Feliz Ano Novo

Greetings from the Linda Esperanca,

Today we went to Sao Jose and had a great time with the people there. Corey, Skylar, Lydia, Taylor and I had the opportunity to talk to the teenage girls about life, boys, school and God this afternoon. It was really neat to see how the girls opened up to us and were really receptive to what we had to say about having pure relationships. Zach Woods shared his testimony with the adults after the daily afternoon soccer game and it was incredible. The people there invited us to a service tonight at the local church and we went, sang some songs and Skylar and Brennan shared their testimonies. The pastor of the church was so sweet and thanked us multiple times and once again we were blessed with hearing how the Linda Esperanca has passed by his village multiple times and he told us that he had been praying that the boat would stop there one day. It continues to rock my world how God is using this boat and this ministry without us even realizing it. After going on so many trips the past 10 years it has been an incredible encouragement to me that this boat has such an impact on the lives of the Brazilian people.

Sam Turtletaub had a neat experience tonight getting to talk one on one with a 13 year old boy named Leandro. He had become friends with the boy during the day and sat by him at the church service this evening. During their discussion Sam learned that this young Brazilian boy was addicted to maurajiuna and his friends told him if he stopped doing drugs he would have no friends. Sam and Thiago were able to share the gospel with him and he prayed to receive Christ as his Savior but he is going to have a long struggle with overcoming addiction ahead of him so please be in prayer for him.

We had a minor soccer injury today so please keep Chandler in your prayers that she would have a quick recovery. Nothing major but of course we want her to be back to 100% as soon as possible! Everyone is doing great but exhaustion is starting to take its toll so strength, energy and endurance is our greatest prayer need right now. God is good and we witnessed that in a marvelous sunset this evening! Happy New Years!

In Christ,

Landen Ellis

Day #3

Dear Family and Friends,

Day 3 of ministry has just come to a close and once again it was such a blessing! Everyone is still healthy and safe praise God! Today we worked at Sao Pedro and it was a pretty large village. For those of you familiar with the area the we have been working in is about an hour speed boat ride away from Itacoatira. Our ministry schedule was similar to the past few days and I got to spend some time sitting in on discussion with the teenage girls! It was such a blessing seeing how well they received the message from the Chapada team.

Katie Johnson, one of our team members had a neat experience in the village today. "A group of us had the opportunity to go into two different homes and share the Gospel with two families. They were so sweet and joyful, and were very encouraged by everything we had to tell them. Later on in the afternoon, one of the familes that we had the opportunity to talk to came and found me, and the mother left her two young children with me the rest of the day. The little boy, Kyle, was one of the most joyful boys I had ever seen. His smile and presence made my entire day. Even though I wasn't able to communicate with words, it meant a lot that he still wanted to stay with me the rest of the day, and wouldn't leave my side!"

One thing that Mr Delph has told us is "Share the gospel and use words only when you have to". This phrase is really cool because despite the language barrier I have witnessed so many of these college kids communicating God's love through their actions. We are studying the power of the Holy Spirit and reading Francis Chan's 'Forgotten God' which has really opened our eyes to how great our God is and how He has been in the Amazon long before we got here. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to love on the people in these villages! Keep up the prayers for health and safety, they are working! Time for alligator hunting! Tchau! :)

In Christ,

Landen Ellis

(Please forward on to Jeff Hurt)

Day Two!

Bon Dia from the Linda Esperanca,

Yesterday was another great day for our team! We went to the village Nossa Senhora do Perpetuo Socorro and had a full day of work there. We got off the boat nice and early and set up medical, women's ministry and VBS. In VBS we did the skit of the Angel setting Peter free from Prison, Will made a great (and rather large angel) the kids absolutely loved it! The women's ministry has been going very well and Mrs Delph was able to sit down with all the women of the village yesterday and have an incredible time of prayer and discussion, what a blessing!

One thing that has been such an amazing encouragement to me after going on trips all these years is the similar stories we have been hearing the past two days that I'm sure will bless many of you as well. At both villages we have talked to people and yesterday to one woman in particular who was so excited to have our boat stop in her village because everyone there recognized the boat well. They knew the Linda Esperanca because every time it passed someone would throw out balloons with candy and Bible verses. This women had saved all the Bible verses from inside the balloons and had her daughter teach her how to read so that she could understand. She said before we came she did not know what this boat did but she knew it had to be something great because the simple balloons had blessed her and her people so much. Hearing this story blew my mind because after 8 trips I never realized how much of an impact this simple ministry had! Glory be to God for showing up in an awesome way yesterday. The entire team agreed that the Holy Spirit was present in the village and we really felt God moved in the lives of the people there. Please continue to pray for health and safety for our team!

In Christ,

Landen Ellis

P.S. Johnson Ellis, could you please forward this email to Jeff Hurt (Jhurt@sw-credit.com) so that he can send the last two emails on to our family members not registered for the blog! Obrigada!

We're Alive and Well!!

Greetings from the Linda Esperanca,

We just finished our first day of work out on the river and it was incredible! The village we went to today was Nossa Senhora das Gracas. There were about 60 families in this village and we had a great time getting to know them throughout the afternoon. It was only an 8 hour boat ride to the village from Manaus so we got there early this morning and then unpacked all the bags and got everything ready for the day since we did not have a lot of time to do so on the boat. The medical team went out and worked with the people in the morning and we did VBS and women's ministry in the afternoon. The people from Chapada have been very helpful and fun, we are all having a great time getting to know them despite the language barrier. They did a puppet show about joy to go along with our VBS lesson on Jonah this afternoon. It went really well once we finally got the sound system working and I think the kids really enjoyed it. After VBS we all went out and played some soccer because no trip would be complete without a good ol game of Brazilians vs. Americans (which we lost of course but not without a hard fight!) After the game we were able to gather many of the villagers together and Mr Delph gave his testimony. The kids absolutely loved hanging all over Will, Zach, Brennan and Sam and we got to play with the children for a little while before heading back to the boat and onto the next village. At this point the plan is to hit one village everyday so we are on the move at the moment. Yesterday we spent some time in Manaus doing some outreach for Shalom Baptist church and then went to the Sunday night service there. We met up with a team from YWAM which was really cool because there were so many different nationalities represented among all of us! All is well, everyone is safe and healthy and all of our bags made it safely Praise God! Please be praying for continued health and safety! The team has already bonded so well and we are having a great time working together to bring glory to God's name!

Everyone sends there love!

In Christ,

Landen Ellis

Pai, eu to viva!

P.S.: Johnson, eu recebi seu recado e e stou cuidando da tua nenem!