Merry Christmas 2006

FELIZ NATAL e FELIZ ANO NOVO DO BRASIL!

(Merry Christmas and Happy New Year From Brazil!)

Mike and Natinha Poe

This year was a whirlwind with much happening in our lives as well as in the ministry here in Brazil. We have been encouraged throughout the year to see people come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. It truly is a blessing to see the change Jesus Christ makes in peoples lives. That is why we do what we do and hope that you feel just as blessed when we pass along these praises.

God has blessed us too, in that we have many people such as you who support us and pray for us and our ministry. Thank you! You are a blessing to us. We pray for you during the year as well.

I am thinking of what God may have in store for us in 2007. It is probably a good thing that we can’t know for sure what awaits us in the future. If we knew it would be hard to encounter the struggles that we know await us, but then again if we knew maybe we could avoid them as well. What fun would that be?! I know that God has everything laid out before us and that his way and timing are perfect. It is in that mindset that we enter into 2007. Ready for the blessings and the trials that lie ahead.

Pray that God would continue to work wonders in the lives of the people here. That people would turn from the wicked and evil practices to repent of their sins and find true peace in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

God bless you and we hope that you and all of yours have a great Christmas season, and a wonderful new year.

Serving Him,

Mike and Natinha

Church Night Life

Night Life

Outreach in Taquari

On December 2, the Good News Church of the Santo Amaro neighborhood went to door to door in the Taquari neighborhood, inviting people to the outdoor showing of "The Passion of Christ." We had a good turn out and the people seemed to enjoy the film. Please be in prayer that people will come to Sunday evening services and that a core group can be formed. You can see the temporary church building is where the screen was hung from.

Prayer Vigil

The Good News Church of Santo Amaro in Palmas, Tocantins also had an evening of prayer! We went to a rural setting and had a small camp fire. Notice how far everyone is from the fire. With the temperature already high no one wants to get close to the "cozy" fire. We devoted several hours in prayer that evening, and praised God with our voices as well.

Children Come For Saturday Kid's Programming!

The children in the neighborhood of Santo Amaro came out to the Good News Church in Palmas Tocantins to the return of the puppets! We had a good time laughing, singing and watching Smilin Guido (an ant who teaches good Bible principles!) Over 70 children were present and heard a story about a puppet who slept for a long time in a bag, oh yeah and about a young man named Eutychus who fell asleep sitting on a window and had a nasty fall. But it's all good in the end. (See Acts 20:7-12)

Below please find some pictures of the children on that day.

1st Indigenous Games Of Tocantins

I Indigenous Games of Palmas, Tocantins

Some of you might recall that I talked very quickly while back in the USA on one of our deputation trips about the Indigenous Olympics that were held in Palmas, Tocantins. Well last weekend the first Indigenous Games of Tocantins were held on the Silver Beach (Praia da Prata) here in Palmas. The tribes participating were Apinajé, Javaé, Karajá, Krahô, Krahô-Canela, Karajá Xambioá, and Xerente. All the participating tribes were from the state of Tocantins. There were many different events; bow and arrow, spear throwing, foot racing, tug of war, canoeing, log race, soccer, and swimming.





I was able to attend the celebrations one afternoon out of the five days of games, and was interested in seeing the different tribes and their traditional dress. The closest tribe that I know of to Palmas is the Xerente about an hours drive outside the city of Palmas. I hope you enjoy some of the photos that I took while at the games.

Cashews In Season

Cashews are in season right now. We are enjoying the two trees we have in our backyard. Not only do they get a pretty little pink flower on them they give us fruit as well. I planted one of the trees and it's taller than me! Even though it's not yet two years old it is giving us fruit!

Cashews are a fruit, and must be eaten as soon as they are mature because they spoil very quickly. Most of us know of the seed which we call a nut. This can be found at the bottom of the fruit as it hangs on the tree. The seed is protected by an outershell. Raw cashew seeds are poisonous and must be roasted to enjoy. Roasting them is always interesting because the are highly combustible!

Take a look at the pictures for more information, and think of us enjoying cashew juice, as well as cashew nuts into the month to come.


Cashew Taking Form

Mature Cashew

Airplane Door Falls On Supermarket

While we were waiting for our next part of our flight back to Palmas, we heard about the following news story. When I was entering the plane the pilot was there so I said to him, this isn't the plane that the door falls off of is it? And he replied no this the plane that's not working. (He was referring to the one hour delay for mechanical problems) Yikes!?! What a way to start off our flights in Brazil.


Jet lands safely after door falls off
From Australian Breaking News.
August 09, 2006
A JET owned by leading Brazilian airline TAM landed safely today after one of its doors fell off and crashed to earth next to a supermarket shortly after departure from Sao Paulo.

No one was hurt in the incident, a TAM spokeswoman said.

The Fokker 100 plane with 79 people aboard on route to Rio de Janeiro returned to the airport safely 18 minutes after taking off.

TAM has been replacing its Fokker planes since the Dutch aircraft maker went bankrupt 10 years ago. It still has 22, but expects to gradually eliminate all of them by 2010.

The same type of plane, also operated by TAM, caused one of Brazil's worst air disasters in 1996. It crashed in an urban area shortly after taking off from Sao Paulo, killing about 100 people, including some on the ground.

In 1997, an explosion of undetermined origin killed a passenger who was blown out of a TAM Fokker 100 during flight.

In 2001, an engine breakup on a TAM Fokker 100 caused two cabin windows to shatter and one of 82 passengers aboard died as a result of the depressurisation.

Back In Brazil

We made it back! We left the hot into the hotter, although it really hasn't gotten to bad here yet, just low 100's during the day. We sure are glad to be back home, trying to get things organized and back into some kind of routine. (If that is possible.) I want to say thank you again to everyone that prayed for Natinha and her greencard. God's timing is perfect and it proved to be through much of the process. It was nice to be able to see many of you while we were in the United States. Natinha now has a green card that is good for ten years, and after that ten years are up all she will need to do is renew it. Remember you can post comments here on the site by clicking on comments below these posts. Please keep praying for the pastors, church workers, and ministries of our churches here in Brazil.

She Got It!

Well, she finally got it! After three years and some months the United States government granted Natinha permanent resident status. We want to thank all of you who have been praying for us through this confusing and frustrating process. Now Natinha will have a permanent greencard that will only need to be renewed every ten years. Please be praying for our return to Brazil on August 7th. We are very anxious to be returning to our home and ministry. Thank you again, and God bless you.

Visa Interview

Hey everyone. Well we were able to finally get the interview for Natinha's visa on July 6th down in Philadelphia. The man stamped Natinha's passport and extended her current greencard. Now all we are waiting for is for him to say, yes she is approved. When we went for her interview, her file had not been sent from the Vermont service center yet, so a final decision could not be made on that day. God provided a very nice man to conduct the interview. We will be entering in contact with him again on August 4th in hopes of hearing his final decision. We are currently still in the United States and plan to fly back home to Palmas, on August 7th. We will be at a missions evening at the Middletown Church of God this Sunday July 23rd. Please continue to keep Natinha's visa process in your prayers. Thank you.

Immigration

We are currently back in the United States, enjoying a little bit of vacation and some deputation. Our real reason for being back state side is that we are trying to finalize Natinha's visa process. Please pray that her visa can be processed, and that they can find the last thing we sent to them. The last time I spoke with someone they had no record of receiving anything from us! Pray that God would move in people's hearts and that the process can be completed. Thank you.

Santo Antonio De Jesus Celebrates 4 Year Anniversary!

The church in Santo Antonio de Jesus, located in the state of Bahia, celebrated it's four year anniversary on April 2nd. Actually the celebration began on Thursday March 30th, four years so four days celebrating! This is typical of the people in this area as the culture is very festive. Attending the services were myself, Pastor Ernesto, and brother Júlio César from the Palmas, Tocantins church. We arrived on Friday after a very long trip by car. We soon found out that the highways in Bahia are terrible and have holes in the road that can literally swallow cars. We arrived in Santo Antonio de Jesus, at 5:00am Friday. The services were very festive and full of people. Saturday and Sunday had the most people with Sunday leaving many people having to stand during the service. We didn´t count, but the number had to be 200 or more that evening.
Many singers in the city came to sing for the services during the evenings we were there. We were also blessed by the music of a couple from the church called Juraci and Eliana, they have recorded a CD and we were able to bring their music back with us to Tocantins. Juraci told me that he is waiting to be called by a talent show that passes on Saturdays on the television nationwide.
The church also had food after the services, selling them to help pay for some things at the church. We really enjoyed our time with this church and were excited to come back home to tell others about what we had seen in Bahia. Pastor Walter Santos is doing a great job with the church and is preparing leaders who will more than likely be our future pastors here in Brazil. God is doing marvelous things in the Santo Antonio de Jesus church. Pray for this and our other churches here in Brazil! Pray that God would do amazing things through His people.

Camp 2006

Hey everyone. I am feeling much better now. Thank you for your prayers.

Our camp this year was a great time. It was held during carnival and was a lot fun. We had two services each day and learned a lot about our love that we show to God. Thank you again for praying for our camping program and for those who do not yet know Christ as Savior. We had two people accept Christ and baptised one person as well. While we had two services each day, this did not mean we didn't have time for other things as well. Many played soccer (I made a goal!!), volleyball, dodge ball others went for a swim in the creek, still others spied on monkeys eating in the nearby trees, and of course there were those who took it easy in their hammocks just talking all afternoon under a huge mango tree. The food for the camp was donated by the members of the church, and what was lacking was bought using the camp fee. At the end of the camp we saw that there was enough food left over to make two love baskets and give to families in need. There were no complaints during these day and when the last day came and we hated to see that time come to clean up and go home.

I have posted some new photos in the 2006 Photo Gallery. Click there to see some of the things that happened during our 2006 camp outing.

Thank you for your prayers.

Hi everyone,

I know it has been awhile since I have written something here. March 8th the day after my birthday I woke up to get ready to go to the 7:00 morning prayer at the church and noticed I felt sick. This was the first day the fever, headache, and body aches came. I thought I probably had the flu and it would pass quickly. It was a long day as any day is when you have a fever, and I hoped that during the evening it would pass, the next day I was the same way and so my thoughts as well as those of almost everyone else turned to dengue. Dengue is a virus transmitted by mosquitos here in Brazil. So I went to the doctor to find our more. After about three different blood tests they found out that I did not have dengue, and that more than likely it was the rotavirus. Bloodwork did show a virus and I am still fighting that off. The doctor told me to not go back to church as I had gone on Sunday until this Saturday as this virus is highly contagious.

I want to thank everyone who was and is praying for me. I appreciate it very much.

Mike

Camp Photos

Some of you are probably anxious to see our camp photos. All I can say is you will need to be patient. I am hoping to get some really good ones from a couple in our church as well as, some that we took developed soon. I would guess that I should have them up by the middle of next week. Look forward to telling you more about a successful camping program too. God Bless.

New Shares Program

What is the new shares program. Well, basically it is this; one share equals $25 dollars per month. It is a new program that allows donors to give more regularly and choose a certain number of shares that they would like to committ themselves to throughout the year. 1 share a month $25 a month or $300 a year. Why is this important, because we are able to know how much support we have or lack throughout the year. Many times we are left wondering if the support will come in at the end of the year, with this new program donors, the missions office, and missionaries will have a better handle on what is happening financially. If you would like a better explanation information is available at the following link CCGGC Missions
We are currently in need of 84 more shares to be fully funded for the year 2006. If you would like to sponsor one or more of the shares please contact Dee. Please site #2750 to make sure that the funds go to Poe support.

Brazil Camp 2006!

We are currently preparing for our church camp here. A time when all those of the church who want to participate can. This year the Palmas church has rented a "chácara" kind of like a farmette. It is one of the better facilities they have had in all the years. Palmas´ church camp will be held from Friday, February 24th to Tuesday the 28th. Held during carnival to get away from the carnival festivities.

Campinas and Araraquara churches are also preparing for their camping program in the southern part of Brazil and have also rented a facility to hold their camp program.

Pray God would bless these camps. Pray for those who will be participating that do not yet know Christ. Pray also that this will be a refreshing time, that it will create even more unity, and that much can be learned from God´s word.


Pictures will be posted here after the camp time.

Thanks and God bless.

2006 Photo Gallery A

Photo Gallery A 2006














Prayer of pastors present, for Pastor Ernesto.

Left to Right; Pastor Mike, Pastor Ernesto, Pastor Batista, Pastor Gordon.

Ordenation of Pastor Ernesto Nunes January 28, 2006.

Pastor Ernesto Nunes Ordained!

Saturday January 28th was the ordination service of Pastor Ernesto Nunes. Pastors present from our churches were Pastor Mike, and Pastor Gordon. There were three other pastors present from Palmas that represent other denominations.

The night was festive, with a spirit of joy in the air as the members of the church had been preparing for this moment for some time. Pastor Gordon delivered a sermon and charge to Pastor Ernesto and the people of the church. Pastor Ernesto kneeled and was annointed with oil on his head and was prayed for with the hands of the pastors present held toward him. He was also given his ordination certificate.

After the service was officially over, the food came out and the party continued. It was a great evening which we will not forget. That God will continue to do marvelous things through his servant.

Photos will be available soon. Don't miss them.

Bread Baking in Brazil

The campaign “bread of love” for the neighborhood “Taquari Garden” was a success. All contributed to it! Flour, sugar, margarine, eggs and yeast, and the result was 74 loaves! Well, actually it was 75, but of course one of them had to be the guinea pig and was taste tested. We made the bread on the 22^nd of December and began at 7:00 AM. It was day of a lot of work, but gratifying. A sister from the Assemblies of God, let us borrow her outdoor oven, and we baked all of the bread. The day before Pastor Michael and Júlio César went after the wood for the oven.

We distributed the bread on the 23^rd of December with the help of Pastor Ernesto and brother Gideão, to 36 families. It is sad to see so many house of cheap wood and so full of children in the neighborhood. But we don’t want to stop there, we are thinking about how our church here in Santo Amaro can help socially in that community.

Spiritually we are holding services and children’s meetings and hope that the Lord will bless the work there. Thank you for your prayers.

New Ministry Photos Added!

Happy New Year to everyone! We were quite busy during the Christmas holidays and hope that you will enjoy seeing some of the new photos that we added to the Photo Gallery 2005. The church was busy preparing for our Christmas service on Christmas Day evening, (if that makes sense). Before Christmas arrived we held our first Childrens Day programming in an outdoor setting in Taquari. Over 120 children came that day, and were blessed with the word of God, puppets, a quick drama, and popcorn and candy.

Then we were off to prepare the bread to be delivered on Christmas Eve. A few brave souls from the church got together and prepared 75 loaves of bread to be delivered in various houses in Taquari. It was nice to see the expression on the faces of people change from that of "what do you want", to that of "oh wow thanks" and "A Merry Christmas to you too."




Christmas came to the public square here in Palmas with nativity scenes and even a bunch of life size Santa Claus dolls, penguins and more. I think Santa decided to take a vacation here in Palmas to beat the cold for awhile, cause he is still hanging out there and will be until January 15th.

As we begin this new year we just want to say thank you to all of you who supported us financially and also prayed for us in the year 2005. Your prayers mean a lot and help us in our ministry keep sending them up for us. God's blessings to each and all.

Mike and Natinha