Lucivan & Claire's Life Adventures

Saturday, January 1, 2011

If home is where the heart is...

...then I have more than one home. I am currently in the Atlanta airport waiting for my next flight in my journey "home"to Brazil while earlier this morning I left my "other home" in Virginia. One "home" means family and friends who have been apart of my life for a long time, comforts and conveniences of the US and being in my culture of birth. My other "home" means another type of "family" and friends including my fellow missionaries and the Brazilians I have come to know and love, a different culture and people in which I find myself often more comfortable with than my own and the place God has called me to be to share the love and saving power of the Gospel!

I am coming back from almost 2 months of a furlough that has been such an incredible blessing in my life. I can truly say I took advantage of the time I had to reconnect with friends and family and to also make new friends. The Lord opened the doors for me to speak at a few different churches and to some different groups of people. My previous entry was about my first month of furlough so I want to catch you up briefly on the second month.

In December, I was able to make a trip to Liberty University to spend a couple of days with my sister at her apartment and get to know her school and some of her friends. I was also able to spend some precious time with so many extended family members and to reconnect with friends that I haven't seen in years.

I was blessed to be able to share at Igreja das Nações Unidas a Brazilian church in Richmond. My parents were amazed at how while speaking in English at some of the American churches I seemed a tad nervous but at the Brazilian church speaking in Portuguese for over 20 minutes I transformed into a totally different person. I think I am Brazilian at heart :). I was also able to share at Calvary Chapel in Richmond, a church my family was a part of for a few years. It was so nice to see old friends and be encouraged by the body of Christ. An old friend of mine from high school invited me to share with the youth at her church which was a surprise invitation but was proof once again of God being faithful and opening up doors.

The second half of December, I was busy spending lots of time with my family. We were able to take a family vacation to NYC and boy did we have fun. God even showed us favor with the weather. It was cold for sure but each day was sunny. We didn't have a drop of rain or snow which was such a blessing. All of the snow came after we left and just in time for us to have a "white Christmas". I am so thankful to God for my family and the time I was able to spend with them in the past couple of week. Saying goodbye was definitely hard but skype will help us get through :). Now it is their turn to visit me in Brazil (and anyone else who wants to come just let me know).

Please keep me in your prayers as I continue my journey back to Brazil and get back into the swing of things. A couple of days after I get back, I will be participating in a leadership conference for about 5 days out at our camp and then will jump into a 3 week training for deliverance.

As the new year begins, please consider how you can be a part of the work in the Amazon by supporting me with a one time gift or regular support. May God bless each of you in this new year of 2011 and may it be the best year yet for you and your loved ones.

Some pictures...

With Erin and her Christmas tree @ school

Pastor Geriel introducing me to share

With some special ladies from Calvary Chapel

In Little Italy, NYC

Lady Liberty

Helring ladies at Rockefeller Center

On the ferry from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Sisters in Central Park

Don't see this in the Amazon ;)

With my Grandmere

Twins...we love Brazil!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

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!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

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!

Friday, September 10, 2010

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!

Friday, August 13, 2010

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...