From our trip to Almeirim:

This is Al and Machado (the local evangelist) doing some mid-week evanglism at the city square.  The girl Machado is talking to accepted salvation that night.  Of the 2 girls Al was talking to, the blonde was very talkative and seemed to be quite sensitive as she was moved to tears while we all talked to her.  But the dark-headed girl next to her came to the service the following night and accepted salvation there!

This is a very common river-style village near the city of Almeirim - the village of the Barros Family.  Not many were home that day, but we did find a mother and daughter who both accepted salvation that very day and who both came with a friend to the service in Almeirim the next night.

This is one of the boats we traveled on.  There is no way a video or pictures can do it justice, but let's just say this boat was one of the emptier ones!

So, here's some more updated info on what we've been up to.

It is still very hard to get online and stay connected long enough to do anything worthwhile.  But we sincerely thank those of you who have stayed in touch and kept us in your prayers.  We have needed them desperately and have felt their power.

Eli flew out yesterday and is scheduled to arrive back home wednesday morning.  Keep him lifted up in prayer.  He was a huge blessing to us here, as you can imagine and we're sure he has lots of stories to tell when he arrives.

Al and Eli were so blessed to meet a couple of different jewish families here.  We hope to spend this saturday with one of those families.  But our main desire, to be able to find some of the jewish people of the amazon, has definitely been granted.  They seem to be everywhere - one girl didn't even know she was jewish, but told us stories of her great-grandmother who is still living and is jewish.  We explained to her that by tradition, she is jewish as well.  We hope to have more contact with her.  While we were in Almeirim, Machado pointed out a jewish man to us.  The other 2 families Al and Eli ran into happen to live locally.  Keep all these people in your prayers and us as well as we seek to know how G-d wants us involved in their lives.

Al, my dad, Josias and another young man will be going back to the village of Ituqui this Friday to do some follow up.  They will travel in the truck by road, so pray for their safety and for opportunities there.  Evidently, by the word we received, the village is buzzing with excitement over our time there.  What an answer to prayer!

We still have some commitments to fulfill here in town before we head out next thursday (24th) to Belém to be with Al's family for the second half of our stay.  Last week, Al's brother-in-law was held at gunpoint cowering in the back seat of his car as the thief highjacked it.  He let our brother out in the middle of town.  3 days later, they found the car in a bad neighborhood, but completely intact and with a full tank of gas!  We hope this is a stepping of point for us to speak with them about how G-d is trying to reach them by protecting them when they need Him most.  We have run into other friends here who have shared testimonies with us and if we have time, we will upload more videos and pictures.  We apologize again for the delay, but truly thank you for checking in with us and keeping us lifted up in prayer.  The enemy is all around us - we feel his presence everywhere we go.  But greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world.  May His light and presence overwhelm the places we encounter.

Be blessed and keep checking in!