Okay, I'm home now! I came back to the States on August 6th, and had a week of debrief with the rest of my DTS classmates. Friday, August 11th was our DTS graduation, and I've been home since the 12th. I want to thank EVERYONE who has supported me in every way possible. Thank you for your prayers throughout my DTS. It was the best five months of my life, and I have become closer to God because of it.

You can check out pictures of the outreach, and see where we were in Brazil and what we did.

So what's next for me? Right now I'm working part-time at Family Christian Stores in Manassas while helping out with the youth group and teaching Sunday School. I believe God has given me a vision to start a youth band and a drama team consisting of the church's youth, so I'm really excited about it. I'm also running the Clear River Missions page, where I want to use it to promote global awareness in the church. I want to continue on in missions, but for now God has called me back home. I will continue to update this page with what I am doing in the field of ministry, and share how God has opened up opportunities since DTS.

Again, thank you so much for following me on this journal! You have truly blessed me!

Oi from Fortaleza! I hope everyone is doing well back in the States. There is so much to cover, but I thought I would post what God has been teaching me and what I am learning on this outreach. You can also read the exact same post on my myspace blog as well.

Not gonna lie, this outreach has been extremely stretching for me. Who would have thought that God would continue to minister to you while you minister to others? I know some of you are thinking, "No duh Sam". But I guess in some sick way I thought you had to be perfect with God to minister to others, yet He still uses you in our weaknesses. I think that´s pretty crazy, but who am I to question God´s ways?

God has hit some areas of my life that needed to be nailed down. I´ve been going through some tough heart surgery during this outreach, more so then I ever did during lecture phase. But thankfully I have an awesome team who prays for me, and awesome leaders to guide me. I am sooo grateful to have a team that is united in Christ. Everyday I think, "Wow! This is how the body of Christ should act!". We are able to serve each other and humble ourselves, which isn´t always easy for someone like me who likes to be "calm, cool, and collective". Like I´ve said, outreach has been a stretch. This outreach just hasn´t been easy, but I know that it will produce fruit in the long run.

Jesus said in John 15 that He is the vine and we are the branches. For every branch that doesn´t produce fruit, He cuts off. But for every branch that does produce fruit He prunes. Sounds kind of silly, right? Yet pruning produces even more fruit. And that´s exactly what God is doing in my life right now, particularly in leadership, worship, and life in general. He´s pruning stuff so that more fruit will be produced. And all I need to do is to remain and rest in Him, and He will remain in me. And quite honestly, I´m still trying to figure out how to "rest" in Him and yet still minister to people. Somehow I think that defeats any purpose that He is trying to do in my life.

I could go on and on about what God has taught me on this outreach. And it´s amazing to see how people are receiving us, and how they are receive the Gospel. Ministry wise, I´ve learned not to depend on what I physically see. Who knows how many people have been impacted by the Gospel, and we don´t even know it? So I´m learning to depend on my spiritual eyes, and not what I see in the physical. That´s a tough one for a lot of people, I think. But I could be wrong.

Anyways, we´re here in Brasil for another two weeks, and then we have a week of debrief in Denver. I´ll be back in VA in three weeks.

Isn´t it weird how time flies during DTS?

Hola from Manaus! We are finally here! This is just a quick update on what has happened in the past 48 hours.

We left Denver at 1:30 pm MT on Monday, and arrived in Mexico City about four hours later. When we arrived in Mexico City, our flight from there to Manaus was cancelled. So they flew us to Sao Paulo, which is at the very southern tip of Brazil. It was a nine and a half hour flight, including a stop in Columbia. At about 9am EST we landed in Sao Paulo, and waited until midnight to finally fly into Manaus. We arrived at the YWAM base in Manaus at about 5am. We had a chance to sleep in today, and check out the city of Manaus. It´s a very colorful and busy city, full of diversity and lots of tropical fruit! Tomorrow we will start our boat ministry, and we´ll be on the river for two weeks.

Here are some quick prayer points for the next two weeks:

• The airline we used, Varig, has declared bankrupcty. As of today, all flights by Varig are indefinitely cancelled. We are extremely blessed to catch a flight to Manaus at midnight last night! Please pray for Varig and their employees, as well as a means for the team to get to Fortaleza next month and a means to get home in August.
• We didn´t take maleria pills in the States, and our base director says we should. However, maleria pills are illegal in Brazil. We are starting a fasting and prayer cycle that will last throughout the whole outreach. Please pray for our health, especially when we are on the river for the next two weeks!
• I´m actually enjoying the weather here! It reminds me of North Carolina. But please pray for the weather conditions down here as it is already taking a toll on some people. Pray for plenty of clean water for us to drink, and that we won´t become dehyrdrated.
• Pray for the communities that we will reach in the next two weeks. Pray that they will see Jesus Christ in each of us as we help build their communities and share the Gospel with them.

So far, everyone is safe and we are enjoying life here in Brazil! I will give you guys an update on our boat ministry in two weeks! Thank you and God bless!

We are ready to go! Everyone is leaving today with passport and visa in hand! We're leaving the base in less then two hours, and our flight leaves at about 3:30 EST. We'll fly into Mexico City, and then fly into Manaus at about 3:30 AM.

After the whole passport ordeal, we are sooooooo ready to go! The new class of DTSers are arriving, and it's really weird seeing new faces. I even met a girl who is from Winchester, and went to Fairfax High School for awhile (small world!). But seeing the new kids here reminded me of how far I have come in the past three months. God has equipped our us with awesome tools, gifts, and abilities to share the love of Christ to those who desperately need it. And now we get a chance to use these tools on the mission field. It's pretty spiffy stuff.

I will try to update as much as possible, but it will probably be much less then once a week. We'll be on the Amazon for 13 days, and we won't have internet access while we are there. We'll be back in the states on August 5th, do a week of debrief, and then I fly back to DC on August 12th. Please continue to pray for us in the next seven weeks. We've already faced some opposition, so we expect even more opposition in the following weeks to come.

I thank you for reading this blog, for praying with me, and for sharing my adventures with me. My teammates and I certainly appreciate all of the prayer support. It has definitely helped with our passport and visa situation, so please keep on praying! Thanks!

Visa and Passport Update:

It has been a very crazy week! Over the weekend, the Brazil team prayed, fasted, and worshipped together. We asked God for direction and clarification on the situation. On Monday morning, the team leaders received a clear word from the Lord to apply for new passports and visas. The eight Americans on the team went to the passport bureau in Denver to apply for replacements. We were originally told that it would take 1-3 days to receive the new passports. But we got them in an hour!!! We FedEx the passports that same afternoon to the Brazilian embassy in Houston, and we received them back TODAY.

Rory and Rosa, who are from Canada and Australia respectfully, had to go through different procedures. Rory had an appointment at the Canadian consult yesterday morning, and for a moment there was some confusion with references. But during our team meeting this afternoon, we received a phone call from the consult that his passport is ready! As for Rosa, she had to fly to LA to the Australian consult to receive an emergency passport. She flew in this morning, went to the consult, and received her passport as well! Both of these passports are being FedEx this afternoon, and they should have visas by the end of the week. However, there is a possibility that Rosa can't enter the United States when we leave Brazil in August, so please pray that she will be able to enter so that she may graduate with us.

So we are ready to go...almost...

If it's not one thing, it's another. The airline that we will use in Brazil has declared bankruptcy. There is someone who might buy the airline, and if that's the case then we're in the clear. If that's not the case then our flight from Mexico City to Manaus will be cancelled, as well as all flights within Brazil and our return flight from Brazil to Miami.

So PLEASE continue to pray for us! We have come closer together as a team, and our relationship with the Lord is much stronger through these situations. We have a feeling that God is going to do some amazing, crazy stuff in Brazil. So please pray that God will continue to grant us favor.

"I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. "(Psalms 27:13-14)

This is an urgent prayer request on behalf of the Brazil outreach team.

We've sent in our visa applicatons about a week and a half ago, along with our passports. Everything has been processed, however there has been some confusion and the Brazilian embassy does not know where these visas and passports are. So they are currently missing in action, and we cannot get into the country without these documents. Three of our teammates come from countries where a visa into Brazil is not required, so they are able to get in with just their passports. However, please pray for the twelve of us whose passports and visas are missing. Pray that we will trust in God's perfect timing, and the we will allow Him to send us when He deems to be the right time. I'll keep you guys updated on the situation as soon as I find out. Thanks!

Two more weeks until the team leaves for Brazil! We have prepared for out outreaches all last week with drama rehearsals and culture/language classes. We've had drama rehearsals from morning to night, and have been working extremely hard. Personally, this has definitely been a tiring week for me. God has really stretched me in not only patience, but with relationship with my teammates as well. Yet He has been completely faithful, and has given me strength and courage to work through outreach preparaton.

The following is an excerpt of the itinerary that we are sending out to everyone we know!



Our team of 13 will spend 7 weeks traveling in Brazil. Our time will be spent in two main locations. Manaus (North Central) & Fortaleza.

We will be spending 3 1/2 weeks in Manaus, serving in the Amazon Jungle tribes, a local orphanage, local churches and with the youth. Manaus will prove to be the most challenging living conditions for our team. (Living on the floor in village huts, sleeping on a river boat, no running water or functioning restroom, etc...) We are equipped to share Christ in these areas and we will do so in the small river tribes and the city of Manaus. In addition to these tools, we will also take with us skits used to teach about basic hygiene and sickness prevention methods.

After this, we will fly to Fortaleza (East) and spend 3 1/2 weeks working with a local Ministry called, “My Father’s House”. My Father’s House workers spend the majority of their time working to help the aid poor communities (Favelas) and the drug addicted youth of Fortaleza and surrounding villages. We will spend our weeks in Fortaleza serving along side this ministry. We’ll work in their “rehabilitation farm”, teaching music and life skills to to the kids who are enrolled in their rehab program. We plan to build a skate park and work on another building to
be used for future team housing. In Fortaleza, we will also be working with the local church to do outreaches and drama presentations for the local people. In addition to this, we will strive to spread the vision of local and world outreach/missions to those in the local church; especially the youth! Please pray that a passion for God will spread like wildfire!


This is just a brief glimpse of our outreach. Some major prayer points are:

• Protection and Health
• Humility and Love
• Endurance and God Centeredness
• Passion, Zeal, and Opportunity

I would like to encourage everyone to pray for us these next two weeks. We will continue to prepare for this outreach, and to bond together as a team. Please pray that God will prepare our hearts as we are about to live in another country for two months. We are very excited and anxious at the same time, and we can't wait to see what God has in store for us on this outreach!