Good conference, not such a great speaker

William & me on the line boat coming back from Juruti

So on Saturday, April 4th, I found myself speaking at a youth/young adult conference in Juruti (a smaller city about 10 hrs by boat up the Amazon), and even though I believe God gave me a good word to share and I had prepared thoroughly, half-way through my sermon that thought flew through my head, “Wow, I’m not that great of a speaker!”

group ready to work on church construction

I guess it helps keep me humble and allows the Holy Spirit to work, because there were about 8 people that came forward to give their lives to Christ when I made the alter call. After the service I asked the pastor about them, and he said he didn’t recognize any of them, so they were probably invited especially for this “conference” (it was only one night and one morning) but he assured me that they got all their names and addresses and they were all going to be followed up with and integrated into a cell group.

Vila Nova church before

filling in the floor w/ dirt and bringin in the tiles

The next morning, instead of meeting at church, we went out to the camp and it was much more informal (which I like a LOT better, no microphones), and had more interaction and good q&a time.  Very interesting questions I got to try to answer, one of which I had the pastor’s wife take the women and to talk about it and I talked with just the guys :)  It was really good, and one of the best parts about the entire trip was that I was able to take my disciple, William, which I feel made a big impact in his life for the best.

workin the mixer

finished project!

Thursday after that trip I got youth/young adults from several cell groups to vonlunteer their time, sweat, and muscles to helping build a church in the comunity of Vila Nova.  We actually finished the roof and poured the concrete floor.  Today is the first time I don’t feel sore from that day, but I still have cuts and scratches from working the cement mixer :)  Now I’m trying to square some things away for my trip to the US, so I appreciate your prayers for that.  Watch out Tulsa, I’m comin to you first! :)

1 Month till Take-off!

So here’s a rough schedule of mine from a week ago until May 19th:

Last week – Sun to Mon -go to Irusanga community with American team to help build church, take disciples Rodrigo & Aline

This weekend – Sat to Sun – go with cell group to Villa Nova community to help prep a concrete floor and finish the roof in a new church.

April 3-5 – go to Jurutí to speak at young adults’ conference, take disciple Serrão

April 27th, 1 am – leave for US!

Arrive in MIA at 8:30p, April 28th Lv for Chicago, meet up with parents and drive down to Tulsa.

Arrive in Tulsa April 29th, Lv for Chicago May 4th, Lv for Sandiego May 11th, go to LA May 13th, Lv for Brazil May 18th (spending the night in MIA)

So not much time, but it’s going to be time well spent :)  Hopefully that means meeting up with as many friends as possible in the different locations, so please let me know if you are going to be at any of those locations any of those days!

cell vs cell soccer game. our team won (I think :)

As I prep for the conference at Juruti, I ask for your prayers!  I’m very nervous and very thankful for this opportunity.  I plan on taking my disciple, Williams, but known as Serrão, to be able to have some quality time with him and to invest more in his life.  He plans on becoming a young adult cell leader at the end of June so praise the Lord for that!  So prayerfully this conference will be a blessing for the youth in Juruti and a real boost in the spirit for Serrão.  And for me it’s definitely going to be a stretch and I pray that the Lord would be glorified through whatever happens.

Well, there’s some exciting news in the cell group but I’m going to go ahead and post this and get to writing the next post soon.  See you in a month (hopefully!)

Paul’s going to the US?

At the Indian community of Castanhal

I’m back and very excited for what God’s done throughout this time.  It was really good to see all the filter projects in the different bases with Carolina, fix what we needed to, and hear the great reports from each base.  And as Carolina left, she gave me a word from the Lord very similar to what I heard from Pr. Harold Weitsz (our conference speaker) which is that the Lord is about to do some great things here through PAZ, and for us to get ready.  I’ve been asking the Lord how do I get ready?

Mt Alegre filter group with Carolina

Well, one thing I know is that PAZ has some large, exciting goals for the next 5 years! And towards those goals, all of the 500+ PAZ churches are fasting for 3 days (2/27 – 3/1) sending in the “spiritual airforce” to the communities where we are hoping to build churches.  My Dad sent out a great update on that if you are subscribed to his e-mail updates.  But needless to say we are excited to see God moving in ways we’ve never seen before!

And even though I was traveling for these past 2 weeks, the cell group has continued to grow, and the Lord has really shown me that as long as I’m doing His will and am where He wants me, He’s the one who does the work and I don’t have to worry.   My goal this year for my cell groups is to see them strongly multiply twice (strongly meaning faithful, fruitful members going to each cell group).

Riding in the back of a truck to a jungle community

Some of our new members (Katia & Bete) are going to an encounter with God weekend retreat next weekend, so I would love your prayers that it would be a turning point in their lives.  I believe both of them are very open to the gospel, but neither have made a firm decision yet to follow the Lord.  Also João Paulo is a new kid who has been very faithfully coming and I’m believing that soon he too will make his firm decision to follow the Lord.  He even participated in a prayer vigil we had last night and participated in the fasts for that day :)

And lastly, some BIG NEWS…we’ve decided I should go to the US for Isaiah’s wedding (my very close cousin) in California and taking advantage of the trip going to Debbie’s graduation from ORU and helping PAZ Chicago church’s 1^st encounter with God weekend retreat!  So I’ll be there for about 3 weeks, leaving here April 27^th and returning May 19^th.   I’ll put up my itinerary later but I would love to see everyone I can while I’m there!  So more about that later.  ~Paul~

Gotta run!

Well, I’m off to Mt Alegre until Wed morning, then a quick trip to a jungle village for the day but back in time for cell group Wed night.  Then Thurs morning flying to Parintins to catch a boat to an Indian village where we’ll be taking 30+ filters, flying back to Santarém Sunday morning, flying to Belém Monday morning and meeting up with some people from the Castanhal base to go to some river communities for the night, coming back on Tuesday to meet up with the people from Belém, visiting another couple communities where they have water filters, sending Carolina back to Canada Friday afternoon, then catching a midnight flight back to Santarém in time to pack and catch another boat to Mt. Alegre for the young adults camp there with a bunch of my disciples and people from my cell group!  I’ll be returning on the 26th to Santarém, so if you don’t hear from me for a while, it’s ’cause I’m on the run…

Thanks for your prayers!

~Paul~

New Years, Conferences, and more…

white elephant gift exchange

David and his new blouse :)

So the cell group had a fun Christmas party where I taught them the white elephant gift exchange, and thankfully it went really well! The best was seeing David, the 6′4″ Canadian intern get a little blouse! Thankfully (for him) it was stolen and he got to pick something else :) Every year the PAZ missionaries here in Santarém get together and do our own white elephant and then camp out on the beach, where we tell our New Year goals around the campfire. This time a bunch of us also decided to get up really early and climb our little “mountain” to take pictures of the sunrise. After we finally got to the top in the dark, it turned out to be a really cloudy morning so we couldn’t see the sunrise and it started raining on us at the top. Needless to say, it was a blast and another memory we have when we look at the not so good pictures taken and laugh!

it's good!

putting up the tents

And for 2 weeks in January it’s been conference after conference. I got to jump over to Mt Alegre with the interns to do some filter supervision for a couple days, then got back just in time for a leadership conference where PAZ leaders from all our bases came together for a wonderful time of fellowship and teaching. Right after that I debriefed with the interns and said good-bye just before the PAZ Missionary Conference started where all the foreign missionaries get together from all the PAZ bases for another great time of fellowship and teaching. So I’m fueled up and ready to race. I’m excited to see what God is going to do through our cell group. The upcoming leaders in the cell are all planning on starting evangelistic groups in or near their homes which they plan on turning into actual cell groups once they start winning their neighbors, friends, and families for the Lord…so we’re look at multipling our cell group in 3, praise the Lord! Oh, and just fyi, we’ve moved our cell group hopefully for the last time, because now it’s inside my parent’s house.

nothin like a camp fire on the beach

Well, I’ve got about 2.5 weeks of focus time before I start traveling for another 2 weeks with the water filter project. I’ll be taking Carolina, Samaritan’s Purse’s water filter supervisor for all of South America, to supervise the work we’re doing. So I’d really appreciate your prayers as I plan for that (a lot of long distance planning) and as I work on catching up from the last 2 weeks of no internet. Thanks so much!

Much love,
Paul