Celebraing with David & Rossana

Sunday was a special time for Wendy and I to see one of our young couples growing and getting married! It was a beautiful day and many family and friends came out to celebrate with David & Rossana as they pledge their love and commitment before God and man, asking God to seal it, bless it, and build it by His power and might!

We had a great time as you can see! It was a family affair!

Here is a link to more wedding pictures!

Reception of New Members

Last Sunday we celebrated the conclusion of our last series with a large worship celebration! It was a wonderful time to include the reception of our newest members for our church during the celebration! There were eight professions of faith and ten baptisms. We also had the privilege of many extended family members of our new members come and celebrate with us. what a blessing to do this together! Thanks for all of you who helped make this possible!

Here's a snap shot of the celebration!

Traveling with a Friend

One of the really cool things that God has been blessing me with this year has been the privilege of getting to meet many really great people and make some really good friends! Last week I took a few days to travel with Cassiano, one of my newest friends to spend some time camping in the wilderness. Cassiano is a partner in a multinational business, and he and his wife asked me to join him for some much needed down time. It was so refreshing and such an adventure!

For me, it was a new destination. We drove over twelve hours and just crossed over into the next state (this country is huge!)! We went to a huge agricultural area where soy beans are king. We hiked, drove, and peered across literally kilometers and kilometers of plantations. At one point we drove 120 km one a dirt road that was only soy bean plantations in every direction for as long as you can see. I mean the horizon! It was a sight to behold!

It was also a new style of camping. I had never camped in Brazil before this week so that was one first. I had never camped using a hammock either, but that was great. I had never eaten Emu before either, but we did that as well on this trip. I also never bathed in a river before, we did that too! (Sorry to drag things on, but it was really refreshing and encouraging!)

We also had great times to talk, read God's word, and share our lives! That is the part that I enjoyed the best! Here are some photos from our trip! I hope you enjoy.



Here are some links to a few short videos I made on the trip. I think you'll like them.

Our Camp with Waterfall and All! Goias, Brazil

Lobo Guará Eating an Emu 1- GO Brasil

Lobo Guará Eating an Emu 2- GO Brasil

360 Horizon of Chapa dos Pillões

CO Brazil Team Update 05-15-2007

This is such a wonderful time of year! We are heading into the fall/winter and classes are in full swing! Everyone is focused on life and work. The rains have all but stopped for the year. And the temperature is hovering around 65.

God has prepared just a time as this for the arrival of 40+/- students from the US who will be coming down to Brazil to partner with us in life and ministry for the next couple of months! As you can imagine this brings great enthusiasm and momentum to the movement God has already in motion here.

The students enter in and come along side people who have already come to know Christ and many others who are just starting to investigate Christ for the first time. They seek to love, share, and walk along with each person in their process that Christ might be formed in them through the powerful work of God!

Pray with us for God to work mightily within us and beyond us during this time! We pray that many new people will come to know and experience our Lord over these next few months! We pray that the gospel would transform each of us from the inside out, giving us deep love and fellowship one with another!

Thanks for your prayers, partnership and financial support that continues to make this ministry possible! We are so privileged to represent our King along side of each of you! We are co-laborers in His kingdom through your participation! Thank you!

*Don't forget you can CLICK on any image on this site, including this one here, to see it in full size! Please take a moment to click and read our latest team update!

Happy Mother's Day!

Kid's Mother's Day Presentation at Church
"Mom, I Love You!"

God has blessed us with such wonderful moms! Thank you Jesus!

Click here to see a video of the children's presentation on Mother's Day!

Steps of Growth

This past weekend we held an orientation for people interested in becoming new members of our church here is Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It was a great time of vision and fellowship!

We met all day Saturday and half the day on Sunday, completing six sessions in all. We covered topics like: 1)Our Vision, Strategy, & Structure, 2)Discipleship, 3)Authentic Worship, 4)The Sacraments, 5)Communities, and 6)Ministries. We normally host one of these orientations each quarter.

Please pray for the continued growth of these people, and many others like them not pictured here, who have come to know Christ and are eagerly seeking to grow as His disciples, serve through His church, and engage the world for His glory!

New Activities and New Friends!

(Click on the image above to see it in full size!)

As you can see over the last few months we have all started new activities! Emmi is enjoying ballet, John and Levi are doing great in salon soccer (a court style soccer), Luke and Russell are both working on tennis, and Wendy is running and doing pilates. It has been a great addition to our weekly home school schedule!

It has also helped us all develop new friends! I have really enjoyed getting to know my tennis instructor and his wife. Wendy has met several of the moms who's daughters dance with Emmi and all the children have made new friends in their classes.

Before we began our new activities, we talked as a family about the opportunity and decided that we thought God would like for us to not only exercise and learn new sports, but more importantly He would like for us to be examples of His great love and ambassadors of His truth! Pray for us that we would always remember this and count it a privilege to be Christ's representatives where ever we are.

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 1 Corinthians 5:16-21 NIV