He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Matthew 28:6.  Happy belated Easter!!!  Praise the Lord, He is Risen!!!  Thanks for all your prayers for the church, Brazil, and us.

Almost the exact moment that I sent out last month’s update, the city went into a very restrictive lockdown.  The lockdown was due to the infection rate spreading rapidly, and the completely over capacitated hospitals to which I have been told that people are still waiting to get in the hospitals.   

Vaccines are being administered for anyone over 60 years old.  However, I understand that they are not going below 60 because they are running out of vaccines, and they want to make sure they have the 2^nd round of shots for the ones that received their 1^st shots.  They are giving the vaccine called Sinovac, and Astra Zeneca.  I will have to confess that when I heard that they were giving vaccines to 16 and up in some parts of the USA.  It really makes me miss that 1^st world privilege. 

So, for the last month, we have been completely doing on-line services.  We will be going back to church in person this Sunday but at a very restrictive capacity.  We will also continue to do 2 services so that we can get people into the building and continue to comply with the spacing restrictions and not crowd into 1 service.  The church family really wants to be back at the church.  

As a church we have been helping to buy groceries for the ones in need in the community.  We have distributed a lot of food and we feel blessed to be able to help in this way.  We have also given food baskets to our other churches to help people in their community.  These 2 ladies were so grateful and emotional because of the help.  One of them said that she had just paid the rent, but did not have anything left to buy groceries.  The food basket and hot meal came at the perfect time.  God organized it all for His glory!  In addition, we have been helping people with medical procedures. 

The girls are doing well.  They are still doing on-line school, and this is keeping them busy.  They certainly miss the social aspects of being with their friends.  It is tough, but they believe it is the right thing to do at the moment.  Most of their social interaction is through online, except, Alyssa likes to jump on the trampoline with her cousin who lives next door in the rain.  As you can, our trampoline is stretched to the max!!!  LOL

We appreciate your continued prayers:

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

• The rejection of this virus from you, your family, friends, and to be thrown out of this universe forever. 

• Please pray for Elba and I that we may hear clearly where to put our focus and energy in this next phase of our lives.  

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

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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First, let me say thank you for all your prayers for our trip back to Brazil.  Praise the Lord, we got home safely after about 2 days of traveling. 

We also want to say thank you for your prayers this last year for the sale of the property.  We got back on the 8^th of February at around 1:30pm, and at 3:30pm the following day we signed the papers to close on the property.  WOW!!!  That was a long journey of back and forth with negotiations, many contract revisions, lawyer negotiation, and key people getting sick and recovering, and so on.  Through it all, we are so relieved that we were able to close on the property.  Thank you again for all your prayers!!!

As you may imagine, we literally hit the road running, and it has not stopped.  We are not complaining, but excited for each day and seeing the Lord work in our midst.  However, I do have 1 complaint.  Upon arrival we have been fighting for about 2 weeks to get the rats out of our house.  They have been having a party on top of our ceiling, and inside the house.  We have been chasing them around with brooms to get them out….YUCK.  Thankfully we have dogs that are very good hunters, as well as the use of other means. 

The church is doing well.  Elba just started a new preaching series and the church will be participating in 40 days of fasting and prayer.  Elba preached to a full house last Sunday and it was really good to be back.  We purchased about 70 food baskets to give to our surrounding churches to bless the people that are without.  A food basket contains things like rice, beans, sugar, oil, powder milk and etc.  Like you know, it has been a tough for many people financially.  Also, starting this Thursday, we will be making hearty soup to give to people at the church.  We feel blessed to be the hands and feet of Christ to help.  

 

We are in the midst of the rainy season here in the North of Brazil.  It has rained almost every day since we have come back.  The church went to visit one of our church plants in the Suribim.  It was an adventure to say the least.  Roads were blown out, and deep water to pass through.  But praise the Lord they got through and had a great time bringing the good news, encouraging the community, and giving away food baskets.  

Continued prayers request: 

• Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation that we help people draw close to God as we navigate this time. 
• The rejection of this virus from you, your family, friends, and to be thrown out of this universe forever. 
• Please pray for Elba and I that we may hear clearly where to put our focus and energy in this next phase of our lives.

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

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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 Our trip is coming to an end and we will soon be making our way back to Brazil.  During this time Elba has been taking a Sabbatical and seeking God for His direction in her life.  Elba has been active in many roles on the international, national, regional and local level.  She is being split in too many directions and she feels that it is affecting the quality of her roles in each of these areas and of course her physical and emotional health.  She is trying to seek God’s will for her so that she can be more focused, effective and not so divided.  We appreciate your prayers!

As you may remember we had Creative Impact come to Brazil and do multiple video stories of our missionaries.  Creative Impact wants to bring glory to God by telling the stories of what is currently taking place in missions around the world.  It was an absolute pleasure and blessing to work with Jim and Lynn Adams. 

 

 They completed our story and we were hoping to sit with you and show the documentary.  However, given the circumstances, that became very difficult.  The great news is that it is online and we would love for you to watch.  https://vimeo.com/390784748.  The documentary is called “The other side of the river”.   It is a little over 30 minutes but we believe that you will enjoy it.  Let us know what you think.

Continued prayers request: 

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

·         Please pray for the Lord’s will, and for the buyer’s financial situation as we continue to move forward with the sale of properties.

·         The rejection of this virus from you, your family, friends, and to be thrown out of this universe forever. 

·         Please pray for Elba and I that we may hear clearly where to put our focus and energy in this next phase of our lives.

·         Safe trip back home to Brazil and that there will be no interruptions and we stay healthy.

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

Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa

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