In closing, Brasil 08

  Brasil is not the only thing that I'll be posting on this blog.  Just happens to be the location that I'm sending people to check up on how the trip went.  So soon, I will be commenting on different books that have impacted me lately, ranting about hair products, life, spirituality, and ET.

  In closing, Brasil 08-

Brasil 08 Part V

  The town that the missionaries are based out of is called Porto de Moz.  You can really only get there by boat, even at that-it's 10 hours from the city Altamira.

  We spent four days in Porto de Moz.  There are two Vineyard churches there that are lead through the Xingu.  On a Saturday evening, I had the opportunity to speak at the youth conference that both churches combined to attend.  For me, this was the highlight of the whole trip.

  I spoke on how God has used young people throughout history.  We have so many accounts in the Bible of how God has empowered younger people to bring about change and to speak on His behalf.  The first accounts of God speaking to Samuel in Eli's house, David, Ruth, Daniel, and Timothy are just a few.

  That night, as I came to ministry time, I had felt that God wanted to deal with three things.  First, struggles with pornography; Second, He wanted to show people what their gifts are; Third, salvation.   I was amazed to see the response for prayer; such a large number of kids poured to the front seeking what God had gifted them with.  The Spirit of God was falling so heavily on kids as they cried out to God.  Many of my teammates made their way around praying with as many as they could.  I remember thinking to myself, "God is really in business tonight."  Just seeing Him connect with people is always so Amazing!

  I could type another whole page on the events of that evening, but I'm not so certain that it would accurately communicate what I experienced.  I was humbled to be a part of God meeting with us all.

zh

Brasil 08 Part IV

  Someone who has a degree in Roman numerals, please correct me if IV is not #4, I would like to apologize! 

  Yes, I'd like to take just a bit today to share about my involvement with Thirst Relief!!  What a sweet organization, located right here in central Ohio (Westerville.)

  We had the opportunity to deliver 3 filters in a village on the other side of Maparacaia.  Such an awesome village with a sweet look over the river.  One day earlier, some of us joined a volleyball game with some of the Brazilian teens.  

  Anyway, as you can see in the pictures, the filters stand about 4ft tall, completely made of concrete.  We load all three into our canoe, along with four grown men!  The filters weigh nearly #280 lbs. each, so the water nearly flows over the edge of our handy boat as we journey to shore.  We set up and install 2 of the filters, the other we leave to be placed in a home that will soon be built.  

  The filters simply contain, washed gravel and sand...  That's it!  And they can obtain 95% purity from the filtered river water.  Not only do the filters protect the health of our Brazilian friends and their children, but they also provide an opportunity to bless them, and begin a relationship with the villages.

  I personally came to know the importance of healthy water.  At one of the homes-they kindly offered us coffee after we had set up their filter.  We knew that the coffee was made with the river water, but hoped that the water was boiled hot enough to kill the 'baddies.'  Um....it must not have been quite warm enough, because my stomach got hit.  And it remained slightly out of whack until I was well back home in Newark.  But-no regrets, and yes-it was good coffee.

-zh

Beauty, and no cell phones

Brazil 08 Part III

  We spent a day and a morning in a village by the name of Espirit de Santo.  Which means "Holy Spirit."  Last year, our mission team saw an incredible openness to God and all the village leaders of the town gave their lives to Jesus.

  This year, we wanted to leave them with some  practical steps towards discipleship, and growth.  Pastor Steve invited the village to a morning discipleship where he taught on Bible study, walking out faith, and importance of Christian community. About 15 people came out, and we gave each one a Bible in their own language.  While we were in EdS, my very good friend Ben  was baptized right in the river!  The event was pretty cool, as the village had never really experienced an adult baptism.

  The village leader and head school teacher are very welcoming of the missionaries and the teams from VLC.  It's been cool to see that and this year's trip was Steve's third visit to the village, and who knows where God will take that relationship.

  I also went fishing with Clyde, Randy, and Ben.  We paddled down river in a canoe, traveling in and out of swamp type areas.  It was very relaxing and beautiful; however, we were all quite the failures of the fish.  I never caught a fish on the trip.  As a matter of fact the only bite I got was the fish that jumped and bit my line that was suspended in mid air.

Brasil 08 Part II

  The first village we stopped at is called Villa Mendoza.  It consists of about 10 wooden shack style houses that set on the beach.  Shortly after we arrived, the school teacher asked if some of us would come and teach a bit of English.  So several of my friends went and taught at the small school.

  A group of guys went spear fishing and caught a nice load of fish.  The ladies in the village cooked up the catch (after I helped clean one of the fish,) and we shared a lunch with the whole village.  That was a really cool encounter.

  That night we held a worship time, and afterward my friend Ben and I were praying with a young man, roughly our age.  We were praying in English and Ben mentioned to me that he felt lead to pray for this guy's head.  So, Ben did, and after prayer time and ministry was winding down, Ben asked a translator to ask the young man if his head was bothering him.  The young man responded, yes my head was hurting me- until that guy prayed for me.

  The next morning we headed to Maparacaia, which was nearly directly on the other shore of the Xingu.  That; however, was quite misleading, because it took us two hours to cross the river.  Like I said, the Xingu is very wide.

  Maparacaia is slightly larger than Villa Mendoza.  And the mission has only been in contact with this village for a short time.  In fact, our group was only the second team to have visited this village on a mission trip.  The first group was a team of Brazilians from the Vineyard church.

  Maparacaia is a beautiful location, it sets at the base of a large jungle hill, directly on the shore of the river.  As a matter of fact, we took a hike up into the jungle and across to the other side of the bay.  At the top of this hill, cut into a jungle clearing, is a regulation size futbol field.

 That night, on the beach,  I had the privilege to speak at a worship time.  It was mostly dark, with the exception of a few dimly lit light bulbs, powered by a  generator.  As a part of our worship times, some of the team members held children's class.  This night, over 30 kids would come and participate!  The talk that I gave was based around Galations 5:1, Christ came to give us freedom, and John 10:10 to have life to the FULL.  There was a real openness in our time of sharing.  Nearly everyone that came, wanted to receive prayer for freedom, and for the living water that Christ has to offer us.  

  Sharing thoughts about faith with people who are really new to the idea of Jesus, is stretching.  Not stretching in a bad way, but more of like a breath of fresh air.  Here in the States, the church is usually diving deep into the more "important" things of faith.  Whatever that means, but I ended up asking myself, why is it so hard to go back to the basics of what the Bible says and share it in a easy to understand manner?  These villagers had absolutely no understanding of the "church culture" with its own weird language, and I found that my language has become quite littered with that church language and the culture of the church. 

   For an example, I was talking with Clyde who is a missionary from the U.S., and he was telling me that this village had never heard of salvation.  In America, nearly everyone is familiar with that word-it is a churcy word but nearly everyone could give a definition.  So when Clyde first reached out to Maparacaia, he had to explain salvation through a story, so that he could communicate what he meant.  To me, I find that quite refreshing, and I hope you might ponder on this with me and find it a breath of fresh air as well.

-zh

Top: Villa Mendoza

Middle: Maparacaia

Low: Espirit de Santo

Brasil 08 Part I

  Some of you might know that I recently had the privilege of traveling to Brasil.  I would like to share parts of that experience with you.

  To give you a little background, this mission trip was with my church, Vineyard of Licking County.  We travelled to the Amazon Basin to work with the Xingu Mission.  The goal of the trip was sort of two fold;  1) Show Brazilians God's love, 2) Team up with Thirst Relief Water Filtration.

  

  My Pastor, Steve Osborne, and I headed down a few days before the rest of our team.  We ran into some major flight complications upon arriving in Brasil.  But God saw us through the delays, and gave us favor with TAM Airlines, who worked to connect us and even paid for two hotels for us and provided dinner. (which is unheard of with this company)

  Upon arriving, Steve and I spent several days with the missionaries and their families.  Sort of a "get-away" retreat for them and their families.  We stayed @ a retreat camp called Cardosa, which was absolutely gorgeous.  I really enjoyed the time one on one with the mission team, and playing with their kids, as Cardosa had a great lake and swimming area.  I also had my first experience with bathing in the lake-in the dark.  To be honest-it was unnerving not knowing what would be joining me in the dark warm water.  And I think Kevin, a missionary from Columbus, found it quite humorous.  The picture I've posted is of Cardosa.

  Once back in town, Altamira, where the mission headquarters are, we learned that the rest of our team from Newark had the same flight complications.  So they ended up being three days delayed.  However, it all worked out just fine.  I spent those days in Altamira with the missionaries, and they showed me all around the city.  I got to meet a ton of Brazilians, and was baptized into the city's culture.

  Upon the team's arrival, we headed to the Port.  This is where we loaded on the mission boat to begin our river trip.  The boat is quite nice, 40 ft. or so, with a full lower deck, bathrooms, kitchen, and GPS navigation.  We set off around 8pm, and travelled for 6 hours or so.  The river we travelled on is called the Xingu (hence the Xingu mission).  It runs south off of the Amazon, and is truly an amazing sight.  The Xingu at it's widest is 6 miles wide...........

  Our river trip took us to three villages; Villa Mendoza, Maparacaia, and Espirit de Santo.  Each village different, all setting just yards from river's edge, none larger than 70 people, all very welcoming.

  In part II, I hope to share of my experiences in those river villages, that forever impacted my world view.

 -zh

The beginning

  Well, I guess this is something that I've wanted to do for a little while.  If you are wondering what my objective of this blog is- I will let you in on the secret.....

  Through this blog-my sole desire is to land a job at Entertainment Tonight.  There- I hope you're impressed, and immediately subscribe.