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Cristovál Kickoff

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Last night we kicked off our Cristovál Event. The three-night sleep-over for families and youth will start tonight, Sunday. It is our alternative to Carnivál, a celebration of excessive sinning for the most part. If you look in these photos you can see some of the excitement, especially among the youth. 
Chris and Jane Wiens, and Joanne Dekkers, all flew out for the week-end. Chris and Jane were were missionaries with the Xingu Mission for 6 months in Altamira. After moving back to Canada they were key in forming Xtreme Mercy Canada. Joanne Dekkers is also on the Canadian board, and the person you communicate with if you have any questions about donations and receipts, etc.
Other XMC board members include Dan Thiessen and Jim Stevenson. Art Rae and I are non-voting members because we live in Brazil.

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Engagement Party

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Our church is 4 1/2 years old, and we have our first engagement announcement! We are very encouraged to see Eliel and Aline set this example for our community. Our dream is that one day we and our neighbours will go to more weddings than funerals. I took the opportunity to preach a great sermon on some myths and truths about marriage, engagement, and couples. It was a fun Sunday.

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Betânia Training Site

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Many years ago we dreamed up a training facility for our property about 3 miles from the city of Altamira. That area is called Betânia. Now the Altamira churches use it very frequently. The week-end we were there the Mutirão Vineyard church, one of the congregations from Altamira, was having a leadership training week-end. They asked Clenildo to speak on Saturday night. Deanna and Bella and I drove out to see how it was all working.

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Couple’s Night

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Saturday night at the Dolan’s was the one Saturday night per month when all the couples from the church are invited over to eat some food together, and to watch a teaching video on marriage. Elba said if all the couple’s came, there would be about 40. Every seemed very open and keen to learn how to make their marriage relationship work better. When the speaker was serious, so were they. When he told a joke, everyone laughed. (Except me. I didn’t get most of the jokes. But I was good, glad they were all tuned in. The speaker’s Portuguese was a little different than I was used to, or maybe I just haven’t learned all the funny words about marriage stuff yet).

The couple’s all gathered in the same big room where we used to have our children’s group. Dienes, this lady in the pink shirt below, was in our children’s group when we met out front, in the carport. She comes from a very difficult childhood and home life. She was an adolescent when this group met in this big room, which is now Elba’s house. Dienes was a youth when we met in the Mission Guest House. She became the worship leader as the congregation grew at the Mirante Vineyard church. Now she is back in this big room with her husband, learning how married couples relate to each other.

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Ellen’s Birthday Cake

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One day some of the leaders here were discussing the most defiant, difficult, adolescents who consider themselves part of us. Tatu’s name always comes up in this group. He can make the most benevolent leader see red. He has no problem going against the flow. His sister Ellen’s name also used to come up. But Ellen has changed, and become one of the favorite kids. One observation I have made about these siblings, they never seem to tire. They can run, play soccer, play volleyball, they never tire out, the mid-day sun does not seem to affect them. Nothing seems to affect them and they have no fear. So it appears. If you would say, “This sounds like really good raw material with which to raise up pioneer church leaders”, I would say you are right.
The day after we got back from Altamira was “Girl’s Group” evening in our home. And it was Ellen’s birthday. One of the church ladies made and decorated a birthday cake. This is the first birthday cake Ellen ever had. Bella says she saw Ellen’s eyes moisten or glisten when she looked at the birthday cake and realized it was for her.

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Weather Patterns

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Have you ever wondered what the weather is like where we live, here in the Amazon? I downloaded these charts, which show monthly averages over many years.
If you study these charts you may observe that we do not need glass in our windows because of cold weather. The glass is helpful, however, for the bugs. At dusk we turn on the lights in our house. Many living creatures see these lights as an invitation to come over for a meal.
http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Para-weather-averages/Para/BR.aspx

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Trans-Amazon Highway

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We had a good trip home from Altamira. Keith and Marsha rode back with us for the first four hours. Then we had breakfast at their house in Pacajá. Marsha stayed their and Keith carried on with us for the remaining 5 hours to Marabá, so he could work on his church building permits and documents.

Bella took these photos through the window of our Toyota, as we drove along. Sometimes there were trucks stuck in the middle of the long hills, apparently blocking the road. We somehow crept past them and carried on. One bridge was being repaired, so we had to wait for a half hour or so.

Look for the two photos of the milkman. Do you wish you could have a job delivering milk like this? This man has probably been up since about 2 a.m. hand-milking his cows so he can deliver the fresh milk to the people in the town for their breakfast. This is quite common.

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Dolan Guest House

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We stayed at the Dolan’s while we were in Altamira. Steve and Elba are among the most hospitable people in the Amazon.
1. Steve and Elba threw a pizza party the last night we were there. Monday night. We fired up the clay oven out back and baked a whole lot of pizzas. Steve and Keith also mixed up a special sauce, and fried up bowls of hot wings on the stove.
2. We celebrated Angelita’s birthday. The whole Campos family came. They are also super-hospitable, and we would have loved to have stayed at their house too.
3. Clenildo is a master story teller. Just look at these photos below, and you can see his gift.
4. Keith and Marsha came in for the meetings Monday. They stayed in Pacajá for their new church / home group meeting Sunday night. Then they caught the mid-night bus. Except that it was an hour late. And packed. They sat on the floor for the first couple of hours, over the unpaved road to Anapú. There they were able to get a seat from 3:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. when they arrived in Altamira. Heroes. 
5. Athila and Elki came to the party. They are gifted leaders who work closely with Clenildo and Angelita, and overflowing with laughter, pranks, practical jokes, and the life of the party.
6. Kenim and Rosi came. Rosi was Deanna’s first maid in Altamira, after Elba graduated from high school and left to go to Bible School in the South. Rosi gave her heart to the Lord a few weeks after she started working with us. She was about 18 at the time. Kenim soon followed, as did many members of their family who are now leaders in the churches in Altamira. Rosi and Kenim are gifted teachers and leaders, and the senior pastors of the Colina church. They have just initiated a major church building project with their congregation.
7. Daisy and Mateus came. Daisy has served as the main mission secretary in Altamira for many years. She recently got engaged to Mateus, and this is a really good story. Daisy also is in the final stages of getting her degree as a teacher, and this month she made the last payment on her house.
8. Nira, Elba’s twin sister and a pastor at the Mirante church, was there with her two children, Apolana and Apollo.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for Steve and Elba’s hospitality, and for all the good things You are doing in Altamira, and from here to Northern Brazil.