Update & Exciting News...

Well, the last time I updated I was on my way to São Paulo for a week.  The trip was nice and São Paulo is like nothing I have ever experienced before.  The city is huge.  I believe it is one of the fastest growing cities in the world just to give you an idea.  You can see in the picture the view as the plane was making its descent into the city.  

  

I was blessed to meet many wonderful people on my trip.  The family I stayed with were especially a blessing.  Their daughter will be studying in the US in January so I was able to help her with her English in filling out essay questions, etc. 

Since returning from São Paulo in the beginning of September, I have been working diligently to finish an online TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course.  My deadline is next week and I am just about finished.  I hope to use this certification to open doors to share the Gospel with individuals wanting to learn English and also as a part of PAZ's English school which we plan to open in the near future.  I have been learning a lot and have found the course to be quite enjoyable.  I always liked school :).  

Another project I am responsible for is the ICM MegaVoice Bible School.  What is this you might ask?  The project is a 4 year Bible school on a device like an MP3 player called a MegaVoice.  The program is used in many countries around the world and is now being used here in the Amazon.  The audio and materials have been translated into Portuguese and the device is solar-powered.  In our larger cities, we already have different Bible school programs and leadership training.  In the river communities; however, we were in need of an efficient tool to train up the people.  The MegaVoice Project is an excellent tool.  The lessons start with the Sermon on the Mount and then go from Genesis - Revelation.  My involvement is to do the administrative tasks (thank you degree from Belmont) of getting reports, testimonies, etc. and reporting back to ICM on the progress of the groups.  The idea is to have groups of no more than 10 people that meet on a weekly basis.  Currently our groups are working on the Sermon on the Mount and Genesis/Exodus.  One of the difficulties is getting feedback.  This has to do with the fact that the groups are out on the rivers which makes feedback more difficult among other reasons.  Please pray for patience and more feedback ;).

Anyone, 18 & up who is interested in setting aside 2 months to serve the Lord on the mission field please check out www.projectamazon.org to see the really awesome flyer put together by Nate Reutter and myself (more credit goes to Nate and his awesome computer skills).  

 

Tomorrow - Sunday will be the MDA Conference.  This is an annual conference here in Santarém which draws pastors and leaders from all over Brazil to learn about the PAZ church's discipleship model.  The week will be packed with sessions about discipleship, cell groups and looking after your sheep.  I participated in the actual conference last year but this year will only be participating at night which is open to those not registered for the conference.  I am very excited as we will be having a guest speaker from the US (yay English)!!!  On Saturday night, we will have a huge event in one of the local stadiums celebrating the multiplication of many cell groups.  The night will be filled with presentations, fireworks and all-around excitement at what the Lord is doing in Santarém through cell groups.  

And now for the EXCITING NEWS...

On November 22nd, I will be boarding a plane and heading "home" to the US for a visit.  I am very excited to see my family, friends and supporters.  I look forward to reconnecting with as many of you as possible.  I would love to speak at any of your churches, groups or events if the opportunity presents itself.  I will be in the greater Richmond area for most of my trip which will be Nov. 22 - Jan. 9th.  There will be about a week Dec. 3-8th that I will be staying in Nashville, TN.  My trip will be here before I know it and I am working on getting my projects, etc. organized here before I leave.  Please contact me to plan to get together and also for any opportunities to share about the ministry here in the Amazon.  I want to make the most of every day of my trip.  

Blessings and see you soon!!!

Summer in pictures, birthday and 1 year mark!

March for Jesus, June 6, 2009: All of the evangelical churches in the city gathered at the São Sebastião Park to walk through the streets of Santarém singing, praying and proclaiming the name of Jesus!!!

Congresso, July 10-12, 2009: A 3-day evangelistic crusade that packed out the local soccer stadium.  Every night was packed with anointed praise & worship, incredible dances and dramas and powerful preaching.  Over 700 people committed their lives to the Lord during this years Congresso!!!

 

Work project at camp:  In July, a team from Samaritan's Purse Canada, our PAZ interns and a few others set off to camp for 3 days to work on finishing the expansion of the floor in the auditorium.  

  

Boat trip to Piracãoera, Amazon River, July 2009: A group of us set out on the PAZ medical boat Portador da Luz for a 4-day boat trip.  There was lots of painting to do in the church building in the community and visits to be made to homes with water filters.  Also, food baskets were given to several families.  This particular area was hit hard with the floods this year.  

 

  

Interns June and July 2009: We were privileged to have an AMAZING group of interns this summer.  Here are a few pictures of these great men and women of God.  If anyone is interested in the intern program for next year please contact me!

 

The big 2-4, one year mark and São Paulo: Tonight I will be leaving for a week trip to São Paulo.  I will be celebrating my 24th (yikes) birthday tomorrow the 26th and Saturday the 29th will mark 1 year here in Brazil.  It is hard to believe it has been 1 year already.  Thank you so much to all of you for your prayers and support!  It means so much to me and to the Kingdom of God!  Please be praying for my trip to São Paulo.  I am really excited about this trip!  It is winter in São Paulo so it will be a relief from the extreme heat we are experiencing in Santarém.  Also, they have McDonalds!!! 

Next update will be pictures from São Paulo!

July = busy, busy, busy!

Wow, so it has been quite awhile since an update but instead of going back I am going to talk about all that is coming up in the month of July.  I cannot believe we are already halfway through 2009 and I have been in Brazil for 10 months now.  Woah where did the time go?!  July is definitely one of the busiest months here at the mission.  We have teams coming and going, interns and also our 3 night evangelistic crusade -- The Congresso.  

Here is a little idea of what I will be doing over the next several weeks.  Monday through Wednesday I will help co-lead a team from Samaritan's Purse in Canada and our group of interns in a work project out at our PAZ campgrounds about 30min. outside of Santarém.  There are several renovations going on at the camp so we will be doing mostly construction work for a couple of days.  The camp sits right on the beautiful Tapajós River which is great for swimming in the afternoons after a hot day in the sun!

The Congresso will be the 10-12th of July.  Like I mentioned earlier, this a 3 night evangelistic crusade that packs out the local soccer stadium here in Santarém.  The Congresso includes powerful dramas and dances, special music and powerful Gospel messages.  Each year many people give their lives to the Lord.  Please pray for the Congresso that it would not rain and for the Lord's protection over each worker and participant.  Most importantly pray for the Lord to begin softening the hearts of those who are to attend and that each one who gives his life to the Lord would stay firm in that decision and continue to grow.

The 13th-16th there will be a river trip on the Amazon river to the community of Piracãoera.  This is a flooded community.  There will be several projects going on in this community from construction, medical clinics, evangelistic visits, distribution of basic items to families, etc...  This trip should be a wonderful time.

As always, please pray for the safety of everyone.  Your prayers are so much appreciated and very necessary.  If there is anything I can be praying for in your lives please let me know.  

Blessings to all of you!  Hopefully there will be pictures and more updates in a few weeks!

Pray for the people of the Amazon!

I am sure many of you have seen even on the news in the US the flooding going on here in Brazil.  I mentioned in my previous blog that Santarém where I live is flooded in some parts.  The river has started to go down finally, praise the Lord, but we still need to continue praying.  Many people in the river communities lost their homes and have been left with nothing.  The Paz church made a short video to show some of the flooding.  Please watch this video and remember to pray for these people.  Also, please visit www.projectamazon.org if you would like to donate to help those who have lost everything.

    

Should I buy a boat?

Just a quick update to let you all know what is going on here in Santarém.  Thursday, I will be heading out onto the Amazon River for a short trip with a team of young adults from Canada.  They are from a church in Calgary but the trip is in conjunction with Samaritan's Purse.  We will leave early Thursday and return by noon on Sunday.  During the trip we are supposed to be putting up a roof on the church building.  This trip will be a new experience for me because this is a flooded community which means we go everywhere by canoe and all the buildings are on stilts, etc...  Please pray for the safety of everyone and for the name of Jesus to be glorified on this trip.  I will post later with pictures.  

And speaking of flooded communities...Santarém, the city I live in, and come to think of it many of the cities along the Amazon are every day becoming more and more flooded by the intense rainy season we have been having.  The river each day is rising.  I am beginning to think they will be docking the boats on the streets here and that maybe I myself should invest in a boat as my mode of transportation.  Just yesterday I went down to the riverfront and there are already large portions of the main road that are completely flooded which results in the shutting down of businesses, etc...  Also, in certain parts, there is only about a foot or so until the river passes the front wall.  Even if it is not raining a lot here, the rains in other areas along the Amazon push the river and cause it to rise higher and higher.  Please be praying for these cities because this has a huge impact on businesses but also the spread of disease and the dangers of flood waters.  Lets pray for a flood of the Holy Spirit instead!

Here are some pictures I took a week ago:

The sidewalk is about to be a boat parking lot!

This boat is on the street!!!

This is what it's all about...

It is overwhelming to even think of where to begin to sum up the month of February.  How can I share the experiences I had so that you too might experience them?  The month of February was a month of new experiences, friendships, challenges and lots of learning.  As a quick recap, I was asked to travel during the month of February to help translate for a team of 5 medical students from MUSC in South Carolina who are about to start their time of residency.  February began by meeting 5 strangers and ended with 5 new friends (Ben, Ian, Jonathan, Matt and Young).  I guess the best way to do this update is to start with the first trip and go from there...so here we go...

2/2/09 - 2/9/09 Prainha, Pará

Our first adventure began with a line boat trip to Prainha, a small city along the Amazon River.  We left Santarém early evening in time to watch the amazing sunset over the Amazon River and get settled into our hammocks for the evening.  We were packed onto that boat like sardines in a can.  It is definitely an experience to travel by line boat.  We were all very thrilled to arrive in Prainha about 4:00am and get a little more sleep before setting up and beginning clinics.  School in Prainha was still out on break so we setup our clinics in the school building.  We got everything setup in the morning and began clinics in the afternoon.  We had each doctor with a translator and then we had our Brazilian dentist working as well.  I was pretty nervous about translating.  I remember thinking, "Lord, I am not sure I am ready for this.  You are really going to have to help me here.  Not only am I speaking another language but I am having to translate things I have never needed to talk about in Portuguese before."  God, as always, was so faithful.  It was so incredible to be able to attend to the physical and spiritual needs of the people.  Knowing that when all seems hopeless there is hope in Jesus Christ.  Each day of our trip we either had clinics the whole day or just in the morning.  People would begin lining up at 3 and 4am to be able to get a consult and also wait in the extreme heat of the day.  Can you imagine being that desperate in the US?  We definitely take advantage of so many things in the States.  We were very busy in Prainha and I will have to admit, I never thought it would be so mentally and physically draining to sit and translate but it really does a number on you.  Prainha was also a little bit of a stretch for me as there were about 20 of us staying all in one home with one bathroom that ran out of water every other day.  I know the Lord was working in my life during the week I was there.  There was a lot of room for bad attitudes to creep in but God was faithful and helped :).  We had 3 nights of church services out on the road in front of the pastor'

s home where many of the team was staying.  One night I was able to be a part of the praise and worship team; which I really enjoyed as that was a huge part of growing up for me.  Probably the greatest reward of being in Prainha was being able to pray with people and also see people that we had invited come to the church services.  Prainha is a tough city with a lot of resistance to the Gospel.  But praise the Lord walls are falling down in that city.

2/14/09-2/15/09 Pinduri, Pará

The next adventure would be a two day boat trip on the Amazon River on our PAZ boat "Portador da Luz" which means "light bringer".  This time we would be going to an actual river community unlike Prainha which was a small city.  We would be living, bathing and sleeping on the PAZ boat.  Ever thought about taking a shower with water from the Amazon River?  Have you ever seen a mosquito the size of a bird or almost ;)?  Or how about slept in a hammock on a boat and had to jump up in the middle of the night to lower tarps because there is a torrential downpour?  These are just some of the adventures to be had on a river trip.  On this trip we actually did our clinics on the boat as there was not a place on land to setup.  This community seemed to be spread out and it amazed me how people came from whatever distance to have a medical consult or to see the dentist.  The community of Pinduri does not have a PAZ church started yet.  This is a brand new project so Saturday night we had a church service out in a big soccer field.  If I am not mistaken, 7 people gave their lives to the Lord.  This is just the beginning of a great work of God in Pinduri.  The people are hungry for the Lord and ready to see their community changed.

2/16/09-2/18/09 Porto Novo, Pará

The third trip would be a little break from traveling on the muddy Amazon to traveling on the beautiful Tapajós.  Porto Novo is a community only a little over an hour drive away from Santarém but we went by boat which took about 3 or 4 hours.  On this trip, I asked the boat captain Geraldo, to take the visiting American doctors on a ride through the jungle at night in his small boat.  I went as their translator.  What an incredible experience and treat!  Just the sounds in the jungle at night are amazing.  My favorite part was when he rowed us out more towards the open part of the river and we just looked up at the sky which was painted with stars.  It is hard to explain but in that moment I couldn't help but think about the marvelous Creator we have.  The Chris Tomlin worship song came into my head How Great Is Our God and He truly is so great.  On our last morning in Porto Novo, an elderly lady came in for a consult.  She was the sweetest little thing.  I think she just wanted to come and chat because she already knew she had diabetes and she was already doing everything right to take care of her condition.  She treated me like I was her best friend and was absolutely precious.  When she was about to leave she hugged me and gave me kisses.  She even returned after a few minutes to bring me a fruit spread that she made.  When I encounter people like this it just is further reminder of why I am here and how much I love these people.

2/21/09-2/24/09 Surubiauçu, Pará

For this trip we were back on the Amazon.  We set our clinics up in what looked like a bar as it is used for parties after soccer games.  The people in these communities are so desperate for medicine.  One such gentlemen we saw did have a problem with his eye that Dr. Jonathan noticed right away.  I had the opportunity to look through the doctor's instrument into his eye and see a huge blood vessel completely blocking his vision in that eye.  While in this community, we were able to have two church services.  The first night, the turnout was amazing.  People came from down the river and all around to participate and a few people gave their lives to Jesus.  It is amazing to see the sacrifice people make to go to church in these communities.  Whether it is the pouring down rain or there are tons of bugs the people make the effort.  It was a humbling experience.  From the time the team arrived, I told them about alligator hunting and they were all pumped and really wanted to go.  So on the very last trip we were able to get 3 of them on an alligator hunt.  About 9:30 our second night, we set out on an adventure.  I was very nervous.  Our two Brazilian guides and alligator experts were telling us how they had killed alligators that gave 150kg of meat.  That was enough to freak me out.  I can't even imagine an alligator that big nor did I want to encounter one.  So off we went on our journey back through the brush of the Amazon out onto a lake.  We were gone for several hours.  After just a short time, one of the Brazilian men spotted a small alligator.  He slowly put his hand down and grabbed him up out of the water.  Each of the doctors held him and took pictures as a "momento" of their trip to the Amazon.  Then they all said it was my turn but I only managed to grab his tail for a quick picture.  We let him go and continued our search for a larger animal that could be used for food.  Our Brazilian guides continued to call the alligators and they responded all around us in the dark of the night but we never did encounter another alligator after we let the little guy go.  I will have to admit I was kind of relieved because he would have ridden back in the boat with us.  YIKES!!!

Lessons Learned...

After a month of traveling with the team of doctors, I learned many things.  One thing I learned is how to cure stomachaches, headaches, worms and several other common ailments among the people of the Amazon.  Just call me Dr. Claire ha!  Another lesson I learned is to be flexible and show the love of Christ and realize that even when I am tired and really don't feel I can continue that there is a person that Jesus loves waiting for just a few minutes of my time.  The last lesson that really hit home for me during these trips came from a devotion that Pastor Nilson gave one morning on the boat.  He spoke out of Genesis 12:1-2 "The Lord said to Abraham, 'Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing'."  As he was speaking, it really struck me that this is what I have done.  I have left my land, the USA and my family and my father's home and gone to the land the Lord put in my heart which is Brazil.  It was so encouraging to later hear the promise the Lord gave Abraham that He would make him into a great nation and bless him and make his name great, etc...  For me, I could care less about having a name that is great in this world.  It is enough for me to just be able to be a blessing to others in need.  I know that the Lord working through me will bless others and I am so thankful for the opportunity I had in the month of February to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  Words alone cannot express my gratitude to all of you who have enabled me through your prayers and financial support to bring Jesus to the people of the Amazon Basin.

Please continue to pray for me as I will be joining on other trips in the future and also as I take on some new projects.  One of these projects is being the point person for a 4 year Bible school.  This Bible school is different because it is all on a device similar to an iPod, called a MegaVoice.  All 4 years of Bible school are on this small device and have been translated into Portuguese.  It is a study from Genesis to Revelation.  My responsibility is to keep in touch with our leaders all over the Amazon Basin and monitor the progress of the course.  As I monitor the course, I will report to the ministry that provides the materials for this course on a regular basis as to the progress of each group of students.  This program will be very useful out in the river communities where a Bible education of this nature is not available.  

I ask that you would pray about joining with me on a regular basis as a financial supporter as well.  Exciting things are happening here in the Amazon Basin and as we say at all of our PAZ churches "Isto é só o começo" (This is just the beginning)!

To see pictures from February follow the links below:

February Part 1

February Part 2

Coming Soon...

An update is long overdue from me.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.  I spent mine away from my family for the first time.  Thankfully, I was surrounded by my second family here in Brazil.  I also was blessed to have a friend, Rachel, from the States stay with me for almost a month.  It was nice to have company.  Rachel and I had a lot of fun together and now I am adjusting to life without her here.  I wanted to use this blog entry to talk more about what is coming up in 2009.

Thursday, starts the bi-annual PAZ Leadership Conference.  This is a 5 day conference at our campgrounds in Alter do Chão with leaders from all of the PAZ bases.  We will have morning and evening sessions with a speaker from South Africa (yay for preaching in English haha).  I am really looking forward to this time with leaders from all over the Amazon Basin of Brazil.  There should be about 400 or so in attendance I believe.  When I return from this conference, we have one day back at home and then all of the American missionaries have a retreat for a couple of days.  So starting on Thursday, I will be gone for about a week and a half.  The theme for the leadership conference is faith.  We are getting ready to launch a new campaign of 1000 churches by 2014.  We currently have 500.  The conference will be a great time to catch more of the vision for the Amazon and to increase our faith.  

Another exciting thing about this year, is that it looks like I will be traveling quite a bit to help with translating.  I guess that is a testimony to the Lord's faithfulness in regard to my portuguese.  It is almost certain that I will be going on a 9 day medical trip sometime in the beginning of February.  There are several doctors that are needing some type of internship credit that will be coming from the US and they will each need their own translator.  I am really excited to get out on the river.  Since I have been back there have not been many boat trips so I am excited for the opportunity to go in February.  Also, it is exciting because my leadership is wanting me to travel more this year as we will have many trips.  So in 2009, I am looking forward to getting more involved and being more hands on here in the Amazon.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support.  Please let me know of any prayer requests you all may have.  I want to be standing and believing with each of you just as you do with me!  God Bless and may the Lord reveal His heart and desires for each of you in 2009!