MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Liz and I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas! Thank you all so much for your willingness to give to the ministry God has called us to!  We look forward to a good and prosperous 2012, and can't wait to see what all God has in store for His ministry in Belem, Brazil! We will be returning December 31st to get things set up for next semester at AVA. All of the Bibles have been purchased! A huge Obrigado (Thank you) to everyone who gave and prayed so that we could get the Bibles! May you be mightily blessed this Christmas season and into the New Year!

SURPRISE!

I am still a little hesitant to put this up because there are a few people we want to still surprise, but I also feel like everyone deserves an update :) Hopefully you remember the post about the visas we put up a couple of weeks ago! If not, the title is: "The Battle is Over, We Have Won The War".... Our appointment with the consulate in Atlanta was scheduled for December 27th. We were pretty excited about the chance to come home for the holidays until we started looking at the cost of tickets. $6000.00 in some cases. Yeah right! Normally, flying into Miami is the cheapest route by thousands of dollars - but that comes with a 10 hour car ride after flying halfway around the world. I was looking for tickets all around the 27th into Miami $2,700 here and $3,600 there and that was just for one person. I was pretty bummed because that meant we were going to have to reschedule our visa appointment, which just put more time in the mix for things to get messed up, again. Four hours in to my ticket search I stopped to pray, "God please show up here, please get us some tickets home for this." Apparently, I should have started praying sooner! I decided to GO BIG, and simply put what I wanted on the ticket search engine. Fly out the 21st stay till the 28th : $6000..... UUUGGGHHH! Sometimes God wants us to go even BIGGER . Fly out the 19th, come back the 31st, skip Miami and fly into Charlotte with a car rental: $1100.00 WHAT! We will take that one! Surprisingly enough, the trip went really well until we got to the car rental place. "Yea we have a reservation for you, but it has not been paid".... I knew that price was too good. Although, I did have a receipt that said it had been paid in full. Apparently they only charged for the reservation fee - I asked the lady if we would be able to get the rental for the same price as we had on the reservation. The answer was a big fat NO.... Actually, it was twice as much and at $800.00, Liz and I were backpacking, hitch hiking, or hanging out at the Charlotte airport for 12 days... I told the lady that. I looked her dead in the eyes and said, you are really going to make us stay at the airport for 12 days over Christmas.... "Let me see what I can do" - The Lady
         Liz and I brought back 4 suitcases of stuff back for other missionaries since we could do it for free. We had our 4 big suitcases and 2 carry on items a piece. The Budget lady looked at all that stuff, figured it wasn't going to fit in the compact car we had checked out, and hooked us up with an SUV for the same price as the compact car. So, God hooked us up with better tickets than we have ever gotten before at Christmas time, messed up our car rental stuff so we could get something better for the same discounted price, and we got to surprise our family for the holidays! You should have seen everyone's faces! My mom actually thought that the rapture had happened and that we were all on our way to heaven! LOL Vicky just busted out into tears! It was certainly an awesome Christmas Gift for Liz and I to see our families for the Christmas holidays! God certainly takes care of those who seek after Him!

BIBLE UPDATE

 The total cost on the Bibles for the students at AVA was $1011.00 and some change. We have currently reached $900.00 of the $1100 goal. Plus, the people at Lifeway were awesome in helping us gather the Bibles - they even gave us a little discount to help out! If you are looking for a Bible, Lifeway is the place to go!





As far as the Bibles for Nigeria go, we are working with the Gideon's to get those Bibles out to them. However, we do still need to get the study Bible for the pastor (which is listed in a previous post). Hopefully, we can get those to them soon, Lord Willing!

Great Christmas Present Idea!

So, I went into all of my Bible classes and asked the students to pull out their Bibles....... Crickets..........  Nothing! Only like one student had a Bible...... the others.... walked to the back of the room and pulled some off the back shelf. At this point, I was a little concerned. We are in a Christian school and only a very few select students had their own Bible. Of course the school makes Bibles available to all students, but I think it is very important for students/youth to have their own. So, Liz and I's goal is to raise the money to get ALL of the high school students their own personal study Bible (or just the Bible itself works too!). A Bible they will treasure for a long time, actually use, and be excited about reading. When Liz and I were involved with the Providence Baptist Youth Group, we made it a point to get all of the youth their own personal study Bible. The results were amazing!

There are 22 students altogether that we need to get Bibles for. For the 11th and 12th grade group we need to get either a Life Application Study Bible or a Thompson Chain Reference Bible. Both of these are sold at LifeWay Christian Stores. There are 6 Guys and 3 Girls in the 11th and 12th Group. The links for those Bibles are: Thompson Chain Reference: (http://www.lifeway.com/Product/thompson-chain-reference-bible-niv-handy-size-brown-P005453549)
Life Application Study Bible For Guys: (http://www.lifeway.com/Product/life-application-study-bible-niv-caramel-dark-caramel-P005452372)
Life Application For Girls: (http://www.lifeway.com/Product/life-application-study-bible-niv-P005452374).

For the 9th and 10th Group we would like to be able to get them the NIV Zondervan Bibles. For the guys, the Bible is called "Revolution: The Bible for Teen Guys-NIV" 
The site is:( http://www.lifeway.com/Product/revolution-the-bible-for-teen-guys-niv-P005098288). 
For the girls, it is called "True Images: The Bible for Teen Girls- NIV" The link is:( http://www.lifeway.com/Product/niv-true-images-brown-pink-P005172647) or (http://www.lifeway.com/Product/true-images-the-bible-for-teen-girls-niv-P005098286) There are a couple of different models for the girls and you can choose what you like the best.  There are 5 guys and 8 girls in the 9th and 10th group. 


All of these Bibles are available at the LifeWay Christian Book Store and would be an amazing Christmas present to the High School students of Amazon Valley Academy! Please make sure the translation you get is NIV (New International Version)! (Although we will need a couple KJV's in the 9th and 10th group) Thank you for your willingness to further equip these students to further God's Kingdom!

If you feel led to give a student a Bible you can have it sent to 6051 Columbia Rd. St. Matthews SC 29135 (if you order it off-line). Please be sure to have it there by the 27th of December. If you buy it in person at the store, please make sure you let us know so we can make arrangements to get the Bible by the 27th of December.

If the Lord leads you to get a Bible for one of the students, please email me at: revmlbennett@gmail.com so we can work out the logistics. Thank you for your willingness to support this ministry, and your gift will certainly not return to you void! We love y'all and appreciate everything you do for us and our ministry here in Brazil! Be Blessed!

The Battle Is Over, We Have Won The War

I want to recap momentarily. I want to look back and highlight the events we will call the visa war.

October 2010 marks the date. Liz and I had been praying hard (along with others I am sure) about our calling to Brazil. I have always been a big believer in GOING, as Christ demanded in Matthew 28:16-20. Here was the thing though - we were poor, broke youth pastors at a small church in backwoods SC. We had NOTHING to go on, well, except for our faith.... My father-in-law and I were talking one night. At this point, I was ready to give up and go join the NAVY or something, anything. Our conversation concluded with him saying, "if you have a plane ticket tomorrow, you'll know where God wants you to be." Yeah right, huh?! The next morning we got a call. A missionary from Moldova needed an address to send us the money God had given her to get us to Brazil...... A missionary, who, is in the same financial situation as us is given money for us on the other side of the world to get us to the opposite side of the equator..... Needless to say, Liz and I were ready and equipped to GO. Remember Proverbs 16:9? We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. We had originally planned to go to Manaus - God had something else in mind.

I left in October eager to see what God had for us - my passport was ready from my trip to Ethiopia back in 09. My Brazilian visa was ready to go back from my trip with Pastor Jimmy and the Strength Team in 09. I landed in Manaus with Matthew 7:7 running a marathon in my head.

While Liz and I had all the intentions in the world to be in Manaus, God had our steps directed in,well, another direction.

While I was seeking, knocking, and asking in Manaus - I took a trip over to Belem to visit a school called AVA. Before leaving though, I called the school from my Skype account and asked them if I could bring anything with me - the director rudely said "some Bibles". I know now that the director wasn't intentionally being rude, but he did forget to pick me up - in a place I had NO CLUE where I was at.... With a backpack full of Bibles, I showed up for the first time at AVA. If you get a chance - read the blog post on the Jamba fruit.... it was the sign I knew God wanted us at AVA.

I got back to the States and we started the visa process. First, we had to get Liz's temporary visa so she could come check it out here. A trip to Atlanta, and it was done and we were both ready to confirm our call to Belem. Before we came though, we had to gather some documents, get them signed by the Secretary of State, get them officiated by the Brazilian Consulate, and bring them down with us. It was crazy, but we got it all done. Right before we left for Brazil, we found out that the local police record was not enough. We had to get an FBI background check done. This is where the miracle came in.

FBI Background checks take an average of 12 weeks to process and be returned - that's 3 months. It was the end of November at this point and we had to have documents that took 12 weeks to process and get it done by January the 1st. While we were in Brazil, less than a week after applying for the background check, they came in. When we landed in Miami, Liz's mom called us and said that we had a little problem. The Fed Ex guy apparently went to leave the documents in the backyard, got scared because of the 10 German Shepherds that were back there, dropped the envelope containing our background check and ran off. All the while, the dogs were playing a fun game of destroy our FBI records - that we had to have and take 12 weeks to get. I called the FBI and explained the situation. A guy named Michael answered the phone and said he was in the business of doing the impossible- He reprocessed our request, over-nighted the documents to us, and we got them by 10 a.m. the next morning! A 24 week governmental process in less than a week....... ponder that one for a moment...... I am pretty sure that dude was the Archangel......

The documents we had to have were complete, translated, and submitted.... By January 19th 2011, we were on our way to Work Visas. Impossible after impossible after impossible - nothing is impossible with our God! Liz and I received the email yesterday that the battle was over! If you have kept up with the blog you will know the events that have occurred since the start of this year. Our visas have been published on the official website. The battle is over! Chalk 1 more on God's score....

At this point we know God has an awesome plan for us here in Belem. Liz and I have given up a lot, fought hard, been humbled, but stand here ready and willing to do all the things God has for us to do here in Brazil. I pray that you consider joining us. We need prayer warriors, we need money for food, Bibles and supplies, we need the body of Christ to stand with us and win the city of Belem over for the Kingdom of God! If you explore the tabs at the top of our site you can get all the information on how to stand with us for God's Glory and Kingdom Growth in Belem, Brazil!

The World is Small After All......

So I would like to start off by saying we did make it back to Brazil...... And the potential for ministry this year is better than ever!!! We are currently getting settled in and organizing our life so we can be effective in our ministry.

I want to share a cool story that revolves around God's awesome Providence! As I was putting the final touches on the English service, I decided to check my email. The first email in my inbox was from a Pastor in Nigeria. In his email he sent me his testimony (I took out all information that would give away any identity):

By His grace I am a Believer bought and washed by the Blood of Jesus Christ. I am married with three children. I am a pastor of a small local church non denominational or affiliated to anybody. The church was founded in 2006 and now has about 30 members. I gave my life to Christ in 1987 when I was still in the high school at ____. A campus fellowship student by name ____ was my roommate at school and his life of faithfulness unto Christ and his prayer and teaching me the Bible led me to Christ. This Brother told me then that he sensed that God was going to use me for His cause. I was never ready to hear that because my dream or thought was never in the ministry but to finish my studies and get a nice job. Five years after school and already working I started having the stronger urge and sensing that God was calling me but I kept on putting it off my heart because my job and life was sweet to me and I felt I needed nothing else. One day a guest speaker was ministering in our church and he singled me out in a crowd of over a thousand and told me that God has called me to the ministry and cannot hide. After he left I told my pastor that I have accepted and my pastor and other elders of the church prayed with me. I immediately joined and headed the evangelical outreach of the church and I saw many coming to Christ in the outreach. I let go of my job in 2005 and returned to ______ my State. I joined a small local church and was assisting the pastor as the second pastor. In January 13th 2007 a pastor of a little church of about five families in my area walked up to me telling me that he is leaving the state to his home state where the Lord has asked him to go and start the work. He said he has been praying for over a month that the Lord has asked him to tell me to take over the little church he founded 2006. I have not had relationship with this pastor before now so it amazed me. He asked me to pray to ask the Lord. I did prayed and without wasting time I knew the Lord ask me to hold that little church and that was how I became the pastor of this church called ______. The church is a growing church and we meet at a temporary rented building. We are not earthly rich but rich in Christ, riches that will last for eternity.

What an awesome testimony! The cool part about it was the fact that the English service revolved around being obedient to God no matter what it costs. The Lord certainly works in mysterious ways, because the email went on further to give us an opportunity to be obedient to the Lord's calling and Kingdom work....

2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. The reason why I am writing is to appeal for your assistance in the area of a Study Bible which will be of help to me in my research and study of the bible as well as lesson preparation as a pastor, and bibles for our aged members. These items are very scarce here. I need The Dakes Annotated Reference Bible. It is a very good study Bible for ministers of the gospel. A pastor friend here got his from www.christianbook.com where it was purchase for him by his cousin abroad. I checked the site and also found it there. Please help me for it. There are many in our local church who do not have bibles and cannot afford to buy. I want to specifically make a request for the elderly ones who cannot work and earn money to buy for themselves. There are 12 of such very old fathers and mothers in our church who read and understand English and they are very devoted. Please on their behalf I request that you send them 12 Bibles the very big letters which is the super giant print 18 point type would be preferable for them because of their sight. They also have this kind of bible at www.christianbook.com. We would also appreciate used bibles provided the pages are complete. Thank you for considering this request. And as you help to meet this kingdom need the Lord will bless you finance abundantly. If you send the bibles through post office a registered postage the bibles will get to us safely. I was told at the post office that _____ postage or insured mail is safer. My home and postal address is __________. Please write when you get my mail. I do not have full access to internet but I can check at least three times weekly. Ecclesiastes 11:1 "Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days"

Continue to be obedient and the Lord will honour you in His time. Exodus 19:5, the Lord spoke to the children of Israel through Moses saying:  "Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:..."  The Lord bless you and keep you in His perfect love.

 I feel like we should help this church out! What do you think? If the Lord leads you to be a part of this church in Africa getting the Bibles they need, please contact me at amazonimpact@gmail.com. We have a quote from Fed Ex for around $1000.00 to safely get a box of Bibles to the Church. The Pastors Study Bible cost 30 dollars, the large print Bibles are 20 dollars a piece (need 12), and the other Bibles can be used.... so knock the dust off of them and lets get them to Africa! 


Wow! What an awesome opportunity to do something awesome for the Growth of God's Kingdom! Be Blessed! I look forward to seeing God do some pretty amazing things with our obedience!

 

These Are The Days of Elijah

I remember Elijah defeating the Prophets of Baal. Talking God into raining down fire that consumed his sacrifice, despite it being covered in water. A lot of water at that. God used him. In ways that most men will never experience. Shortly after, "the world", came after Elijah and he ran. He ran into the desert and decided he was done. He told God he was ready to die, to give up. God wasn't done with him - despite the fact Elijah stood facing the most barren place on earth. God provided everything he needed. Elijah survived the impossible and met God at the other end.

Liz and I had to leave Brazil because of Visa issues. We have a small apartment down there with everything we own still in it. Our calling is there, our jobs are there, our purpose is there. Since 2009 and a combined 6 months spent in Brazil 67 people have committed their lives to Christ. I guess if my goal was to stop that I would cause problems too. There is no doubt - the Prince of this World has been chasing us. When we left we were assured that we would be back in a couple of weeks. We packed for a couple of weeks.

We showed up at the consulate in Atlanta to get our visas.  I remember being slightly aggravated, to say the least. I told God that if we didn't get our visas, I was through with ministry. Pretty thick. We pulled out of the consulate with no visas. I was done - with it all. We were on our way back to my parents house where we were staying at the time. Liz felt strange, and in a strange way so did I. We stopped at CVS and asked the manager if we could get the key to the bathroom, but purchase the pregnancy test first. He laughed and gave us the key. Two minutes later, we were soon to be parents. Finding that kind of stuff out will change your thoughts on a lot of things. I started looking for a job the next morning.

A few weeks later I found a job in Charleston as an Account Executive for Worldwide Express. Honestly, it was one of those jobs you dream of getting in college. It had everything you could ask for in a job. About 2 weeks into my new job Liz was scheduled to get her second check up and to hear the baby's heart beat. I got off work and waited to hear how things were going. I picked up the phone to sobbing - all I remember were the words, "no heart beat".

The job was going great. I took a day off to be with Liz in the hospital while she had the procedure done. I just sat in the chair in the waiting room and played "Angry Birds" on my cell phone. We left and I returned to work the next morning down in Charleston. I began to think it strange that- despite me giving up - God was providing for us in amazing ways. I mean it just didn't make any sense that me telling God "I quit" led to a good job.

I was driving down the road on the way back from Awendaw, SC. I went out there to see if I could strum up any business out that way. On the way back I told God that I knew this isn't what He wanted me to do. I asked Him to send me an email and let me know what to do. Kinda like a fleece thing I guess. Two minutes later I got an email on my phone. The Brazilian Consulate sent us an email telling us that our visas were at the consulate and come get them. Seemed pretty clear to me. I quit my job the next morning. The cool part about it was my boss told me if I ever needed a job- I had one with them. That made me feel a little better about things anyway.

We arrived at the Consulate in Atlanta to find out that they did not mean to send out that email to us. Apparently, there was a singing group called "The Bennetts" who were waiting on their visas as well. Theirs came in, ours didn't- the email went to the wrong "Bennetts". Needless to say we fired our lawyer in Brazil and got a new one. This one has his ducks in a row, and a couple of friends in high places. We get a play by play about every other day now. Our Visas have been approved at the Ministry of Labor in Brasilia and we are just waiting on them to be in Atlanta at the Consulate for real. The lawyer said it shouldn't take more than 45 days.

Liz and I are currently staying in Norway, SC where she is filling in at a local Christian School and I am selling classic cars- or trying to at least. A family we used to go to church with at St. George opened their house to us while they are living in Lexington. To be honest this is a dream home, but a blessing while we wait to return to our little apartment in Belem to finish out the work God has called us to in Brazil.

Elijah traveled across the dessert for 40 days on the strength God's provision provided him (that's impossible in human terms by the way). Liz and I are living on the strength God's provision has given us- we can't wait to see God working in mighty ways when we get back to Belem - soon ;)

If you get a chance, check out Josh Kerr's Channel on YouTube. God has certainly gifted him to lead others in praising HIM!

Josh Kerr's YouTube Channel 

Gap Creek Baptist Church

I have to tell you... the Lord works in strange and mysterious ways. I won't lie, one of the first things I wanted to do when I got back into the States was hang my hammock up in the mountains. There is a spot at Lake Jocassee that is just incredibly beautiful. I was bound for those two trees in the mountains. An owl woke me up after falling asleep about 7:30pm. I guess when your alone you tend to go to sleep a lot earlier. When I opened my eyes I could not believe the sight. Millions upon millions of fireflies are dancing all around me in a light show only the Great I Am could create. The sight was just phenomenal. Well after sleeping about 3 hours I was no longer tired. I pulled out my phone to see if I had any reception... apparently I hadn't hiked enough earlier in the day, because I was at full bars. I called my buddy Paul to see what he was up to. Just hanging out.... some how in the conversation though he was on his way to come and get me. I hiked back to Hwy. 178, waited a few minutes and saw one of my best friends ever for the first time in 5 months. I just kicked back the next day and waited for Paul to get off of work. By the time he got home Liz and I were on our way with him to church.

It is always an incredible thing when God has a plan for you that He decides to surprise you with. We had the honor of eating with Pastor Harry and his wife for Wednesday Night supper. He asked what we did and had a pretty cool story to tell :) To my surprise, Pastor Harry looked over at me and told me that he hoped I was ready to preach the Wednesday Night Service at the church. Being that I have the most incredible wife ever, I was well prepared - hiking shoes and all! Now, I am not saying that God doesn't go to all churches, because I am sure He does. But I have heard that the mountains of South Carolina are God's Country, and I have to admit I believe it a little more now. You could tell by the spirit in the church that God wipes his feet off on the welcome mat quite frequently. The church just recently - in the past few years - built an incredibly beautiful sanctuary and place of worship. As a matter of fact the church still had another 325,000 dollars left to go on the building. God paid it off in one check! Yep, all of it - I imagine God needed to thin out His cattle population in the hills.....

Gap Creek Baptist Church.... my prayers go out to your ministry. May God continue to bless you so that His Glory, Purpose and Will can be displayed through your obedience and sacrifice to Him. I have no doubt that God has great things planned for the body of believers in your congregation. Afterall, "¹⁴ “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father."
-Matthew 5:14-16 (NLT) 

By the way, if you are ever up in the mountains of SC and need a good church to go to, check out Gap Creek Baptist Church! www.gapcreekbaptist.com

Doing....

You know it is really interesting to me. I have people all of the time coming up to me, asking if I have read this new book or that. Rarely, my answer is yes. Radical by David Platt, before that was A Call To Die by David Nasser, prior to that A Purpose Driven Life came out by Rick Warren, and way before that was  The Word of God. People can get and read books easier and easier every year: Kindle, Nook, iPad, Internet. Shoot, you can get a book read to you for that matter on: mP3 formats, CD's, and podCasts. People write these books with, hopefully, an inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Certainly that was the case for the Bible. They write these books to point out things that are honestly missing from our day to day lives. The question popped into my head.... when are we going to quit anticipating the release of the new, next book and start DOING? When are the words on the pages of these books going to become reality? Radical talks about 5 topics we should base our lives on. A Call to Die challenges us to die to self and live for Christ. The Bible is our "trail guide" for life - and true life at that. When will begin to live our lives in a way that is evident of our sacrifices, that is evident of our time, that is evident of our heart, life, and treasure? When will we DO? When will we GO? When will we LIVE?

Got a little good news and a little bad news.......

Do you remember the "Pray" post? Well, we weren't 100 percent sure what all was going to happen so we just need some prayer to get us through the situation.

Liz and I went to the Federal Police the other day to get the extension on her visa. When we arrived the man behind the counter said, "No." Honestly, it through us off a good bit.... no one ever expected that she would not get an extension. After all, I got mine with no problem at all. It was crazy! Our translator, Doug, spent some time with the guy to get some information. After it was all said and done the man basically told Liz that she had three options. We went with option three since it meant we would be able to continue our ministry in Brazil with less hindrance in the future. Option three also meant that we had 8 days to get out of the country. So with little delay, we bought a ticket to Fort Lauderdale and landed early morning Tuesday.

The trip to the States was insane to say the least. Let's just go ahead and say we will never fly Suriname Air again. Before we left Belem the people at the counter for Suriname tried to tell us we had to get a Visa for their country. Once they figured out we wouldn't fall for that one, they tried to charge us for our luggage. 600 dollars, US, to be exact. As soon as I asked for the luggage back they changed their minds and decided to only charge us 200 bucks, which also included a "tax" we had to pay. Personally, I believe they pocketed the money.... We left Belem and arrived in Suriname where they decided to "beef up" their scare tactics. They called Liz and I over the intercom on the plane and told us to identify ourselves. We did, and were escorted to the jet hanger at the back of the airport. There, they told us that we were illegal in their country and would have to pay and fine and get a visa. I told them that I didn't want to be in their country and that they could just kick me out.... as a matter of fact, I had a ticket to fly out in about an hour. The lady left and came back a few minutes later. When she returned she told us that we didn't pay for our luggage to get to America and that we would have to pay if we wanted our luggage. I told her that was fine because the airline regulations required them to hold insurance on my luggage and that if it didn't get scanned in at Fort Lauderdale their Airline would be responsible. She let us pass.... We left Suriname and flew into Trinidad. There, we were met with a really nice Taxi driver and he showed us around the island while we were waiting on our 7 hour layover. After our event in Suriname we needed a little "vacation!" We finally arrived in Florida and drove 9 hours back to the Carolinas!

We are not sure why God has us back for this time. We know that Satan is working hard to "interrupt" the ministry God is doing through us in Brazil. But we also know God is in Control! We will be here until our permanent visas come through in Atlanta. Our lawyer in Brasilia told us that it could be as soon as next week before they are done processing the visa and we would be flying back to our new home in Brazil. But it could also be as late as the end of July as well. No matter how long it takes, we will be serving the Lord wherever he has us! Liz and I are filling up the calendar with Churches to share all of the awesome things the Lord has been doing and is still doing in Brazil. If your church is interested, we are willing to come and share anytime we are available. Let us know and we look forward to seeing you soon! You can contact us at amazonimpact@gmail.com or 843-696-2386 (Logan's Cell). God Bless!

English...

I am not too sure why I want to share these two things with you... because the story to follow is so extremely awesome.... but here it goes anyway. Two things... One, I have never in my life wanted a Q-Tip so bad and there was NO WAY to get one. Two, every word I type on this computer has a red squiggily line under it. So, if I spell something wrong, blame it on the fact that this computer does not speak English.

Liz and I went to the Hippie Fair this morning and walked around. We don`t have the opportunity to venture out together much just to hang out, so we take the opportunity every chance we get. It was honestly a beautiful day. That is, until we were reminded of the fact that we are still in rainy season. It poured, actually, harder than usual. Our street was flooded to the brim, almost waist deep at its highest point. The English Service starts at 4 p.m., at 4 p.m. you would have had to have a canoe, kayak, or maybe even a cruise liner to get on campus. I honestly didn`t believe anyone was going to show up- even to the point of contemplating canceling the service altogether. By 4:30, the house was packed. I thought it was pretty amazing actually. I mean people literally had to "wade in." I am not sure what God is doing lately, but I do know one thing, He is working mightily. 

The service started out with praise and worship, but something was different today. Maybe in all of this learning how to be patient, how to be still, how to bow humbly before the cross, Christ has been teaching me lately; I am able to see things in a new light. God just kinda moved me aside and took over. We were in James 4 talking about the battles that rage within us. James gives us a 6 step process on how to win the battle, and how we better start fighting it now because none of us are promised tomorrow. I opened by sharing the story of what happened at Lider yesterday. I shared the story of Travis dying that night after getting hit by a train. How we knew he wasn't ready to "go" because he left his Playstation on pause at his house. And how only a week before he had accepted Christ. After the service we break up into different groups. This time, there was an extra group.

I had never given an invitation before at the English service. Afterall, the group leaders do that in their groups when everyone can understand what is going on a little better. Today God moved. Today I saw God do some incredibly amazing things through people's lives. When I was going over the groups I said, "if you really want to accept Christ and you mean it truly, there will be a special group over in the corner". 4 men showed up. I didn't know two of them very well, mainly in passing and friendly greetings at the English Service. Two of these guys I knew pretty well, from hanging out with them. They shared their testimonies. It was pretty cool actually, I had never seen it quite done that way. Hopefully, I will be able to post their testimonies on the site soon. But either way, English (one of my friend's nicknames) looked at me and said I have been coming here for years, I have thought about it, I have weighed it, I have sought out alternate routes, I don't completely understand, I never will, all I know is that I must surender to Him! Wow! It is incredible when you spend so long praying that God would show Himself to someone and lead them to Himself.... and when it happens, unfathomable....

To the 4 guys who took THE step of faith today... I pray God pours out a love, a grace, and a favor over you that blows your mind. I pray that He shows you things, helps you to understand, shares wisdom and guidance, and blesses you beyond all human understanding. I pray God uses you to do great and mighty things for His Kingdom, I know your country could use a few good men like you. I know both of our countries could. I pray you find it absolutely essential to seek after Him every day of your life. I pray you learn to walk by His side, to follow His guidance, and grow and become sharpened as you learn to die to self. I pray you learn faith that is absolutely unstoppable, impenetrable, and completely nonunderstandable to man. I lift you up in the name of Christ alone to be annointed for His Glory and Kingdom Growth. I pray for you. Welcome to the family... you will never be alone again.

I challenge the body of believers to stand behind these men and to lift them up in prayer. To be available to them in their time of need, and to reassure them in their faith constantly.

Thank God alone for His amazing Grace and favor that even a wretch like me, like us, can be saved and used by Him for an awesome purpose. To Christ be the Glory!

Jesus was at Lider Supermarket....

It is pretty cool when we have an opportunity to live out our religion as Christians. James 1:27 hit me tonight like an onibus flying down the road at 100 km/h, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

I walked to the Lider Supermarket tonight to go get some suco (juice) for my buddy Paul. He is definitely a connoisseur of 100% juice. So I figured I would pick up some 100% exotic, 100% Amazonian, 100% fruit and 100% juice for him to try out. As I was leaving, I walked by this feeble little lady and her, maybe, 2 year old son. They were sitting on the side of the road. I walked by without thinking much of it. Afterall, there are so many poor people you walk by everyday that you almost become numb to it after a while. It was as if Christ was also walking by... "You just walked by a widow who needs Me." I stopped short and turned around to this little lady rubbing her stomach and her little son standing by her side. All I could do was reach down and say "vamos" (let's go).

She didn't understand. She couldn't comprehend. Nao falo Portuguese, Nao falo Inglis. Language didn't matter at this point. A man you could not have missed if you tried was standing near us. I asked him if he spoke English. Sim! I asked him to tell the lady to get some groceries. He didn't understand, but spoke English well. I soon realized this was not a normal occurrence - that it was strange some white boy was interested in helping out "the least of these." It dawned on him as if the "light in the attic" clicked on, "This man is going to buy the groceries you need." The lady smiled a little bit, and the entire supermarket stopped, turned around, and tried to piece together what was going on. They didn't see Logan though.

The first thing she grabbed was a toothbrush for her son and some toothpaste. She reached down on the bottom shelf and grabbed one for herself. I wouldn't have cleaned the floor I walk on with the one she grabbed. I easily took it out of her hand and handed her a Colgate toothbrush. Afterall, I would have used that one. Throughout the entire "shopping spree" I knew Christ was walking next to her. Not only could I feel His presence, but everyone in that place knew, whether they understood or not, something was different, something was strange. As if, for a moment, the World had been stopped for this lady. As if, Christ wanted everyone there to see Him, to see His Glory. Me, I just stood there, putting one extra bag of this or box of that in the buggy, because she wouldn't dare take more than one. After only a couple bags of rice and beans she said "ta".

"Logan, a couple of bags of beans and rice could hardly be considered 'looking after'." The lady was humble, she didn't greed herself to whatever she pleased. Christ projected out all He has given me right in front of my face. She deserved the best of everything she needed. Deserved is a big word. I guess none of us deserve anything. Christ was walking with her tonight- she deserved the best of everything she needed, but only because of Him.

We get to the lady who just rang me up for some fruit juices. I slammed my backpack full of juice and now I was standing there with enough food to feed 2 for a month. I can only imagine her thinking how this crazy American guy was going to fit all that in one backpack. I don't think she understood what was going on either. Two and two clicked, and the clerk just stared at me with a smile, running things over the scanner. By this time, a large crowd had begun forming at the front of the store. All of the managers stood around the register, I imagine, trying to figure out what was going on.

I put my hand on this lady's shoulder. I told her in Portuguese, "Jesus Christ loves you." It was all I knew how to say in the moment. She looked up in the air, with her hands raised and said, "Obrigada Deus (Thank You God)!" I walked away not knowing what else I could say or do. I barely made it to the parking lot before I realized this lady has a TON of groceries and no way to get them home. I usually keep 50 Reais on me in case I get robbed. Here, you can pay your robbers off with about 50 bucks. I walked back up to the lady, who was talking with the people in the store about how she was going to get all of the groceries back to her village. Taxi! We walked outside and right in front of the store, stood a man with a taxi. She told him where her village was, and he laughed. Muito longe! Very far away! You could tell in his eyes something changed his heart. He looked at me and said 50 bucks. I handed it to him and saw them off.

Christ was walking by Lider Supermarket tonight and saw a widow with her son in need. He bought her some groceries and some "Ben 10" shampoo, and got them back to their village safely. Your prayers, your money, your sacrifice allows us to be a light that shines the name of Christ. Thank you for being willing to serve Him. Thank you for supporting us in this ministry here in Belem. Thank you for standing behind us in prayer. Thank you for standing behind us in the good and bad as we strive to serve Christ for His Glory here in Brazil.

Matthew 25:40, "The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me.’"

PRAY!

We need prayer! Really really bad! Everything is safe and no one is hurt, but just lift this situation up to the God of this Universe!

Long Weekend!

Monday morning came way too quick, but I guess most Mondays do. It has been a dream of mine since I could remember to actually be in the Amazon River Basin. Can you imagine... wildlife that is so rare it has been documented only once. Even rarer still, the fact that only one species of an animal will live on only one small island in the mouth of the Amazon. Birds that are so colorful they look like an 80's jumpsuit flying across the sky. Snakes that can eat an entire deer, with little ease. Phenomenal colors, variety of life, and breath-taking views harvest themselves in one of the only places left in the world that has not been fully discovered. This place truly points back to an amazing, awesome Creator! When you put such an amazing place with one of my favorite things in the world to do, you get, fishing in the Amazon. My first trip in 2009 promised little success for an opportunity to get to go fishing in the Amazon. When we arrived in 2011, that statistic proved itself even more true. Basically, we could never afford a 10,000 dollar fishing trip. A couple of months ago I met a guy, who knew a guy, who owned a fishing boat. A couple of months later, 5 guys went fishing on a beautiful Saturday morning. We didn't catch much, but what we did catch was pretty cool. We reeled in a skate (similar to a stingray) that was absolutely huge! I am pretty sure if it would have been any larger, it would have sunk the boat! We also caught yellow and orange catfish, shovel nose catfish, and a couple other types of smaller fish!

I noticed while we were fishing that I wasn't feeling too well. I didn't want to spoil the once in a lifetime opportunity to get to fish, so I kept pushing.... When I got home I knew something was wrong. I crashed Saturday night and woke up running a 102, and could barely move. I walked over to the Director's apartment to let him know I wasn't feeling well. I told him that I should be good for the Sunday evening English Service. Finding a fill in that short notice around here is quite a task! By the time I got home, I used the little bit of energy I had left to type out my message word-for-word, emailed it to Doc (the Director), and passed out. I woke up with Liz by my side, and fell back asleep after eating some "cure-all Amazon fruit and stew". Thanks for the prayers! This morning I woke up feeling much better, but moved on to the next headache.... testing an entire school of kids, by myself! I guess I didn't realize how much John (the missionary from Lima, Peru), was taking care of during his 9 day stay here.

There are a lot of things up in the air right now. We have a lot of stuff to take care of for our visas. We haven't heard back about the status of our long awaited visas - pray God moves them through the system with His authority! We have a lot of openings in our staff here at AVA, only a miracle from God will fill those positions at this point! At this point, we are hopeful and excited about ALL that God will do in the upcoming future. We ask that you would pray, with us, during this season of prayer - during this season of watching God make the impossible happen! James 5:16 tells us that the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective! Will the righteous pray with us? 

Rainbow Boa - Didn't quite make it across the street!

Those blue strings there.... Yep, That would be the throttle and brake for the boat!

Wilson and Harry - Harry is one of the leaders for Project Horizon

As a matter of fact, he would be catching our bait in a Speedo!

We got hungry and tired of trying to catch fish - so we fired up the bait!

Not bad eatin' actually!

Yes the fish he caught is the same size as the bait!

Harry's First Fish!!!!

Baby Skate