Tropical CHRISTMAS Greetings from the BRAZIL EASTLICK’S 
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy birthday! and “greetings from Manuas”, the city in the middle of the Amazon!
We really do want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year! We won’t be dreaming of a white Christmas, but we would settle for a cool 80 degrees. (Usually its 90’s and humid)
THE KIDS
The kids changed location language and culture in August of ’05 but it took 6 months to a year for culture shock to hit. They began to feel it and this past year was a year of adjusting for them.
Talita not only learned quite a bit of Portuguese, adjusted to a new home, made new friends but took on an extra heavy load trying to finish almost 2 years worth of high school in one at a school internationally accredited with Cambridge University. She did it all and did it well! She continues to be strong in her faith and in her example. At times I would catch her in the middle of the night with her penlight on and go to rebuke her only to find her there reading her Bible or asleep with the Bible.
What a blessing to have your 17 year old “sneaking around behind your back” READING THE BIBLE!
This year Talita also got to work as a translator for short term mission teams, medical and dental etc. She had a GREAT time and was really used by God to impact the kids who came from the states and the villagers where they ministered. She has moved to the states to finish High School and prep for college. This has been a tear jerker for us but we know it is best! SHE is loving it!
Israel had a harder time of it at first and his grades suffered but this school year he has been a totally different kid and is doing well. He also recently began to go out and invite kids to youth group and is starting to like to evangelize”. He is getting better at Portuguese as well. He just turned 14 and is starting to “feel his oats” as Grandpa would say, but he is a great kid and we thank God for him. He has been really improving his guitar skills and I am hoping and praying he’ll get more chance to grow in that. He has a LOT of Korean friends at school and seems to be learning almost as much Korean as Portuguese which is pretty cool.
Lucinda has gotten a long well this year. She had some homesickness last year but is good now. She was the teachers pet at school which caused her to not be too popular for a while but thank God they finally overcame that and now she has lots of friends.
Lulu and friend in the rain trying to stay dry???
She and Israel got to go to the states in July and had so much fun! The encouraging thing was that they went, had fun and still were cool about going back “home” to Brazil.
Israel will be finishing 8th grade here Lulu 5th. They both have improved a LOT with their Portuguese and have made a lot of friends. They will be staying with us but Israel is trying to talk his way into going to the states so he can play football in a year or two. We’ll see Izzy…
THE MINISTRY
As a church we began ’06 with “Prophetic Acts” and a lot of church growth we were desperate for land for parking and expansion. We were unable to succeed in some of our plans. Initially attendance took a hit with the failure of the purchase, but we are still trying to work something out slow but sure. The church has changed a LOT in physical appearance with much remodeling and improvements. We thank God that in the last few month attendance has begun to return as well and weekend celebration services are quite full (aprox. 900). Dulce and I serve as associate pastors in the church taking offerings, praying for people, serving communion and counseling.
We also lead the Youth group. This year it grew rapidly at first but as a combined group with age range from 12-27 it was really impossible to keep it all together and satisfy the various interests so it began to lose numbers in April. We had recommended some changes. When we were in the states, Pastor Francisco took some steps to change things. We now lead youth from 12-17, still a challenge to be age appropriate for all but easier than it was. We restarted youth ministry in September with 20-25 kids, now we have about 60.
Dulce has trained a praise band from scratch that is starting to get really good and involves about 10 kids. We have a dance team that involves 12-15 kids. We have just started a drama and video team as well. We were planning a “Youth retreat/ youth camp” from Jan 17-22. Due to lack of funds we are going to do a youth congress at the church. The cost will be $5.00 each rather than the $40 that the camp would have cost. Please pray for that. Please pray for faithful workers to help us.
We also have 5 cell groups right now. Many who attend cell are not yet church attenders. We hope to bring them to personal relationship with Christ and into the church then multiply the cells. It is a challenge because the cell members we have who are part of the church are new Christians and not qualified to help us lead yet. Please pray for us to keep growing. This year we started with 2 cells involving about 12-15 people. It fell to 2 cells of only about 8 people participating. Now we have 5 cells with about 18 members and between 45-50 people in attendance each week.
This November we Opened “NEW LIFE ACADEMY” . A gym for Jiu-Jitsu , Judo & submission wrestling. As I write this letter we have already 35 students for Jiu-Jitsu. We are expecting 20 judo students. We restarted “Church on the mat”. The academy will include an outreach and discipleship component where kids who get scholarships will make “growth covenants”, be helped in making personal goals in sport, school, home life and spiritual life.
One of our wrestlers was murdered this last month which was a hard thing but God did use it to really shake many of them up. This past month 23 wrestlers made commitments to Christ and at least 15 of them are attending church with us. Please keep that in your prayers as they are a challenge to disciple and get solid for Christ.
The rent in our new place is $300/ month so we are after Brazilian sponsors to help. Please keep that in your prayers that we will succeed and they will stick with us. (We also have NO problem with AMERICAN sponsors...)
Kids under 12 can be sponsored for $7.50/ month and youth (12 and up) for $12.50/ month.
PLEASE KEEP US IN PRAYER PRAY FOR…
-the church, “Igreja Allianca” (Alliance or Covenant Church )
- the youth ministry “Novo Geracao” (The new Generation) for God to lead us, raise up leaders, bless and minister in power.
-Our cell groups: One cell is at a home video rental store, it is mostly ladies and is struggling, the hosts are Val and Jr. Another cell is in a wooden shack with a young man and about 4 neighbors. The host’s name is Edison. The biggest cell (currently about 25 people) is at Luiz and Rosas’s house with Jairo as the evangelist who brings everyone. This cell is men women and children. We are gettiong ready to multiply it into 3 cells but lack leaders. Another cell is at church in my office it is about 4-6 men. It needs to move to grow. The final cell is at a mechanics garage, affectionately known as: church in the garage. This cell is mostly “seekers” and runs between 8-15 men. Barbosa is the host.
-New cell groups: Jairo wants us to start a cell on the other side of Manaus, and another at a mechanics garage near bye. (I spoke to the mechanic and he really does want us to start one with him and his guys there.) Adriano wants us to start a cell in the neighborhood where he lives. (It is FULL of young people!). Juliandrey and Mary want us to start one at their house. We did a “trial run” and had about 15 people. The problem is I have no more free nights to do all these cells. We desperately need God to raise up leaders for us and help free up blocks of our schedule. There is great potential for growth!
- Our marriage and family: to remain strong, stable healthy and happy.
-New Life Academy: for sponsors, and lives to be changed
-Our mission trips and teams: local and abroad. We hope to receive teams and send teams. We also take trips and need God’s guidance, provision, empowerment and protection in all this.
In Closing…
Besides all these things, Dulce does all the input for the song lists and overheads for the computer to project on Sunday. Jon has an average of 2 mission trips overseas per year and we have monthly books to keep and quarterly reports to give to Crossroads. We will be doing quarterly reports for our Brazilian sponsors of New Life Academy as well.
We have no youth budget at our church. Anything we spend we have to raise or take out of our own pocket. We have no resources for a secretary or accountant but God has tremendously graced us to keep up. We are hoping and praying for growth so we know we will need more folks on our team.
It has been a very busy year. Often times we have been challenged by the differences in culture and leadership styles and with our travels we have felt like it has been hard to keep momentum yet overall we stand amazed at HIS GRACE and HIS LOVE! We are amazed at THE FAITHFULNESS HE SHOWS US THROUGH FRIENDS AND FAMILY too! We are in awe of the potential of what He could bring about through these relationships and we tremble at times with the responsibility.
We NEED folks like you! We NEED your prayers and support and we THANK YOU for it!!!
Once again I have to say it: without your love, prayers and support we would not be able to keep going! Our fruit is yours. Please keep us in prayer and check in at our BLOG. Communicate with us. Come visit us!
We LOVE you and pray you have a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We deeply appreciate your prayers, love and support!!!! May Jesus love be so real to you all this Christmas and may his life fill you and thrill you more everyday in 2007 and always!!! WE PRAY THAT GOD WOULD RICHLY BLESS YOU!!!
Love,
Dulce, Talita, Lulu, Izzy and Amazon Jon
Mailing address (sometimes mail doesn’t make it here but usually it does)
Jon& Dulce Eastlick
Rua Rio Purus no. 32 QD 37
N.S. Das Gracas
Manaus, AM 69053-050
BRAZIL
Support: For giving credit checks can be made out to Crossroads Community Church with a memo or attached note: “for the Eastllicks”. Checks can be mailed to
C.CC..
1668 N. Crossroads Lane
Freeport, IL 61032
( Gifts are deposited in our account and accounted for with giving credit at the end of the tax year. )
