February Update - Cell Groups, Disciples and YWAM Team

While those of you stateside are having quite a crazy winter, here in the Amazon, we are having a rather “cold” one too.  Our rainy season is in full gear bringing cooler temperatures and torrential downpours almost on a daily basis.  The river has risen quickly and soon the beautiful beaches will be completely under water.  With all that said, God’s work continues no matter the season.  Just a quick update on what is going on here in our lives right now ministerially.  We continue with our two cell groups and praise the Lord they are growing!  Lucivan’s group is especially doing well and a week ago they had around 12 visitors.  Many of them being unsaved and first time visitors to a cell group.  He is currently discipling 5 guys between the ages of early 20s-early 30s and I am discipling 4 in their early 20s.  Please be praying for all of our disciples and cell group members to go deeper in their commitments to the Lord and to His work.

Today, a team arrived from YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in Santarem.  The team is made up of 12 people from the US, Canada and Norway.  They have been trained at the YWAM main base in Kona, Hawaii and have been in Brazil for almost 2 months now and their last 2 weeks will be spent ministering and serving here.  I will serve as their main translator and our work begins tomorrow.  We will be doing a lot of evangelism in homes, prison, a rehabilitation home and on the street.  Please be praying for protection over each person that will be involved.  They have a project in mind to evangelize and just love on prostitutes from 11pm – 3am on several nights.  The main idea is to go and take them different treats like soda and cookies and snacks and just talk with them and love on them.  We will also be doing 4 church services on the 2 Sundays that they will be here.  Your prayers are greatly appreciated for the whole team and also for myself.  Pray that the Lord will use all mightily and that many will be touched by His power and come to know Him.  I will write another update after my time with this team to share all the exciting testimonies!

Thank you so much to everyone who remembers to pray for us on a regular basis and also to those who support us financially.  I would like to ask for you to consider becoming a part of our financial support team even if it is a small amount.  We are at less than half of the recommended budget for a married couple with PAZ.  We believe that God is faithful and He will raise up more of you to stand with us as we work to win the Amazon for Jesus.  To donate online please follow this link http://www.projectamazon.org/footer/donate/ and specify Claire Helring as the missionary or you can send in a donation using the address Project AmaZon
P.O. Box 3253
Peoria, IL 61612.

Thank you once again.  You are a part of all that God is doing here in the Amazon of Brazil!

God Bless,

Lu & Claire

5 years and counting...

Today, August 29^th, marks 5 years that I arrived in Santarém, Brazil.  Sometimes it feels like yesterday and sometimes it feels like forever ago.  I arrived as a newly 23 year old, only a year out of college and ready to take on the world.  Now looking back, as a newly married, 28 year old, I can see how much I have been blessed during these past 5 years.  It hasn’t always been easy.  There have been countless struggles, times of homesickness and times where I wondered if I was even worthy to be a missionary.  One thing I have learned is I probably am not worthy but the one I am working for (Jesus) is more than worthy.  There are times when I have thought about what I am “missing out” on in the US.  But as Becky Hrubik, PAZ co-director, told me, “There is nothing better than working full-time for Jesus.”  I have no doubt that she is right. 

Before getting married and even shortly after, Lucivan and I had thought a lot about what our plans would be after getting married.  What would we do?  Where would we go?  We thought a lot about moving to Southern Brazil and working regular jobs and being involved in a local church.  I thought a lot about having my own job so I could make money and not have to live on donations and rely on other people.  Maybe my faith was too small.  We sat down with the Directors of PAZ to talk through the plans for the future and they challenged us to pray and seek God about jumping on board as a couple full-time with Project AmaZon.  Now we would both be missionaries.  I know we both walked away that day very thoughtful.  What were we supposed to do?  We both felt torn between what our flesh wanted to do and what God was calling to do. 

For those that don’t know, my husband is from a river community along the Amazon River.  6 months before we met, I went to his community on a PAZ trip to help with the construction of the church there and to do children’s ministry.  The trip that I went on really marked my life.  Sometimes we go to so many places that we just don’t remember them all but this community was different.  6 months later I understood why when I met Lucivan.  God is so neat in the way He writes our stories.  I know it was not just by chance that an American missionary and a Brazilian guy from a river community were joined together.  God’s will must be done. 

With all that said, and on the 5^th anniversary of my life in Brazil, we would like to announce that we will be serving full-time as PAZ missionaries.  God is in control and the time tables are in His hands.  What we know for now is that we will be serving in any way we can to further His Kingdom here in the Amazon Basin.  This will include but not be limited to: Guesthouse support, administrative duties, river trips, translating, ministering, leading cell groups and discipling. 

With this change, we need your prayers and support!  To be able to dedicate ourselves 100% to this ministry, we will not be able to work outside jobs so financial support is vital.  Cost of living here is high and we never can be too sure what the dollar is going to do.  Please prayerfully consider joining with us financially on a regular basis.  Also, we will need to travel to the US at the end of the year in an effort to raise support.  If you or your church would like us to come share please get in contact with us.  On that note, the big prayer request right now is for Lucivan’s visa.  He has his interview for a tourist visa in Sao Paulo on September 9^th at 9am EST.  It is essential that he get this visa so we can make our plans for raising support in the US.

Thank you so much to all of you have so graciously supported me over the past 5 years and thank you in advance to those who will now partner with Lucivan and I in the next years as God leads.

God bless,

Lucivan and Claire  

Youth Power Invasion and Congresso

For a week and a half things have been crazy busy around here but it has been a "great" busy!  On the 5th of July there was a team of over 120 people, mostly youth, from many different places in the world that arrived here in Santarem.  They came for a conference called Youth Power Invasion which is an event that happens annually in different places all over the world through Randy Clark's Global Awakening Ministries.  To learn more about this event you can check out the website: http://youthpowerinvasion.com/  Our annual Congresso here in Santarem is the evangelistic event that packs out the local stadium and this years speaker was Pastor Randy Clark.  They combined the 2 events in what was an amazing time and experience for all who were able to participate.  Because of the amount of English speakers, the coordinators were after everyone with ability to translate during ministry time and for the second part of the event people who could translate teachings and sermons from the pulpit.  Due to my time here at the mission, I have experience with translating when our teams come in and we go out on the river, etc.  This would be a new challenge though as it would be here mostly in the city in larger churches.  Anyone who knows me even a little, knows that I do not like being up on stage or in front of people talking but the Lord is the one that enables us to do the work for which He called us to do.  I was so blessed the whole time to be a part of what God was and is doing.  We saw many salvations and physical healings.  One lady that we prayed for had several lumps in her breast that the doctor wanted to remove.  Before she came to the service she felt her breast and could feel the lumps.  After she received prayer we asked her to go check herself in the bathroom and praise the Lord the lumps were no longer there!  Two days they did training and services at one of the local PAZ churches which has around 400 people.  On Saturday, a group of about 60 went to the local youth meeting where there were well over 1000 people.  I translated the service there and it was amazing to see the young people making commitments to be radical disciples.  Making commitments to live God's will for their lives and not their own.  A testimony from the Congresso, is that I was translating during the ministry/prayer time and we prayed for a young woman that is around 7 months pregnant and was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  We prayed believing in faith that she would be healed.  She contacted me today and said when she did another exam that it came back totally clear of diabetes!  Praise the Lord!  I just know that the God we serve is the same yesterday, today and forever!  If He did miracles back then He can still do them today!  Let's not limit Him and His power.  He wants to use us in ways we can't even think or imagine!

People coming forward for salvation and prayer for healing at the Congresso

Translating the sermon at the monthly youth meeting

Almost 2 months ago, I got married to Lucivan.  We are getting adjusted to married life, etc.  Please be praying for us as we are going through a time of seeking God's direction for our lives.  We desire to do His will and not our own.  Also, be praying if the Lord leads you to partner with us financially.  You will be sewing into a very ripe harvest.  We are currently working with 2 cell groups and between the 2 of us we have 8 disciples.

Lu and I with my family at our wedding!

Blessings to each of you and please let us know if we can praying for you for anything!

Lu & Claire

Wedding Bells

In just 45 days, I will become Mrs. Ferreira.  Actually, it will probably be Helring-Ferreira because Lucivan wants to actually exchange names.  I never really thought about it but he wants to do that as a way of honoring my family and really becoming one. So we will be the Helring-Ferreira's haha.  That is a mouthful ;)!

Many people have been asking my mom and me how they can send gifts due to the wedding and us being out of the country.  I did some research online and found a great registry site that is a bit different.  If you would like to be a part of the wedding in some way, please check out the following link.  It tells a little of our story, has some details about the wedding and a few pictures.  I will be updating it as time gets a little closer.

lucivanandclaire.mydagsite.com/

We appreciate all of your prayers during this time as we are about to make a huge transition.  Of course, it is a very exciting one as well!

Blessings!

Claire (and Lucivan)

Here Comes the Bride and other news...

My poor blog has been quite abandoned recently.  Most of you follow me on Facebook or at least try to with all my posts in Portuguese (sorry about that haha).  So for those who don't already know, I am getting married on May 25th here in Brazil!  My future husband, Lucivan, is from this area and we have known each other for over 2 1/2 years. We are very excited with less than 3 months to go til the big day.  My parents and sister will be coming down to share in our joy and we couldn't be happier.  We got engaged back in July but our official engagement in front of the church was on February 2nd.  We decided to be a bit different and get engaged during the monthly youth/young adult service which was a packed house!  Here are a few pictures of the church engagement.

With wedding plans in full force, time is very precious.  Both of us are very involved in the church ministry here of discipleship and cell groups.  I have 4 disciples and a cell group in my house every week.  Lu has 5 disciples and 2 cell groups that he leads and supervises each week.  We have made a decision to really invest in the lives of these young people.  We are all so close that we act like a family with our disciples calling us "mom" and "dad" and we call them "daughter" and "son" and they call each other "brother" and "sister".  We made a commitment as a "family" to fast each Wednesday together for different purposes and to about once a month get together for a time of prayer and worship.  We know that this is what is going to make the difference in our lives, their lives and in the lives' of others around us.  Once we get married, we will be able to join forces to be even more effective in ministry.  We are praying for the Lord's direction as to His will for us but until then, we are here serving Him in this region.  Here are a few pictures of our "family"...

Part of the family :)

With my disciple Mari

With my disciple Renice

With my disciple Isabel

With an upcoming marriage, my expenses (ours actually) have gone up and will be going up more.  I would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining with us on a monthly basis in support or sending a one time gift to help us continue working in the lives of these young people and investing in our cell groups.  Thank you so much for your prayers and support throughout the years.  May the Lord bless each of you!

Address to send donations (please put my name in the memo):

Project AmaZon
PO Box 3253Peoria, IL 61612

Link for online giving (donation to make sure to select my name):

http://www.projectamazon.org/footer/donate/?category=listmissionaries

Prayer requests:

- Wedding plans

- Marriage - God's love to reign in our home

- Disciples and Cell groups

ORU and Parintins

For 3 weeks, I had the privilege of accompanying a great group of young people from Oral Roberts University to the island city of Parintins.  Each year, I accompany the teams that come from this college and we always make a trip to Parintins but this year we stayed the entire time there as opposed to doing other trips close to Santarem.  It took my responsibility to another level and it was a stretch to be away from "home" for so long.  The trip was amazing and team even better.  I fit right in with them and they seemed to like me haha.  In Parintins we had several different opportunities, being construction work, visiting a local English school and giving out Bibles, taking a river trip to two communities, doing a presentation in a local elementary school and many opportunities for the team to preach, share testimonies and do skits.  The local PAZ church in Parintins is growing leaps and bounds and is currently in the process of having their new building built.  Right now they have two packed services on Sunday's and are still growing.  The team helped with the beginning stages of the project and even during our 3 weeks, we were able to see much progress.  My main role was in translating during services and other events.  The team was able to visit several times a local English school as an evangelistic tool.  One day in particular there was a nice breakfast setup for us and the students where each student was given a Bible as a gift.  Praise the Lord for the work He is doing in Parintins, which for those of you have followed the blog for the past few years, know that it's a city with a very demonic festival each year.  The festival was this past week but during our stay we did a prayer walk and prayed breaking down strongholds over that city and over the people.  Parintins will be known as a city for Jesus and not the festival of the bull!  Here are some pictures of the trip:

                         After a Sunday service celebrating a couple of birthdays

                        A 15th birthday party - cultural experience for the team

                                     Out on the river, on top of the boat =)

                                                Church Construction

                                    Giving a Children's Bible to a young girl

                                      With some of the English students

At the PAZ church in Vila Amazonia

                       Translating a Sunday message given by team leader, Jessica

                 The team with Pastor Samuel and the Portuguese Bibles they received

                                         At a local elementary school

                                   Youth service w/ such a pretty little girl

                                                          The team

Starting tonight is our annual Congresso.  A 3-night evangelistic crusade in the soccer stadium.  Please be in prayer for the event, for protection for the people working and participating and for many salvations.

Thank you for your prayers and support =)

Not your ordinary Tuesday...

The last week in April, I had the privilege of traveling with a medical team from Joyce Meyer's Ministries.  Their team was around 30 people which made our whole group 70+ with boat 3 different boat crews, missionaries, cooks and brazilian pastors.  We traveled to the small city of Curuá where 5 days of dental and medical clinics and ministry were awaiting us.  At the end of the week, over 3,000 people received treatment and 484 made decisions for Christ!

As I mentioned in my last blog, I was scheduled to translate for a midwife from Denmark.  The first day of clinics we were able to see many pregnant women and even do ultrasounds on them.  It was quite an emotional experience seeing their faces when they saw their baby for the first time.  I joked around wondering if we would have any deliveries during our 5 days of clinics...well, that brings me to the "not so ordinary Tuesday"...

The day began just like any other day.  We were up early and arrived at the clinic about  7:30 to be greeted by huge lines of patients waiting.  As Christina (midwife) and I arrived in our room, one of the local nurses came announcing that at the other end of the building a lady had just given birth.  We quickly ran down to the room where I had the privilege (had no choice haha) to see up close the process in the first couple of hours after birth.  It was a stretch for me as I don't like hospitals and blood but at the same time it was an amazing experience (once my head stopped spinning haha).  That was just the beginning of the adrenaline for the day.  For the rest of the day several women came in with labor pains.  One was sent off on a speed boat to get an emergency C-section as her baby was breech.  Around 4pm a woman arrived in extreme pain and wanting to push.  The problem was that she was only 7 months pregnant and Curuá doesn't have the adequate facilities for a pre-term birth.  She was only dilated 3cm. but it was her 7th child which worried the midwife and a neo natal nurse on the team.  With the river being very dangerous to go by speed boat, our only choice was to take a pickup truck with all of us (driver, midwife, neo natal nurse, pregnant woman and myself as the translator) piled in for a 2 1/2 hour bumpy ride to the nearest city with a hospital and pray to God that the woman didn't give birth along the way.  We prayed that God would stop her labor as we started our journey.  We got to the city of Obidos around 8pm and praise the Lord the labor had stopped and she was still only at 3cm.  They decided to admit her to the hospital though to keep an eye on her and the baby.  We made sure she was taken care of before stopping to get some dinner and heading back for another 2 1/2 hour bumpy ride back to Curuá.  We arrived around midnight and I was exhausted.  That's what I call adventure in missions!  Here are some pictures from the trip:

                                               The team in Curuá

                                             Lines to get medical treatment

                                                 The city of Curuá

                                    Sweet baby girl born on Tuesday morning

          On the way to the hospital...mom in between midwife & neo-natal nurse

Mission accomplished...leaving the hospital in Obidos with Midwife Christina & our driver

        Cutest little baby that just laughed so much when I smiled at her at the hospital

                                                   Precious angel

Stay tuned for the next update next week about my 3 week trip to Parintins with the ORU team...thanks for all prayers and support!

Claire