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Bergquist's In BrazilRaising Up Leaders and Planting Churches
March 08 Double Portion of GRACEFebruary 29, 2008 was the day we never expected to have a child. I was ready to have our 4th baby by Valentines Day. My Mom showed up a little later than expected and we sat around and waited and waited and waited for labor to kick in. When a contraction came, we were hoping that it was the real deal! But after 2 weeks and 2 days of waiting, the signs of labor never took off! I ended up having a unplanned/planned c-section. Actually I was hoping for enducement before c-section and we were praying that labor would kick in. Miraculously I did start hard labor just before but I falied to progress which forced me into the dreaded and not so hoped for c-section.
Even though I was dissappointed in the fact of not having a normal birth(after having the other 3 normal) I had to be grateful that I was going to meet our little blessing.
Hannah Grace came into the world at 6:30pm weighing a champion weight of 10lbs 3 oz, out weighing all 3 other! She is a petite champion though and amazingly has very small features with small head, ears and daintly hands and fingers and slender feet.
We are blessed to have her in our arms, healthy and happy! Thanks for your prayers and concerns!
I will try and blog more while we are here in Altamira as it is faster net here that PdMoz.
More pics to follow as well of Hannah!
Thanks, Kelsie January 15 To Have a VisionTo have a vision is the main goal to life, so you can live life to the fullest right? Ususally every year I am anxious to see what will happen and what new things will come as opportunity to serve, or experience. This year I know what I will be doing. In just a few short weeks we will have a new little one to care and dote over. It will be exciting and a lot of work too! This year I know that my life will take a different direction in the family circle. I feel an increased responsiblity to make sure our children are learning about being kind, loving, respectful, responsible, living peaceably, being generous, being honest, having self discipline and SOOOO much more things that will help them grow up to be wonderful people who can be used by God. I have 3 to be 4 little disciples to raise in the way of the Lord. HUGE and HIGH Calling!
I am worried though!!!! I am finding myself in a fight to do all that and be the wife of someone who is being a missionary/pastor to the people we live among. Clyde is busy as usual with leading one of the city churches in our neighborhood, managing the water filter project and traveling to deliver the filters, doing the books for the mission and the church. He is seeking vision for the church, seeking vision for our personal mission here as well.
We both woke up Sunday am with vision on our hearts. I had scheduled to talk to our girls group we have at our house every Sunday and I was without any idea as to what to share about until I woke up and Clyde and I started talking. Vision was on our hearts and I took that from the Lord and went with it.
The night service went really well as we had visitors from Altamira, who we have know for the entire time we have lived here. They have an amazing testimony about how their son brought them to Christ through the ministry of the Bergen family(Rich and Deanna Bergen are the directors of the Xingu Mission in Altamira). They shared how God used the Bergens to minister love and affirmation, values and Godly principles to thier son and how peaceful he was in his everyday life. He was used to bring virtually his entire family(his mother has 8 sisters, including spouses and their children) to Christ and form a new church which today is called the Mirante(Look out point). It is an inspiring testimony to us as we have a church filled with youth and children. To hear the vision of what happened and what could be for our church was inspiring for sure. We pray now that we can press on to the vision that will inspire these kids to minister to thier families and bring them to church and thier neighbors to recieve new life!!! A restored life!!!
Our other vision we are lacking though in the midst of all this other stuff is the need for a Brazilian pastor. We don't lack vision for it, just who will fill that part.
We are wanting to come home this year for several months and we don't see how we can without a Brazilian pastor to lead this church in our absence. Please pray with us that God will show the right person and that they will fit well into this calling of the Praiao church.
I am sorry that I havnen't been able to update our photos. Seems there is a problem with the blog uploading them.
Blessings to you as you seek vision for your personal life. God has a plan for each and everyone and if your lacking vision for your life, ask and He will answer. December 31 Happy New Year!It's New Years Eve and looking back at 2007, wow, it went fast!!!!! It was wonderful to be with family last Christmas and New Years and to think that we'll be with them again next year will be great!
We struggle with vision for 2008 for some reason, but praying the Lord will show us a plan, a path that will encourage us to continue with stamina and enthusiasm serving in the city church. We look forward to our team coming back together again this month after many were able to go home for the holidays. We are praying that we can refocus and gain vision together and see what it is the Lord wants to do as we rejoin forces. Please pray for the next few weeks, that the Lord will show us the direction He wants for this mission in Porto de Moz.
We are excited about the new baby coming in just a few weeks as well! Feb 16th is our due date, but the ultrasound puts it into the week of the 14th-21st!
Kelsie's mom will be traveling here to be with us for the birth and afterwards. We are praying baby doesn't delay the arrival date too much! We'd love to have a Valentine's baby!!!!!
Clyde's dad was here with us for 6 weeks and that was a lot of fun having him here with the girls, meeting our friends and seeing our lives here. He got frustrated with the 3rd world mindset, but I think other than that he did enjoy the people of Brazil and the senery! He was able to go on a water filter trip that was one of the most difficult delieveries for 2007 as all the homes were up on an embankment where they had to lift the 300lb cement filters up some 50 or more wooden, rickety steps or canoe far away to get into the hard to reach areas. We have some photos I'll attach of that trip and some of the visit with Bryan and our Christmas!
Thank you to everyone for your support in prayer, finances and time! We appreciate each and every one of you! We covet your prayers for 2008 as we venture into another year of ministry, raising children and seeking His perfect will for our lives!
Blessings to you all this new year and we pray that the Lord brings revival to your soul if you are weak in spirit, health to your body if you are sick, hope to you if you are feeling hopeless and peace if you are without! We know that Jesus is the answer to every problem under the sun and when we commit our way to Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts!
Happy 2008!!!!! Clyde, Kelsie, Makenna, Maddy, Nate and Baby #4 November 04 Catch Up BlogOctober has been a blurr and November is already here. I apologize for not writing more often, but our internet is slow and takes the fun out of spontaneoulsy updating the blog when ever as the site sometimes won't even come up, or stalls out when I have the photos downloading!
Oct 12th was National Kids Day in Brazil. Our church put on a great gig for the kids in the neighborhood. I feel like I have already bloged about this, but basically our church has normaly anywhere from 20-50 kids on any given Sunday service. Well, we opened the church up for a party hosted by the Youth Group to our sunday school kids and thier parents and the neighborhood kids and parents. We had over 100 kids and then thier parents! It was a well planned event and all our youth group served and participated with such delight. In Brazil, Christmas isn't like our holiday. But Kids Day is close to the same feeling or the equivalent to Christmas here in Brazil.
We had cake and gifts, the youth had skits and clowns and lots of fun!
On the family side, we had a fun night at a carnival that came to town. It was a riot to see this carnival as half the rides were not even safe to ride on by our standards. The OSHA would have a cow and then some if they saw what kind of outfit they put these little kids on. It was as if you could step back into time about 50 yrs or more and kids went to have fun and parents didn't care about saftey. Buckles were there, but they were rusted out or broken, no safety locks on the swing rides and no way to stop the machines accept to physically turn it off and stop it with your own force. There were men working the machines, but they didn't care if the kids rode for 30 minutes or 1 minutes. They just watched the lines and if there were a ton of kids, they cut the time down, but if there wasn't a line, the kids were on forever. Some were getting restless wanting to get off.
Nate rode all the rides with Makenna and Maddy except the Ferris Wheel, of which I wasn't about to let my baby on that ride. It looked very chancy to me and I waited at the bottom with NAte crying cause he wanted to be with his sisters and Daddy.
The jump house was about the most modern event they had and Nate got his own private session with his sisters.
The month ended with Clyde taking off with the other missionaries to get a team from Freemont Ohio. He has been gone since the 28th or so and we wait for him to return with our Pappa Bryan who arrived Nov 3rd in Santarem. Clyde went to meet up with him and help him meet some friends there of the Vineyard in Grants Pass and to take a lineboat to Porto de Moz. We'll look forward to seeing them both on Wednesday!
Everyone is doing great. Our ministry is going well. We are making plans to build on to the church classrooms for our childrens ministry. They so need a place to be instead of the porch at the neighbors and have thier own classes where they can have age related lessons and order.
Thank you for your support, prayers and love! We miss you and hope you enjoy the photos!
I'll add more later and do more ministry photos from the water filter project!
Blessings, Kelsie Catch Up BlogOctober has been a blurr and November is already here. I apologize for not writing more often, but our internet is slow and takes the fun out of spontaneoulsy updating the blog when ever as the site sometimes won't even come up, or stalls out when I have the photos downloading!
Oct 12th was National Kids Day in Brazil. Our church put on a great gig for the kids in the neighborhood. I feel like I have already bloged about this, but basically our church has normaly anywhere from 20-50 kids on any given Sunday service. Well, we opened the church up for a party hosted by the Youth Group to our sunday school kids and thier parents and the neighborhood kids and parents. We had over 100 kids and then thier parents! It was a well planned event and all our youth group served and participated with such delight. In Brazil, Christmas isn't like our holiday. But Kids Day is close to the same feeling or the equivalent to Christmas here in Brazil.
We had cake and gifts, the youth had skits and clowns and lots of fun!
On the family side, we had a fun night at a carnival that came to town. It was a riot to see this carnival as half the rides were not even safe to ride on by our standards. The OSHA would have a cow and then some if they saw what kind of outfit they put these little kids on. It was as if you could step back into time about 50 yrs or more and kids went to have fun and parents didn't care about saftey. Buckles were there, but they were rusted out or broken, no safety locks on the swing rides and no way to stop the machines accept to physically turn it off and stop it with your own force. There were men working the machines, but they didn't care if the kids rode for 30 minutes or 1 minutes. They just watched the lines and if there were a ton of kids, they cut the time down, but if there wasn't a line, the kids were on forever. Some were getting restless wanting to get off.
Nate rode all the rides with Makenna and Maddy except the Ferris Wheel, of which I wasn't about to let my baby on that ride. It looked very chancy to me and I waited at the bottom with NAte crying cause he wanted to be with his sisters and Daddy.
The jump house was about the most modern event they had and Nate got his own private session with his sisters.
The month ended with Clyde taking off with the other missionaries to get a team from Freemont Ohio. He has been gone since the 28th or so and we wait for him to return with our Pappa Bryan who arrived Nov 3rd in Santarem. Clyde went to meet up with him and help him meet some friends there of the Vineyard in Grants Pass and to take a lineboat to Porto de Moz. We'll look forward to seeing them both on Wednesday!
Everyone is doing great. Our ministry is going well. We are making plans to build on to the church classrooms for our childrens ministry. They so need a place to be instead of the porch at the neighbors and have thier own classes where they can have age related lessons and order.
Thank you for your support, prayers and love! We miss you and hope you enjoy the photos!
I'll add more later and do more ministry photos from the water filter project!
Blessings, Kelsie October 06 25 New CreationsIn the last few months it seems to have been slow in seeing fruit and at times we felt like we weren't being affective. In a second language that hasn't been mastered, many times we find out selves asking "Did they even understand", "Am I saying it clearly" or "I wish I could say it just right". Clyde had been wanting to have a baptism but with all the traveling and events going on it kept getting pushed further out. We finally marked a date and before we knew it we had arrived. We had a few new believer's classes and knew a few people had gotten saved that wanted to be baptised. But the week before the baptism as we were announcing it and preparing for it, there were several new converts. Sunday arrived and we all headed out for the beach to have the baptism and BBQ. When we asked who all was getting baptised, there was a small multitude!!!
This was a special day because as it was Clyde's first time since being here to get to baptize. He did a brief teaching about baptism for all those getting baptised and he did an amazing job. Everyone listened intently and seemed to understood well. As I looked around I could tell the story of a few that were pretty exciting.
Aginaldo, a 50 yr old man is from the state of Goias in Brazil. We met Aginaldo when we got back from the US on furlough one night at church. His wife, Rosi and 3 boys had been coming to the Vineyard for many years. She is 20 yrs younger than Aginaldo, but here it is hard to tell sometimes the ages of people until you ask. When we invited them to a couples group, Aginaldo had all the right things to say and seemed to be on the same page. But one day a fellow missionary said to us "You know he isn't saved yet right?" We didn't know that for sure without asking him pointblank. I think we did at one point after learning that and he said he was. But after time went on, we could see certain traits that weren't fruit of genuine salvation. In July, Clyde took the youth on a retreat on the river and Rosi and Aginaldo came a long as adult chaparones. The retreat was going well until the last night or so when some spiritual encounters were happening. Aginaldo aparently had many encounters with the spiritual realm but this night we were seeing which side he was experienced with. Clyde had the authority to bring him back to "earth" so to speak. But it really riled up the youth as they had probably never seen anything like it before.
Clyde spoke to Aginaldo that night and told him he needed Jesus. But Aginaldo was saying he was just needing a key to unlock his search. Clyde told him over and over the key is JEsus!!!!! Aginaldo stayed away from church a while, but Clyde kept loving on him and he came back and still didn't surrender his life. The night before the baptism, Aginaldo came up for the alter call and he was ready to recieve Christ! It was a big day for that family!
Waldinilson and Nazare are a couple who are related to our assistant youth leader Cley. Cley comes from a family of 6 brothers and sisters. Waldeni, Cley, Cleia and Kezia are all in our church. They are all called of God and are walking in it or starting to. They have all been praying for thier oldest brother Waldinilson and other oldest sister Waldinilsa to come to Jesus. Well, Waldinilson and his common-law wife, Nazare came to the Lord in May or June together! That was an exciting day. Since then they both have really been plugged into the men's group and couples group and most recently Nazare has been helping in the children's ministry. They both were baptized on Sunday!!!!!
There are a few other stories like Donathila, a 13 yr old girl who I have in my girls group. She was going to the 7th Day Adventist Church and her friends invited her to our church for game night. She felt the conviction of the Lord and wanted to get more serious with God. She found freedom and has been plugged into the youth and is serving on the worship team. She has a strong calling and I am excited to see God working in her life and see her growing. Her baptism was a neat thing to see.
Mileny, the most faithful youth of all the girls, strong and steady and yet never baptized. Not sure if it was because her parents didn't let her or what, but she was lite the moment she entered the waters. She came up beaming in a new life and new light!!!
Other guys that Clyde has been working with too were also baptised and it was very awesome to see so many "new births". 25 to be exact!!
Please continue to pray for this ministry. We are excited to see the fuits of our labor, but it isn't done yet. We desire to raise up the leaders and see them come in to ministry as God calls and leads. Please pray for this church in reguards to the leaders being raised up and trained!
Thanks for your support!
September 19 September Busy-ness We have been busy this last few weeks with teams and our trip to Santarem. We hit the ground running as soon as we got back with Clyde heading out on the river right away and then coming home in time to preach Sunday and then home a week to get some stuff done before another team came! We just saw the last team off from Sunbury Ohio. Clyde went on the river with them. We had just gone on the river as a family to minister to a few river villages and I wasn't ready to hit the river again so soon. Anyways, the team came and we had them for dinner their first night and they left for the river that night! Maddy went with Clyde and Makenna and Nate stayed with me. It was fun to see Maddy be so independant and free. Makenna has changed and doesn't want to go unless I go!
Now we are in Altamira getting some R&R and we're gonna do some missionary care with Dennis Stranges who is the team leader for the team that just came and went. We will be home Saturday night in PdMoz! Hopefully I will beable to update the blog once in PdMoz, cause it hasn't let me in months! Enjoy our photos and keep checking in!
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