Category Archives: Uncategorized

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TransAmazon Dust

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The TransAmazon Highway is now mostly clouds of billowing dust, with
patches of ashfalt. There are long stretches when I have to keep my
eyes glued to the shoulder, where I can see a dim outline of the
direction the road. When we break onto the paved parts of the road it
kind of feels like we are floating, everything gets strangely quiet,
and we can see clearly what is ahead. Our family drove to Altamira and
back on Thursday and Friday for a leadership meeting. I am including a
couple of photos of people we passed on the way.
As the Lord leads us through unexpected twists and turns in our
journey, quirky bible verses take on meaning. Psalm 68:13 caught my
attention this morning.
“Even while you sleep among the campfires, the wings of my dove are
sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold.”
The meaning for me as I pondered these unusual words is that even while
we are in a time of resting, God is blessing us in ways that are beyond
our imagination.
I trust this is your story too, that whether you are in a time of work
or rest, mourning or celebration, or whichever season you are in, that
you will find joy in God’s presence, and that your heart will be filled
with gratitude for God’s incredible goodness towards us, which reaches
to the limits of our imaginations, and then, it does not stop there but
races out to infinity where we will explore it and be filled with awe

and wonder for eternity. May this be your story today.

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Baptism

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We had a baptism service yesterday.
Several singles and family groups got married including two moms and their boys, and two sisters.
Fransisco told me, “I really struggled to make the decision to get baptized today. I realized I would not be able to do several things once I take this step of commitment.” I think he is going to find out that our loving Heavenly Father is going to increase His love, protection, and relationship.
After the Bible Study and breakfast together everyone walks down the river frontage at the foot of the church property. A fisherman had his net in the perfect place, so he kindly moved on. About 30 seconds after the baptism ceremony and prayer, all the kids went for a quick swim.

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Paula e Izak

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Izak started coming to our church, and he was looking for work. He got a job at a restaurant as a server. Then a training opportunity came up. Soon Izak was learning to be a heavy-duty mechanic for Caterpillar. Caterpillar started sending him out to nearby towns on jobs. At one town, Breu Branco, Izak met Paula, who was staying at his aunt’s house. Last week-end they got married in Breu Branco, at Paula’s home church. Now they live in Marabá, and are members of our church here. May God bless you, Izak and Paula, with an awesome marriage.

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Tomatoes

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A few months ago Bella wanted to plant some tomatoes. We went to the store, bought some seeds, and they started to grow. Now we harvest about 20 tomatoes every day, and every time I eat one I think, “This is the best food I have ever tasted”.
One of the neighbour boys pulled a Bird of Paradise flower out of the ground and gave it to Deanna. We planted it, and now it is blossoming along with the Iris we gave Dee for Mother’s Day.

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Harvest Festival

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Every year it is part of the cultural tradition here to have a Harvest Festival. Every makes special food to sell, and maybe they donate clothes or get prizes to auction off. It is a fun kind of fund-raiser, community party for the church.
Here are some photos from last night.

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Volleyball Tournament

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Ivanildo and Monica, and some of the other leaders, planned a volleyball tournament, and you can only play if you are a regular member of our church. We have a lot of neighbours who like us, and even think they are part of our community. Some of us would prefer to include all of them as well. And we do, in many of our events.

In the Bible Paul talks about expelling people so they miss the church community so much they will repent of their sins and turn away from them. Here in Marabá this is making a little more sense to me.

Becoming a Christian includes a lot more benefits than just “not going to hell” or some theoretical or real peace “now that we finally adhere to the right creed”. I wonder what your thoughts are, as you read this, and what your story is?