| One of the things that sticks out for me when I think of the recent Porto de Moz was the desire to help friends learn how to experience a better life with God. Since these conferences were organized and supported by the local churches and not dependent on outside support, they have a much better chance of becoming embedded in the local culture. Culture is sometimes defined as “This is the way we do things around here.”   All these people and more traveled all night upriver by boat to arrive from Gurupá.  All these people traveled all night by boat downriver from Souzel.  This is the group from the two churches in Porto de Moz who did much of the setup and hosting.  This is the group that is church planting in Almeirim, about eight hours away by boat, down the Xingu River, and then across the Amazon. These leaders started about 20 Discovery Groups via WhatsApp during the pandemic travel restrictions. After the pandemic, they moved to start a church. Their home church in Gurupá helped them buy some land and get a building, but it was not close to where the people from their Discovery Groups lived. Figuring It Out. While we want to encourage them with training, we opted not to help them with buildings or wages because we have experienced the difficulties that can bring. Early success with outside support can lead to painful difficulties later on when the stakes are higher. It might be kind of like helping a chick hatch out of an egg or a butterfly to leave its cocoon.  This is Walter, the worship leader from Almeirim.   This is 30 years after the church started in Porto de Moz. The guy on the stage with his arms outstretched is the son of the first pastors of Gurupá. They couldn’t get the church going though they really tried for about ten years. Now it’s going, and everyone who worked sowing seeds has shares in the harvest.  |
| Discovery Groups |
Here are a couple more testimonies about Discovery Groups. Zecca lives 12 hours by boat from Porto de Moz, across the Xingu River up some smaller rivers in a vast wetlands region. We hope they will learn to gather and be encouraged by God’s Word, partly because they live so remotely that they rarely come to town or someone goes out that far to visit them. Furthermore, we hope they will start Discovery Groups with their neighbors. He was hard to understand, partly because he lives in such a different world than I do. On the other hand, I’m sure we are just as hard for him to understand, but his neighbors in the bush understand him perfectly. Here is the gist of his short testimony. “Some people came up to visit me. Renato. And Valdinho. And they invited me to start a Discovery Group. I was happy to learn this. My son lives nearby. We live in a wetland area. It is not on dry ground. I am happy because I am getting to know my family better. And I learned some things living in that remote agricultural region. If you want a crop, you need first to prepare the ground, then plant seeds, and then you need to wait. And this is what I’m doing. I am challenged to start a Discovery Group. It is not easy because life is not easy. And so I want to encourage you, my brothers and sisters, because we all have the same heavenly Father.”  Isaura“May God’s peace rest on you all. My name is Isaura. and I am from Gurupá. I am here to tell you that Discovery Groups work. What caught my attention about Discovery Groups is how well they work. I walked over to my nephew’s and started a Discovery Group with him, and now he couldn’t come, but his wife is sitting right over there. And so Discovery Groups are like bringing God’s words to people. We do not need to preach to them. But the Lord Himself will open their minds, and they will understand. It is good to pray beforehand and to fast. As part of a small team, we went to a remote location and started four Discovery Groups. And we have two more Discovery Groups along the Xingu River (three hours away?), and my husband and I started another one nearer our home, for which I give glory to God. And so starting Discovery Groups has been really good for me, and I have a fire in my heart to start more groups and to bring God’s word to people who desperately need Him. People often tell us, ‘After you started to come here and we started Discovery Groups, things began to change around here. My husband is less frustrated and quit swearing, and we stopped running out of food.’ I say this to the glory of God. So Discovery Groups work, but we must be available to the Lord. We need to pray, ‘Here I am, God, send me,’ and we need to have the courage to obey and to bring God’s word to people who need Him. Many people need to be rescued because they are suffering. Families are being destroyed. Often, after doing Discovery Groups, families may join your church. Our church is packed with people who got to know Jesus through Discovery Groups. So let’s not sit back with our arms crossed. Let’s go out where people are hurting and help them do Discovery Groups. Let’s grow the Kingdom of God. Amen? This is my experience.” |
| I love Discovery Groups because they give dignity to the intelligence and thoughtfulness of outsiders. Whereas traditional evangelism is about how I know the answer, and if you believe as I do, you can become like me. Sometimes a superiority “I’m in, you’re out” can creep in, which is a slippery slope. Some may want to gain status as the ones others need to follow to get to Jesus. It can get awkward. Discovery Groups, on the other hand, are much more Servant Leaderish. “Where are you at? How is God revealing Himself to you through these scriptures?” The servant points the seeker directly to the creator. Here are some photos of how I see kings bringing treasures into the Heavenly City. Maybe you have another idea?   Your thoughts? |
| Lucas |
| Baby Lucas was born prematurely to the family who lives in our home with us. Somehow he developed pneumonia, and to help him breathe a facilitate getting out the pneumonia liquid, the docs put in a trichotomy. Silmara and Mauricio take turns staying with baby Lucas at the hospital. Deanna also stayed with Lucas one day in the hospital to help them out.    |
We traveled with two other families to the Porto de Moz conference. It took 24 hours to get there from Marabá, and along the way, we picked up the pastors from Anapú, a town along the TransAmazon Highway. Dieglis and Laura, and Ana, who is really cool, are the pastoral family in Anapú. Big brother Pedro, about 12, had to stay back because there was no room in our car. He went out to his grandma’s farm, so he was ok with that.  Eliel and Aline both used to be Youth Pastors in Marabá. Then they got married. Now they have three children. Eliel is a construction contractor now, and Aline manages a Christian bookstore in Marabá, but they may become church planters. Who knows? The photo above was taken on our way home, in the faster boat. We had to get up at 3 a.m. to get in line because it was a full boat. The city also had a big festival that weekend, and many participants needed to get back to Altamira Monday morning.  After all day in a car and then all night on a line boat, Eliel and Aline’s children’s favorite part of the adventure was getting to ride in a school bus! Bené, the pastor of the Porto de Moz Central church, is also the bus driver, and he got permission to use the bus for the conference.   Deanna loves to have the neighbor’s children over. While the younger ones play in the Deanna’s swimming pool, the two older sisters take time out to do big girl stuff like have a calm game of cards.  This is Zecca and Maria, who gave the Discovery Group testimony above. Zecca lives way up a small tributary called the Jauraçu River. It is about 12 hours from Porto de Moz. We had a church on stilts by their house for many years. We have known Zecca since about 1999. His 12-year-old son used to read the bible for church because he was the only one in the family who could read back then. Back in we could either travel 24 hours by car and boat from Altamira where we lived to Una, where Zecca lived, or Ross could fly his airplane there in one hour. Ross flew in there quite often when to let them know about Training Events and when we wanted to bring teams in by boat.Have a great week! Rick and Deanna. |
| Correction Clenildo and Angelita moved to Porto de Moz for three months in 1994 to preach for their brother-in-law Nilton. Nilton was sick and needed to travel two days by boat back to Santarem for medical treatment. Clenildo, Angelita, and their 15-day-old baby left their home and family to travel the two days to Porto de Moz to help their family. Clenildo, Angelita, Nilton, and Cleuci are all greatly loved and admired in the Xingu Region. |
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