Thank you so much for your prayers for our Cristoval event that took place during Carnival.  As I mentioned in our last update, Carnival is Brazil’s annual “celebration of the flesh” before the initiation of Lent on the Catholic calendar.  It’s a week-long party where “anything goes” and every city in the country shuts down allowing full participation by the people.  The Vineyard churches began “Cristoval”, a retreat for youth, away from the city, with a focus on Jesus and having a lot of good clean fun.  It has been a great success throughout the years, drawing kids toward Jesus and allowing an alternative during Carnival. 

This year we brought in Jim Anderson and his team from Life-line ministries.  Jim and the team, Jason and Sean, shared from principles from Jim’s book called “Unmasked: exposing the cultural sexual assault”.  This is such a great topic in this culture which is sexually charged and there does not appear to be many boundaries.  It is also very timely because of its complete contradiction of Carnival and the sexual temptations that lures so many to having a sexual relationship outside of God’s will and purpose.  Jim shared from his book the revelations about:

·         God’s gift of sexuality

·         The heart of a woman

·         God’s true design for men and women

·         How to be “men of honor” and “princesses of God” and to walk in the beauty of His creation. 

It was really powerful in the lives of the hundreds of youth that participated in the conference.  Even though it poured down rain a lot of the time, nothing was getting in the way of these youth getting to know Jesus more and His good plan for their lives. 

In order to accommodate the hundreds of youth at the camp.  They all sleep in hammocks.  They also played a lot of soccer and volleyball. 

As a follow-up.  Jim and his team preached at our church to the parents and pastors of the youth that were or were not participating in Cristoval.  This was key so that when the youth came back to their homes and their normal day to day life the parents would have a better understanding of what they were taught and then reinforce those Biblical truths on a daily basis.  They focused on:

·         A father’s role in protecting his daughters and training his sons in the ways of the Lord

·         A call to pastors and leaders to identify, confront, and tear down the worship of the sex gods in the culture and create a culture in the church to train God’s people in purity and His ways in relationships. 

On a personal note a statement that struck me during the conference was “I am not living for a feeling but am living for God”.  It struck me because sometimes I live with the notion that if it feels right, it must be God.  However, that can be far from the truth.  Just a good reminder how we must seek God’s will and desires outside of if it feels good or not. 

The girls are doing well and are back in school.  Since they missed some school due to our time in the States they had to cram to get caught up.  They just finished all their tests and praise the Lord they did amazingly well.  We are so grateful, and so are they.  Here is a picture of the girls playing with Sean’s hair.  They had a lot of fun with the team. 

Please also continue to pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43234

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

Jim and his team really wanted to see a tarantula.  It did not take long to find many along the ground burrowed in their holes.  Then we found this monster in the tree. 

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Hello to All of Our Amazing Friends and Supporters!

First of all, I just want to say how much I enjoyed being able to spend time with so many of you during my visit last month! It was very refreshing to my soul just to be home and in familiar places with loving faces surrounding me. Thank you all so much for being so welcoming to me!
Also, I want to especially thank all of you for your incredible generosity! I had 2 baby showers while I was there and received so many gifts to help in Oliver’s first year of life. One friend gave me a lot of maternity clothes that she had used while she was pregnant. Another wonderful couple allowed me to borrow their car while I was there which made my trip so much easier. And many of you gave so generously that Ronã and I have been able to buy a few new, much needed appliances, and we are in the process of looking for a car!
(That means we won’t have to drive Oliver around on a motorcycle 😃)

Opening Presents for Oliver

Baby Shower with Family

While there, I also had the wonderful opportunity to share at Vineyard Tuttle Crossing about what is happening here in Brazil. I shared about the struggles of the Brazilian people and how God is working to bring healing and restoration to many. Ronã and I was so grateful to be even a small piece of God’s plan to bring his abundant life of grace and love to Brazil. If you would like to listen to that message, you can follow the link provided below.

Sharing at Vineyard Tuttle Crossing

The church surrounding me in prayer

Message @ VTC

Upon arriving back to Brazil, I had the privilege of attending a conference held by our local Vineyard churches. They invited a group from LifeLine Ministries ( https://www.facebook.com/lifelineministriesJimAnderson/ ) to come and speak to both our families and our youth during the annual festival of Carnaval. What an incredible time in the presence of God!

As I explained in my message at Vineyard Tuttle Crossing, there are a lot of broken families in our region. So many of the people that we work with had very troubling family environments growing up, and of course, they bring the traumas and wounds from the past into the present. Many have problems in their current families because of it. This conference spoke directly to those wounds and gave hope for a different future. It was so awesome to watch God move among so many families in our churches. It was an answer to our prayers, and we will continue to pray for God’s healing work. Please join us in praying for the healing restoration of Brazilian families! Below is another link to a short video of the conference.
Family Conference

Over the next few months, Ronã and I will continue to prepare for Oliver’s arrival at the end of May. Ronã is continuing to teach English and help out with our worship team. I will begin to meet again with the women that I counsel, as well as look for new opportunities to help those struggling with addictions and trauma.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and donations. We could not be here without you!

Prayer Needs:
A visa for Ronã
A healthy pregnancy
A reliable and affordable car
Increase in monthly support

Donate

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We made it back safely to Brazil and appreciate greatly all of your prayers.  We wish we could thank everyone personally for their prayers, friendship, support, and love while we were back.  It was truly a wonderful experience, and unfortunately the time went by so quickly.  We wish we were able to see more of our family and friends while we were back but the constraint of time makes it a huge challenge. 

We were very grateful to be able to see most of our family and friends, and have the opportunity to share at their churches.  It was a real pleasure getting to see our old friends, and making some new friends along the way.  Below are some pictures of Elba preaching.  She was very busy as she had the honor of sharing at The Vineyard Community church in Pickerington / Reynoldsburg, Madison County Vineyard and New Hope Vineyard Church.  Plus, she had a great time sharing at the Vineyard Church of Delaware County woman’s meeting, and then finally she was the key note speaker at the Vineyard Columbus woman’s conference.  Praise the Lord, the Spirit was alive at each of these churches and events. 

 

We are coming back running as the churches are preparing their Cristoval celebration this week.  Carnival is Brazil’s annual “celebration of the flesh” before the initiation of Lent on the Catholic calendar.  It’s a week- long party where “anything goes” and every city in the country shuts down allowing full participation by the people.  The Vineyard churches began “Cristoval”, a retreat for youth, away from the city, with a focus on Jesus and having a lot of good clean fun.  It has been a great success throughout the years, drawing kids toward Jesus and allowing an alternative during Carnival.  Here in Altamira, we will be having Jim Anderson and his team come and speak about his book “Unmasked: exposing the cultural sexual assault”.  We are expecting the Holy Spirit to show up in a great way and the participants will respond by changing a culture.  Please keep us, and all the churches in your prayers. 

We were also able to get away for a little bit of time before coming back to Brazil.  We got the opportunity to go to the Creation Museum, The Ark, and then spent the rest of our time in Fort Myers.  The girls loved swimming every day, playing putt-putt, and going bowling.  They also loved the food…so did we.  Camilly’s favorite food was a bacon cheeseburger, and Alyssa loved tacos with meat, cheese and sour cream. 

Please also continue to pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43234

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

Here is Camilly at COSI experiencing static electricity first hand.   Alyssa tamed this wild horse as they rode off in the sunset. 

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One Saturday morning in Canada shortly before we came back to Brazil, I was leafing through flyers minding my own business when I saw a picture of a golden retriever.  For those who know us well, wed are often comparing ourselves to those overly friendly extroverted dogs.

But we also really want one and it represents home to me and to my kids who’s only ever house that felt like home had a golden retriever in it.

At that moment as I looked at the golden retriever in front of a cage I felt the Lord say, ‘so when you get to Joao Pessoa, you’re going to find a house that looks pretty great early on.  But, it’s not the house I have for you so don’t rush it, wait on me’.

Okay.

I told Phil and then forgot all about it.

Two weeks into our time here, and the fourth house we looked at-we were in love!  It was clean, bright, had an extra bedroom for visitors, a bit of space outside, great location.  We were ready to rent it.

The next morning we had an appointment to see it again.  I woke up feeling uneasy and couldn’t figure out why.  So, I said, ‘what’s up Jesus, why do I feel like this?’

That’s when he reminded me what he had told me when I was looking at the flyer.

Seriously?  But this house is PERFECT.  It has EVERYTHING!

But I have something better.

I told Phil, his shoulders sloped and he sighed, ‘Really?’

So, we didn’t rent it.  For the next week or so there was NOTHING new on the market.  We started to panic a little, what if I heard wrong?

But, everything in me told me not to rent it.  Trust, wait, He has something better.

Finally, one day as I was obsessively looking on the Brazilian version of Kijiji a house appeared I hadn’t seen before, a new listing.

The initial picture had two large dogs that looked like golden retrievers in the drive way.

IT’S A SIGN!  I joked, sort of.

I read the description, 3 bedrooms, and an ‘annex’.  I made an appointment to see it at the earliest opportunity.

The minute we walked through the gates and into the house we were all sold on it.  It had so much outside space, which is nearly impossible find here.  There was also the annex, which had a garage below for all of Phil’s fiddlings, and above a full bedroom with ensuite for visitors.  Separate from our own house for the visitors privacy and ours.

We really want our house to somewhere that pastors, missionaries and family and friends can come to find rest.

This place was just that.

Now that we are moved in, I am reminded every day that waiting on what God has for us is ALWAYS  better.  Jesus always has what’s best for us, even when it doesn’t look like it.

We just have to be willing to wait…..and that my friends is the hardest part.

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Merry CHRISTmas.  We pray that this Christmas will be very special for you and your loved ones.   We are grateful to be back in the States to see our family and friends like you.  I also felt like the Lord wanted me to tell you that He sees you, loves you, and that He is with you.   Pray you enjoy the below email and again, have a great Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Before coming back to the States we had a community wedding where 6 couples got married.  It was a really great time and we were very proud of these couples.  Two of the couples had been married at the justice of the peace several years prior but never had a formal celebration.  We also had a Mom and Dad get married, alongside of their son and daughter.  It was a really cool sight to see the Mom and Dad getting married with their children which is something that you do not see every day.  There were lots of smiles of happiness and tears of joy, and the Lord was smiling in their midst as they made their public testimony of dedication and commitment to Christ.  Another blessing was that all of the dresses were donated which went a long way to making this a very special day. 

Also before coming back to the States, Elba went to Porto de Moz to speak to their congregation and encourage them in the Lord.  Thankfully she was able to take a speedboat which only took about 4-5 hours to get there.  They were really excited about her visit and they had many performances and dances for the special time.  As a treat, Elba got to eat her favorite fish which is a hard shelled fish that is prehistoric in nature.  It is a bottom feeder and she grew up eating it.  Personally, I ate it once, and then went to the hospital….no joke. 

We drove up from Florida which had some great weather.  During our trip up we had many competing prayers between the kids and us.  They were praying for snow and cold, and we were trying to rebuke those prayers with warm weather.  When we arrived in Columbus this past weekend, it was a rude awakening, and the girl’s prayers prevailed.   However, we are still praying for warmer weather….brrrrrr. 

Please also continue to pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43234

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

We went on a little retreat with the church and I was just about to lay down in my hammock when I heard these plops on the ground.  I thought it was fruit falling from the tree but upon further investigation I saw that it was poop.  I then looked up and saw the monkeys just above me trying to mark their territory on my head.  Then they started to unleash a poop storm.  Needless to say I moved quickly from that spot.  This was my firsthand experience of an animal marking their territory….they won.  J

    

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Happy Thanksgiving!  As you will see below, we will be coming back to Ohio around December 15th and staying in the Ohio area until February 5th.  We would love to see you.  If this works for you, please send me some dates so we can mark something on the calendar.  OK?  Thanks and we look forward to seeing you soon.  Pray you are blessed with the below email.

I started a small group bible study and we just completed our 26^th week.  This bible study is unlike the bible studies that I am used to as we adopted the Discipleship Making model.  It is a really simple model and one that is very easy to facilitate.  The model has been adopted in many areas throughout the world and has really caught on fire.  I cannot do the model justice in this brief email https://idisciple.cityteam.org/ but essentially we ask the same simple questions week after week like:

• What are you thankful for this week? (Prayer/Worship)
• What has stressed you out this week? 
• What do you need for things to be better? (Intercession)

   

• What are the needs of the people in your community? (Ministry)

• Let’s see what the Bible teaches us this week. Read this week’s passage. (Scripture)

• What does this passage teach us about God? (Discovery/Scripture/Priesthood of Believers)

Our group consists of friends that do not attend church on a regular basis.  I am not sure of the reasons why they do not go to church, however, week after week they continue to invite us back to have home church at their house to talk about their lives, God, and the Bible. 

I like these questions because even if you know it or not, we are honoring and giving praise to God.  Plus, we get the opportunity to open up the scriptures to our friends that normally would not read the bible. 

Elba returned from London, England and we are glad to have her back.  Elba went to London because she serves on the international board for Vineyard Institute.  Vineyard Institute is an educational provider for the Vineyard movement, formed to develop leaders at all levels of church life through high quality theological training http://vineyardinstitute.org/ .  While she was there for her meeting she had the opportunity to go and speak at the Trent Vineyard.  She preached on “God’s People – A Missionary People”.  While she was gone we celebrated our 13^th year wedding anniversary.  Thankfully, I was able to send her some flowers for the occasion. 

The girls continue to do well and excel at school.  Obviously, we are very proud parents and are grateful to their dedication to school.  They won 2 gold medals for their school performance.  Camilly, with the help of Clenildo (one of her Brazilian Grandpas), made this replication of a river and Indian community.  They made it out of Styrofoam, paper, and wire. They did an amazing job.  Alyssa is also becoming an artist.  She painted this on Styrofoam tray.  Again, proud parents!

As we mentioned last month, Elba was invited to come and speak at the Vineyard Columbus woman’s conference to be held in February 2017.  Elba is excited about this opportunity and since it is coming up to our time to visit the States, we accepted with great enthusiasm.  We will be coming back to the States on December 10^th and staying in the Columbus area until February 5^th.  We look forward to seeing and spending time with our family during Christmas.  We also look forward to seeing you.  Would you like to get together?  If so, write me back and let’s get something on the calendar. 

Please also continue to pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.  

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

Tax deductible donations can be written and sent to:

The Xingu Mission

P.O Box 340785

Columbus, Ohio  43234

Or On-line donations at:

https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/dolan-ministries/

Richie Bouthillier took this photo while on a boat trip with the Dentist team.  The dog fell asleep like this.

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