2011 updates

Dear y'all!

We have many thanksgiving offerings to do to Our Gracious and Savior God. First of all, of course, in having saved us through His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, the reason we exist as Church of Him.

Also because our sanctuary is finally done, finished, all set up to held services in a comfortable and cozy way. As you may see below, after the raise money and the carpenters work, our temple is now very pretty and ready to serve God’s people as they come in to worship God, listening to His Word, being served by his Sacraments and responding Him, through the Holy Spirit, with prayers, songs and gifts.

You may see a “before, during and after” on the shots below:

This was our sanctuary BEFORE the finishing up processing. There was even an owl (the white thing up in the pic) living underneath the roof.

After a donation from Brazil Mission Society, we start to install the ceiling as you may on this shot.

It took about 2 1/2 weeks till all ceiling was done!

Afterwards, we started a money raising campaing to put the pavement on. After this, we started installing the ceramic. There were about 120 squared meters of pavement.

As good stewards of God's gifts, we could save some money from BMS's donation and then we applied the savings on the painting job of our inside walls of our chapel. We painted the sides and back walls with a light green. The altar place got some deep green, to strees worship atendees the altar is the center of the divine service.

Rembember: our sanctuary was like this:

But now, thanks God and the donators, from our Congregations, across the country and from overseas, our inside temple is as follows:

Our Congregation in English

We want to share good news about our work as Lutheran Christians in Macapá, the "City of the middle of the Earth"! Thanks for stopping by and accessing our Blog!

Thanks God we have finished our lining installation work. It took about two and a half weeks till we got all set up and now we may see how beatiful our sanctuary is after this job:

A shot from the very moment when the work was finished!

Moreover, the temperature inside our chapel is now more pleasing. We don't have A/C on. This is one of our next goals for the improvement of our church.

Earlier this week we have started the floor job. We are putting ceramic on our floor. After donations and money raising, we could raise about 1,700 Brazilian bucks (about 1,110 US dollars) to afford the masons' payment, and also the grouting. The mortar needed was donated by a Congregation's family. Take a look at the masons working on that:

This job is supposed to be finished up by this Saturday. On Sunday we want to celebrate our first service - the 4th in the Advent - on the new floor. For Christmas services, we want to paint all the sanctuary up, giving it a new breath and making it even more beatuful to celebrate the LORD's coming to this world!

Praise the LORD YAHWEH with us! This is one more dream accomplished to the Lutherans in Macapá. And we would like to give our special thanks to all who supported us with money, donations, efforts, gifts and prayers!

CHRIST FOR ALL LUTHERAN CHURCH - ENGLISH VERSION

WELCOME! YOUR VISIT IS A BLESSING TO US!

This is our first post in English. Our purpose is share with English speakers our news and blessings God has given to us! Be welcome with this beautiful smile of a Bible Class student of ours:

Kid with her toy, granted on National Kid's Day, in October 12th

The stuffed animal above was donated by Lutherans from Detroit, MI, brought to us by Robin Barton, a partner of Brazil mission work. She also helps children from a Lutheran orphanage in Moreira, Southern Brazil. We were able to hand out about 100 of them by the national Kid's Day, on October 12th. We had a special day with about 80 kids in our temple, who came over to play, sing, listen to God's Word and have a snack. 70 out of the 80 kids that shown up were non-Lutheran and 40 out of this 70 are neighbors of our chapel. We had a door-to-door invitation earlier on the 12th. See the picture below to have an idea of what a big day we had!

Over 100 people - including the adults - came to the event!

In October, we were granted by God with a great donation from Brazil Mission Society. In the first semester of the current year, we sent a project to the Mission Departament of our National Church Headquarters. The project was looking forward to put the lining in our sanctuary, which was lacking since the construction of our temple. By the way, our chapel was built by Builders For Christ, a Brazil Mission Society partner group who builds churches throughout Brazil.

The ammount sent was about 3,500 USD, which will be applied on the lining material and on the payment of the carpenters' work. Below, you may see the first shot at the beginning of the job:

Carpenters have started the work

Our Congregation celebrated the 2010 Reformation Day on October 30th, at 7:30pm, with a blessed service. At that day, we had two ladies professing their faith in Jesus accordingly to the Lutheran Confessions and Theology. Thus, they're now Lutherans, after passing for a 3-months Adults Bible Instruction Class. One of them is pragnant and will be baptizing her baby as soons as the lovely Ana Nicole comes to this world. The birth is awaited for Novermber 15th. Below  you may see pastor Tiago blessing them at the very moment of the Confirmation.

With black wear Kelly and on blue Adriana

In the past 12 months, more than 10 people have entered to our Congregation. We don't measure blessings through numbers, but we can see God has been making wonders for us, both in spiritual and material matters.


The average of non-Lutheran attendence in our services in September 2010 was the highiest ever in our Congregation. In each service, we had about 13 people attending our sanctuary as visitors. Praise be to the Lord of Sabaoth, who has been leading our work as witnesses of his Word!







Let's return to talk about the kids. Our pastor is a volunteer in a public school where he does a voluntary chapelancy. Rev. Albrecht goes once a week to the Paraíso das Acácias elementary school to ministry to the kids with age between 5-8 years old. He sings with them, prays with them and also tells them histories from the Bible applied to their lives. This school is attended by poor kids. Some of them have their parents rested in jail. Some are raise by the grandparents or even for uncle and aunt. Most of the students are catholic, but they accept very well a Lutheran pastor ministrying among them. The kids have been touched by God's Word, since the professors told pastor Tiago the kids get sad if pastor cannot make it to the school for any reason.
Below you may see a bit of our work among them:

The kids just LOVE singing with the guitar!

In the end of 2009, we were blessed in receiving a big donation from a Lutheran Congregation from Germany. They sent us about 250 USD. We use this money to buy new wood chairs for our Missionary Kid's Bible Class we held every saturday. We started this work this year and we've been harvesting many fruits. See the picture with the kids at the Bible Class:

The kids mey now feel comfortable to listen God's Word

As told before in this post, we have been passing for several improvements in our sanctuary. One of them has happened recently, when we could buy a water fountain for our temple. Before that, we would have to freeze water in the refrigerator, in bottles, to offer cold water to our members and guests during services and meetings. The water was not filtered water at all. But since then, we can now offer filtered water, in a nice temperature, during all service time, when the temperature inside the temple goes farther than 100's F. This filter was bought with help of donators, who were found through Robin Barton's intermedium. See the water fountain pictured below:

Now we can offer more comfort to the worship attendees

Macapá is a unique city. It is right on the Ecuator Line, which divides the world in two hemisphers. One of our chapels is right on the Line. This sanctuary is built on palafitas, kind of wood pillars who support a contruction in a flooded area. There, we host more than 20 kids every saturday, since 10 years ago, for a Bible Class. Ninety per cent of them are not Lutherans. This mission have drove in to the Lutheran Church some families. The books for the infant Bible Class we got though BMS donation. This is our "Ecuator Line Sanctuary":

 

A view of the main entrance of the temple

In a flooded area, the streets are not made with pavement, but with wood. In the picture below, you see the main access to the houses, where people, bikes and motorcycles divide the space in the narrow wood bridges:

There're taped water, telephone and electricity lines but not sewage system in flooded areas

Alright. Now you know a bit about us and our city. You are welcomed to be our partner in our mission work over here. Our first and main need is prayers. Pray hard for us! You support is most appreciated. And if you want to know in what else you may help us, write us: cristoparatodos.amapa@gmail.com

Thanks for visiting our blog! And come back soon! May God bless you!

A shot on the very moment where the sun shines on the Ecuator Line - Spring Equinox


We say "see you later" with the picture below. It represents how awesome is the creation of our God. Due the Ecuator Line, we may put an egg stood up by itself, with no tricks or glue on it. Due the latitude zero, the egg does not suffer any work of gravity, thus it may be stood by itself. Isn't that amazing?