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Too Many Funerals, Not Enough Weddings

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Our church made a plan a 40 day plan last Sunday (November 21). We put out a sign up sheet for whoever wanted to commit to walk through our neighborhood each day and pray. We are asking God to come and get more involved with us.
On Wednesday Anni told me one of the guys had “prayer walked” three times in one day. Earlier that day his brother-in-law died of gunshot wounds. 
Charlie was signed up to come to our Encontro Retreat while he was still in jail. He had participated in our Cristoval Retreat during the Carnival holiday. He was now more serious about correcting his ways. “I am done with this kind of life. From now on I will learn to live for Jesus.” A day after he got out of jail a gunman in dressed in black clothes, wearing a black helmet, riding a black motorbike rode up and starting shooting at him. He was hit while he was jumping over a wall and ended up in intensive care. This was about two blocks from our house. In the hospital Charlie prayed with a pastor. With tears in his eyes he repented of his sins and gave his heart to the Lord.
Some weeks ago everyone in our church was challenged to pray for someone who needed Jesus. A young girl started praying for Charlie. This was before he got shot. While he was in the hospital she continued to pray for him. When she heard he gave his heart to the Lord before he died she was kind of awed at how God had directly answered her prayers.
Since Charlie could not come to the Encontro he sent his brother, who was also his best friend. In his words, “This has been the best week-end of my life”. His wife’s first husband was also gunned down in a similar type killing. These are young people, in their late teens and early twentys. Revenge and fear of dying are big issues here.
I realized on the way to the graveyard that we have been to quite a few funerals with our neighbors. None of the funerals have been for old people. And we have not been to one wedding. I have never even heard of a wedding in more than two years since we moved here. The concept of why we are praying for our neighborhood for 40 days is easy to grasp: There are too many funerals, not enough weddings.
About thirty people from our church signed up for the challenge to pray / walk for forty days. The last day will be December 31 when we will start three nights of special meetings in our new church building. We are expecting God to show up. Many of our neighbors will meet Him at these meetings.
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Why we do mission work.

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  1. This is our calling and gift.
  2. For the challenge of watching God do the impossible.
  3. For the pleasure of doing what we were created to do.
  4. For the impact it makes on the world.
  5. For the good reputation God gets because of our work.
  6. We get to solve interesting problems.
  7. We get to be part of a group and experience community.
  8. We are appreciated.
  9. We have a few years on earth, and then eternity.
  10. It is a small favor back to God, for His great favors and gifts to us.
I trust that you who work with us through prayers, giving and in other ways feel these same motivations and blessings! These should be the exact same reasons you have. It is what makes everything worthwhile.

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Trans-Amazon Highway

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Ivanildo took me to the bus depot around 4:30 a.m. The bus driver was wide-eyed. “Two buses just pulled in full of bullet holes. They were robbed an hour up the road we will be traveling on.” “How many bullet holes?” Thinking. Thinking. “Six.” After a few more questions I gave my notebook computer to Ivanildo to take back home. Happily, we had no incidents. The 300 mile ride took over twelve hours of steady bumping along through very picturesque country.
END.

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Missionaries

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It felt a lot like a family gathering in Altamira this week. It was extra sweet as several of the families are planning to move on within the next year. The Bergquist family was in town from where they now live, a nine hour drive into the bush when the roads are good. The Kubacki family and Richie came up from Porto de Moz, an all night and all morning journey by lineboat, speedboat and van. Steve and Elba are back from furlough. The Phflederer family is back from furlough. Keith and Marsha had time to hang out and talk. Patty is around, and Chelsea and her sister. Jim and Sharon Stevenson are excellent guest house hosts.

If you would like to become part of this family setting, the Altamira Base has an opening for Guest House hosts starting in February 2011, to allow for a few weeks of overlap so the Stevensons can teach their replacements how things work. This is an excellent ministry opportunity for the right couple.

As I downloaded all my photos of this great family get together I realized I have no people pictures. Oops! Here is a word picture…”All the kids are growing up fast! And all the missionaries are fully engaged in the journey.” The photos I have?…some ambience pictures of my time at Bud and Suzanne’s place.

Rick.

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Leader’s Meetings Altamira

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I got home last night after a fourteen and a half hour bus ride after spending three full days in Altamira. The time revolved around our Mission Leadership meetings. It was a time of encouragement, fellowship and wondering together what God is doing and how we can best participate with Him.

Tuesday morning I was able to sit in on a regularly scheduled Altamira pastors meeting. The pastors and leaders wrestle with the issues of the day together, primarily how to best grow healthy churches, train leaders and expand the Kingdom of God more through the city and region of Altamira. (Note: Pastors Clenildo, Kenim and others were at this meeting too. Naldo showed up for a few minutes, and so did Angelita.)

What a rich life.

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Encontro Week-end Photos

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The best part about the Encontro Week-end retreats are the testimonies. As pictures can tell stories too, here are a few to give you a taste of what went on. The week end includes teaching, reflection, confession, encouragement, drama and good food. It ends on Sunday. Then everyone comes down from the mountain top and goes back to their valleys where they really live, to put these new teachings to the test. Many of the parents came to church that Sunday night. It was a rowdy service! And emotional!

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New Church Construction

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We have outgrown our temporary meeting place, which was a converted tractor shed. We poured the cement slab for our new building and now are waiting for the steel columns and roof.

This has not been completely paid for yet. We are believing God to supply the rest of the budget. We can draw from our monthly operating funds in an emergency, but they are also low as we are near the end of the year.

We have not built too many big churches in new regions yet. We are learning how to do this best. We think as the mission is building the floor and the roof, we will now challenge the church to build the walls. The church gladly pitches in for work bees, and we sense they feel ownership. Still, we want them believing God with us for their building, and we believe this church family will eventually go out and help other many other new church families get their buildings under way.

Thanks also to the leaders who came from Altamira to help with the Encontro week-end. Their one free day was the day it worked out for us to pour cement! The power trowel broke right in the middle of the job, causing us to scramble. At the end of the day it all looked pretty good. While we were getting the power trowel repaired at the steel shop I found out the operator and his wife attend an evangelical church regularly but they have never invited Jesus into their hearts. They are not Christians, but they like the church. His father-in-law, who owns the power trowel and is an engineer who has helped us a lot in our construction projects, is a spiritist, as was his mother before him. He is one of the most helpful people I have met. So we had a good talk.

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