
Amazon Update February 2020
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Dear Friends and Family,
Denise and I want to first-off say thank you to everyone who made our time in the U.S.A. such an encouragement. Your love and generosity blessed us greatly. We love our home church in the States and definitely feel the support that we so desperately desire.
We arrived back in Macapá just over 5 weeks ago. It has been a whirlwind since we got home. On our way home to Brazil, I began to get sick with the flu. It was the worst flu I have ever experienced. For the first 10 days here in Brazil I barely left my bed… Not exactly what I had in mind for our first weeks back, but in many ways it was good for me. God was speaking to me the whole time. I left the States with so much excitement, with many new ideas, and was ready to hit the ground running. The first few days I felt extremely discouraged, but God kept reminding me that ministry is a marathon, not a sprint, and that everything would work in his timing. It was good for me to let go and release everything to him. I also am so thankful for Denise who took care of me – and Jonas – while also adjusting to being back in Brazil. I really lucked out in the wife department! Many people were curious about how Jonas would do with our transition back to Brazil. He did great. He didn’t skip a beat, almost as if he was never gone. It is amazing how adaptive children can be.
Jonas loves our cat, “Lucy”. Not sure how Lucy feels about Jonas.
Jonas practicing for the worship band.
Jonas doesn’t know what to think of the new baby in the church.
Once I began to feel better, we began to work through getting things reorganized, implementing a few new ideas that God placed on our hearts, and connecting with the individuals in the church. Presently we are so excited for what God is doing in Vineyard Viva. There seems to be a tangible excitement that can be felt throughout the congregation.
This month we also had some special visitors. Michael Hansen, the Lead Pastor at my home church in Delaware County, and Derek Blaylock, a Vineyard Pastor out of San Antonio Texas, came for a short visit. Our time with them was great. While they were here we did leadership training, worship team training, they also participated with our homeless outreach ministry, and Derek preached at our Sunday service. We also did a baptism after the service.
Service last Sunday
During the service
Denise translating for Derek
Getting ready for baptisms
Baptisms
Homeless outreach ministry
Jonas shares a love for Bert’s Bees with Michael
About 20 years ago, God put Brazil on Derek’s heart and he has been praying for Brazil ever since. This was his first time visiting Brazil and it was such a joy to witness what God was doing in him. Derek was so moved to be around the people that he had been praying for since his early adulthood. He was often overwhelmed to the point of tears by God’s faithfulness in connecting him here, and that a visit had finally come to fruition.
A Prayer Request:
We have been praying about whether we should go to two services. This last week while Michael and Derek were at the church, we had around 80 people (including children). Although our numbers were higher because of the baptism and the guest speakers, we feel like the writing is on the wall. We are running out of space in our little church. What a great problem to have! We are not quite at the place where we could move to a larger location, so going to two services might be our best option. The practice of multiple church services is not extremely common here in Brazil, so we really need God’s direction in this area.
Thank you 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/
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We had a women’s gathering at the church called “Cha de Rosa”, or pink tea. The women in the church really worked hard to make this a beautiful and special moment for our guests. The youth served a small meal while the women were enriched by the guest speaker. The guest speaker was a psychologist in the city and she talked about emotional and mental health.
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Dear Friends & Family,
I wanted to give everyone a heads up that Denise, Jonas and I will be back on furlough starting in September. We are so excited to share everything that God has been doing here in Macapá! We are also excited for everyone to meet Jonas!
If you are a small group leader and would like for us to visit and share at your group, just drop me an email. I would absolutely love the opportunity! I am going to start scheduling things now. I made the mistake a few years back of waiting and found myself scrambling to try and fit everything in at the tail end of our trip. I am determined not to make that same mistake!
Since we will be back in a few weeks, I will save a detailed account of what is going on here to tell you in person, but things are going great here in Macapá. Our church is doing well as we continue to mature. Our family is thriving, too. Jonas is growing and changing every day!
We had a visit from Denise’s family.
A little boat trip with friends.
Some pics of Jonas
Please pray safe travel for us and for the church and leaders during our time on furlough.
We appreciate you all and are looking forward to seeing you all!
In His Service,
Christopher and Denise
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Literally, stepping on the heels of the conference, we had a Dentist team of 10 people from Brasilia. Our house was hustling and bustling to accommodate the team, and the people from the conference. I think we had at 1 time over 20 people staying in our house. The dentist team went to a remote community called Maribel where it took around 5 hours to drive 100 km. We have a church in Maribel and we used the church to serve the people of the community. 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. In the few short days the volunteer dentist team served hundreds of people doing cleanings, repairing cavities, pulling teeth, and repairing teeth. It is amazing what the dentist can do with limited resources. It is 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. They will be coming back in September to work with our missionary Richie Bouthillier in Portel.
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Dear Friends and Family,
As always, thank you for your prayers and support. They are greatly appreciated.
These last few months have been super busy, very tiring, but tremendously fruitful and fun. It has been great to watch our church continue to grow. We also are continuing to see new people choosing to follow Jesus. And little Jonas is growing and getting around far more easily.
These blessings all bring new challenges. As our church grows and new people choose to follow Jesus, it requires us to develop new systems for pastoral care and the need to train more leaders!
Also, as Jonas grows and gets around more easily, which of course is a joy, our little guy really keeps Denise and me on our toes trying keeping up with him. (We love being parents!)
Just this month, we also had the opportunity to host a team led by my brother JT from our home church, Vineyard Church Delaware County. We had so much fun spending time with the team – and my brother . Their ministry and relational investment were a great blessing to the churches they visited.
The day after the team left, we took a line boat (the equivalent of a Greyhound Bus on the Amazon River) to a city 300 miles away. We are attending Intervinha, the yearly conference for all the Vineyards in Northern Brazil. When we return, we will be ready for some rest!
Below are some pictures of our time from the team from VCDC.
During our time in Macapá and at Viva Vineyard
Praying for needs around Macapá
We took a line boat to Gurupá
Having fun with the team
Prayer Requests:
We are looking forward to returning to Ohio for furlough beginning in September. It’s hard to believe it’s been 2 years since we’ve been back. We can’t wait to see many of you then.
Thanks again for your prayers and support. We love hearing from you!
In His Service,
Christopher and Denise
https://xingu.org/opportunities/giving/meyer-ministries/
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We also had a baptism at the church. The church gets so excited for baptisms. During our baptism the worship band was playing and singing, and the children clamor to the front to get a better view. I love 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 7 people that made this public declaration of faith. Each of the people being baptized wore a shirt saying “I Decided”.
Thank you for your prayers for Elba. She has been feeling much better. Please pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.
Please also pray for us, and the church, as we will be hosting our National Conference for the North called InterVinha. We are fortunate and excited to have our Pastors Rich and Marlene Nathan and family come and be the main speaker.
Much love and blessings, Steve, Elba, Camilly and Alyssa
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Our church is committed to mission and one of the places that we go to frequently is a place called the Suribim. It is about 100 kilometers away from the church and they have been thriving in this remote community. However, some sin issues have presented themselves in the community and it has caused problems within the congregation. Sometimes within these remote communities it is not unheard of for people to take the matters into their own hand to administer justice. Sometimes this justice leads to death. We believe that Jesus has touched a majority of the people in this community and he is changing people from the inside out. It is amazing how when Jesus is introduced into a community and people take hold of His good news, a people group is changed…as well as the community. However, we still ask you to pray for this community for healing and reconciliation. The first picture is of Elba’s twin sister, Nira.
As mentioned above, Camilly was a part of dance team and they performed really well and the church loved the dance. Actually, the following week. A director at one of the public school asked if the dance team would come to their school and do the same presentation for their students. That was such an honor, and a great way to show the love of Christ through the dance team. Here are the girl’s Mother’s day picture together. It is a great picture and they all look so beautiful.
Please pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us. Please pray specifically for Elba. She had been experiencing a lot of pain in her abdomen / back area. We thought it was a kidney stone but that got ruled out. The new thought is a herniated disk.
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Livre de vírus. www.avast.com. |
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Hello Everyone!
I hope you all are doing very well and enjoying the start of Spring! In Brazil, we are starting our “winter” which basically means that there is more rain and more wind than normal. We are grateful for both as it cuts down on the heat.
It has been a while since I have connected with all of you. We have been waiting to have some news to give you about our progress with the immigration process for Ronã. I believe I told you before that we expected the process to take around 10 months to a year, and we filed our paperwork to get started at the beginning of February. The first part of the process is to file a petition that proves that our marriage is legit, and if approved, allows us to start the visa process for a green card. When we were looking on the government websites, it was saying that the wait time just for this first step was taking an average of 8 to 10 months! As you can imagine, we were pretty discouraged with that time frame. However, I am very happy to say that our petition has already been approved! We got a letter in the mail at the beginning of May, which means it only took 3 months!
So, what does this mean for us, you may be wondering? Well, we have been trying to estimate how long the other steps will take, assuming that everything goes smoothly. We believe it is possible that everything could be complete within the next 6 months. IF that is the case (I am using that IF with some liberty), then that could put us back in the US before the end of the year! Please, pray for the rest of this process to continue to go smoothly and quickly. We are anxious to start the next chapter of our lives.
In the meantime, we have a lot happening here. Recently, Ronã was able to get a job as a graphic designer. He is really enjoying it, and it is giving him a lot of experience. Unfortunately however, even with a job like that, his salary is only about $300 dollars a month. He has also started taking an electrician’s course 2 nights a week. He has already completed the online course he was taking for an airport worker. I finished my hair styling course about a month ago, and I am also going to start teaching English part-time with an online company to help us save a little bit of money for our transition.
The other missionaries that we were working with here, Phil and Jen, are going back to Canada for a few months for a furlough. While they are gone, we are going to move into their house in order to take care of their furry friends. We were already having to move out of our apartment because the owner is selling it to her son. It worked out to be good timing for both of us, and we will save a few months of having to pay rent.
Last week, I had the privilege of having my Mom come visit! We had a great time together, and Oliver got to see that his grandma is a real person and not just an image on a video chat. She also got a taste of what my life has been like for almost 7 years living among the Brazilian people. I am grateful she got to see it before I leave here.
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Watching videos on facebook together |
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Saying goodbye |
We are always so grateful for your prayers and support of our family during this time. Even with all the many changes we are experiencing right now, we see God working in our favor on every side. He has been more faithful to us than we could have ever imagined. You all have been so much apart of that. We love you and look forward to seeing you all again soon!
Love,
The Moura Family
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