Jail Story

When I went to the jail this week I was surprised to see that the cell where I go was packed. Thirty-one guys are crowded into a one-room cell with a closet and an open bathroom. After the guards locked me in through the last double gate and walked away, I looked around. They were all new. No one knew me. All the old crowd had been sentenced, freed, or transferred to another prison. I explained who I was and they offered me a bucket to sit on. I hesitated because there were only a few buckets to sit on, but they insisted as they all sat down on the raw cement floor.

I explained the Discovery Group format in a couple of sentences, and passed the page with questions to one of the vocal guys. Everyone participated. They were all curious and respectful, and many responded to each question. Several said what when well for them that week, (Question 1 in our study). One of the guys saw the moon the night before for the first time in six months. He was transferred from another jail where he could not see outside. This cell has a two inch gap in the skylight area. Many commented on how cool it was to see the moon. Then another guy started thanking me for “coming to the most dangerous cell etc. etc.”. Finally I stopped him. “This might be dangerous, or maybe not. It doesn’t feel dangerous. I can sense the presence of God stronger here . . .”. I wanted to say “stronger here than I feel it in church” but I got interrupted. Everyone burst out cheering and clapping so loudly I couldn’t keep talking. Finally I cheered and clapped too, and then we carried on with our study.

The story was about when Jesus went to Simon’s house, and the prostitute washed his feet (Luke 7:36-50). They reread and retold the story a few times, and then tried to imagine what if they were at a pastor’s supper, and a prostitute wanted to wash their feet. Some of them had been to meals with pastors. Then the conversations shifted. “I went to a church to see this one pastor I knew. As we were talking a poor person came in. The pastor asked that person to leave the church building. If that person had been well-dressed, the pastor would have treated him differently.”

This triggered another story. “One time I went to a church, wearing a R$900 (about $300 – an extremely extravagant amount for this crowd) blazer. Of course, I never paid for it. I stole it from (a well-know big store that everyone knows). I wanted to look nice for the pastor.” I interrupted him to verify that I was hearing correctly. Everyone is all ears, of course. These kind of bible studies are interesting. After he confirmed his story about how he was wearing his stolen R$900 blazer, he kept talking but I missed the rest of his story, as I was still trying to imagine the scene.

As the group got to comparing pharisees and pastors someone says in a kind of discouraging voice, “It’s all the same. Everyone is the same.” Everyone was looking at me to see how I would respond to this. I smiled as I looked back at all of them. “Hmmm. You think everyone is same?” They were starting to nod as I continued. “You think that this prostitute got forgiven, became a pastor, and started treating poor people badly? And that you would do the same if you got a chance to be a pastor?” It got real quiet. This wasn’t exactly what they were thinking.

This group of criminals was recently thrown together from about 10 of the surrounding towns. A few are from Marabá. They all await trial, so they have hope. The bad things that happened last week (Question 2 in our study) have to do serious arguments among themselves. They are just getting to know each other. After a long pause I carried on. “I have a dream. I would like to help you guys start Discovery Bible Studies like this in your home towns. You guys have credibility among your people. You are God’s best choice to help lead them to Himself.” It got quiet again. I gave them my WhatsApp number so we’ll see what happens. I have no idea how this could work out, but these guys consider themselves fearless so if God can get hold of them who knows how far they can go? Hopefully there are some Apostle Paul’s hidden in the group.

As I was leaving one of the guys asked me, “Would you call my aunt and let her know I’m here?” She lives in a town 400 kms away, where this man was in jail before he got suddenly transferred. He gave me her number. When I got home I called her. After many rings a woman answered. After I introduced myself she asked me to call back. “So and so just died, and I am in a funeral procession.” She sounded torn up and defeated. Someone at the jail earlier that morning said to the group, “It is hard to be a Christian.” I’m thinking the opposite is more true. It is hard to be a not-Christian.

All this confirms my belief that we are living in a region that is ripe for a church-planting explosion. Please keep praying for us.

Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year from the Amazon

We experienced two very exciting things at the church. The Xingu Mission is all about training leaders and planting churches. Unfortunately, these are not instantaneous occurrences and they take time to develop, nurture, grow and release. We just had 15 member of our church complete training through the Vineyard Institute here in Brazil. Vineyard Institute exists to equip people through high quality biblical and theological education integrated with spiritual formation so that they are prepared for kingdom work at any level in the church. We are hoping that one day they will be church planters!

In addition, Cleiton and Cristiane have been serving faithfully as our youth pastors for many years. They are passionate leaders and love the Lord. We have a small group that is about a 20 minute drive from the church. This small group has been growing and are developing into a large congregation that is outgrowing their small wood house. We are sending Cleiton and Cristiane to be the pastors of this congregation to help in the work that the Holy Spirit is doing. We are so excited about sending them and we are excited about what the future holds for this group of believers. Planting churches and watching lives change to be like Christ is such a blessing and brings joy to our hearts. Please pray for them and the new Mexicano church.

The girls helped prepare the Christmas tree this year. However, there was a lot of fuss because Mom wanted to put the tree up before December. It just did not feel right to put the tree up in November for the girls. But since it was just a couple of days before December, they conceded, and the tree was up and they did a great job. The girls also did well in school and received awards for their grades and performance. They had a presentation and everyone got dressed up for the occasion. They are always excited if they can go to school events without their everyday uniforms. We feel blessed!

Again, Merry CHRISTmas to you. We appreciate you so much for all your prayers and support. May the Lord’s joy and comfort be upon you always.

Please pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Moving Ahead, Traveling Fields

Thank you so much to all of you who pray, write, call and support us financially, we are incredibly grateful to get to do what we do because of the love and support of you!!

Moving Ahead With Something New

For a few months now, we’ve been feeling that familiar nudge, that still small voice saying it was time to take steps forward, take things to a new level. About a two months ago we started talking to the girls about doing a breakfast with them once a week, off the street, would they come? They said they would.

So we started to pray, about what that would look like where we would do it.

As most of you well know we love to use Alpha, it’s a great tool that helps to level the playing field, strips away some of the things that can leave people feeling like God is distant and angry and gives an opportunity for people who have questions about God, faith and the meaning of life to really explore what they think of these things. We know from personal experience that it can be the key that opens the door to peoples hearts, that’s how we ended up where we are today!

We started to look around for a place that was close enough but also not too costly. We checked with several of the hotels along the beach but either they didn’t have a meeting room or they wanted too much money for the short time we would need it.

Then I remembered that the Anglican Church that is located on the same road had already offered up their space for us to use whenever we needed it. I contacted them and they were delighted to help!

The space is perfect for our needs, open with an ocean view and a table for us to eat, as well as a small room that already has a TV where we can show the videos.

For weeks we talked to the girls about what we wanted to do, we have found that we often need to have a long lead up to do something so they start to get curious and excited and eventually start asking us about it ‘when does that thing start?’

Despite all that we had no idea how many, if any, girls would turn up. At first there were none, and we thought maybe we would just be enjoying a lovely seaside breakfast with our team. We decided to take a drive down the beach and four girls decided to take the leap and come with us.

They loved it. Two days later when we were there praying, one of the girls who had come was there as I started to ask if the girls would like to come to the next one, they asked what it was. As I started to explain, so did the girl who had participated so I closed my mouth and let her do the talking.

This week we had TEN girls! There first question before coming was ‘will it take long?’ I told them an hour, and the decided to give it a go.

One of the most challenging things on Alpha can be getting people to talk, not so with this group, there was a very lively discussion after the video. I said to them in the car on the way back that I understood it was taking some of their time, but they stopped me and said, ‘But it’s good! We need this, and we loved it! We will be back next week!’

We feel privileged that they have trusted us enough to take part in something new, to allow us to begin with baby steps on what could be a turning point in their lives.

We continue to pray that their lives will be changed, that the seeds we are planting will blossom and that these women will know who they truly are, and the future they can have.

Maevia

We continue to walk closely with Maevia who left the streets nearly a year ago. The road she is on isn’t easy, and it’s marked with high highs and low lows, both for her and for us. In the space of two weeks she has gone from moving into a new place, in a better neighbourhood and starting her first job , leaving her first job to having a relapse in drug use last night.

There were a lot of changes that happened in too short of a time, and unfortunately despite our advice to the contrary on some of the changes. We recognize that emotionally she is in a fragile state and needs professional help, we have psychologist here in João Pessoa who is able to take her though a trauma treatment therapy, she will start this treatment tomorrow. Before anything else, she needs emotional healing to be able to move forward. We continue to support and love her through all these challenges and successes as long as she is willing.

Sowing Seeds In Traveling Fields

In the past year and a half since we started ministering to these women and men, there have been many who have come and gone. Some we have seen again and we get to hear their story, ‘I’m working now, full time, God willing I will never come back to the streets!’ Or we hear through other girls when we ask that they have found work, or we have no idea what happened to them. Each time we go we pray that God will speak the words they need to hear, that we can bring hope and light and love to them. Often, we leave having no idea if our presence has had any affect, sometimes it can be really difficult to see these women week after week still there.

As one of our colleagues who works in the same ministry at Shores of Grace in Recife said in their update this week, we have ‘to learn to rest in the unknown and to continually sow obediently, knowing there will be fruit and there will be victory, even if I never get to see or hear about it.’ (Robert and Ana Floyd)

We are sowing seeds in traveling fields, the lives of these women can be transient, but we need to keep in mind that the Kingdom of God and the way He sees the harvest is beyond our ability to understand, all we can do is obediently act on the things he calls us to do.

Prayer and Praise Report

Praise God that we are able to continue to minister to these precious women and men
Praise God that our small group church plant team is meeting weekly, strengthening our relationships as a leadership team
Praise God that Faith is moving forward with her therapies and today studied for a test by herself, this is BIG news

Please continue to pray for our kids, their schooling and their relationships here in Brazil.
Please pray for our small group, our relationships and marriages

Please pray for the women and men that we encounter, that their hearts would feel the fullness of what it means to be loved unconditionally.
Please pray for Maevia, for the battle she fights daily and that she will continue, even when she slips, to get up and walk forward, trusting God
Please pray for our team, Allison and Rona and Oliver, that we have the resources both financially and spiritually to continue doing what we feel God calling us to do.

Copyright © 2018 Xingu Mission C/O Jen and Phil Snell, All rights reserved.
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Xingu Mission C/O Jen and Phil Snell

Rua Odon Carvalho, 214

Barrio dos Ipes

João Pessoa, Paraíba 58028-800

Brazil

Nov, 20

Thanksgiving Greetings!

Dear Friends and Family,

As Denise I enter into this holiday season, we have been reflecting on this past year.

We are thankful for so many things:

– For our beautiful son, Jonas, who has filled our lives with so much joy.

– For God’s provision, mercy and blessing on our first church plant.

– For God’s never-ending love, gentleness and guidance as we try to do his work.

– And of course, for all the prayers, encouragement and support we have received from YOU, our church, family and friends in the States as well as here in Brazil.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christopher, Denise and Jonas

Contribution Link: https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/meyer-ministries/

Small Steps Forward

Hello to All of Our Wonderful Friends and Supporters!!

I just want to remind you, as always, how great it is to have you guys on our team! You make everything we do possible. Each and every day, as we minister to others in many different ways, you are right there with us. Thank you!

Alpha with the Girls…

One of the ministries that we have had the privilege of participating in is going weekly to pray for the women who work as prostitutes near the beach. Each time we go there, it is always a little bit different. Sometimes, we feel like we are able to really connect with some of the girls in a meaningful way. Other times, it can feel like we are running into a wall. There is always a tug-of-war happening in our hearts as we are both wanting so much to help them, but also having to accept that this is a very slow process.
However, recently, we have been able to take another step forward in connecting with them on a deeper level. Just last week, we started our first “Alpha” on Tuesday morning.
For those of you who don’t know what Alpha is, I will give you a brief explanation. Alpha is a program that was started several years ago to help non-believers have a casual environment in which they could ask questions and learn about the basics of Christianity. Once a week, we get together, have a meal, watch a short video, and talk about the discussion questions.
There is a church just up the road from where we meet with the women, and they have allowed us to open up the space to invite these women for the Alpha meeting. We were a bit nervous that we would be the only ones there for the first week, but thankfully, we had 4 girls show up! We served them breakfast, had a short time of worship, and then watched the video together. It felt like a very special moment, and God’s presence filled the space.

Watching the video together

Later in the week, Jen and Phil were able to go back again to pray for the women. They heard that word was getting around about our first meeting and how much the girls liked it! We are hoping for even more women next week!
As you can imagine, there is a lot of spiritual battle surrounding these women. The enemy has had so many hits in their lives already. There are so many things stacked against them. Please, join us in praying for them and that the power of the Cross would invade every area of their lives!

Update on Mãevia:

You may remember from a few months back that I told you about a young woman named Mãevia who had successfully left prostitution. At the time, she was still in the middle of battling a crack addiction. Mãevia had gone to a rehabilitation center, but had only remained there for about 15 days. Well, I am happy to say that we are still very much connected to her. She still has remained free from crack addiction and prostitution, but in many ways, her life still a mess.
Mãevia has lived most of her life being traumatized and abused. She has no internal structure to even begin knowing how to live a “normal” life. For us, as we try to walk along side her, it’s like being on a roller coaster. There are a lot of ups and downs! Right now, we are simply trying to see, one day at a time, how we can we helpful to her. Next week, she is supposed to start meeting with a therapist. Please pray that she is able to start working through some of her wounds. Our hope for her right now is that she can begin to learn how to calm down her emotions, as she is prone to explosive and defensive behaviors. We are well aware that this will be a long journey. We pray for the wisdom and patience and love needed to guide her along the way.

Moving…..Again

So, I’m sure you have already heard me talk about how much I love our new apartment and our new city and that we are so close to so many wonderful places and we even love our neighbors…… You can imagine that the idea of moving is the absolute last thing I want to do right now. However, we received some news a few days ago that has been a little hard to swallow. Apparently, the owner of our apartment has a son who will be getting married and wants to buy our apartment from her and live here. *Insert big, fat, cry face here* We can stay until our lease is up but they are requesting that we leave a little early. Despite all this, there is some good news in this situation. The tenant upstairs will be leaving at the end of December. That apartment is not as nice as ours and there are many repairs that need to be taken care of, BUT there is the possibility that we could at least stay in the building! We are in the process now of figuring out all the details. Please, please, pray that we can move upstairs and that it can be a smooth transition. I am so weary of moving. Every instinct in my body just wants to settle down in one place for a long while. We are always open to God’s will in our lives, even when it is painful or confusing, but please pray that God would give us favor in this situation. Thank you.

Thank you all so much, for your prayers and support. We are so grateful for them. We love to hear your words of encouragement.

DONATE TO THE MOURAS

Love,
The Moura Family

November 2018 Amazon Update!

It has been another exciting month and one of the biggest excitements was the baptism we had at the church. It is always a big celebration in the church, and praise the Lord, in heaven as well. I love that during the baptism the church is singing and worshiping God and the symbolism of letting the person be completely immersed in water being baptized into Jesus’ death on the cross and no longer being slaves to self or sin. When they are raised out of the water they are raised into a new life in Christ and are with Him forever. Praise the Lord for these 10 people that made this public declaration of faith. We are a bit partial for this baptism as Alyssa was one of the people who we baptized. It was truly a blessing. However, unlike all the others being baptized who walked down the stairs into the water. Alyssa instead decided to jump into the water. Yep, that’s the pastor’s kid. 🙂 Please keep these new believers in your prayers.

Elba went down to the National Vineyard Conference in Sao Paulo. Elba has stepped into the National leader position temporarily in Brazil due to the death of our leader’s wife. She helped coordinate the event and shared at the conference to the pastors and leaders in the South. During the conference they had great worship, teaching, and time for prayers. In addition, they introduced 5 new churches and 1 church plant. Amen!!!

The conference was called “Why Church” which is an expansive response. They focused on the topics “Church to worship, Church to reconcile and Church to serve”. Another great benefit to the teachings is just being together with one another. There is much encouragement, and refreshment when we can share our hurts, challenges, and accomplishments.

This is what happens when you overextend your front flip on the trampoline. OUCH. She is doing much better now and it is healing. She is a tough girl. At the church, the girls participated in the children day celebration. Children’s day is a National holiday in Brazil. We hosted many children in the community with games, entertainment, food, and face painting. It was a big hit.

On a funny note, I was driving in town and saw this dog on the back of this guy’s motorbike. I had to take a picture. I was concerned the dog was going to fall off. I followed them into town, and the owner was driving fairly fast, but the dog never fell and seemed to be having a blast.

Please pray for spiritual, physical, financial and emotional health for us.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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The Tribes of Jampa

Hi everybody!

This is Ronã. Long time, no see! I feel better writing the blog now, since I know who all of you are.

I wish you guys could visit us and see our new city. We definitely love our new place. It’s completely different from my small hometown in the middle of the Amazon. They speak with a different accent and use different expressions. The sun here rises much earlier, the roads are better, and the ocean isn’t far!


Sunset in Jampa (Nickname for João Pessoa)

Since we arrived here, we have been having church every Sunday at the Snell’s. We are a small group of around four families. Once a month, instead of having a service, we go out and pray for people on the streets.

Some of our church family

We also try to connect with the people around us in our daily life.

Allison has been doing the hair of practically every women of our building, and two of our neighbors asked if we could teach English for their kids. The kids are Natan and Sophia. They are very smart and are learning very fast. We feel good that we can bless our neighbors. Especially for those 2 kids that don’t have a present father.

Teaching the kids in our building

One of my favorite places in my new city is this studio at the Cultural Center.

Studio Made in PB

It’s called “Studio made in PB”. I have drawing classes here every Monday and I have met some very interesting people. I call them the comic tribe. They take comics, cartoons, and super-hero movies very seriously. Don’t dare say anything bad about Batman or Thor in front of them! Many pop culture artist in the city studied here. I had the pleasure to meet some of them, and their art is just stunning!

João’s Digital Paintings

My teacher is named João. He was also a student at “Studio made in PB” before becoming the teacher. He is a great teacher. He has taught me many things and also motivated me to publish my first comic story . João will be a father next month. His wife is eight months pregnant with a baby boy!

João and I at the Cultural Center

“Studio made in PB” has allowed me to use their space to do an Alpha course. We are just waiting for the right moment to start. The Alpha will be an opportunity to tell the story of the super-hero of the real life, Jesus Christ. We are also talking about the possibility of me teaching English classes there. They are supposed to offer classes for free for students from the public school, but they lack teachers. Join us in prayer for how God wants to use us in this place.

The other tribe I have been connecting with is the ‘no pad football’ tribe. Yeah, you read that right; they play american football with no protection at the beach! There are about 8 teams in their league. The Carcarás, The Bolados, The Devils, The Jaws, The Punishers, and The Vikings are just a few. There are even The Witches, a team of women who love football. They all have the dream of being the second full pad football team in the city. They are inspired by the João Pessoa Espectros, the city team, which were the Brazilian champions few years ago.


No Pad football players

Espectros Football Team (Black and Red)

Don’t you worry, I don’t plan to play with them in the league! However, it has been a good experience helping them out with the football materials that some of you guys donated to us.

Before saying good bye, I’d like to let you know that I also started a new quarter in VI. This time I picked the course Biblical Meta-narrative by Bill Jackson. It’s a course I’ve always been interested in taking. It goes into the details of the Bible, considering the cultural context in which it was written as well as revealing the big picture story of the Bible. I’m learning a lot.

Prayers requests:

-That we be witnesses of God among the people we are meeting and building relationships with;

-Financial Support: Our support went significantly down last month and the exchange rate is currently dropping here in Brazil. We also want to raise a fund to pay for Ollie’s studies next year;

-Our family and marriage

-Brazil’s current political situation: We are in the middle of an economic crisis, the country is polarized, and the future president will have a lot to do.

We love you all so much and we thank you for absolutely everything you have done for us.

DONATE TO THE MOURAS

Lots of Love!
The Moura Family

Oct, 24

October 2018 Newsletter

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you for your prayers and support. They have been greatly appreciated.

I just wanted to give a quick update on a few things that are going on here in Macapá. As we mentioned in our last update, our church has been growing and we have been actively looking for a larger space where we can meet. I wanted to let you know that we believe we have a solution!

Denise and I are in a rental agreement with our present house, and on our property sits a smaller structure that is being used as storage for the owner of our house. From the moment we moved into our home, we thought it would be cool to use this smaller structure for our services, but because the owner was using it we never had access to it. Over the last few months we have developed a good relationship with the owner. She has been big fan of Denise and me, and of our ministry. She has always loved the idea that her property is being used to hold church. This last month she informed us that she is going to move all her valued belongings out of the storage facility and if we want, we can use the structure to hold our services!

This came at a time when we were becoming a bit frustrated because every space we looked at to rent failed to work out. So this news was definitely an answer to prayer and a reminder to us that God always has a plan.

Structure on the property

Although this small structure isn’t a permanent solution, we believe that it will double our current seating. The structure does need a lot of TLC and repairs to get it ready for a service, but these costs are certainly less than renting a new place over the next year. We just can’t wait to get started!

This last Sunday

With Alan and Ducy eating Mexican. We have been walking with these two for the last 8 months. They will be getting married this month.

The Family

Jonas is growing like crazy!

Jonas and Daddy bonding time.

Denise and I had some meetings in São Paulo last week. While we were there, we were able to attend the Southern Brazil Vineyard National Conference. Because travel is so difficult here in Brazil, they hold one National Vineyard Conference in the north and another in the south, and then every few years they try to do a big one all-together. Our time in São Paulo was great. It was fun and encouraging to connect with Vineyards from all over the south.

Unfortunately while we were in São Paulo I got really sick. Once we got back to Macapá, I was diagnosed with pneumonia. Although I am starting to feel a little better, I am still feeling pretty rough. Prayers would be greatly appreciated!

Other Prayer Requests:

Continued grace as we balance ministry and family life.
Provision for the practical needs associated with the renovation of our future meeting space.
Financial provision for the growing needs of our church and family.

Thanks again for your prayers and support. We love hearing from you!

In His Service,

Christopher and Denise

Contribution Link: https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/meyer-ministries/

September 2018 Amazon Update!

Thank you so much for your prayers for the dentist team that came and served. It was another amazing time of serving the community and helping people with dental needs that otherwise would not be able to get easy access to this care. This year the dental team went on the river with the Marantha III and VI to serve communities near Belo Monte. The Marantha III was retrofitted to serve as a dental clinic and the team worked tireless hours serving the community needs. In these short two weeks the volunteer dentist team served 353 people doing cleanings, repairing cavities, pulling teeth, and making dentures. It was an incredible work and we pray the Lord’s continued hand upon them all. It has been a pleasure partnering with our sister church in Brasilia to serve the people, and share Jesus Christ.

Here are the statistics of the people served in the last years. Amazing work considering they do this once per year for 2 weeks. Since this project is self-funded, they are limited to only once per year.

Coming right off the boat we got prepared for our annual pastoral training. The retreat training was surrounded around various topics such as mental health awareness such as depression and suicide. They also taught on ethics in pastoral counseling, and marriage and divorce in the church. It is training that a lot of our pastors need to become more skilled. There were more pastors wanting to participate but were unable to afford the travel cost to get here. In some of those cases, we tried to at least help 1 pastor participate.

In addition, the pastors did an exercise with some of the years written on the wall and they were asked to write significant events that happened during that time. It was very encouraging for all of us to stop and look back and reminisce at where we have come from, and then, start pushing ahead into the work for the future.

The girls are doing well and are participating fully at school. One of the things that I think is cute is that the girls really like to listen to 1950’s music. Camilly’s favorite music is Mr Sandman, and Alyssa likes Lollipop by The Chordettes. I think it is sweet. Below is a picture of Camilly listening to some music, and Alyssa participating in her annual “Independence Games” competition at school.

Please pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Sep, 21

September 2018 Newsletter

Dear friends

Thank you for your prayers and support. They have been greatly appreciated. These last few months have been a whirlwind of activity and we are excited to update you on some of the highlights!

We had an amazing visit from my parents along with Michael Hansen last month. We had so much fun together. It was great having them here to see what we are working on and to get their take on our next steps. Most special was introducing my parents to their new grandson, Jonas. We are already counting down the days until our next reunion!

My parents getting to know Jonas

Michael preaching at Vineyard Viva

Spending time with my parents and friends at a riverside restaurant

We recently took a short trip to Altamira for a pastor’s retreat. The retreat was enjoyable and extremely helpful for Denise and me. It was great connecting with other pastors from around the region. Denise’s parents and brother, Jonathas, were also in Altamira, which was awesome! This was our first trip out of the city with Jonas. We were curious about how he would do stuck on a boat for a few days, but he did better than expected which was a huge relief.

Jonas and me on the boat to Altamira

Hanging out with Denise’s parents and brother in Altamira

Jonas learning how to drive with Clenildo in Altamira

We are extremely excited about everything that’s going on in our new church plant. God has been at work! Over the last few months we have had 3 people make first time commitments to follow Jesus and multiple people recommit their lives to Jesus. We are working on scheduling our next baptism. Our numbers have also continued to rise. We are now averaging about 40 a week, sometimes more. This is awesome, but we have run out of space in our home. We are currently looking for a larger facility for the church. A few things are in the works – we will keep you posted!

A church gathering

Hanging out after church

As you have probably seen already on social media, Jonas is growing like crazy! Every week we see changes in Jonas. It’s fascinating watching him discover new things and develop new abilities. This experience has truly been a joy for Denise and me.

Jonas looking thoughtful

Denise and me

One thing we are realizing is that we will need to raise some extra financial support. With expenses for a family of three, growing ministry costs that come along with a new church, and travel expenses necessary for our work, we have noticed that our expenditures are now greater than our income. Please keep us in your prayers regarding this. If you feel led to begin supporting what we are doing here or to increase your support even by a little, we would be so blessed!

A few more prayer requests:

Wisdom and provision for a new meeting place for Vineyard Viva.
Grace to balance life and ministry as we care for our son and growing church.

Thank you for your prayers and ongoing support. We love hearing from you.

In His Service,

Christopher & Denise

Contribution Link:https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/meyer-ministries/

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