Our eternal King!

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Tim 1:17.

It is hard to believe that less than 12 months ago this project was started with seven missionary families joining Amazon Salt and Light to work along the banks of the Madeira River. The goal was and is to do just this: “bring honor and glory to the eternal King”!!

We do this best by showing the Gospel to others– especially those who are remote.
Frank (green shirt) and Jadilson (white shirt) visit a family in the village of Cristo Rei.

Mission Vision Statement: “Lives transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, living for the glory of God and furtherance of His Kingdom in locally-lead multi-generational churches in every community of the Amazon River Basin.” Thankfully we are seeing this happening! Since January, there are 24 weekly meetings (we call them cell groups or evangelism groups) happening in 18 communities. We have seen many people come to the Lord in repentance. We know this is a spiritual battle. The missionaries live here, but the battle being waged is spiritual.
We have visited the community of Laranjeiras many times but it has always seemed resistant to the Gospel. The daughter of the community president was a backslidden Christian (the only believer in the family). She began attending a cell group in Humaita and we began interceding for the community and her family. Two weeks ago her brother, who has kidney stones, was resting in his hammock. According to his testimony, he had a dream–but wasn’t sleeping (what we’d call a vision)–that a man came and asked him why he didn’t want to serve God. He immediately repented, asked Christ for forgiveness, and called his sister to say he wanted to give his testimony in front of church the next Sunday. Before, he would never have set foot in church, let alone go to the front! Use the interactive map to see the names and locations of the communities and continue in prayer for these precious souls!

Our need:

With all the the good news, have come some challenges. While ferrying our four-place amphibious airplane from Santarem to Humaita, our pilot suffered an engine failure at low altitude and had a hard landing. Here is a video showing where he ended up. All glory to God Matt was not even scratched, but this was not in our budget! However, as always, we are trusting the Lord for wisdom as we forge ahead!
Plans are in place to make the repairs to the Bearhawk (the plane involved in the accident). Although the plane is repairable, the amphibious floats were destroyed. Because of the long lead time on these special floats, and the fact that we are based in Brazil (read; bureaucracy), it could be up to a year before the plane is in service again. The board has decided it would be best to look for an interim floatplane that could be used during the time the Bearhawk is being repaired. Keep an eye out for updated information!

As per our vision statement, we believe Brazilians are the most qualified to take the Gospel to their people. Our desire is to add three more Brazilian missionaries (along with speedboats and fuel expenses) to expand the mission field where we are working! This growth, along with the unexpected additional aviation expenses, means our budget increases 35% for 2020. We ask that you pray about how you can help with one or more of these needs!