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