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Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

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I woke up with this song on my heart this morning, around 3:20 a.m. 
It was written in the 1700s. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your encouragement.












1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing, 
 tune my heart to sing thy grace; 
 streams of mercy, never ceasing, 
 call for songs of loudest praise. 
 Teach me some melodious sonnet, 
 sung by flaming tongues above. 
 Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, 
 mount of thy redeeming love. 

2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer; 
 hither by thy help I'm come; 
 and I hope, by thy good pleasure, 
 safely to arrive at home. 
 Jesus sought me when a stranger, 
 wandering from the fold of God; 
 he, to rescue me from danger, 
 interposed his precious blood. 

3. O to grace how great a debtor 
 daily I'm constrained to be! 
 Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 
 bind my wandering heart to thee. 
 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
 prone to leave the God I love; 
 here's my heart, O take and seal it, 
 seal it for thy courts above.





	



	
	



				
					


				
					


				
					


				
					


				
					


	

				

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God protects us.

				
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Bella took this photo of a hawk out our back window. I saw a hawk just like this being eaten by an anaconda in our pond a few month ago. I have no ideas how the 6 foot anaconda got the hawk in the water. The snake would unhinge his jaw and put the hawk’s head in his mouth, then the snake would wrap around the body of the hawk and squeeze. Then he would unwrap and try to swallow the whole bird again. I was only about 10 feet away, on the shore of the swampy water.




I had a dream a week ago about God’s protection. We were talking on edge of a pond about the dangers all around. I said, “Yeah. This big log in the water here could be a “jacaré” (think alligator). Suddenly the “log” opened an eye, and then a powerful jaw. Marcos, Ivanildo’s boy, was playing on the edge of the water. We quickly pulled him away from the edge. But the whole sense of the dream when I was sleeping and when I awoke was how often we are very close to great danger but we are completely unaware. God is protecting us, and we don’t even know to thank Him. I think this happens very often.


Saturday morning early our dogs left jacaré remains on our porch, including the jaw. I think some unknown neighbour ate that one, put the carcass and remains in a bag and tossed it over our fence for our dogs to discover.




Yesterday a bunch of youth went for a picnic and swimming at the big river on the edge of our property. Our girls and Monica were among the group. They all went and jumped into the river. Monica’s four year old son Marcos jumped in with the group. But the water was over his head and he couldn’t swim. Someone dived in and pulled him off the bottom of the murky water. We try so hard to be wise, to live safely, and not to live with fear. 






“It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.” Psalm 44:3 


“but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31




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Ivanildo Travels to a Men’s Retreat

				
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Ivanildo and two of the guys from our church braved the bus ride over to Altamira to attend a Men’s Retreat. They left here at noon and arrived in Altamira at 5:00 a.m. Many times they had to get out and push the bus through big mud holes. Ivanildo was telling me three cowboys were on the bus with them. They each wore a pair of tall, beautifully polished cowboy boots. This, in itself, is kind of unusual. Most cowboys here wear ankle high cowboy boots. Anyway, after everyone climbed back in the bus after pushing the vehicle through a big mud hole, the cowboys would pull out their knives and scrape the heavy red mud off their beautiful boots. Ivanildo laughed when he told me this, remembering many times in his own past when he had done the same thing. One of Ivanildo’s specialties when he was a cowboy was breaking wild horses. And he had a wild reputation to go with it. At this Men’s Retreat he met an old friend from his younger days. This guy could not believe Ivanildo was now a pastor. Blink! Blink! He kept coming up to Ivanildo, grabbing his arm and dragging him over to introduce him to someone else. “You see this guy? You did not want to know him before he was a Christian. He was very dangerous.”


The three guys came back from the conference pumped. They were phoning their friends here in Marabá and telling things they had learned. Ivanildo is planning a mini-conference here to pass on all they learned. There is such an eagerness and hunger. This is God’s time to be planting churches in this region.


Here is a photo of Ivanildo’s shoes in front of his door, after the 18 hour bus ride home. The conference  took place at “The Ranch” conference center, very near where Ivanildo grew up. A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make this event a success.

















	



	
	



				
					


	

				

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Chelsea

				
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We are so glad that Chelsea moved to Marabá yesterday!


Chelsea comes from the Vineyard Church of Delaware County. Her pastors, Danny and Penny Meyer, have been mentors to the Xingu Mission since before we were registered.


Chelsea learned Portuguese and ministered in Altamira for the last couple of years, most recently living with our very good friends, Clenildo and Angelita.


To hear Chelsea say hello, click here.


For a couple more photos, click here.