US Trip Part 1

I cannot believe that I have been in the US for almost a month already. The time is flying and I am sure that has to do with the fact that I have been quite busy so far. I would like to share briefly some of the highlights of my trip and a few photos to go along. Some of my time has been spent just resting and refocusing for next year and the work God has in store for me in Brazil. I spent a week in FL which was absolutely amazing. For those who don't know, I lived in southern FL over 10 years ago and this was my first time back in as long. It was such a wonderful time to catch up with old family friends and to be able to share in person about the work God has called me to in the Amazon. While in FL, I was also able to participate in a conference in which I was trained as a prayer counselor. It was such a special time as I was not only trained but also ministered to. I am very excited to be able to use this training as I minister to young girls in Brazil. After coming back from FL, I was given the wonderful opportunity to share at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church (my home church) about the work in Brazil. God was very faithful and I know He is and will be opening doors for prayer and financial support. This past week, I have been busy spending time with my family getting ready for Thanksgiving, shopping and all those sorts of things. I truly treasure the time I have with them because soon I will be heading back to Brazil. Here are some pictures of my trip so far:

Gotta take advantage of the yummy food :)

Retreat

Sharing at Mount Pleasant

Sisters on Thanksgiving

Ready for Thanksgiving!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. I need to boost my monthly financial support and ask for each of you to prayerfully consider joining with me on a regular basis as a financial partner. There is a link on my blog to give online or you can go to www.projectamazon.org for more information on how to give. Blessings to all of you especially during this Holiday season!

Here we go...

The past month has been a whirlwind. My dear friend and soon to be fellow missionary, Rachel, stayed with me for about 3 weeks. We were short term missionaries together at PAZ in 2007 and since then she has come to visit twice. Lord willing, she will be returning in 2011 to work full time with PAZ. We had a great time visiting and doing all sorts of fun things during her stay.

Next week, I will be participating in the 10th annual MDA Conference here at the local PAZ church. This is a conference that draws pastors and leaders from all over Brazil to Santarém. I participated two years ago and am very excited to participate this year. The conference will focus on the discipleship and cell group model that our church uses. It is primarily to train leaders to be more effective in their cell group ministry. We even have a speaker from the US, Ralph Neighbour coming to speak. In a few short days, Santarém will be filled with people from all over Brazil who are hungry for God.

Some other news that you may or may not know is that I will be in the US from November 4th thru January 1st. I will be using these 2 months as a time to share with as many churches, groups, people as I can about the ministry here in Brazil in an effort to raise more monthly support. If you know of anyone who may be interested please let me know as I am working on a tentative schedule for any speaking engagements or visits. I will be making a trip to Florida November 10 - 17th to visit friends and participate in a workshop. I would love to see as many of you as possible during my trip. Also, I would really like to keep my expenses during my trip as low as possible. If anyone knows of a car I can use while I am in Virginia so that I can be flexible to make visits, etc... please let me know as soon as possible. Also, I will be flying to Fort Myers, FL and would like a vehicle to drive while in FL. Any help in finding or borrowing a vehicle would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much to each of you who take the time to read my blog, pray for me and to those of you who support me financially. If it weren't for your participation, none of this would be possible. May the Lord bless and keep each one of you!

See you soon!

My Field Trip to...

São Paulo. Most of you have heard of São Paulo and know that it is one of the largest cities in the world. I am not talking about that São Paulo though but rather a community located about an hour and a half outside of Santarém. A few weeks ago, I set out on a field trip with classmates from my church leadership class to put into practice what we were learning in the classroom. We had several different things going on in the community from dental and medical clinics to children's activities to home visits and evangelism and even haircuts for the men. I was able to work with the children and also take some pictures of the different activities. I started by visiting several homes inviting children to come join in the activities and then I worked alongside one of my classmates ministering to the children. A few children prayed to receive Jesus in their hearts' for the first time. The groups that made home visits also reported several decisions for Jesus! It was a wonderful day hanging out with my classmates and serving the Lord. Here are a few pictures from the day:

Our children's group!

Isaura, head of our mission health team, explains the health clinic

Painting faces!

Precious!

Fellow classmate giving some haircuts!

Our group in front of the bus used for the dental clinic!

I would like to ask for prayers for a couple of different things. First, I am going to be opening a group for young adults on Saturday evenings in my home. The group is evangelistic and the purpose is to eventually become a cell group. Pray for the Lord to use me and that the hearts of each one who participates will be open to the word of the Lord. Second, one of my roles in the mission is team support when we have teams from US or Canada. This next year, I will be even more involved because our guest house hosts will be taking an extended furlough during our busiest team season. I was given the challenge to learn how to drive a stick shift and not only a stick shift but our mission van called a Kombi. I am very nervous about driving here as traffic can be crazy with motorcycles, bikes and pedestrians and also bad road conditions. Please pray for the Lord's protection over me as I learn and that I will learn quickly. Here is what I will be driving:

Can you picture me driving this??? haha!

Blessings!

River trips, cousin's visit and upcoming milestones!

Since my last blog update, I have been on two more river trips, my cousin has come and gone and the summer interns have returned to the States. The last 3 1/2 months have been absolutely crazy busy but they have been incredible ministry wise. Thank you so much for the constant prayer support and also, the financial support. I would not be able to continue here in Brazil without it.

Here is a recap of the past few weeks and the river trips I participated in and a look at what is to come in the next few weeks...and of course, lots of pictures because those always say a lot more than me writing :).

2 weeks ago, I set out on a boat trip to the communities of Lago Central and Uquena (3rd time!). In Lago Central, the project was to pour the concrete floor, clean up the area around the church and paint the front. We had one full day of nonstop work to get the church ready for the inauguration services. We had one service on a Saturday night that was led by our team from Michigan. They shared testimonies and the youth pastor gave the word. On Sunday morning, we had the official inauguration of the church followed by water baptisms and a huge celebration lunch. The service was incredible and packed. Several people gave their lives to Christ and afterwards around 20 people were water baptized down at the river proclaiming to all around that their old way of living was dead and they are now alive in Christ and living for Him! What an amazing thing to witness! Sunday afternoon, we left Lago Central and headed to the community of Uquena. The work here was to get the roof on the church and get the floor ready for the concrete to be poured. We also had children's activities going on at the same time. Our first morning, I helped at the construction site pulling branches, etc out of the dirt being put down to prepare the floor in the church. Needless to say I was covered in dirt. I had to use a brush to scrub my legs during my shower to get the dirt off and it still didn't come all the way off. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture to show how dirty I was haha. In the afternoon and second morning, I was able to work alongside a team at the local school with the children. Due to my cousin's flight, we left early to head back to the city. A few days later (last Monday) I embarked on another river trip. This time, our destination would be Urucurituba, a community about an hour and a half by boat outside of Santarem on the Amazon River. Part of the team worked to move the wooden church to another location and make it bigger while the other part worked in dental and health clinics. My job was to translate for the nurse practitioner. It was a nice change of pace to be translating. We saw a lot of patients! Praise the Lord, all of these trips have been so blessed. The Lord is doing great things in the Amazon Basin and I am excited to be a part of it.

So now, I am back in Santarem trying to get caught up on life and sleep :). This has been such a great few months but extremely tiring. I have two exciting milestones coming up this month: my 25th birthday (1/4 of a century...aghh) on the 26th and 2 years in Brazil on the 29th!!! My focus for the next couple of months will be the Mini-Bible college I am administrating. I will be working with the Missions pastor to get the project organized in the river communities. I will also continue my course at church for leaders. My church leadership has also asked me to start a cell group for young adults at my home on Saturday evenings. I hope to be starting this group in the next couple of weeks. I already have a girl that lives close to my home that does my nails and she said she is excited to come because she needs God in her life!!! Talk about someone ready to give their life to Jesus!!! I pray I can win her for the Lord and begin to disciple her. I also have a good friend recently accepted to be a missionary with PAZ who will be visiting for a few weeks toward the end of September.

Life is good and Jesus is great!!!

Enjoy some pictures...

One of my favorite people :)

Lots of painting to be done and concrete poured in Lago Central!

So precious!

working hard!

Still smiling after a very long day of hard work!

I was scared to death to hold this little guy :)

Love that face!

Church in Lago Central ready for the inauguration!

Emily Cristina

Inauguration service in Lago Central

Several people giving their lives over to Jesus during the service!

Group waiting to be water baptized

God of wonders beyond our majesty!

He thinks this dog is his mom!

Such a pretty dragonfly!

Sharing the gospel with children in Uquena...3 gave their hearts to Jesus!

Love these faces!

A home in Uquena

We had to walk from the speedboat in the back of the pic in about 6 -12 in. of water and mud to get to shore :)

Emmaline (cousin) and me

Crazy cousins!

Urucurituba...people waiting for dental and medical clinics

so cute!

Translating for Sharon @ the medical clinic

A family who came to the clinic

Uquena (round 2), Congresso da Paz and more

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a 2 day trip to PAZ's camp to help control the erosion at the beach and then back to the community of Uquena. Joining with fellow missionaries, Isaiah & Erin, Betty and Katie, we led a team from California and our 3 summer interns to do construction, children's programs and health clinics. The first 2 days, I worked in the health clinic translating for a doctor and physician's assistant. It was nice to have a change of pace and I really do enjoy translating. We saw a little boy that had a broken arm for several days and the team was able to get him set up with a sling to help until he could get to the city the next day. The last 2 days of the trip I led a team of young people in working in the local schoolhouse. In the morning we worked with children around 5 years old and in the afternoon with children ranging from 6-12. We put our brains together and came up with some lessons based off of crafts that one of the young girls prepared. One lesson we did how we are fearfully and wonderfully made and the children decorated their names. The other lesson we did was about the Lord being our Shepherd. The children made little sheep. Two of the evenings we did services and I was able to translate testimonies for a few team members. I praise the Lord constantly for the supernatural ability He has given me to speak Portuguese. To His glory, I have received numerous compliments on my Portuguese from Brazilians. It really is a blessing. The trip was wonderful and many people gave their lives to the Lord. This community has definitely grown a fond spot in my heart. It looks like I will be returning once again at the end of this month with another team.

July 2nd, 3rd and 4th was our annual Congresso da Paz. This is an evangelistic crusade held in our local soccer stadium. There were many healed and saved this year!!! Praise the Lord! For a more detailed story about this years Congresso, follow this link: Congresso da PAZ

Since the Congresso, I have been working on organizing and scheduling activities for Rebecca, Caroline and Corrine (summer interns), getting back involved with my cell group and church. I recently started a 5 month leadership course at church that meets every Thursday night. I am enjoying the course and excited about getting more involved. I am also very excited to have my FIRST family member visiting. My cousin Emmaline arrived yesterday to spend 3 weeks here with me. The next 3 weeks should be packed with working at camp, a boat trip and lots of adventure.

Quick story: For my class at church, we had a homework assignment to share the Gospel with someone using a bracelet with different colored beads that explain salvation. I was asked to share at a missionary kid's cell group with about 8-10 kids ranging in age from 5-12 or so. I shared and at the end had them bow their heads to give them the opportunity to ask Jesus into their hearts. Praise the Lord, every single one raised their hand to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior! God is good!

Thank you all for reading and praying! I appreciate you and would love to know how I can pray for you. Please feel free to leave a comment or email me with any prayer requests. Now enjoy some picture from the last few weeks!

The interns and me :)

Rebecca and I working out at camp

Translating for the health clinic

Precious

Let's go Brazil! In the middle of nowhere watching the World Cup using a generator...sooo much fun...and they won this game :)

Our home for about 4 days

With the younger children

With the older children

Two precious little boys!

Aline

Me and the local teacher

I love the kids!

Our team!

Hundreds giving their lives to Jesus

Big theatrical piece about the life of Joseph at the Congresso