Merry Christmas!

We are at my parents house. It was a 16 hour trip.
It is great to be with them and see my two brothers and new niece.
It has been a couple of years since all three of us have been together.
We will be here until the 27th then we go to Telmas family for several days. We hope to be back home on the 31st. For January we have 13 day camps scheduled in 13 different villages!

May you have a great time celebrating the birth of our Saviour!

We made it!!!

After four weeks of intense preperation and lots of work we are finally here in Virgem da Lapa! The move went very smoothly and we are thankful for all your prayers! The house is pretty much assembled and the Kids and Telma are doing well!
Next week we will be giving a training for the staff od 3 local organizations that work with poor folks from the vast rural area of these parts!
I will try to put some pictures up o the blog for you to see later on this week!

The date is set!

Boxes, boxes and more boxes!

The date for our move is November 27th!


We started officially packing this weekend. We want to get as much done early as possible since it seems to always get hectic a few days before any move!


The whole family is excited about the move and ready for this new stage.


Thanks for your prayers!

Countdown to move...

Well, we are getting ready to get onto another move witch we hope will be the last one for the next 5 years.

The Lord opened some awesome doors for us in the little town of Virgem da Lapa some 1000kms up north.

As we have told you before we will be working in evangelism through doors opened by two different child assistence assosiations linked to Christian Childrens Fund.

I will be filling a slot that could be easily classified as that of a Chaplain for these two associations.

The great thing about this is that we will have access to about 10000 folks who live in distant rural villages that have from 10 to 40 families living in them. These are located from 10 to 60 kms from these two towns via dirt roads. They recieve hardily any visits from folks other than these Social workers we will be working along side.

We were able to rent a very good house on my last day in the town before returning form our last trip.

Our plan is to move around the 20th of November. Please pray for all the work involved in this and in all the adjusting we will have to go through.

Great Trip!

The trip up to Jequitinhonha Valley was a great one. We visited 8 villages, each one with 20 to 40 families living in them. We had evangelistic theatrical presentations and the Gospel was presented in a very dynamic way.
Bibles and other evangelistic materials were also given out and kids and adults were glad to recieve them in these distant locations.
The first rains in five months came two days before we arrived so folks were very happy.
Thanks for all your prayers!

Last day in September...

The other day I got this picture os a T-rex eating popcorn in our living room. Very rare even in Brazil! All is well in the Pereira's house other than usual international incidents 4 boys can get into. Telma and I are fine.

We are getting ready to receive an Alaskan who will be not only taking part in next weeks trip but also helping do some work on the Salvation Express bus. The floor has some rotten spots in it and needs to be changed. This will be a big help since the task is not as expensive as it is labor consuming.

Our next missions trip will be from the 9th to the 16th of October to the Jequitinhonha area. Our goal is to work mostly on evangelism. We are taking a team of five youth with a mission staff and a lot of Bible donations from the Brazilian Bible Society.

PLease be praying for all these activities.

Salvation Express organizing...

This week we are busy organizng all the donations recieved by the Salvation Express. A lot of clothing was donated last week and needs to be re-packaged and seperated for the specific area it will be going to. These donations will be taken in two trips scheduled for October and November to two different areas. We are slowly getting volunters for these trips since they will last 7 days, a little longer than normal.

The Brazilian Bible Society is sending us a shipment of Bibles that should arrive this week. These are in very easy Portuguese and have huge letters, making it easy for simple folk to read.

Telma and the boys are doing well. Yesterday we went to a mountain closeby to have a picnic with some friends, it was great! We had an awesome view from the mountaintop. It reminded us that the most awesome things in life God gives to us for free!

Birthday!

It was birthday week here at home with Matheus and Manasses having their birthdays! It is always a time to be thankful for the family God has given us!

Mission Hunt.

Yesterday we spent all day talking to the Executive Director for Pioneers Brazil. We have been in contact with this mission for some weeks and it seems that we are going to be able to team up with them as we move uo to Jequitinhonha Valley to work with Church planting in rural communities. Please continue to pray for God to guide us to the Mission He wants us to join.

The Chicken Pox...

All is well in the home front. The big news is that the boys all have gone through the chicken pox in the past two weeks. We all made it through and they are doing well. Max felt very fourtunute to get the illness as he was looking forward to some days off his busy school schedule!
A trip in October is starting to get prepared and till then I am working on getting as much Moody training done as possible. We are also looking into a Brazilian Mission that fits in to our Ministry goals. They are part of an Mission based out of the US.

Daily life.

We are back on the normal routine as the boys resumed school. They only had 2 weeks of vacation and had colds half of the time. They were able to have some fun though viviting their cousins while I was traveling and when I took the to a friends farm to ride horses.

We are planning a trip in September to once more scout the land as we further plan to move 500 miles north. God continues to give us peace about this move and has been opening some doors.

The Salvation Express had 3 trips planned for the next 5 months. A restoration of half of the interior of the bus is planned for October. With this we plan to replace rotten flooring and add 4 sleeping spaces in the bus. A friend from Alaska will be coming down to take part in a trip and to help in this project.

Here is a picture of what we will do in the bus:

Movie of trip.

Latest Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfUJEAMDma4

Great results!

The trip up north went very well! God prepared the way and things fell into place throughout the trip.
It took us 48 hours to drive up the 1500 miles and 50 hours to drive back. I was one of the two drives and when I was not driving I was sleeping!

We took a team of 4 medical students and 4 dental students along with a Doctor and Dentist who were in charge of the students. Medical equipment, dental equipment, donations and lot's of filtered waterwere amongst our payload. A semi truck with 44000 pounds of donations went along also!!! This was a miracle since this amount of donations was gathered in 10 days!

When we arrived in the city of Barreiros, Pernanbuco State what we found was unbelievable. After three weeks the city was still in utter caos. Mud all over the streets along with pieces of furniture, clothings and trash. The smell of suage was all over the place and folks we not even cleaning the houses since the destruction was so big. Over 60% of the houses in the city were destroyed!

Folks are living in the schools that did not get flooded, in friends and relatives houses and even in the bus station. We arrived and were directed by the Civil Defense to set up camp at a Agricultural College that was serving as a base to Police, Fire Fighters and the Army. Part of the donations we took were handed over to the Army for them to distribute and the other half to a Social Workers Organization. There was no way to distribute donations ourselves since even the Army and Police were having a hard time doing so!

We were able to get the Brazilian Bible Societies Mini-Hospital Truck to come and serve as a headquarters for our work in the local bus station. Along with the dental and medical services we offered to the comunitee, all recieved Bibles and other evangelistic material from the BBS missionaries that were with us.

Over 500 people were served in the 4 days we had the medical truck set up. The population was very thankful and the Light of the Gospel shinned in a town filled with darkness and gloom.
We were also able to withness to Police, Firemen and Soldiers as we worked along side them. In Brazil the tend of the protestant Church is to totally seperate themselves from the communitee serves and goverment workers.

Thank you for your prayers! They are what made this trip possible, joined with the prayers of those who lost all in these floods! Together we made a difference!

"In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Destroyed Bridge.

Destroyed Street.

Check out the water mark left by the flood on the antena!



Destroyed furniture on the second floor of a house!

Filthy street three weeks after the flood.

Brazilian Bible Society Truck.

Inside the Truck.

Dental triage.

Psycologist listens to folks.

Young father reads New Testament as he waits for his wife.

Grandmother walks away with donations.

6X6 Army truck used in the distribution of donations.

Family of 8 living in the Bus Station with the covers they recieved.

Two girls play in what is left of their school playground!

Trip!

Tomorrow I leave with a team of 14 volunteers for one of the most affected areas of flooding in Northern Brazil. God really is bleesing everything and we were able to fill a semi truck with donations! The town we will be visiting is called Barreiros and is in the state of Pernambuco. 68% of the population of 43000 people were affected by this tragic flood! We will be working with the help of the Civil Emergency teams and the Army. The Brazilian Bible Society will be sending their clinic truck to serve as a base for the medical team to serve the folks suffering from the aftermath of the flood.

Please be praying for us during these 12 days! We will be in the midst of much dispair and only God can give us wisdom to know what to say to those who lost everything!

150.000 Homeless!

Yes that is the actual number of folks that are homeless after the flooding in that extremly poor area of Brazil. Check the CNN link below!!!

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/06/25/brazil.floods/index.html?iref=allsearch&fbid=c6m2UsdsfOa

Anyways we will be leaving on the 8th and returning on the 20th. The Lord has supplied all the financial needs fo the trip along with a semi load of donations!
We will be working with some Churches up there that were totally destroyed by the flooding.
Please pray for the Salvation Express Team as we travel over 1500 miles up the most dangerouse roads of the country, pray also for protection against sicknesses as we serve in flooded areas. Pray also for our families that stay behind.

Remenber, your prayers MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

God bless you!

Next trip.

Two Brazilian states up north suffered from flash floods last week. The Salvation Express is heading up there to take medications, doctors and donations along with the message of hope of the Gospel. There are over 20000 people who lost there homes. The town we are going to was also affected and three christian churches fell down. Will keep you posted.

Got back.

Well we had an awesome trip. After 5 days and 1300 miles we made it back. All went well and over 200 people recieved eather medical or dental treatment. Many also were given New Testaments and Bibles after being introduced to the Gospel. As the verse clearly says,

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
John 13:35 NASB

Francis Shaffer, in his book "The Mark of a Christian", said that this verse is what Jesus left for those of the world to judge if are His indeed!
Another verse that sobers me up many times to the need to love others is,

"If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."
1John 4:20 NASB

In all these trips a part of a serman I heard always comes to mind.

"We have got to lay our lives down for the pourposes of God. This is not a Sunday School Picnic the Church of Jesus Christ. This is not an invitation to have continual good times. This is a war for the souls of men!" P. Carter Conlon

We must remenber ourselves that while our lives are going well so many athers are looked in the bonds of slavery to sin. Desperate to find the true water to relieve them of their unquenched thrist.

Let us be on the alert for the opportunities God will send our way!

People wait to be treated...

4 Doctors and 4 Dentist went on this trip.

Before...

After...

One happy patient!