A Laptop for the Lord

We have been back a couple weeks now and just got a beautiful e-mail from the team in Brazil about a laptop that was donated and the difference it is making on the front lines. Just wanted to share that with you all.

Hey, Chuck, and Oliver -- and all who were involved in providing Verena with the laptop J
Verena was ecstatic to receive the fruit of your labors and generosity, and we’re really celebrating at how God is making the impossible possible for her. She is so passionate about her calling to serve the people of the Amazon Basin in dental ministry, yet the financial challenge has seemed insurmountable, and growing. Your laptop was an amazing boost to her, and will make a HUGE difference in her life, saving her time and money, as she won’t have to daily pay for visits to cyber-cafés to get her assignments, and then return home to stay up late hand-writing her assignments. She’s pretty excited, to say the least! Below is a translation of her letter of thanks to you, and below that is her Portuguese original. I’m attaching a couple pictures of her as well, just so you’ll know who you’ve blessed. She’s an absolute fireball, and if you knew her, you’d see a wonderful missionary in the making.
Thanks from us as well,
Betty (and Don, too!)
P.S. Please forward this to any others that need to be thanked.
P.P.S. We were excited to hear today that Verena is submitting a research project that she did with one of her teachers, and if her particular project is chosen, the school will reward her with six months to a year of a 50% scholarship on tuition! Please pray for favor for her, that she would indeed be chosen! She has very few resources otherwise.

Hi, Friends!
I truly want to thank all who contributed with the computer, from the one that helped to clean it off to the one that brought it to Brazil—really, thank you so much. This has made a huge difference in my studies. May God greatly bless each of you, and I really want and hope to see and meet you. Thank you for your confidence in me. I will continue to do my best in my studies. I know that I will be a good dentist, and will fulfill the dreams God has for me. Each one of you is already part of my story, and I believe everything will turn out right. Thank you for your support; you’ve planted in fertile soil, and the Lord will reward you for all this. We live in this world to serve one another with love and work in the kingdom of God. Congratulations, because even without knowing me, you are doing this.

Galatians 6: 9-10
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Thank you so much, may God bless you!
Your sister,
Verena Lima, in three years, Dr. Verena Lima =)

Team photo from Betty

We made it home safely! Thanks for all your prayers! Here is the photo from our missionary host (Betty Best)! It's great to be home, but I'm sure everyone on the team is having mixed emotions & processing the details of our trip like me. Please keep us in your prayers

Back in the USA! Hallelujah!

Finally landed back in the USA (Miami, that counts as the US, right?) at about 5:15am. Took about 75 minutes or so to clear customs & claim & recheck our luggage. We were heading to our concourse when we noticed an 8am flight to Charleston. We were all very excited at the possibility of getting home 5 hours earlier, so we headed to the to ticket counter to change our flight. Unfortunately, we were looking at arrivals instead of departures. We are on the earliest flight. Just an attempt by the enemy to steal our joy. Weak! Not gonna happen! We have been released on our own (dangerous!) until we regroup at 11:30 to catch our 1pm flight home. BTW, you do more walking at the Miami airport than anywhere I've ever been. Its incredible! Time for more eating & people watching. Tchau!

Update from our journey home

Quick update from our 31.5 hour adventure home. We began at 3:30am with a false alarm wake up call an hour early due to a time mix up. We tried to go back to sleep until 4:30am when we all got up for real. We departed the PAZ Guest House at 5am arriving at the Santarém airport at about 5:30 am for a 7:10 departure to Saõ Luiz via Belém only to be told our flight was delayed for 1 1/2 hours. No problem because we had plenty of layover cushion. Left Saõ Luiz around 12:55pm for flight to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, at about 3:15 pm. We've been in the middle of the first of two almost 8 hour delays. Did a little window shopping, people watching, & eating. Had my 1st burger in about 11 days! Woohoo! Scheduled to leave Brasilia at 10:55pm to arrive in Miami at 5:30am. Leave Miami at 1:00pm tomorrow & arrive in Charleston at 2:40pm. Can't wait to be back in the good old USA! Tchau!

Shop 'til you drop Saturday- Day before departure

Slept in on Saturday because we are all so very worn out. Got up for an 8:30 breakfast, then had our morning devotion & received our hand painted Brazilian shirts we ordered before we left for the Amazon River Basin (ARB). After that, we went down to the boat to finish unloading all the heavy tools, hammocks, etc. When we finished that we went down to the Orla (riverfront) to shop. From there we heading to Chihascarrea Brazilian BBQ (see photo). They basically bring you endless choice cuts of beef, chicken, & pork on a long skewer & you jab your work in exactly the piece you want & they cut it off for you. Awesome food! After that, a few of us (Jeff, Mike Savini, Glenn, Claire Helring, & Amie heading out on a Brazilian candy run & a trip by the video store for Claire & Jeff. Headed home for a bit & then, Pastor Chuck, Mike Savini, Jeff, Mike Edwards & me (Glenn) headed down to the Orla for Santarem's famous french fries (see photo of me & Mike) and ice cream. We hung out a while because the Orla was rocking!

We ended the night saying all our final goodbyes to our hosts, Don, Betty, & Jeff. They are truly amazing hosts & made us feel completely at home & are a reall blessing to our team. We all sincerely love them,It's currently 12:20am here & we have to be up at 4:30am to catch our first flight. Here is our itenary: We leave Santarem at 7:10 am Sunday & arrive in Charleston at 2:40 pm Monday. 31.5 hours in travel time including a 7.5 hour layover in Brasilia & a 7.5 hour layover in Miami. Sounds like fun so here we come!

Friday morning started off with an incredible sunrise and a great breakfast. We continued with the work on the church. By this time we had built some incredible relationships with the volunteers from the church and the people of the village. For lunch we had alligator tail. We worked our final day and finished the floor and left the village at about 3pm. We were on an inlet off the Amazon river and it was covered with grass. A little bit about the grass. During the dry season the water level drops about 30 feet. At that point the grass grows and as the water level rises the roots break off and the grass continues to grows. These masses that look like islands, but they aren't, and they move down the river severely impeding transportation. On our way out we had to cut through these masses as the grass is so dense it wraps around the propeller. We went on our way after about an hour and half later. We started on our way home and decided to body surf off the back of the boat. It's actually quite fun, but let's just say I (Mike Savini). didn't pull it off like a pro. Watch in the video as I look happy and then poof, I'm gone. And there I am swimming in the middle of the Amazon as the boat pulls away. They got me in a speedboat and got me back to the boat. The team, the givers they are, laughed and laughed and laughed. So enjoy the quickest body surf ever. (Video coming soon) After that, we headed on our way and had a great trip and a lot of quality time with the team. As you can see below John Tucker can sleep anywhere. His head is resting on a water jug. It was a fantastic way to end the trip and God blessed all of us immensely. We arrived back in Santarem at about 10:30pm in a pouring rain, so we decided just to unload the essentials & return on Saturday morning to unload all the tools, cooking supplies, hammocks, & any other remaining items because we were all slap worn out.

A Trip to Lowe's

We arose on Thursday morning to another fabulous breakfast by our cook Vania (Vahn-yah). There is no way anyone lost weight on this trip even though we worked our tails off! Another long day of nailing the floor boards in place. Our team has worked extremely hard & we can finally see the fruit of our labor materializing. After lunch, Joaquin, Elvis, Evandro, & Glenn set out to the local hardware store which ending up being 25 to 30 km (about 18 miles) away by speedboat. It took us about 3 hours round trip because we had to shut the outboard motor off to paddle through several inlets that were impassable with the motor down. We ending up pulling up to a beach front store that was very small (see photo) but seemed to have everything. It was an such an isolated, remote place to have a store run by what looked like like a teenager. Mike, Pastor Chuck, Pastor Samual, Elvis, & Betty went to visit a family in the next community of Amador. They went to pray for an 88 year old women who was suffering from coughing & pain. They ended up ministering to about 20 peaople, 14 of whom accepted Jesus as their Saviour (can I get a hallejuhah?).

In the evening, we had a worship service attended by about 40 people from the local community. Amie & Glenn gave their testimonies also at that service & it was very well received. We also had a couple more people accept Christ! We have absolutely seen God move mightily in this community in us & through us.

Tour with Teenagers

Amie had the chance to meet three wonderful sisters in Christ: Lelaine, Elaine and Fabianna. They joined the team to photograph our adventure and got a great opportunity to get some shots of their grandparent's home. It gives a pretty intimate look at a family that is more affluent on the river, with wooden beds and an outside kitchen. The fish would be a typical meal for them.

God is All We Need

We woke up on Wednesday ready to hit the ground running...or the floor more like it! Mike Edwards shared a timely word and reminded us that we should be working for an audience of one. God is all we need.

For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

-John 12:43

If anyone hears me and doesn't obey me, I am not his judge. I have come to save the world, not judge it.

-John 12:47

Anyone who doesn't obey me, doesn't love me.

-John 14:24

And you are my friends if you obey me.

-John 15:14

The team continued to lay the floor of the church and met more beautiful people of Alerana. Transportation is a bit of a challenge here, as the river is quickly rising in the rainy season, so evangelism was a bit tough. We focused on some hammering and the guys had this one down. It was amazing to see Mike Savini so quickly build a relationship with one of the local missionaries, Enudo. They finished off the siding on the back of the church building and Amie paired up with some of the local girls for a photo shoot (we'll share that separately).

The evening brought a cell group gathering at the church, were 2 people gave their lives to the Lord and we heard from their local PAZ worker Elvis and John Tucker.

Day 2 in Pictures

God's creation is right in front of our face here in the Amazon that you can't miss it. We woke up early on Tuesday and had a word from God that He is a God of order. He calls us to a place under His calling and protection. Day 2 found us starting the floor of the church, evangelizing in the community, encouraging our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and praising and worshipping our Almighty Creator together.

Heading Out - Finding God in Trials

We made it back to Santarem late yesterday night and wrapped up some of our last details this morning, so we are late in getting something up for you all to take a look at and apologize as we know and appreciate all the prayers that were lifted up for our team! We'll try and give you a run down of our time in the river village community of Alerana.

Day 1 - Monday Departure

Our departure out on the river was late Monday night, about 10 pm, which would allow us to pass a particular critical point of our voyage in the early morning hours with sunlight, since we headed upstream about 7 hours from Santarem on the Amazon River. The team quickly hung our hammocks and put together a night watch team shift that changed on the hour. The guys were true gentlemen and let Amie get a good night's rest (yes, Amie is the one writing this). I am certain they have a different take. In the wee morning hours we came to a smaller inlet off the Amazon that would lead us up to Alerana. It was here where we faced our first test from the Lord. This time of year is rainy season and the river is ever-changing....we learned this as we tracked through thick vegetation for 5 hours to get to the village. Several of the team had to go shoreside and pull the boat, as others cut through the brush, dove to clear the props and pushed us away from trees. We finally arrived at the village late Monday afternoon and began to assess the worksite as Glenn helped in a critical move of putting a door on the bathroom and the rest helped finished the walkway to get there.

Our boat, Seja Abencoada (Be Blessed), while it is stuck in some pretty tough vegetation.

A little bit closer look at the vegetation. It doesn't look too bad until you're in the middle of it.

Our Captain, Joaquin, who also served as our construction site foreman, pastor and encourager taking a dive into the muck to clear the prop. He truely walks with the power of the Holy Spirit!

A dear and sweet family that helped us clear the boat out of the muck and would later come to know the Lord in our stay! PRAISE GOD 28 people made decisions to follow Christ while we visited.

Monday Evening Boat Loading

Here's a photo of our boat & some of the supplies we will be taking on our 7 hour trip up the Amazon to Aurana. We just finished loading the boat & are about to have dinner before heading back to the boat. The hard work starts tomorrow although loading the boat was pretty demanding. Please keep us, the boat crew, & the village we are visiting in your prayers. Next update will be Friday night or Saturday. Bye!

Sunday Wrapup

Hello again from Santarem, Brazil! It's 10:50pm (8:50 in Charleston) & everyone is hitting the sack for the night. Just wanted to post a quick update of what we did the second half of today. We all went out to lunch at a VERY popular fish restaurant near the guest house. Everyone was very happy with the food & we had some great fellowship. When we got back to the PAZ guest house, a few of us met with a local artist who is hand painting souvenir T-shirts that we each designed individually. He is very talented. I'm sure you'll see us around Seacoast wearing his handiwork soon. Finally, we attended the 5pm service at the PAZ church. The Brazilians make Seacoast look like a Baptist church. They really get their worship on! This post was originally going to go up Sunday night, but someone else needed to use the laptop. It's about 1pm Monday as I actually post this.
Right now everyone is enjoying a potluck lunch with all the PAZ missionaires before we depart to the village we will be working in this week. Going to load up all the food & other supplies on the boat in about 3 hours for a midnight departure & 7 hour boat trip. We all can't wait to get out on the river & start working! Will not be able to update until we return late Friday or early Saturday. See ya' later!

Water Filter Project

You have all heard about the need for clean water around the world. The Amazon Basin is no exception. We have clean water at our fingertips anytime we want water. This is not true along the Amazon which is the world's longest and largest river. Although fresh water is plentiful in the Basin, it is widely contaminated with microorganisms that cause many different kinds of disease, some of which are fatal. These water-borne illnesses are a leading cause of death, especially among infants and elders.

The PAZ Church water filter ministry provides potable water to the neediest people in the Basin. Currently the filters used are constructed of concrete. With the filter materials, this system weighs more than 300 lbs. Using a different material has the potential to reduce the weight by more than 50%. John Peckham and John Tucker worked with Kelly Lee of PAZ and many other organizations prior to arriving in Brazil to help provide information about potential options. Water Missions International, HydrAid, and Aqua Clara all helped with information about potential options for producing water filters from lightweight materials.

Today, Kelly, John P., John T., Dr. Knopke (President from Aqua Clara), and Becky Hrubik (PAZ Mission Co-Director) visited two river villages to observe the concrete filters in use. This trip provided on-site information about logistics, operations and maintenance needs for this important ministry. For you that use Google Earth, you may see the location we visited by going to S 2 deg 16' 29.2" latitude W 54 deg 42' 15.8" longitude.

Providing clean water has been one of our most fruitful ways of taking the Living Water to the thirsty of the Amazon. Since the beginning of the program, PAZ has installed over 10,000 water filters.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink..." - Matthew 25:34-35a NIV

How Many Loaves Do You Have?

We were up and at it early today at 7:00 a.m. (5:00 a.m. Chucktown time) with a team devotional from Pastor Chuck. He read to us from Matthew 15:32-34. It ends with our Lord asking His disciples, 'How many loaves do you have?'.

The question is so simple that He asks us, what do you have? He doesn't ask us for more than what we have available to us, but He wants to use ALL that we have. Our prayer during this time in Brazil is that each of us will make available to Him ALL that we have and He in turn will feed thousands.

The water team (John Tucker & John Peckham) are out in the village taking a look at the water filters in action this morning. It isn't the village we will be going to build the church, so they are getting the opportunity to see a little more of Brazil and we are praying that God will grant them wisdom as they look for the next steps in this walk. The water filters are an amazing way to share the gospel in the Amazon and Project Amazon has done an amazing job using this physical need to minister to the spiritual needs of a personal relationship with Christ Jesus.

Our more relaxed side of the team (Mike S., Mike E. and Chuck) took the morning to help shop for some of the supplies for the boat trip at the market this morning and had the opportunity to see a little of God's creation with pink dolphins at the quay side. The Brazilians are quick enterpreneurs and charge $2-3 dollars for a couple fish to lure in the dolphins. They played and frolicked as the guys tried to dream of their own businesses to take it to the next level. Chuck crossed the line when thinking a dead fish necklace would do the trick.

Glenn is still getting his beauty sleep as we rest. I (Amie) am sure God is speaking to him through some wonderful dreams and can't wait to hear the stories.

Finally, I (Amie) had the time to spend with a couple sweet sisters in Christ: Fritha and Melissa. They each have such a beautiful heart and testomonies of God's love and healing power in their lives and I am so thankful for the sisterhood He has created between us.

May each of you be blessed today as you read this and we hope to have one of the guys update this evening as we journey out to lunch and then church this evening.

Day #1in Brazil

Hello everyone from rainy Santarem, Brazil! We arrived at 6:40 am this morning to a pretty steady downpour. We were all pretty wiped out due to lack of sleep. The ones of us that are veterans of this mission trip enjoyed a reunion with our hosts Don & Betty Best (and many others) plus met a few newcomers to Project Amazon. Then we hit the sack & slept until about 1pm. When we awoke, we had an orientation session with Don, Betty, and Jeff & Fritha Turner where our itinery & all of the general rules were outlined. At that time, John Tucker, John Peckham, & Harry (Aqua Clara, third party clean water organization) went to tour Project Amazon's water filter production operation. Our trip is a dual purpose mission, construction & offer input on the direction of Project Amazon's clean water ministry. After that we all met at an ice cream parlor for a a little treat & the weather cleared up to be hot, sunny, & sticky! We then went down to the Orla (riverfront) to check out the fishing & line boat (water taxis) operations. We are all now safely back at the Project Amazon guest house where we are preparing to eat and preparing to eat dinner at about 7:15pm (5:15 in Charleston). Have a great night & I will try to update again tomorrow & Monday before we head out on the Amazon River at around midnight Monday night. Blessings!

Correction

Oops! Thought it was Wednesday, so add 24 hours to my 40!

Preparing for Mission

Hey guys! This is the initial post for our 2011 Mission Trip to Brazil. Although internet access is limited & sketchy in Brazil, we will attempt to do a better job this year of keeping you informed. First, I wanted to post the link for the mission organization that we partner with & that hosts us while we're there: http://www.projectamazon.org/. I encourage you to go to their website & learn a little about them, the country of Brazil, it's people, & the amazing things God is doing through this amazing organization. We had our final team meeting this morning & had an awesome time of prayer & anointing. As I type this we are 40 hours away from departing this Friday(3/4) at 6:15 am (we have to be at the airport at 4:30 am - Nuts!). We fly from here to Miami, then to Sao Paulo, Brazil, then to Manaus, Brazil, & finally into Santarem, Brazil, where Project Amazon is based. We arrive Saturday (3/5) at 6:40 am & we will be greeted by our hosts, Don & Betty Best, who will transport us to the guest house. I'm sure it will be nap time since we will have been traveling for 24 hours. We covet yours prayers for our protection & that Jesus will use us as His hands & feet. Stay tuned...