to his brother-in-law, a cowboy in Altamira. Mauro, the cowboy, is currently breaking horses for a living and knows everyone in the region. He decided to show us around. “Are you looking for an acreage on the edge of town? My friend (another cowboy) was just shot and killed 9 days ago. The Federal Police are investigating, and it appears a farmer has hired a killer to do the job. This guy now wants to sell cheap and get out of the area. He has a nice little place.”

I realized they still need strong gospel witness in Altamira.

We thank the Lord for His continual guidance and protection.
Rick, for all of us.

(Note: We found out later that violent bank robberies were not that common, and we lost track of Mauro. But we started with the information we had).

That survey trip convinced us to move to Altamira to start a church-planting mission. The first Vineyard church in Altamira is now one of the most vibrant churches in the booming city that has now grown to 123,507 people. We met in our garage until we had 80 people coming in regular attendance. Each Sunday, we would push our truck out to get it jump-started because, for about six months, we didn’t have enough money for a spare battery. We shoveled and swept out the heavy red mud the truck tires left from the dirt roads. We splashed water on it to keep the dust down and pulled out our wooden, homemade benches. Next, we moved to a dance hall, but they sometimes asked us to leave early so they could continue their worldly activities. Finally, the Lord helped us purchase the location where the church meets now. 

The Altamira Central Vineyard church is now a life-transforming disciple-making factory and church-planting church.

Clenildo preached there a couple of weeks ago and told them about three remote communities consisting of 50-60 families with no church presence of any sort. Clenildo wrote the community leaders a letter to see if they would be open to him coming. They welcomed him with one stipulation, “Only if you come and evangelize all of us.” They are hungry for the gospel message and peace with God. The people of the Central Church accepted the missionary challenge as Clenildo spoke.


1996 – The car garage of our rented home was the first meeting place of the Central Church in Altamira in 1996. Clenildo is standing in the white shirt while Angelita is leading worship.


The Vineyard in the USA commissioned leaders to ordain me as the first Vineyard pastor in Brazil. Behind Deanna you can see Nilton and Cleuci. Nilton was one of Luke Huber’s right hand leaders before Luke died in an airplane crash. At that time Nilton was the leader of the Brazilian team with whom we worked.


The Vineyard USA gave me several signed ordination certificates so that I could ordain Vineyard pastors under their authority. That is how we did it back then. After we had been in Altamira for a year, we were thrilled that other missionaries came to help us. Here we are ordaining Nilton, with Bud Simon, Raimundo, Clenildo, and Samuel standing behind me.


2024 – We were honored to have an emotional maturity conference at the Central Church in 2024. Deanna assigned breakout groups to the conference attendees during the leadership training weekend event. The group has moved from the red-mud-stained rented garage to white ceramic tiles in their own building.


Athila (black t-shirt) and Elke (green blouse by Deanna) are dynamic, well-loved senior pastors of the Central Church. We’re having supper late at night after one of the conference sessions.

We were invited to Jim and Vicky’s 64th wedding anniversary meal. Jim (grey sweater) and Harold (blue coat, black-rimmed glasses) were super-instrumental in the early days in Altamira. They helped us buy our first large boats, the first Central Church property, the airplane, and innumerable other projects. They took a long shot in investing in us as unproven young leaders, for which we are forever grateful. The man standing with the red plaid shirt and his wife beside me in the red coat were at the meetings in 1993 as we prepared to leave for Brazil.

We seek more partners to carry the work forward to the next generation of missions and missionaries.

Pastor Elmer Martens, sitting beside me, is 95 years old and has been a pastor and superintendent most of his life. He was the fill-in preacher for three months for a church just this year (Yes. Ninety-five years old). If you come to Chilliwack and go to McDonalds for coffee in the morning, you may see him talking to a marginalized person about the hope of the gospel. At one point in the evening, the man standing by Jim in a blue coat at the far end came and sat between Pastor Martens and me. I asked him how many grandchildren he had. “I don’t know how many grandchildren I have, but I have seven great-grandchildren.” Then he explained, “Elmer here knew me before I was married. He led me to the Lord, baptized me, married my wife and I, and dedicated our children to the Lord.” 

Can you imagine a group of people who stay in good relationship with one another and work out their faith together over many decades?

• Do you think you ever connected with someone like this when you were an infant?
• How is that relationship these days?
• What happened?

Chiri helps Olivia and Zack make baby Ellis feel welcome in their family.

Ellis syncs up with his mom.

May God give you the best week ever! Lucy thinks “the best week ever” is normal. May your life be filled with exceptional weeks.

I had an unusual dream on December 5, 2024.

I was far away in a remote village. The head person, a woman, was judging several young men, about fifteen of them. We were passing by. The young men were all executed and thrown into the river. We had to canoe through the floating bodies because the river through the dense jungle was only about 20 feet wide. Then, in another scene, some men were questioning a teenager in a room with a gun to his head. After we passed, we heard a shot in the room. When I raised my eyebrows in question to the village men around me, they put a gun to my head threateningly. Then they let me pass.

This reminded me that many people are dying without the knowledge of a better way to live. The gospel is a far superior way to live on this side, and then we get eternal life. It is easy to forget the lost as we get overwhelmed by how someone looked at us in church or how a family member treated us at a Christmas gathering. Those things are important, too, but in the abundant capacity of God, let’s remember the lost-lost, too.

This week, I was transported back to 1998, when we began the Mirante Church, because their pastor, Nira, requested photos of the early days.

In 1997, we moved to a notoriously dangerous neighborhood. The roads were so bad that when it rained, we often had to try several routes to claw our way in with our 4×4 Toyota. The stories of sin and crime in that neighborhood were horrific and, we learned later, exaggerated. We grew to love our neighbors and soon started a Kid’s Club. Several senior Vineyard pastors have their roots in the church that resulted.


The Mirante Church is a couple of city blocks from the house where it started.




Lucas, in these 2024 photos, was one of the children in the video above. Each person in these photos has a long and amazing story.

A Few Tips:

1. Start your day with God: Spend enough quiet time with God each morning so that He shapes your perception of reality.
2. Embrace Servant Leadership: Allow God to work through you and lead by serving others.
3. Anticipate Discomfort in Change: Understand that organizational change can be unsettling. Expect chaos, resistance, and the feeling that systems are failing as you work through changes.
4. Lead with Collaboration and Humility: Develop a leadership style that prioritizes collaboration and humble resilience. Abhor manipulation and coercion. Challenges that seem slow, complex, or impossible may be your key to significant personal and group growth.
5. Return to the Garden: Reflect on the Garden of Eden and the two trees. Steer clear of the one with slippery slopes. Take long rests under the One where the God hangs out.

The Bible Story, in a Nutshell:

1. God’s Blessings: God desires to bless people and work through them.
2. Human Struggles: People struggle to believe this and choose good and evil on their own terms.
3. God’s Persistence: Despite the consequences, God continues to work with willing people.
4. The Holy Spirit’s Guidance: The Holy Spirit aids us, particularly when we prioritize spending personal time with Him.
    

Paul’s Summary Hymn

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen” (NASB, Eph 3:20–21).

Darrell Bock described how “the power and working are from God for us. In fact, that power is at work in ways we cannot even conceive of as taking place. The key word here is hyperekperissou; this is an emphatic superlative meaning ‘very much in excess of’ or ‘beyond all measure’. It is beyond all we ask or can even think…. God can deliver on the hope being expressed here. In fact, he can do so in ways beyond what we think about or plan to do.” One conclusion from this commentary is how we still struggle to believe that God desires our best. We are sometimes tempted to create our own controllable Garden of Eden and invite God to our Garden. Thankfully, God has given us some unexpected gifts to help us stay on track.

References

Bock, Darrell L. Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary. Edited by Eckhard J. Schnabel, vol. 10, Inter-Varsity Press, 2019, p. 112.

At our home in Marabá, we have a large glass window that often surprises the local wildlife. Recently, while walking through the kitchen, I heard two dull thuds. It was a pair of doves that had failed to see the glass. Occasionally, we hear louder bangs when a peregrine falcon mistakes its reflection for a rival. The falcon usually ends up stunned, resting under the window for an hour before flying off again. On rare occasions, if the window is open, the falcon swoops into our house, mistaking its reflection for an enemy. That’s when Deanna grabs a broom and chases it back outside. I can only imagine the falcon’s thoughts during these escapades.

As the birds crash into unseen barriers, we sometimes get painfully and shockingly blindsided by people we trust. This is a common human experience, often reflected in Christmas comedies where family members gather to celebrate but end up hurting each other instead. The closer the relationship, the more painful it is.

Early in Marabá, none of the 10-12 boys in the group could recall a single good Christmas memory. Eventually, one boy remembered playing marbles on the street with a friend on Christmas Day. I remember a child in Marabá telling us, “I dread Christmas because all the relatives come over. Things go fine at first, but it always ends in a big drunken fight, and then we don’t talk for months.” All the other kids could relate, as family get-togethers were intense and often ended poorly.

People we trust have increased power to hurt us, leading to a cycle of escalating reactions.
 

Predictable Reactive Responses

When we get blindsided, we often default to one of four automatic responses that we learned growing up:

• Anger
• Distance
• Adapting (over/under-functioning)
• Triangling (gossip or seeking other forms of relief)

These responses can be helpful in certain situations, but the issue arises when we rely too heavily on one and use it excessively. Jesus offers a better way.

“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, the log is in your own eye?” (Mt. 7:4).

The Unexpected Gift – Awareness of a Log-eye

Getting blindsided is a gift from God that may help you pursue holiness. Your reactions may reveal a log-in-your-eye you didn’t notice, like running into a glass door. For God to endow you with His authority, He is concerned about helping you develop responsibly. Both you and God have the same goal. Thoughtful Christians can make the most of God’s divine gift of revealing our log-eyes, considering it more like a puzzle or a challenge to be resolved.

1. Recognize when you’ve been offended or blindsided.
2. Feel what’s happening in your body, noticing your natural tendency to gossip, over- or under-function, withdraw emotionally or physically, or lash out with anger.
3. Practice a different response:
   • If you usually resentfully do all the dishes, find a cheerful but firm way to get everyone to help.
   • If you usually shut down emotionally, bravely state your opinion.
   • If you usually react angrily, find a way to approach the situation from a new perspective.
   • If you usually gossip, find a way to humbly talk directly to the person involved at an appropriate time without sharing with others.
      

Bonus Tip: Our automatic responses were learned in childhood. Reconnect with people from your past and intentionally work on changing your responses to increase your options for future social interactions. You’ll make the most progress addressing the “log in your eye” with those who helped shape it.

In Summary

Use the intensity of the Christmas season with its increased get-togethers and expectations to become unpredictable in a good way, as you, with your Servant Leader character development, learn to change your family or group culture in a good way. After all, everyone is watching.

 

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:14-16).

Question

What are your experiences with how to leverage the Christmas season to maximize your personal and family godliness?