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.