Brazil Chairmen Meeting -- June, 2010

Fifteen field chairmen/vice chairmen and others from around Brazil met together at a small retreat center outside the city of São Paulo during May 30-June 4. Our time together was mutually encouraging, being spent on looking forward to enhancement options for ministries in Brazil and be trained for handling well our "Crucial Conversations" we have.

NYC for Brazilian Passport

Every now and then you have a rough assignment -- like going to NYC at Christmas time. We had to renew Ev's Brazilian passport that had expired and the consulate made our appointment for December 16. It all went so smooth I could hardly believe it.

It was a quick trip, but we stayed at a hotel across the Hudson River the night before and took a ferry over to Manhattan. (No, we didn't have to stop and rescure any plane crash survivors on that trip). It was a bit chilly that morning, -7º so you'll understand why Ev is dressed the way she was. Then we had a little sandwich at the Carnegie Deli (and split a NY style cheesecake) before heading back home. (By the way, the temperature listed was Centigrade; Ev is warm blooded.)

E e D Boa Terra (Good Soil E&D)

From October 21 through November 16 Ev and I traveled to Bauru, Porto Alegre, Campo Grande and Fortaleza where one of our missionaries, Dan Cook, and I held 4 different Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship Seminars. The feedback has been very positive from close to 100 participating in the basic seminar (two day event) and almost half of those involved in the Train the Trainer seminar (third day). One of the memorable moments in Bauru occurred when a man finished the seminar at noon one day and that afternoon his nephew came by and asked what the booklet was that he was going through. After 45 minutes of taking his questioner through The Story of Hope, his nephew said, "That's what I need" and placed his faith in Christ. Enjoy the pictures.

FAMILY PICS

Our family was able to enjoy several days together at Christmastime this last year. 21 people in our house was both fun and bedlam. Siblings and cousins enjoyed the time together and so did Grandma and Grandpa Southwell!

At the Baltimore Zoo with Dave's and Christy's families each of the "kids" experienced being a turtle. I can't remember who said that grandpa couldn't fit into the turtle shell -- but he did.

Ontario in May was cool weather, but some hot fishing! Randy and Lucas were home on furlough from Brazil and so I took the opportunity to get them and Mike and Bryce (Wilkerson) up to the great north land. It's more fun fishing and camping with grandsons.

Grandma having an old fashioned soda at an old fashioned drugstore in Fort Smith, AR with Becca, Jordan and Kaden. Ryan and I were still being served. It was nice to visit the Cassedys and see their new home, new work place, and new church and friends.

Ev and I were able to visit Jonathan and Bobbi Jo Emsheimer in May in Alberta. They were former missionaries with us along the Amazon, but have had to return due to Bobbi Jo's brain tumors and surgeries. She was suffering some set-backs and we believed we should go see them. They are a great young couple and deserve your prayers for them as a family.

Brazil in Africa?

Cape Verde is a Portuguese speaking island nation 240 miles off the west Coast of Africa; Praia is its capital. It appears to have only one Baptist Church and one congregation. I was quite surprised. The opportunities for ministry here, in other cities and on other islands is amazing.

Don Callan traveled with us to help give a board perspective to the survey. Izaias, beside him, is sent with the new MMM mission from Fortaleza, Brazil and has made many contacts in his first three months in the country. ABWE plans to send missionary couples to partner with the Brazilians in Cape Verde in church planting and pastoral training.

The people in the country are some of the friendliest and most helpful I have been around. They also appear open to the gospel. The Caboverdians also are both a jumping off point for much of the rest of Africa and a mobile people themselves.

Carlos Heron, a Brazilian dentist, also went with us, but added more time in Senegal and the Gambia, as his focus is to join ABWE missionaries there in reaching the Wolof people.

We were able to have a day of wrap up together with the whole survey team, which included Ron Washer, ABWE administrator for Africa, and Jenuan Lira, president of MMM.

Amazonas Brazil -- October 2008

Ev and I are still in Brazil but wanted to send you some pictures from our time along the Amazon. If you use google earth or some other means you can see where the towns of São Paulo de Olivença, Tonantins, Santo António do Içá, and Benjamin Constant are. If you rather I just tell you these are towns along the Alto Solimões River (Amazon River) that are upriver in Brazil nearly to Peru and Colombia, you'll probably get as much knowledge as necessary to look at these pictures.

But before we give you too much info let me share a little beauty. Since missionaries are not supposed to show pictures of sunsets at the end of slide presentations anymore, I thought I'd do so here so you can see what most nights on the Camatiã River look like, just out of São Paulo de Olivença.

We can't cover everthing from the last two weeks, but we did have a great field council meeting in Santo António do Içá. While there are a lot of great things about living in a part of a continent that the whole world wants to preserve, it does take a lot of time just to live due to distances and travel limitations. However, in spite of that our missionaries are moving forward in the various minsitries of church planting and training Brazilian and Ticuna leadership.

The missionary kids enjoy life there too.

Staff of the Hospital at SAI. One of the greatest ministries is being commissioned to do all the pre-natal care for the area which gives us tremendous contact with nearly all the families in that town and many other villages up and down the river.

John and Sylvia Kallin, recently retired after 40 years of ministry with ABWE along the Amazon River, were honored by the missionaries present.




The Christian school at Benjamin Constant used our day camp facilities for a special outing. Later this month the church there will celebrate 50 years of existence.




Islandia, Peru is a city on stilts. Nearly 3,000 inhabitants now live on the border of the Amazon river, complete with two story concrete built city hall -- on concrete pillars -- and a new running water system -- not speaking of the river that floods the town for half of the year! The church in Benjamin has a new congregation started there as one of the several outreaches in surrounding villages.

No, it's not a bus -- it's an 8 hour boat ride. So much for purchasing reserved seat tickets ahead of time!

Detour through China?

Part of the group that met in the apartment of the leader of the Chinese Fellowship on the campus of Colorado State University. It was refreshing to be with this vibrant group for an evening and share "The Story of Hope" -- the "big picture" of God's plan of redemption for mankind. Thirteen of those attending were not Christians and all but one of those desired to know more about Christianity.

Mark and Nancy Nelson work with the Chinese Fellowship and arranged for the meeting for Ev and me. After the meeting I wanted to see where they were from in China via the internet (but, alas, I couldn't log on).