Count Down to Furlough

It never ceases to amaze me how my husband can get involved in some of the biggest projects just before we have to push off to the States or anywhere for that matter! Mind you, we don't have a permanent house so each time we are renting somewhere and packing up and storing our things somewhere! It's a major move each time for me. For him, it's not as big of a deal. Thank goodness he is patient with me and kicks me out the door somehow! It's like the crunch feel! It's hurts me to be pushed, but he gets the job done! His strength, my weakness thing.

This time, we are in a rush to get the pastoral house covered with a roof before we leave for 6 months. Although we do our best to make our plans. The Lord ultimately is boss!

While he is working hard, I am at home, organizing all our stuff and trying to rid of the "little things" and packing up little by little. I am so not professional and still stress each time.(If I count right I think this is our 9th move since we left our home in 2004). So needless to say I will be very ready to get on that plane and have a break from all the packing and thinking.

The kids are excited and then have moments of reluctancy. It's a lot of transition for them, but they do very well. I think I am included in that at times too.

But mostly we are excited to see family and friends and be in different climate. I personally am ready for 100% English and a culture I understand and where I can be understood!

I will feel torn a bit leaving our friends in Brazil who are doing the work without us, but I pray strength and protection over them in our absence. God is with them at all times.

Below is a brief itinerary:

Oct 22-Altamira

Oct 28-Manaus

Oct 31- LAX and reunite with family

Nov 28th? heading to S. Oregon

We don't have return dates yet. That just means we get to ask our Father in heaven for the money to return in His timing . This doesn't mean we are staying in the States. So pray with us to that we can return by mid May, if it's the Lord's will!

Ways to Pray

1. We need a vehicle(7 passenger) for our time in Oregon

2. Finances for return tickets

3. Good health for re-entry

4. Refreshing and Rest!

Thank you for your love and support! If you would like to donate to help with our expenses of furlough, you can donate to our home church in the States. They are helping us immensely in our transition. Send your tax deductable gifts to:

Cornerstone Church

269 West Harbeck Road,

Grants Pass, OR 97527-5635

Please make a note that it is for Bergquist Furlough.

Thank you!

Ministry on the Iriri- Part 3

Some of the Maribel clan wishing us farewell

Nilza, my sweet friend

Gathered around the cashew tree to eat lunch...the dog waits patiently!

We met with the Maribel family on Sunday morning and had a wonderfully long service. It was emotional and wonderful to have nearly everyone there participating in the service. We had a huge lunch for everyone and a huge grab pile afterwards of our things we needed to give away before our trip to the US.

George and Josie, who had the baby in the back seat, dedicated their baby to the Lord.

The community leader, Milania, who is catholic, spoke up and with tears in her eyes shared how she wanted to thank Clyde for coming to Maribel. That he wasn’t just a man of words, but of actions too. He serves with his whole heart. She shared how our family has been such a blessing to the community and how much she and the rest of the community will miss us while we are gone.

This Sunday was a much needed confirmation for us. We have been dealing with discouragement in ministry. We hadn’t been out to live among the river folks this summer because of the commitment we made to build a house for the Uruara‘ family and church. We don’t know the fate of Maribel in regards to being turned into a reserve, but the hope is alive in the river people. They are not sulking, they are looking at the opportunity to restart over again. I have so much to share about just that, but this blog is already too long!

Our time was wonderful, blessed and left even our children saying “I’m not ready to go! I’m not ready to go to the US either. Can’t we wait???” God is faithful and He is leading us! We are looking forward to sharing with so many back home about this mission field on the Iriri river! And we are looking forward to returning to go up further the Iriri to share with river villages and Indian villages who are already awaiting our return!! Praise God!

The grab pile getting smaller and smaller! The easiest way to Spring clean!!!

Sunday morning service on our porch. We were singing Happy Birthday to all who had a birthday in October!

Community Leader, Milanhia, shared in tears how much our family has impacted their community.

Clyde having a discipleship time with our core group on our porch Saturday night.

Ministry on the Iriri- Part 2

A little tired, but still cruising on adrenaline!

Clyde was an iron man and slept maybe 2 hours after taking Jocy and the baby to the hospital. He was back on the road and made the 3 hours drive again. He arrived by lunch.

We headed up river a little later than planned and didn’t quite make it to the village we had planned. There were 3 villages to visit and our goal was to go all the way up river and decend from there each day. Instead we stayed at the village in the middle of the other two. It's called Boa Esperanca(Good Hope). We are becoming better friends with this village. A few have come to the Lord in the past few years. But this village has been more of a challenge because of their lack of hunger.

Miami at a student desk grading papers during a test she gave

The highlight for me was seeing the teacher who just transferred there in January. We met her at the village above. She is a sweet young woman who has a heart for God but was very confused when we first met her between legalism and traditions in the churches. Mainly 7th Day Adventists and Catholicism as her parents were of both churches. After a long afternoon of encouraging her, we felt a nice bond with her.

She has been a blessings as a teacher to Boa Esperanca and is very content in the new village. This time we brought a gift to her. “Purpose Driven Life” in Portuguese! She was so excited! The people in the village participated in our worship and testimony time in the new school house. This is the first time they have had a school in their village. I’m not sure how long the village has been established, but I can imagine it’s been a long time. We worshiped and shared songs for all ages by candle light. It was sweet, simple and most of all wonderful to see their participation.

Carlinha and Claudia from Boa Esperanca. Claudia lets us stay at her house almost always.

Carlinha listening to Dona Franca, the grandma in the village tell a story while washing clothes.

We invited our dear friend, Carla Andresa to travel with us to Maribel for this ministry trip. Carla is 20 yrs old and has been walking with Jesus whole heartedly for a little over a year. She came into our lives last year in Altamira. God crossed our paths devinely again when we moved to Uruara’. She has been a major blessing to our church plant efforts in Uruara’. Her father died when she was a very little girl. She doesn’t even remember him, but has one bad photo of him she says. His roots were in the Maribel region and she had never met any of his family. So this trip was special for her and her quest to learn more about her father. God met her in a special way. Many people knew her father and had stories of him and she enjoyed hearing them and learning of his ways and nature. The trip was also an adventure for the city girl who doesn’t know how to swim and had never seen river life. She loved every moment of the trip and every person she met. She is next in line for the next possible trip!

Claudia's oldest son

One of the houses at Zezinho

Laura and her husband and some of their kids in their home

The climb to Laura's house is cruel! Carlinha and Makenna dreading the climb and carrying our stuff up the hill.

An amazing pineapple in Laura's yard! I was trying hard not to pick it!!!!

We cruised up to Zezinho and had a wonderful time. The family we initially met last year on our first trip there was warm and welcomed us as if we were family. Laura and her husband were great hosts to our team. The message Clyde sent by radio didn’t get out of the radio house for some reason so the entire village had no idea we were coming to do a fellowship time with them. We arrived late afternoon and had enough time to meet the new teacher and visit one neighbor. Pataca and Paulo, from our team, went to invite the other side of the village. A few came and all the school chairs were filled. It was a special night of teaching them some fun kid songs and singing some they had never heard!

We had a great sleep and the next morning we pushed off after lunch!

New River and the Acai party

Makenna doing it like a pro! She worked so hard this day and showed all that she was perfectly capable! Now we have someone in the fam that can show us how to do it!

We headed straight for the last village, heading down river back to Maribel to New River. There we have established great friends and they too consider us and treat us like family. This day we arrived also a bit unannounced and upon a Acai party.

Family from Boa Esperanca had come down to pick Acai and make it.

They had arrived from the jungle with the berries and the ladies were preparing it for the process to make it into the extract.

The water was boiling in huge metal pots on the kindling stove. In the end, Makenna pushed up her sleeves and helped 3 other women who were smashing the berries and getting all the skins off the pit. 82 liters later, everyone had their fair share of acai with farinha and sugar!!! Oh, I’ll always love acai and will miss it terribly while gone from Brazil!

The crowd was fixed on acai, so we understood that we were to be friends and not push on having a service with them. Instead, we hung out, watched them play soccer and at the end we gathered the immediate family together after their family left to go home. We prayed for them and encouraged them in the Lord. Many of the womenfolk have accepted Christ. We’re praying for the menfolk there!

It was a late start home in the dark and very dangerous for hitting rocks or sand bars. But God was faithful and we only jumped on a sand bar 2 times. No rocks!!! A beautiful night starry sky where we sang songs and the little ones slept all the way home some 2 hours.

82 liters of Acai!!! This is worth a couple hundred dollars! 1 liter sells for about US$3.

(this is estimated to be about R$6 per liter converted by US dollars at 1.8)

Rosa, the McCaw, loves Acai!

EVERYONE in our family LOVES ACAI !!!!!!!!

pronouced correctly (ah-sah-ee) the c says a s.

Dark boat ride home and Hannah passed out on top of me in the canoe!

Maribel and New Birth Part 1

Our recent trip to Maribel was an amazing time.

Typically our kids are groaning about the lack of things to do and the same thing to eat...fish, fish and more fish. We kind of dread the drive, but this trip was anything but dreadful and we ate far more than just fish!

The first meal was a banquet of jungle game for lunch(we’ll just call it chicken) but it was tasty! We headed down to the river and the kids immediately got their river fix!

We spent the rest of the day visiting old friends from the community and towards the end of the afternoon, we had discipleship scheduled for the evening. Clyde went with our friend, Pataca, who is doing a young mens group ages 13-17. I invited a sweet friend, named Nenhina from Solidade(about 3 hours down river) to our house to study with me. She was waiting for her husband to travel up river and get her in their boat, but didn’t arrive on time. Not unusual for river living.

Our studies went well and we headed to bed about 11pm. At midnight the adventure began!

A knock at the door and Neninha’s voice “Pastor, Pastor, George’s wife is in labor”. We hadn’t been living there so we kind of woke up out of a dead sleep trying to remember if she was even pregnant. In deed she was going into her last month of pregnancy and was planning to head to town that Friday to wait the birth of the baby.

Clyde and I got dressed and headed in the car to visit George and his laboring wife to see how far along she was and hoping we could just drive home and wait it out and maybe take her in the morning. We arrived at their place lit by nothing but a canister and wick with diesel that illuminated the main room. Jocy, George’s wife, was dressed and had her bags packed. She was ready. I felt her tummy and it was tight, but still hard to know if it was emergency! We all stood around for a few minutes expecting her to be panting and unconsolable. I asked her to tell me when her next contraction came so I could time them. She got her bag and sat down on the couch looking a little bit tense but fairly relaxed at the same time. I asked her if she had a contraction and she told me yes. Well, we all kind of took the plunge and decided to have Nehinha go along for support and George. They also had a little one about 1 1/2 yrs old. She was sleeping soundly in a hammock and was quickly whisked away by an auntie to her house for the time being!

We drove back to our house to drop me off and grab some coffee for the long haul that would for sure take more than 3 hours since it was dark. We prayed for Jocy and the baby and I waved and they drove off!

I crawled back in my hammock and prayed for the next few hours as I couldn’t stop the adrenaline and thoughts of that road at that hour and lack of sleep.

I woke up the next morning and told the kids where Dad was. They were shocked.

Word came later in the morning about 8am that there was a message on the radio station from Clyde that the baby was born and mom was fine and he’d be back by noon.

My hubby is an iron man! He slept maybe 2 hours and hit the road again so that we wouldn’t be too late on our river trip we had planned.

He arrived on time. The details came out that Jocy had the baby about 2 hours after they left in the back seat of our truck!!! It was quick, the baby was healthy and they waited to cut the cord when they arrived at the hospital. She was a champ! Clyde was trying to catch it all on film and it was just an amazing opener to our time out in Maribel.

God knew we would be there. There was no other transportation for her, baby was healthy as was mom! God was glorified by this couple as they knew the challenges that could of occurred!

Ana Beatrice is a beautiful baby girl and will have quite the story to tell!

Clyde finished pulling over and got the camera in time to get this shot!

The sweet family later in the week when Jocy came back to Maribel with Ana Beatrice

Nate Turned 6!!!!!

Sept 4, 2008 was a beautiful day of meeting our son.

He is turning into such a little man. Loves learning, remembers things from WAY back when that blows your mind and loves to tease his sisters.

We are so thankful to the Lord for this precious life He has blessed us with.

Enjoy the pics of his bday!

The big 6

Neighbors and Church kids who have befriended Nate

The quick craftsman that he is, he made a tree swing just for the party!! It was a hit!!!

Maribel, InterVinha 2011, Baptisms and more!!!

A boat ride to the Spainard Island where there is a health post. We went with Dr. Daniel a friend of ours to treat the folks out there. We took in the sun, had a picnic and did some swimming with our good friends Fernando and Ana and their 3 kids!

The next day, Clyde and the men's group from the church we attended in Altamira in 2010 had their retreat at the island. It was a perfect spot for refreshing! Here is Clyde with a Caibo.

God is so faithful and always takes care of our every need! Our truck caused many headaches in July and we were again growing in our faith as we couldn't see how we were going to afford fixing the truck. But when it doesn't work out on paper, and the bills are paid, you know it is simply another moment of mercy and grace from our heavenly father. Kind of like the fishes and the loaves! So the truck was working well enough to make the journey home to Uruara'. It had many new sounds that we have to get use to. It also has many new sounds that just don't sound right, but it's running and we are praising God for it! MAINTENANCE IS EVERYTHING!

It could be that the Lord used that month to refresh us or give us an unplanned holiday. Altamira is away from our immediate ministry work and we have many close friends there. We were able to hang out with friends, go to church, homegroups and Clyde got in a men's retreat, birthday parties and 4th of July!!!. We had some good rest except the stress of the truck. Once the truck was in order, we were set for a busy schedule again.

We traveled as a family to Maribel for the weekend. That was fun to see everyone again.

It wasn't an easy trip in the sense of relaxing. The house we have there we left in the care of someone but in the end it didn't work out. There was no water coming to the house, rats have over run the place and it was dirty! We immediately worked and worked and worked. It was finally clean when we left! HA! But we have hopefully controlled the rat population as we have sent out rat poison to kill them off.

We encouraged the folks that make up the church out there and that was our highlight!

The bummer is, we had to tell them that we would't be moving out there again until after our furlough next year. That was hard because we had every intention of moving back out there, thus planning our furlough until after the ministry season out there. Our reasons are because the Uruara' project is not at a place where we can leave it. I'll share more about that in our next blog!

Lindalva, one of our most special friends who lives in Maribel with her family

After coming back from Maribel, we headed back to Altamira for the Inter Vineyard Regional Conference with several families from Uruara' and a few from Maribel as well. It was a great time of communion, teaching, learning about the Vineyard movement and seeing the growth that our region made, the fruit that it is bearing!

12 Churches represented here from the work in Altamira and surrounding towns and cities including Uruara' and Maraba. Also including 2 pastors from Southern Brazil who came. They see the work in the North as an encouragment to the church in the South! There were many who were not in this picture to represent the works going on, but there are many, many more!

Fabiano Alves, from the Vineyard Piratininga in the Sao Paulo area, is an anointed worship leader and song writer. Fabiano has come to Altamira before to teach on Vineyard values in worship. This time he inspired many of us to compose and the surprise talent that was discovered!! We hope to someday have a CD from the northern Vineyard churches. Please pray for him as suddenly has developed a problem with his voice. It gets strained and he can't sing or hold pitch and there is nothing doctors can do for him. But we believe that God can do anything! His voice can be heard on many CD's cut from Vineyard Brazil including, Mais Do Que Tudo and Tua Voz.

We headed back to Altamira and the schedule never stopped. Our first weekend back we had a baptism and Father's Day in Brazil. We had a wonderful time seeing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We had 8 that were baptized and afterwards, 2 more came and we jumped back in the water to do it all over again! It was really awesome!

Father's Day was also incorporated and that night, the Father's were treated to a special dance the girls did for them. We had cake and celebrated with the dad's that came!

As August is nearly ending, we praise God that we were able to book tickets for the States. I'll write more about that as well. Just know, we're coming home in November!

Blessings to all who care and pray for us, support us as we are so much stronger with you behind us. You form the body of Christ that surrounds us with love and support!

Wherever we go, whatever we do, we want to be lead by the Lord and we feel so honored with your friendship and love! Thank you!

Truck Blues

It's been a month since I shared about our truck troubles. Clyde had the mechanics rebuild the engine. The trip home to Uruara' went smooth. We spent 2 weeks in Uruara' and had to come back already. We needed to take Nate to Belem to get his passport renewed and meet up with a team from Ohio. It was gonna be a week of fun. We headed out and 60 km down the road, Clyde pulled over. I figured it was a potty stop. When he got out and lifted up the hood, I heard the strange noise. Clyde knew what it was as it was the same sound he dealt with on the last trip he took to Altamira. It was overheating again! Disbelief hit him along with frustration. He just spent 2 weeks and LOTS of money to rebuild the engine. He knew the system and God ordained our stop right next to a spring of water. We filled up our water bottles and had a few extras Clyde threw in the back "just in case". Staying flexible, I didn't really know what was ahead of us, but trusting God it would turn out okay.

This is what "frustrated" looks like

Well, God is always wanting to give us good stuff. Even in the midst of trials, He is good! ALL the time. I haven't walked through death and sickness to testify of His goodness, but in every trial we have endured so far, He has been good and I don't expect that to ever change no matter what the situation. AMEN!!!

One stop we made was at a cacau farm. The biggest cacau we ever saw. It's one of the kids' favorites! (This is the plant that gives us chocolate)

We are living in one of the richest soil regions for growing the cacau tree.

Draining the radiator to see if that would help go a little further than just 3km.

So it took us 7 hours to go about 25 miles of the 111 miles!! God provided shade, water, a kind neighbor at every stop one of these things comforted us. At one point in the beginning, Clyde pulled over after just 3km and he unhooked a hose. A screw fell down into the engine. He couldn't find it. I took the kids up to a palm branch shelter where folks usually wait for a ride on the TRansAmazon Hwy. I gathered the kids and we prayed that God would allow him to find the screw soon and be able to get it back on so we could start the engine. Without it, we couldn't go any further. Within a short time, the screw was found and put back on!

IN EVERYTHING, PRESENT YOUR NEEDS TO HIM! HE WILL PROVIDE A WAY!!!

The dirtiest and cutest kids!

We got to the nearest big town about 5pm. We decided it was best to send the truck on the bed of a bigger rig. First truck we talked to was ready when we were! Miracle! We quickly rounded up tickets to send me and 3 of the kids on a bus to Altamira(some 90 km). We hustled to eat lunch at 5:30pm before the bus took off. We were dirty from the dust and heat and tired beyond words. I personally don't like the buses. We've seen how fast and crazy they drive. The driver seemed nice, professional, but you just have to trust that he had never had an accident or that he would drive with caution or not fall asleep. I placed our lives in God's hands and had tears in my eyes as I surrendered it over to His will. He will NEVER leave us or forsake us. The kids and I feel asleep and the drive went smooth all the way til the mission gates! Thank you Lord. We arrived in Altamira after dark. Clyde followed another hour later in tact with Maddy!

Wednesday, it will make 3 weeks that we have been in Altamira waiting for the truck to get fixed. It's been a process of trail and error. They can't figure out why it keeps over heating. Because we rebuilt it last month, it's under their warranty. One big problem is they are not putting our car in priority. Please keep Clyde in your prayers as he is frustrated with the amount of time it's taking.

Keep us in your prayers. We have both been discouraged. Sometimes missionary life isn't all it's seems to be. We don't believe that God wants us to give up but the battle is there and we need the force to overcome no matter what.

Furlough is coming up and it's a big price tag. The truck and selling it and buying another new truck is also a huge price tag. The building project in Uruara' is lacking funds to get Poli and Nega into a house and have a mtg area.

We know we have put our dependance in the Lord as He is the only ONE to fix our temporary problems. It's His ministry. He'll take care of it in His timing!

I thank Him in advance for the preparations He has made for us to meet ALL our needs. I am so mindful that this is not about death of family member, like our friend Pastor Clenildo is facing right now or illness that needs a miracle like our friend's son is needing. I praise God we are walking a different lesson right now. My heart goes out to those suffering!

May the Lord minister to those suffering and feeling helpless. May His light enter their darkness. Are you feeling in the dark? Are you feeling blue?

Lift up your heads!

He IS in control!

Just wanted to update you on our happenings these past few weeks. Clyde returned from a great trip to Maribel and headed off for a quick trip to Altamira. About 60km into the trip the truck broke down. He called on the SAT phone to let me know what was happening. What should of taken about 4 hours on the 111mi trip took him 16 hours to get the truck to Altamira. A big bed truck passing on the road stopped and loaded the Ford up(challenging procedure without ramps)and took the truck the rest of the way. Mechanics told him the motor was fried. He ended up running around for 2 weeks buying parts as the mechanics needed them and replaced everything on the motor. We joined him by day 10 and spent the weekend with him and waited for the truck to be fixed. We praise God for the funds that have been coming in the past few months. He allowed us the money to pay for the repairs with what was in saving and the extra that had come in from generous folks.

We know that it is totally in His control! The sad news is that the truck still isn't right yet. It's lacking power as we think the turbo needs to be replaced. On the way home, the truck couldn't get up hills without being in 1st or 2nd gear. A few times we had to put in 4Wheel drive. Also, God protected us as we made the trip. When we pulled into Uruara' we heard a strange sound coming out of the back of the truck. Clyde took it in to a mechanic and found out that there were broken parts all in the driver's back wheel and a thin wire holding the brakes together. One fast brake to avoid a pot hole or oncoming vehicle could of sent us in a roll over. Clyde had to brake often with this same scenario!!! God is more than faithful!

Clyde had to take off to Maribel again and the truck sits waiting for parts to arrive.

Please pray with us that this truck will go the distance or whatever it is we need for us to make the trips to do ministry on these challenging roads.

Thank you for your love and prayers!

Car broken down on the TransAmazon Highway about 37 miles from Uruara' on the way to Altamira which is about 74.5 miles further. The distance between Altamira and Uruara' is about 111 miles. When roads are dry and good, we make it in 3-31/2 hours. In the rainy season it can take 4 hours or more. This trip took 26 hours for Clyde.

The truck was brought in on the bed of this truck. It was traveling on the road and was nearly empty! Love how God provides!!! There is no cell reception on the roads and no Triple A services!!

The engine pulled out to start repairs

Clyde waiting patiently for them to start it for the first time with all the new parts. 2 weeks later and a few days.

Look at all those shiny new parts!!!

We are praying now for the wisdom to know which direction to go. New truck or keep driving this one with new parts!

One problem with this truck that we can not resolve is the height or clearance. We have already lifted the truck and we still can not clear many areas on the road to Maribel.

Pray with us that we will hear the Lord clearly on what to do!

Thank you!

The Bergquist Family

Church Fellowship

Thalia and Mom, Maria both new believers in the past 2 months

Rodrigo and Michelle with Nega's very choclatey Gabriel

Both are back in fellowship

Leunice and Nelson and their daughter Cibele

Leunice is our most recent new Christian and she is praying for her sweet hubby

Relaxing from a very trying week. Socorro is a counselor with Childrens Services in Uruara'

Moses and Elizete and their children. Moses committed his life last month. Elizete is on her way!

Carlinha and Mom, Socorro. Carlinha is on our leadership team.

Poli and Nega with Poliana and Samuel

Enjoying the food and company

Fun in the sun and the jungle

Our next baptism we are hoping to have next month at this same place! It was beautiful! The beautiful thing is, it's less than a mile away from our house!!

The weekend before Mother's Day, Nega and I realized that our hubby's would be out of town doing missions in Maribel on Mother's Day. So we voted for a family outing that turned into a church outing that was an absolute blast. We didn't realize what was so close to us. A friend made arrangements for what is normally a public weekend gathering place and asked for permission for our group to close it down for our use only! Wow, the turn out and the location couldn't of been more relaxing and wonderful for kids and friends to gather!

I took my camera along and had a great time taking pics. Clyde took some too!

We also had some good friends come to visit from Altamira and we enjoyed a great weekend with them!

After the gathering, new friendships have gone deeper. Enjoy the photos!