Trip to Sento Sé

Well now I'm back from my trip to Sento Sé, BA. The trip began for me in Floriano and went till Remanso and from there to Sento Sé.

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How I mentioned it a few weeks earlier I went with PróSERTÃO to Sento Sé to help out at a Congress to train leaders that would work in the area of kids ministry.
We had a good and save trip. Till Remanso we drove with our car and from Remanso to Sento Sé we had to take a boat across the river.
The Congress was a success. We had around 50 leaders or people that wanted to be trained in it. We had the chance to teach a lot to them. The local Pastor wants now to start or improve the kids ministry and use all the knowledge that this leaders have now.
In this region it is really dry, they are now in the rainy season but it didn't rain since January. The river or better the dam is really low. You can see now the water towers from the old city that got flooded as a consequence of the dam. A lot of trucks come to the river to get water to deliver it to the villiges in the interior of the country that are suffering because of the lack of water.

Here are some pictures from the Congress as well as from this dryness.

Now I have a lot of work to do till the end of March. I have two assignments that I have to send to CLBI. One is a research project involving the drug problems here in Barão and the other is a learning project involving the soccer school. These means that I have a lot of work before me. 

I thank you very much for your support in prayer.

Church's Birthday

The last weekend was really stressed. But before you make any wrong conclusions let me explain how it went.
Everything started Friday morning, Friday the 22nd of February. It was the inauguration day of the PróSERTÃO and CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) office in Teresina. This ment that the swiss missionary Simon Reifler, the local Pastor and his wife - Pastor Valter and Rozi and I had to go up to Teresina. Simon had that day too a meeting with the PróSERTÃO leadership, this ment that we had to leave Barão 6am. When we arrived in Teresina Simon went straight to the meeting and I helped out with the last preparation for the inauguration party in the evening. The evening went well and it was a very nice service. (For picture please visit the PróSERTÃO Facebook fanpage)
Well now comes the reason why this weekend was so tiering. Because our church was celebrating on the Saturday as well as on the Sunday the second birthday we had to get back to Barão asap. The first event started 8am on Saturday morning. So we left right after the inauguration in Teresina and we were back in Barão at 1:30am on Saturday morning. The drive back was 100% in God's hand. We were at least twice close to a bad accident during our drive back home. So that night we didn't have that much sleep. 8am Saturday morning we left for a bike trip through the interior of Barão. It was a great time with the youth that came along and here to God protected us, because all of us fell at least once with the bikes but no one got injured. (Pictures from this event will be posted later)
Well the programs that were scheduled for this weekend went on. Saturday night we had a public service where a singer (DFAM - youtube / facebook) was leading worship.
Sunday morning was more relaxed then Saturday. We started with a putlock breakfast and went on with a small devo which ended with the washing of each others feet. (Here are the pictures to the preparation work and Sunday)

Well now some words to myself. I have my flight booked to Switzerland. I'll be landing on the 7th of May in Switzerland. My plan is to stay there for approximately three months, to work and get my money together to pay my last year of studying in Canada. My plan is too, to get back to Canada on the 21st of August to finish my CLBI degree. By finishing this degree I'll have the BACS (Bachelor of Applied Christian Studies). Hier is a document explaining the requirements as well what it is.

So that was it, the next post will probably be after my trip to Sento Sé. (for mor informations about Sento Sé, please the last article)

Carnivals Camp

Well the carnival is over now and life should get back to normal here in Brazil.
The time in our carnivals camp was great and very blessed. We had three youth that joined us from our church here in Barão. All of them were already part of our youth group but never made a decision for Jesus. After the four days of camp all of our youth and some from other churches have made the decision to follow Jesus. We are very happy to have three new young guys in our family.
The theme for the camp was "Ice Age". The thought behind it was that we are living in a spiritual Ice Age and that we as Christians don't do what God has called us to do. We became cold and maybe we are even immune towards the World. I took some pictures throughout the camp, you can check them out on my Picasa account (to get to the picture click here).
I'm not doing a 100% good. I have a slit cold and with that I can't do are help everywhere, especially not now with all this rain. Last Friday the 15th of February we had a heavy rain here in Barão/Floriano. It was so hard that even the streets where flooded. I took two video clips with my cellphone and posted them on my youtube canal, there you can see how it was (here you'll get to the first video clip and here to the second one).
Well what will I be doing now?? The upcoming time I'll be more around Barão. I will work together with the two boys that made a decision during the camp and help them in their spiritual life. I'll also be helping with the stuff that I was so far.
Beginning of March I'll be traveling with my parents to a city called Sento Sé (Bahia) to help out with a Congress that we will have there.

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Till then, I'll be helping out here in Barão and serving PróSERTÃO were ever I can.

I want to thank you for all your prayer and your interest. May God bless you.

Month of January

Yes, the month of January was once again a full month. In the beginning of the month I was with my parents and helped the a bit with the CBT (a basic theology course). On the 10th of January I went back to Barão to be part of a missions congress. During the congress a band from São Paulo lead the worship (On my youtube channel you can see two short video clips). I already wrote a bit about this congress so I don't want to spend to much time write more about it but I just want to say once more that it was a great congress and that it opened my eyes to a lot of new things.
After the congress I stayed for a few days here in Barão with Reifler's. But it didn't go to long till I got a call from an other swiss missionary to come up to Teresina to help him with a construction fro the PróSERTÃO. After talking with CLBI and my supervisor here in Brazil I got the permission to go to Teresina for one and a half week. So I didn't spent to much time here in Barão but more up in Teresina and at the Ranch with my parents. It was a great time and I could help them in many ways. But now I'm happy to be back in Barão so I can help the ministry here. This upcoming week Brazil celebrates Carnaval. This means that the churches have to organizes a retreat or camp to get the christians out of the cities. We too will be doing this and we will be joining two Baptist churches from Floriano. I'm exited for this retreat and for a long weekend even though it means a lot of work. I hope to that this time will be a great time and a time of blessing.

Ok. This was already January and a bit of what's to come in February. I wish you all the best and God's blessing for your life.

Our team

If you want to see the people I work with, then click here.

Pastor Simon is from Switzerland and the rest are Brazilians. Pastor Valter is from the same state as we are living in and Natalia is a university student that comes from southern Piauí.

The switch

So it has been a while since I posted the last blog and a lot of things happend, even the year has changed. :)
The last time I blogged, I wrote about our soccer tournament and the Christmas service. Well after that stressful time I went back to my parents place to celebrate with them Christmas and New Years. We had a great and nice Christmas time as a family. After Christmas my parents and I drove down to the town where I grew up and spent my childhood. The church was waiting for us already when we got there. It was a great time seeing all my childhood friends again and spending time with them. We were really glad to spend the switch from 2012 to 2013 with the church their and to start the New Year together. On the 1st we already had to leave again because our Bible school would start on the 3rd and we needed to get stuff done before it would start.
It was planned that I would return to Barão on the 14. of January but because there was a missions congress happening from the 10th to the 12th I went earlier so I could be a part of it. It was a great time with good speakers.
And now it's already Monday again and a new week has started and with this also a new semester. What I'll be doing in this semester I don't know yet. I guess it will be simular to what I already was doing but one big event that's coming ahead is our carnival retreat in February. Beside that everything will keep going the way it was.

shortly

It's a long time over due. I should of written a long time ago my last blog but I'm really busy right now. I hope that I can post the next updates in this week. But for now I wish you a blessed New Year.