Last night we studied the story of how God lead Abraham’s servant to find Isaac a wife. We asked each other to share “about a time when God has clearly lead you”.

A story immediately came to me. Our mission team was praying about where to open our next base. We identified five cities as potentially strategic. Marabá was the fifth city I went to. The first three days we logged 1,000 kms (600 miles) here in the city as Tim Kubacki and I drove every backstreet we could find, talking to people, looking for the right place. I could not find anything that looked like a reasonable place to start a base, or even any place I would want to live. After several months I still felt Marabá was the right city, so I planned another three day survey trip. This time I went with two Brazilian friends. The motor seized up on the truck I was driving. We limped into the city and I found out it would take 15 days to rebuild the diesel motor. My Brazilian friends went back home. I got a room at a cheap hotel right beside the mechanic shop. Then I walked across the highway to the front of the Regional Hospital where some motorcycle taxis were waiting for customers. I asked the guy if we could work out an hourly rate deal, instead of the usual point to point rate.

I think I spent 60-80 hours riding around with Cleudo on his rented motorbike. Months later I came back to Marabá with our car. I could not remember where he lived. I stopped at a store in his general neighbourhood. They directed us to a house of his relatives. Adriana reluctantly squished into the back seat of our car, along with our four girls, to show us the way. When she realized we were all foreigners she was terrified. She could not understand our Portuguese, spoken with an accent. She was convinced we were talking about her in a foreign language. Adriana is now our worship team lead singer.

Every day we are glad God lead us to exactly where we live. We loved Altamira. Now we love Marabá.

Here is a photo of Cleudo, and his cousin, Adriana, at her 15th birthday party, which her family put on at our church last week-end. (Note: Cleudo has five small children. You can see one standing at his feet).

Adriana’s family asked if they could use the church building to celebrate her 15th birthday. This felt to me like the first drops of rain, and their is a rain storm coming. I imagine these facilities becoming known as a place for great celebrations! The Bible says God blessed Laban just because Jacob worked there. God sometimes blesses certain people and also certain places. I believe this is one of those places.

Adriana spoke for a few minutes, and broke out in tears thanking God for planting this church and saving her from a life of misery. Her uncle, Demir, is a driver for an engineering company. He was sitting beside me. “This is true. She has changed so much. If it was not for this church she would be living a very messed up life now. I am not a Christian yet, but I really like this church.”

Today we finally have reasonably good internet here at the mission!

Now how can we celebrate?

Rick.

Several years ago I started a Bible Study in Altamira on the porch of our Guest House. Ivanildo would stop by on his way home from his job as a bartender at the army base. He would ask for prayer because their marriage was on its last legs, and his lifestyle was making things worse. Eventually he asked God to come into his heart, and to transform him.

Monica was greatly influenced by Elba in her first years as a Christian. Elba is now one of the key national leaders in this church planting movement. It was a great step forward on January 2, 2011, to ordain Ivanildo and Monica as Senior Pastors of this church. In reality they are already functioning in this role. We recognized publicly what they are already doing, and passed on all spiritual blessings we could.

I am so very grateful to the Lord for giving us this young family to work with. The first two years have flown by, and we have great expectations for many more ministry years together.

Rick.

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land. Proverbs 25:25 NIV


We are weary. We  had a full year in 2010. And we loved spending New Years with some of our best friends.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman (1899-1981)

Ivanildo and his team raced the clock to get this building ready for our New Years Eve celebration.

Congratulations to him and everyone who helped!