In June 2006, we had some meetings that have turned out to be Summit Meetings. During these meetings we prayed, thought, brain-stormed and wrote out some ways we would like to restructure the mission organization for growth. This has turned out to be tremendously helpful for us all. Since then we have been meeting as leaders to work out the details as to how we organize smaller teams which will somehow reflect our values of autonomy and accountability.

 

Last week, during one of these meetings, the Leadership team released us, the Bergens, to pursue the launching of a new church-planting base in Marabá. This included a fund-raising budget, strategy document and the encouragement to develop a board and register the Marabá Base.

 

I really sense God's approval in this. This has been confirmed, in part, by the eager anticipation of our family, the approval of our leadership team, and an unprecedented response to an email regarding our recent survey trip there last month. The real test of approval will be to see what happens as we move forward in this direction. We now have some Brazilian families praying about moving with us. We will be able to talk about this more as we get property and a budget to work with.

 

Yahoo!

Anni and Via just got back from Cristovál. This is  a Youth Retreat for our church's "youth of all ages." It was a roaring success, with a lot of preparation which  really paid off. The camp construction now includes a meeting hall, mess hall, four large rooms for hanging hammocks for sleeping and some bathrooms. Added to this Clenildo and some of the local leaders built an "obstacle course" for the youth, a "jail", where you could send anyone for 25 cents, and they had to stay there for one hour, or until someone rescued them with a 25 cent release card. The four Igreja da Vinha churches in Altamira that participated each had their youth prepare special numbers to present in front of the larger group, which were rated by a panel  of "judges." All of these activities centered around some really good ministry and worship times. Our daughters said their favorite parts of the three day retreat were the preaching/ministry times and showing their friends how to play a card game called Dutch Blitz.

 

The Porto de Moz churches also said they had a very special time during Cristovál, with good participation and a special sense of the presence of the Lord.

 

END.