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Dear Friends and Family,

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

Denise and I have been in Macapá for almost 3 months now. Living here has been a completely different experience than our time in Altamira. For one thing, in Altamira we had a huge safety net of other missionaries, multiple Vineyard churches, and the home base of the Xingu Mission. Here in Macapá, although we have been developing new and special relationships, we are a bit more isolated and feel that sense of being on our own. Denise and I were brought here to help a small struggling church. Prior to coming here, we talked a lot about ideas for the church, but I don’t think anything could quite prepare us for our experience here so far. Since we arrived, putting our ideas into action has been scary and exciting all at the same time.

Shortly after arriving, Denise and I were ordained as pastors in the church. This was suggested by the two Northern Brazil Directors, Clenildo and Elba. They wanted the church to see us as people of authority from the get-go. The Senior Pastor, Felipe, agreed with this decision.

Our new church home

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Us being ordained

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We are falling in love with the church and the people here, but the Macapá Vineyard needs support in many areas including training for the worship team, discipleship and small group development, and help with finances and with organization in general. Denise and I made the conscious decision that our main focus initially would be to speak vision into the church and help the church develop a mission which we believe is a primary need here.

After a month of meetings and discussions, Denise and I became a bit disheartened. We knew that this process was going to be long and slow at times, but it was discouraging to see no movement whatsoever. To be honest, the church as a whole seemed disenchanted, bored and dry. Denise and I decided to spend a week fasting, praying and intentionally seeking God. The next week I was scheduled to preach at church. Denise and I both went to church experiencing something different in our hearts – a feeling of hopeful expectation. On this week the church was packed with new people and we could sense something different in the church as well. As I spoke about the Great Commission and how we as the Church all have a part in this, I could sense an excitement in the air. The whole church stepped forward for prayer at ministry time! We also had 3 visitors make decisions to follow Jesus for the first time!

Denise and I left church that night with overwhelming excitement. We realize that this process is going to be a difficult one with many twists and turns, but we believe that God gave us a glimpse of what is to come. Since then Denise and I have continued to speak vision into the church, we have started a discipleship program, but most of all have tried to lead by example. We are seeing our numbers rise, more new conversions and a tangible excitement growing in the church.

Denise preaching at church

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Going to see the new Star Wars with friends in Macapá

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Some kids worshipping

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Last month Denise and I were also able to visit Denise’s parents for Christmas. Although I missed my family in Ohio tremendously, being with Denise’s family eased this longing. We had a great time with her parents and brothers! It was also nice being able to sit down with Denise’s father Clenildo and discuss ideas for the Macapá Vineyard. Clenildo has been doing ministry for many years here in Northern Brazil and is very good at it. He had great ideas that Denise and I have already started to incorporate into our work in Macapá.

Denise and I speaking at the Santarem Vineyard while visiting her family

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Denise’s family

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Christmas morning

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Please continue to pray for us. Although things are going well at the moment, we are well aware that there are many difficult chapters ahead.

Pray for continued relational connections.

Pray for spiritual breakthroughs.

Pray for financial provision.

Please write us if you have any questions or comments. It means so much to have that connection. Thanks again for your prayers and support.

In His Service,

Christopher and Denise

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

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Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I must admit, seeing pictures of my family gathered around the cozy living room opening presents made me a little homesick. Something about being in 90 degree weather makes it hard to get into the Christmas spirit. It’s just not the same.
I’m sorry that it’s been so long since you heard from me last. Last month was very busy, and I have a lot of news to tell you!
First of all, and most importantly, I AM ENGAGED!!!! Ronã asked me to marry him on November 23rd, 2015, and as you can guess, I said yes. We are both very happy and excited about our new life to come. We have already set a date for our wedding in Altamira for April 23, 2016. We will have a small ceremony with our friends and family here in Brazil. Our hope is to visit the States sometime at the end of 2016 and have a celebration there with all of you! We will keep you posted as more details come. Please pray for us as our plans move forward and that God will continue to bless our relationship.

The night of our engagement…

During the holidays, Ronã came to Portel in order to start settling into his new life there. We are currently in Altamira where we will gather his things to shortly move him there. During his visit, he spent time looking for a job and a place to live until we get married. In part, he will be working as a teacher for CDR, and hopefully, he will be able to get another teaching job. Richie was kind enough to allow Ronã to live on the boat with Ramon (our worship leader) for the short time before we get married. This will help us to save money as we plan for the future. Please pray for Ronã as he continues the job search in Portel.

Ronã playing soccer at the Mission

As you may remember from my last blog, we had decided to close CDR (the english school) for the time being because of the situation with the location. After spending some time in Altamira, I went back to Portel to continue to look for options for a location. What I decided was to turn one of the bedrooms in my house into a classroom. I painted the walls and had an air conditioner installed. I organized it with chairs and a desk and shelves for storage. It is a little small, but it will work for our purposes until we can complete our building on the mission property.
During our trip, both Ronã and I were very busy. For Christmas, we helped the kids learn a song to present for our Christmas service. It was a bit of a mess, but everybody had a lot of fun. For New Year’s Eve, we also had activities for the kids in the evening. The kids in our neighborhood are very poor and are often under very little supervision. Having events and activities for them can often be very challenging, but it is also well worth it. Ronã has a special gift with children, and as we worked together, it was clear that God wants to use us to be a blessing in their lives.

The kids singing a Christmas song..

We also began work on starting the classes again in February. We will continue the classes that were put on hold last year and also open up a few more terms. When we go back to Portel at the end of the month, we will continue to focus on signing up students for the next semester.
Like I said, we have a lot of new things happening, and we are very excited about all of them. We will be experiencing many new changes in our lives over the next year, and we would really like your prayers. We long for God’s grace and guidance over us as we make decisions and minister together. We pray for patience as we learn to integrate our lives together. I was recently reading a book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Bonhoeffer is quoting as saying this about marriage,
“As God today adds his “Yes” to your “Yes”, as he confirms your will with his will, and as he allows you, and approves of, your triumph and rejoicing and pride, he makes you at the same time instruments of his will and purpose both for yourselves and for others. In his unfathomable condescension God does add his “Yes” to yours, but by doing so, he creates out of your love something quite new–the holy estate of matrimony.”
We would hope that our decision and future marriage be about the work God wants to do in the Earth. That we are his instruments, and that our covenant reveals a glimpse of the love of Heaven.
God bless you all in this new year. Whether the coming year looks dim or bright, remember that God is the one who walks you through it. He is the God of all seasons. May you know him in every season.

Love,
Allison

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Thank you so much for your friendship, and prayers throughout the year.  It is such a pleasure to have you on our team as we continue to share the Good news of Jesus Christ and give a helping hand up to the marginalized.  We pray the Lord will bless you richly and that you have a great Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Again, thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

I love this.  Just last week the Mirante church sent this mission team out to visit a community called Surubim.  Elba’s twin sister Nira led the group as they traveled to this community which is about 150 kilometers from Altamira and has a thriving community of believers.  We visit periodically to encourage the leadership, and the congregation.  There were many people in attendance that came to have fellowship with one another, share a meal, worship the Lord and share the Gospel.  One of the congregation members killed a cow and gave some of it to help with the celebration.  One of the ladies who volunteered to go on the mission trip is 59 years old.  She was a trooper as a good portion of the way is on dirt roads.  They laid the bike over once during the trip but thankfully there were no injuries.  However, her discomfort was not a hindrance to go and show the love of Christ. 

Aside from CDR providing English and Computer classes, as well as teaching people how to sew, all at a deep discounted price compared to the other schools in the city, they also went to one of the local schools as they have for the last several years to teach the students about “safe touch”.  They sang worship songs to the students, did a puppet show, danced Hip Hop, and taught the students the importance of safe touch, and then provided a meal.  It is our great hope that by teaching these children some principles about what is safe, and general safety tips it will help prevent these children from being abused.  Also, if abuse is happening, it may give the child the courage to tell someone in authority so that they can be helped and protected. 

 

The school semester is coming to a close and the girls will be out for Christmas break.  The school gave them awards called “Diamond”.  It is the highest award that a student can get at the school.  We are very proud of them for being such good students and doing their best at school.  Also pictured are Camilly and Alyssa best friends.  Camilly and Alyssa bought them all best friend necklaces.  However, the fact of the matter is that they have many best friends to which we are grateful.  Please pray for Camilly as she has been coughing for the last couple of weeks.  Pray for her healing. 

Prayer request.  Please pray for our city and for us.  The city has become very violent especially for a small city.  In one night, 15 people were shot resulting in 7 murders.  It did not stop there as there were additional murders the following days thereafter.  Unfortunately, murder is fairly common here.  In the last two months 4 police officers were murdered.  We are not sure if this recent wave of murders is retribution to those suspected in the involvement of the police killings.  However, we need your prayers for protection, and that the Lord will change people’s heart.  Aside from all the murders there has been a sharp increase in armed robberies and motor theft.  Just last Sunday someone came and stole one of our member’s motorbike.  It is a significant loss because almost no one has insurance and they are expensive. 

Please also pray for Osmana.  Marcio and Osmana are the pastors at the Independente church.  She has been fighting breast cancer and everything appeared to be in remission.  However, the doctors just told us that they discovered 2 lesions in her brain.  This is very disheartening.  The family appears to be at peace and are praying with expectation for a complete healing.  Please pray with them.

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

Love and blessings, 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/

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At the church we just recently had a community wedding with 6 couples getting married.  It was a BIG deal and a great testimony to a culture that does not place much value in the sanctity of marriage.  The even more incredible thing is that 3 of the couples live in a remote community called the Suribim.  It is located about 120 kilometers from our church.  They have a church there and we have been ministering to this church with visits for the last several years.  The community continues to draw close to God and is evident in this wedding where the sanctity of marriage in the communities is even worse than the city.  It is such a great thing when couples like these, even some who have been living together and have children, will step out of the cultural forces and make a bold statement to their family, friends and community.  What a testimony to how God is moving in the midst of this community and changing people hearts.

The above is a panoramic photo of the couples on the stage with some of their family members while Elba conducted the service. 

The weeks leading up the wedding some of the couples would come to our house for dinner and then go through our marriage preparation course. 

Some of the dresses that the brides were wearing were donated by woman in the States.  This is such a wonderful blessing as it is very expensive to rent wedding dresses in Altamira.  The brides were very grateful and looked beautiful. 

Elba and I just celebrated our 12th year wedding anniversary.  Elba was traveling during our anniversary.  She went to Ohio to participate in a meeting for the Vineyard Institute http://vineyardinstitute.org/ where she serves on the board.  She then went to visit our friends in Canada, as well as our niece, Apolana.  During her time in Canada Elba got the wonderful opportunity to preach at City Life Church.  She was received so well and enjoyed her visit to the States and Canada immensely.  I also surprised her with flowers while she was in Canada on our anniversary. 

The girls missed their Mom while she was gone for 2 weeks.  To help, we invited some of their friends to come to our house to play and have a sleep over.  When Mom got home she gave them some play dresses and they loved them. 

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

Love and blessings, 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/

I found this angry spider outside our door.  I think he wanted to fight.  J

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A short video by Cityteam

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Dear Family and Friends,

Denise and I are finally here in Macapá! As you probably remember, we moved to by river barge about 300 miles from our home in Altamira. We are in the process of getting settled into our new home and into our new ministry. We couldn’t be any more excited to get started and find our place here.

After saying our goodbyes in Altamira, we were ready to get going. We knew that the trip from Altamira to Macapá was going to be interesting, but we had no idea what was in store for us. The first leg of the trip was to load a moving truck that would take all of our belongings about 45 minutes from Altamira to the small town of Vitoria, where we would then have to move everything again from the truck onto the boat. We had plenty of help in Altamira. We had many friends show up to help and say goodbye. We also had two friends from Macapá come and help with the move.

Denise and I being sent out from the Altamira church

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Loading the truck

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The boat that took us to Macapá

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After moving all our things onto the truck and then moving them once again from the truck to the boat, we were pretty worn out and were ready to get the show on the road. The boat’s captain waited until the tide came in and at about 6:00pm we were on our way! Or so we thought…. After only about 30 minutes into the trip, we began to notice a scraping sound coming from the bottom of the boat – we were sliding across the bottom of the river bed. After about five minutes hearing the scraping, our fears were realized…. we came to a complete stop. It is currently dry season in Brazil and the water levels are really low. It seems that the boat’s captain might have been a bit ambitious with the amount of weight that was loaded onto the boat. After trying to break free for the next few hours, it was decided to wait until morning when the tide came back in to try again…

Denise, Felipe & Fred on the boat

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Waiting to be unstuck

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The animals’ sad home on the boat

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Our sleeping arrangements on the boat

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This is the type of scenario that has been one of the biggest adjustments for me in North Brazil, the twists and turns of life. I’ve realized that I need to always keep a loose grip on my expectations. After a restless night of sleep, it was time for the captain to try again. Once the tide was up, the boat’s motors roared – but to no avail. We were not moving. After hours of trying, it was decided that we would have to wait until night for the tide to rise again. As night approached and it was time to give it another try, I’ll be honest – I wasn’t feeling very optimistic. After about an hour of trying to get free, I couldn’t believe it when we started moving!! One of the boat’s propellers broke in the process, but we were on our way. We were very happy! So what was originally supposed to be a 30-hour trip turned into a 75-hour trip. The journey was definitely stressful, but we made it. Another moving truck met us at the boat and then it was just a 45 minute drive to our new house.

Once in our home, Denise and I spent the day resting and thanking God that we were finally here. We are so thankful – thankful for the new adventure, thankful for God’s direction, thankful for all our friends’ prayers and support.

Macapá Vineyard

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Us being ordained as pastors by Pastor Felipe

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This is definitely a period where we could use some prayer:

1) Prayer for God’s favor.

2) Prayer for wisdom.

3) Prayer against loneliness.

In the short time we have been here, we have felt covered in all these areas and are so thankful for you. We can’t wait to share all our future adventures with you!

In His Service,

Christopher and Denise

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

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Paul Friesen, and a team from Cambridge, Ontario, came for a visit.

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Thanks for all your prayers for us.  We are so grateful and could not do this without your intercession.  We pray that you will be blessed with the below update.  .

A team of dentists from Brasilia, Brazil’s national capital, came again to serve the needy by providing dental services.  They had a busy two weeks.  They first went to the Marabá church, then the Pacajá church, and then on the river.  They served 405 people that required a total of 1244 procedures, and provided 887 fluoride treatments.  This is almost double the amount from last year. 

During their time with us last year, they had to perform hundreds of teeth extractions.  They were shocked by the poor condition of the people’s teeth and in an effort to relieve some of the trauma from the extractions.  The team decided to come and make dentures.  The team (including Elba) helped create the molds of the teeth.  We then took the molds and created the denture a couple of days later.  It was a monumental task but they were able to complete the goal and the results were amazing.    

During their time at the churches and river communities they had a chance to share about God’s love and pray for the kids and adults

This month the missionaries got together and had their first missionary retreat.  You might ask “why have a retreat?”  It is said that 29% of the reasons American missionaries leave the field were unpreventable. Leaving the estimated world-wide preventable attrition (A gradual diminution in number or strength because of constant stress) at 71%.  Preventable attrition included six major categories: 1) marriage and family reasons; 2) agency reasons; 3) personal reasons; 4) team reasons; 5) cultural reasons: and 6) work related reasons. Early intervention in the missionary life cycle, even before departure, would have made a difference in these attrition rates.

Craig and Linda Heselton came and taught us about Emotional Intelligence to help retool us and build up the team. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is simple defined as “the ability to recognize one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.”    It was definitely a learning experience for me and one that I hope will create more growth personally and professionally.    

It was also very good to just get all the missionaries together to spend time with one another.  This time together helps to build up our team and re-energize us for the continued road ahead. Our mission is looking to have marathon missionaries, and not sprinters.  For this reason, we are committed to the care of our missionaries so that we can help sustain the calling that the Lord has on their life as life-long missionaries. 

During the missionary care the girls had a great time reconnecting with the other missionary children.  They were essentially inseparable during the whole time we were together.  Every morning they were antsy to go and play with the other kids, and at night they did not want to come in.  We were so grateful for this time.  Also, pictured is Camilly and Alyssa trying to log roll. 

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

Love and blessings, 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/

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Hello to all my very faithful supporters!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST:
I hope I haven’t alarmed you too much, but I do currently have a situation that needs immediate attention. This past weekend, while I was traveling, the school building in which we have our CDR English classes was closed by the owner. Though I don’t know all the details, what I understand is the director of Uniasselvi, which is the school we were renting a room from, was not paying the rent for the building. Therefore, the owner locked up the building with all of our supplies and materials inside. I have been in the process of trying to speak directly to the owner in order to at least get our materials out and possibly, continue to have our classes there. However, in the meantime, I am having to find another solution. Yesterday, I was able to find another school that allowed us to rent a room for the kids class held in the afternoon. My evenings classes, I am going to hold in my house.
My prayer is that this situation is resolved quickly, and that we can be allowed to enter into the building again to have access to our things and also have our classes there again. Please pray with me about this situation.

On a happier note, last week was a great time for our missionary team. A while ago, the team decided that we would start trying to have a Missionary Care Retreat once a year. We all had the pleasure of going to a lovely beach resort located in a city off the coast called Salinas. It is just a few hours away from Belem. While there, we also had the privilege of having the company of Craig and Linda Heselton who are pastors from the Columbus Vineyard. Craig gave us a seminar on Emotional Intelligence. It was encouraging and helpful, and it was great to get to know them better. It was wonderful for all of the missionaries to get to spend some time together away from the work setting. We had a lot of fun, and I believe we grew closer together as a team.

Some of the members of our team

Denise and I enjoying the pool

After the retreat, I visited Altamira for the weekend to spend some much needed time with Ronã. As always, we had a great time together. Please continue to pray for us as we walk out our relationship.

Out to dinner…

 
The next few months are going to be challenging for me. My friend Jennifer, recently went back to the States, and Richie’s family just left to go back on furlough to Canada until February. That means I am alone here in Portel. As I am sure you have already perceived, life can be pretty unpredictable here. Please pray that God takes special care of me in this season.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. They mean so much to me. I pray that you and your family experience peace. I pray that God is near to your heart and that you hear him calling your name. I pray that you know in the deepest place of your soul that he always sees you.

“Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139:12
  
Love,
Allison

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