Monday, December 22, 2008

Merry Christmas from the Amazon!

It’s beginning to look a LITTLE like Christmas!! Around here we have to search for the evidence — and as you see we found some! You’ll also notice that our son Jonathan is visiting with us for Christmas this year — what a blessing! And, he brought with him his wonderful friend Ben. Both have just finished their mission aircraft maintenance internship here in Brazil, and were able to use their training in some exciting ministries. In January, Ben plans to return to Moody Aviation, and Jon will begin work as a full-time volunteer at Riverview Bible Camp, in northern Washington State.

Don and I arrived back from our AMAZINGLY BLESSED furlough in mid-November. If you’re reading this, you were probably part of the blessing! Thanks for your prayers, your smiles, your sacrifices for the Lord’s work here in the Amazon. It was such an encouragement for us to be able to share with you just a tidbit of what we see and do here daily.

Because this is a time of year when we get few teams in the guesthouse, we’ve been able to catch up on some of our mission communications work. We’ve had the privilege of interviewing several of PAZ’s volunteer river pastors, videotaping their testimonies to share online, and in print. What an honor to be among them! We've included some pictures here of their annual conference near here. Please keep them in prayer, as they confront great challenges for the sake of the Gospel, including persecution, dangers on the river and in the jungle, illness, and just keeping the family fed.

Do you get our appeal letters from Project AmaZon? In each one, we share at least one testimony to illustrate how we all can work together to reach the Amazon Basin for Christ. Our Christmas letter features Pastor Reinaldo and his wife Rosilene, whom the Lord brought from a destitute Christ-less marriage to joyful ministry together. Their video testimony is featured on the home page of www.projectamazon.org. If you don’t receive our letters on behalf of Project AmaZon, you’re missing many great testimonies. To receive them, just click on www.projectamazon.org/footer/contact.php, and under “message” write the word “Testimonies” and copy in your name and snail-mail address.

Hey, have you been following the story of Juvêncio? (See last blog entry, from eons ago!) The judge finally gave him permission to go back to his home state of Maranhão to get his documents! This will involve a two-day lineboat trip to Belém, and several long bus rides to get to his home town of Pinheiros. He’s anxious to go, but will need our help financially, as well as our prayers to do this. Please keep him in your prayers, for safety, provision, and favor with the authorities. If he gets his birth certificate there, he can get documents that will protect him from abuses in his work, and give him his rights as a citizen of Brazil. It’s been a long haul for him! But praise the Lord, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Once again...
Thank you for your prayers! May the Lord bless you this Christmas!












3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to hear what's up. Hopefully you've thawed out after your visit to Montana! Christmas blessings to you guys...greg & deb

Don & Betty Best said...

Hey, Greg & Deb!!
Blessings to you guys too! It was wonderful to reconnect with you over furlough.
Maybe some who are reading this blog got your CD from us for Christmas :) Isn't it great?
Speaking of cold, Jon flew back to Washington today... in SANDALS! Yikes!!!

Michael Gantt said...

Great to see Jon there with you....love you guys and looking forward to hearing great things from the Amazon. My NEW email address is mkgantt@2michaels.com YES we've had to change again due to corporate take over stuff - so I've registered my own domain so I can keep it consistent....my own blogsite is now found at www.2michaels.com. Love ya!