Happy Easter, and praise the Lord, for He has Risen!!!  We got to celebrate our Easter service at the church, and we are pleased to have many known and new faces come and celebrate with us.  During the service, we had a time of worship, followed by Elba preaching the good news of Jesus and His resurrection.  During the preaching, Camilly and Alyssa led the children’s ministry.  After the service, we had a dinner and celebrated together as a community of believers.  As a new church plant, we are still trying to get to know people and put Jesus in front of them.   It has been a slow trudge, but we keep keeping on. 

In addition, Elba, Angelita, and Deanna held a women’s conference last month for International Women’s Day with the theme of giving strategies for stress and anxiety.  Elba, Angelita, and Deanna have been educated and trained in these areas and were able to impart their wisdom to all who participated.  We were pleasantly surprised by the great turnout.    

We will be back in the States because my Mom died suddenly on Sunday, April 7^th.  My sister Lynn wrote about our Mom on Facebook, which I will share.  “Our amazing Mom, Phyllis A. Dolan peacefully went home to be with Jesus.  She was such a bright light in this world.  Always willing to step in and lend a hand to whoever needed it.  She was loving, kind, had a great sense of humor.  She was very creative, artistic and a great seamstress.  Mom I miss you so much already.  Thank you for all you did for us! .”  Lynn articulated it well, which was way better than I could have. 

Having my Mom pass away while being on the mission field for over 20+ years has been a struggle.  The distances of being apart and the time being separated with long stretches in between visits make it all the more tough.  Love you Mom!

We appreciate your continued prayers:

Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

Please pray for the whole Dolan family for comfort and peace. 

Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God. 

Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this phase of our lives.  

Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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Hello

As promised last month, we have great news to share with you below.  Thanks again so much for your prayers!  If we can pray for anything for you, please let us know.

We are so blessed to be able to celebrate the church opening in Belem and finally have our first church service outside of our home.  We have been working for over a year through our home church to build up a body of believers to start a church.  Now, that has become a reality. 

We had many brothers and sisters from other Vineyard churches come and celebrate with us.  They came as far as Altamira, Santarem, and Portel to support the new church plant opening.  In addition, Milton, our National leader of the Vineyard church association, shared God’s Word. 

The Xingu Mission is about planting churches and training leaders to expand the Kingdom of God.  Many great scholars have affirmed this as a best practice.  Peter Wagner asserts, “Church planting is the most effective form of Evangelism known under heaven.”  Tim Keller also claims, “A vigorous and continuous approach to church planting is the only way to guarantee an increase in the number of believers and is one of the best ways to renew the whole body of Christ.”

We continue to meet at the reception hall below every Sunday, and it has been doing well, but it has its limitations.  We have not had the same amount of people as our first service in the subsequent weeks, but we are hopeful and utterly dependent on God to do what He does.  Obviously, we would love to have a church building, but that will take a miracle.  Thankfully, we believe in Jesus, who loves to do miracles. 

I wanted to share a remarkable story that I got to experience at the end of one of our church services.  Elba and I went to pray for a family.  The husband, Anselmo, was crying and looked so broken and hurt.  I felt like I got a word from God about forgiveness.  I thought maybe the couple had deeply hurt each other, and forgiveness was needed.  I shared that word with Elba, and she got the impression that Anselmo did not receive Christ as His savior and needed His forgiveness.  I thought he had already done this because Anselmo had been coming to our group for months.  Elba asked Anselmo, and he shook his head “No.”  Elba asked if he would like to do that now.  He accepted, and we prayed for him.  After I opened my eyes after the prayer, Anselmo’s face completely changed from agony to the happiest person on earth.  It was amazing!  It was like looking at a different person.  I have seen many people accept Christ, but his whole countenance changed, and to this day, Anselmo has changed.  WOW!  We were so happy for him, and he is elated!  (The picture below is from our inauguration.  He accepted Christ the following week).

Here is Camilly in her lab jacket.  She is enjoying college and studying biomedicine.  Alyssa is doing well as she starts her Junior year in high school.  She pretty much plays volleyball and studies every day.  They are both acclimating well to their new changes. 

We appreciate your continued prayers:

Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God.  

Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this phase of our lives.  

Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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Hello

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!!!  We are so grateful for all your prayers.  Bless you!  We have great news to share with you below.  Thanks again so much for your prayers!  If we can pray for anything for you, please let us know.

We have great news to share as a follow-up to last month’s update.  First, thank you for all your prayers for the new church plant in Belém (Translation: Bethlehem).  I want to share a quick back story.  Before returning to Brazil this last August, we had the opportunity to attend the National Vineyard conference in the USA.  During that conference, we received a prophetic prayer: “I know that you do not have anyone to come and join your team in Belém, but the Lord is going to bring your team together all at once.”  We heard the prayer and felt very encouraged, but we were unsure how it would get accomplished.  Fast forward six months, and the Lord has brought three strong leadership couples to come and plant a church in Belém with us.  The feelings of despair we felt in August have turned to overwhelming joy. 

Within one month, two couples moved to Belém, and another couple committed.  Clenildo and Angelita, and Niltinho and Mayara, and Ramon and Rayassa. 

I will summarize them because their accreditation would take up a lot of space. 

Clenildo and Angelita have two sons and have been part of the Vineyard Church in Brazil from the beginning.  They planted the first Vineyard church in the North of Brazil along with Elba over 25 years ago.  They are national and regional leaders. 

Niltinho and Mayara are from the Colina Vineyard church.  They both are very gifted in worship and training.  Niltinho oversees the North region in Brazil for worship.  They have the potential to be Senior pastors of this church or another. 

Ramon and Rayassa are from Portel and are recently married.  Ramon has been leading our water filter project for many years.  He is also very gifted in music and training.  Rayassa is passionate about the children’s ministry.  Ramon and Rayassa will be moving to Belém soon to help with the church and continue operations of the water filter project.    They have the potential to be Senior pastors of this church or another. 

Now that we are starting to have a consistent number of people come to our home weekly, and we have a team in place.  We will be having our first church service on February 18^th.  We rented a room for our first church service.  We rented a room because we have very few resources to rent or buy a building to hold church services.  We are excited that after so much time, we can hold our first church service outside of our own home.  Please keep us in your prayers, and I will share an update next month. 

The girls are starting back to school.  The school year in Brazil starts in January.  Alyssa is starting her Junior year of high school, and Camilly will start college.  Alyssa really likes school, or at least the socialization part of school.  She has many friends and likes to play Volleyball.  Camilly will be studying Biomedicine with an emphasis on esthetics.  She likes the beauty industry.  Here is a picture of us with Michael and Helen Hansen.  We got to go 4-wheeling, which was a blast!

We appreciate your continued prayers:

·         Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

·         Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God. 

·         Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this phase of our lives.  

·         Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

·         Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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Hello

Thank you so much for your prayers.  We pray that you had a great Christmas and Happy New Year.  Pray you enjoy our latest newsletter.  Bless you!

We have our documentary called “The Other Side of the River”.  Creative Impact Ministries created it.  It got several nominations and was one of the finalists of the Christian Worldview Film Festival.  In addition, Redeem TV picked it to be shown on their network.  If you haven’t seen it.  Check it out!  We pray it will inspire, encourage, and bless you!  If it does, please share it with your friends. 

You can watch it on Redeem TV.

https://watch.redeemtv.com/videos/other-side-of-the-river

Or you can watch it on YouTube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-sacFZnmtU

Elba was asked to speak at a marriage conference at one of the local churches here in Belém.  Elba started the talk and probably could have ended it with the quote from Timothy Keller: “Do you want to have a successful marriage?  “Start here.  Do for your spouse what God did for you in Jesus, and the rest will follow.”

Elba talked about the power of marriage, the essence of marriage, and our mission of marriage.  She ended with another Timothy Keller quote: “One of the greatest expressions of love is the willingness to change, to commit to change attitudes and behaviors that bother or hurt your spouse.  Everyone must be willing to accept corrections and take responsibility for true and concrete changes.  This kind of change is always difficult; without God’s grace, it is almost impossible.  At the same time, it is one of marriage’s greatest signs of love.” Timothy Keller

Ultimately, it was very nice to be invited and get a chance to meet new people in this new city called Belém. 

We went back to Altamira to celebrate Christmas with our family.  Elba preached at the Mirante Church and praise the Lord 7 people accepted Christ as their Saviour.  What a great Christmas gift that they received!!!

For Christmas, we played games like Charades and BINGO.   We also got to see a HUGE Santa Clause display, which was over the top big.

During our time in Altamira, look what I found on the road.  A sloth!  He was trying to cross the street amid traffic.  They are the funniest of animals because of their gentleness and how they move slowly.  I took some pictures, and he smiled for the camera.  After taking him off the street, I put him in the trees so he would not wander back on the road.  This is life in the Amazon basin.  The other picture is a white monkey, which, I have been told, is very rare. 

Praise the Lord, we will be having three couples come and join us in starting a church in Belém.  An answered prayer!  Thank you!  I will write more in the next update.  Again, thanks for all your prayers!

We appreciate your continued prayers:

·         Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

·         Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God as we navigate this time and leadership transition.  

·         Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this phase of our lives.  

·         Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

·         Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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Or you can send a check to Xingu Mission at the below address:

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Hello

Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year!  We have so many things to be grateful for this year, and indeed, one of those is our friendship with you and working with you to evangelize Brazil with the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Thank you.  We are also grateful for your continued prayers.  We will keep this month’s update short by sending our family’s CHRISTmas card.  May the Lord bless you richly and abundantly with His presence!!!

We appreciate your continued prayers:

·         Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

·         Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God as we navigate this time and leadership transition. 

·         Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this phase of our lives.  

·         Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

·         Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Please click the donate button to make a secure online tax-deductible donation:

Or you can send a check to Xingu Mission at the below address:

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Hello

Happy early Thanksgiving!  We are very grateful for all your prayers, love, and generosity in the ministry and our lives.  The Lord is good, and there are many things to be thankful for each moment.  Bless you!

One of the things that we are thankful for is that on November 8^th, Elba and I celebrated 20 years of marriage.  It is such a cliché, but time has really gone by quickly.  We feel so lucky and fortunate that the Lord has put us together.  We pray for the continued deepening with one another in our marriage.  In celebration of our anniversary, we went to a nice restaurant. 

We had the opportunity to drive 800 kilometers to Altamira for several days.  It was a long day, and parts of the journey were challenging, especially on the dirt and dusty roads.  It has been almost a year for Elba and me since we have been back.  We went back because one of our pastors got married, and they asked Elba to help officiate the wedding.  It was a pleasure to participate in this lifelong journey with them. 

Returning to the Mirante church, where Elba preached, was also excellent.  It was nice to see our friends and get to worship together.  The church has many new faces and a lot of old ones as well.  We are so proud of the beautiful work the team is doing, and we give all the praise to God for a continued successful transition.  Even though we missed the faces, we did not miss Altamira.  We are grateful that the Lord has led us to Belem. 

As you know, we run a non-profit organization in Altamira called CDR.  We can do that from afar because of the very talented people working for CDR.  We got the opportunity to participate in some of the English classes.  English is in great demand, and we feel privileged to be able to offer it to students for about ½ the price the market charges. 

During our trip back to the States, we brought gear to play Pickleball.  It has become addictive for the youth in Altamira.  They play constantly, and they love it.  While back in Altamira, I got the opportunity to get to play with them.  Junior has been using the game as an evangelism tool to draw more youth to the church.  In addition, Pickleball is also starting to blossom in Belem.  I play with a group of a couple of people once a week.  The group from Belem wants to challenge Altamira to a playoff.  They also keep asking me to see if people from the USA would like to come and play as well in a tournament.  Are any Pickleballers out there up for the challenge?  Let’s see where this goes.  Smile!

We appreciate your continued prayers:

·         Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

·         Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God as we navigate this time and leadership transition. 

·         Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this phase of our lives.  

·         Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

·         Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

_­­  

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Hello

Thank you so much for your continued prayers, love, and generosity in our lives and ministry.  Pray you are blessed with this month’s update.

We were fortunate to have a team come and join us in the ministry.  The Vineyard Lancaster church sent a team of 4 to go to Brazil and participate in constructing a bathroom for our church along the Caju River in the Amazon basin.  It is a very remote area near our sister church in Portel.  We worked at the church for four days and lived on the boat.  It was scorching hot and hard work, but we overcame it and got the bathroom walls up.  The community was very grateful because they say bathrooms are rare in this area.  We pray the bathroom will be completed in the next week or two. 

Afterward, we had a church service for the community, and it was a great turnout—much more than I expected.  Elba shared the salvation message, and Mickey shared a little bit about his testimony.  Seven people committed their lives to Christ and one recommitted.  It was awesome and a privilege to be a part of their story. 

We then took the boat back to Portel and had a church service.  Brian shared the message about joining God mission and power evangelism. 

Then we returned to Belem via line boat, and our church group got together to have a barbeque.  Elba continued in her series about Gospel Christianity with the theme “Who is Jesus?”, and Mickey shared his testimony. 

The girls stayed home during our travels because they could not miss school.  Thankfully, they had their cousin Apolana, her husband WD, and their favorite nephew Thomas come and stay with them while we traveled. 

We appreciate your continued prayers:

·         Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

·         Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God as we navigate this time and leadership transition. 

·         Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this next phase of our lives.  

·         Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

·         Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

_­­  

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Hello

Thank you so much for your continued prayers, love, and generosity in our lives and ministry.  Pray you are blessed with this month’s update.

As I mentioned in our last email, we had our 1st National Senior Pastors conference when we arrived from the States.  More than 80 pastors were present from all over Brazil.  The meeting was designed to care for our pastors who are daily taking care of the needs of their congregation.  We brought in a professional counselor specializing in caring for pastors to help stress the importance of pastors caring for their souls.  In addition, It was a time to make valuable connections with other pastors and share their struggles and successes personally and professionally with one another.  The time spent together was a success.  I saw one couple before the conference started, and by the end, they looked totally different.  You could see so much joy in their faces, and it seemed like the weight of the world was lifted.  I was shocked and so happy for them.  What a gift that we could participate in making this become a reality. 

Our home group just got restarted again after so much time away.  We are back to regular meetings and discussing the church’s next steps.  Most of the group was absent due to a family emergency and people traveling.  We believe that we are already doing church in the house, but it is limited in our space for more growth.  Please continue to pray for us. 

On a family fun note, we got to go to the Brazil national soccer game that came to Belém to play against Bolivia.  The last time the National team came here to play was in 2011.  Everyone was so excited, and it was a lot of fun.  Brazil won handily 5 – 1.  Neymar was the crowd favorite, as well as, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa who are big fans.  He did not let them down and he scored two goals.  The big disappointment of the night was that Elba was robbed and got her iPhone stolen.  That was, and still is, a BIG BUMMER! 

We appreciate your continued prayers:

·         Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

·         Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God as we navigate this time and leadership transition. 

·         Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this next phase of our lives.  

·         Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

·         Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

_­­  

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Hello,

Thank you so much for your continued prayers, love, and generosity in our lives and ministry.  Pray you are blessed with this month’s update.

We are now back in Brazil, and I must say, “Were we really in the United States?”.  WOW, the time went by so quickly, and we cannot believe we are now back.  The adage “time flies when you are having fun” remains alive and active.  We had such a great time being with family and friends, but we wish, deep down, we could have savored the moments for a little longer.  Below is partial family picture. 

Before returning, we had the extraordinary opportunity to attend the USA National Vineyard conference.  It was excellent to be there as it allowed us to see friends we ordinarily would not be able to see.  It also gave us the opportunity to deepen existing friendships and make new ones as well. 

During our trip back, the girls participated in a youth project called “Project Timothy.”  Project Timothy’s goal is to inspire, motivate, train, and release a group of young leaders in the Vineyard!  During their time, they got to minister at an elderly home.  It was very impactful for both Camilly and Alyssa.  Elba got to minister to the youth as well.  During the National Conference a couple of weeks later, Camilly saw one of the youths from the project, and he asked if Elba was her Mom.  She said, “Yes.”  He told her that Elba’s prayers for him were powerful and that he cried.  Camilly responded, “yea…she makes people cry a lot”.  LOL, We thought it was funny.  We are thankful God uses us to touch others.  We are blessed that it was impactful.

Even though we just got back, we will be hosting a National Vineyard Pastor conference here in Salinas near Belem.  We have been working to organize this during our US trip.  It starts this Thursday and is the first national conference for our young church planting movement.  Please pray for success in every facet.  Updates to come.

We appreciate your continued prayers:

·         Please pray for the National Pastors conference (August 17^th to the 20^th)

·         Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

·         Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

·         Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God as we navigate this time and leadership transition. 

·         Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this next phase of our lives.  

·         Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

·         Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

_­­

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Please click the donate button to make a secure online donation:

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We went to the Ohio State fair and got a picture with me and my sister Lynn at the lost kids booth.  When I was a child, I felt like I lived at this place. LOL  😂

Hello,

Thank you so much for your continued prayers, love, and generosity in our lives and ministry.  Pray you are blessed with this month’s update.

Since we have been back, we have been having a great time visiting family, friends, and churches.  Elba has had the opportunity to preach at the Vineyard Community Church – Reynoldsburg, Madison County Vineyard, and Crossway Vineyard in Urbana.  In addition, we and the girls got the opportunity to share at the Vineyard East campus for their youth group. 

In addition to seeing to our family and friends.  We are getting the opportunity to share the vision of Belém and what the Lord is going to do.  In order to continue this work, our objective has been to raise our support by $1,500.00 per month.  Our support has been fluctuating, and our ministry balance is very low.  We are praying for more people to team up with us as we embark on this new work in Belém.  Please pray to see if God would like for you to join us in this new adventure.  Click the link to make an online donation.  https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

We will be at the Lancaster Vineyard Church this Sunday, June 23^rd.  Also, we will be sharing at the Vineyard Grandview on Tuesday, July 25^th starting at 7 pm.  If you are available, please come!!!! 

We have two birthdays this month.  Actually, Elba’s birthday is today, and Alyssa just turned sweet 16 on July 4^th.  Happy Birthday Elba and Alyssa, you both are so beautiful inside and out, and we love you so much!!!

We appreciate your continued prayers:

·       Please pray that we will identify the new senior pastor of the Belém church plant.

·       Please pray that the Lord will continue to reveal His plans to the church and us.

·       Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation to help people draw close to God as we navigate this time and leadership transition. 

·       Please pray for the rejection of this virus from your loved ones and its eradication.

·       Please pray for our family, especially our girls, in this next phase of our lives.  

·       Please pray for our spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

_­­  

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Please click the donate button to make a secure online donation:

If you want to unsubscribe from this email, please reply with “Unsubscribe,” and I will remove you.  Thanks.