We had a great teens' group meeting tonight, and two of our boys were awarded their Patrol Member patch. We also watched a modern video of the Good Samaritan parable and the kids ended up playing games on the XBox and the Wii, before we finished with a snack.

We have just finished another Teen CERT course in the suburb of Cordoeira - Nova Friburgo, which was a great success. Here are some photos from the course:

It was great that Kevin, one of our teen leaders, opened our base this afternoon for some of the local kids to come hang out for a while. Here are some photos:

The Christmas presents for our youth have finally arrived - headlamp flashlights/torches for all. It's good to be able to give them something practical for Christmas this year.

After several months work (and one builder who simply disappeared one day and never came back), we have finally finished the major work on our old church building, now missions base. The major changes including moving a doorway, adding a roller door and closing off the upstairs flat roof area to make another room.

Over the long weekend we ran a three-day camp for nine of the members of teens' group. It was a great time and here are some of the photos from the camp.

It was great to open our base for some of the kids from the teens' group to play games tonight. We're hoping to make some adjustments soon to the building, to make the space more usable and secure, and to prepare for what I hope will be my soon return to the house that I built above the then church building just over ten years ago.

Once again, our Teen CERT group participated in a Civil Defence evacuation simulation. Thanks to Felipe Lisboa and all the teens that took part!

We had a great "camp-out" on the church roof overnight with some of the teens from our group. It was really cool to see how everyone helped with the chores, and we had some real good conversations (and one boy was instantly healed of a stomach-ache when we prayed for him last night).

Our Teen CERT group helped out with a Civil Defence evacuation simulation today. Thanks to all who participated and especially to Felipe Lisboa for his participation as team leader.

Here are some photos:

We had a great time at the Nova Friburgo Civil Defense open day today, where we set up a stand and I taught a first aid course for over 20 municipal teachers. Our teens were absolutely fantastic with manning the stand and helping me with the course, and we appeared on a local TV news channel.

Over the last week we have been running Bible Studies and CERT Emergency Communications courses and also opening up the base for games. It was great to see our teens completing the courses, including the new members who have recently joined the team, and all who were awarded Achievement Badges today.

This week we held another Teen CERT course in the suburb of Cordoeira, Nova Friburgo, which served as both a induction course for new members and a refresher for the existing Teen CERT members. The course went very well, and here are some photos from the week.

Yesterday and today we held a mini-camp and sleepover for the teens' group, which went very well. Activities including a lego competition, frisbee soccer and a selfie scavenger hunt.

I'm now back in Nova Friburgo after a very long series of flights back from Christchurch, going through Los Angeles and New York before finally arriving in Rio. It was great to have Felipe pick me up at the airport.

Today was my last day volunteering with the New Zealand Red Cross in recovery outreach for those affected by the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. It was a very rewarding time, and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work with such a fantastic team.

Here are some photos from the last month.

Today I received my Graduate Diploma in Emergency Management from Massey University in Palmerston North. Here are some photos from the graduation cerimony.

I arrived in Christchurch late last night. Am now preparing to fly up to Palmerston North this afternoon. Here are some photos from my stop over in Sydney yesterday where Peter Green showed me around the city centre.

I am currently at Rio's international airport where I am about to fly to New York. After a week in the US, I'll be on my to New Zealand, where I am booked to graduate from my Massey University course.

I'm now back in Friburgo after spending that weekend ministering with a church in Belo Horizonte. There were very powerful moves of the Spirit on the Saturday and Sunday nights. There have been very few times I have seen so many children and teens so powerfully touched by the Spirit, as well as the adults.

Today I took some our teens hiking up a nearby mountain (I survived!).

Today we held a simulated bus accident exercise for our Teen CERT group, with help from the adult members of our response unit. The exercise went very well and much enjoyed by all who participated.

Last night we held a CPR lesson for some of our teens, with the help of a visitor from the UK.

Here are some photos of the lesson:

Today we finished another week-long Teen CERT course at the Cordoeira Residents' Association hall in Nova Friburgo with help from the members of our CERT and Teen CERT groups. The course went very well and we had a great final exercise, based around a simulated aircraft crash, with help from a visiting team of overseas missionaries.

Here are some photos from the course and final simulation exercise:

We have just come back from an overnight camp that we held for some of our teenagers at a small farm with help from some of our leaders. The camp went very well, here are some photos.

Here are some photos of our Response Team and Teens' Group for the month of November. Activities included the awarding of achievement badges, work on our rescue trailer and some flying of our remote controlled helicopter.

Hi,

In October we ran another CERT course for over 40 Civil Defence volunteers in the city of Petrópolis, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro state.

Here are some photos from that course.

Some of our teens helped me teach a first aid course at a local State School this morning, which went very well.

Here are some photos of the course.

Today our teens' response unit participated in a simulated evacuation exercise with Civil Defence, ate pizza (and pancakes with IHOP syrup, candy corn and peanut butter Oreos) and did a Bible Study.

Today some members of our teens' group participated in a Civil Defence emergency warning system test and evacuation simulation.

Today Matheus Marlisson, one of our youth leaders, and myself travelling to the city of Petrópolis where trained some CIvil Defence staff and volunteer in basic first aid.

Howdy,

I have just arrived back in Friburgo after a trip to the US. I visited the Iris Harvest School at Abilene TX, USA where we trained 38 students in the CERT course and also two CERT instructors.

Here are some photos from the course.

Today I visited the Rio de Janeiro Emergency Expo down in Rio city with Felipe Lisboa and Kevin Campos.

Here are some photos.

Howdy,

On Saturday the 9th of August our response team and teens group participated in a Civil Defence display in the main square of Nova Friburgo and we ran some quick first aid courses for the general public.

Here are some photos from that event.

During my recent trip to Iris Global in Pemba, Mozambique, I was able to run a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) course in which 99 staff and students from Iris Relief and the Harvest School were able to graduate from the course.

Here are some photos from our first CERT course in Mozambique:

On my way back from New Zealand I made a stop-over in Pemba, Mozambique. In addition to teach the CERT emergency response training to foreign missionaries and Harvest School student, I had the opportunity to do some training with Mozambican Bible School students and base security staff.

I'm currently at the Rio de Janeiro international airport, where a strange robot just took my photo. I'm about to fly to Christchurch, via Dubai, Bangkok and Sydney.

While in New Zealand I'll be taking part in a short course at Massey University and have several university exams to take, and will hopefully also visit Auckland. On my way back to Brazil I'm planning to visit Pemba, Mozambique where I will be running some emergency response team training for missionaries and Bible school students.

Last night we did some rescue training with our response team and Teen CERT group, using backboard stretchers and Bob the Rescue Manekin as our patient.

Last night we held a simulated aircraft crash exercise for our Teen CERT group on a hillside overlooking our city.

The exercise went very well, here are some photos (sorry that the quality isn't the greatest).

Over the Easter holiday period, our team held a CERT course for interested members of the public. Although turnout was much less than had been indicated, the course went well. Here are some photos from that course.

Howdy,

Its now been just over three years since Nova Friburgo became the epicentre for Brazils worst ever natural disaster, when heavy rainfall caused landslides and flooding that killed an offical total of just under one thousand victims. Although there have been some signs of progress since then, many of the scars from that time period still remain. Today I took some photos around town to illustrate an article that I am writing for an emergency management publication, and I thought it could be interesting to also share some of them here.

It was great to have our Response Unit participating in the "Free Fair of Gratefulness" this morning. We gave away some books and did a brief first aid lessons, and were interviewed by local TV.

Today we took some of the teens in our group to the  Friburgo Municipal Park where we practised flood rescue training and the use of life jackets.

We had a smaller than usual turnout for our last Response Unit and Teens' meeting for the year, but those who came were able to rescue the lost chocolates.

Today I had a busy but very rewarding morning teaching two end-to-end first aid classes in a city school in partnership with local Civil Defence and with help from Felipe.

Here are some photos:

Yesterday our response team, together with some of the teenagers that we trained in the Teen CERT program, participated in a city-wide Civil Defence evacuation simulation. Our team of ten responders, with the help of another eleven local Teen-CERT members, helped in the suburb of Granja Spinelli where the siren was activated and the local school was opened as a temporary evacuation point.

It was great to see how our teams worked so well together with the local authorities and other responders from the Red Cross and military.

Here are some photos from yesterday's exercise.

Since September we have been holding two-weekly meetings on Saturday nights where we provide advanced training to members of our response team and young people from our teens group who have completed the Teen CERT course. Over the past several meetings we have trained with the SKED stretcher, tested an Meal Ready to Eat (MRE), and practised one and two personal profissional CPR and the use of the Bag Valve Mask (BVM) and Automatic External Defibrillator (AED).

Here are some photos from recent training meetings:

On Sunday, the 15 September 2013, members of our Response Team and teens group participated in another Civil Defence close to you public display, this time in the city square in the suburb of Olaria, Nova Friburgo.

Here are some photos from that event.

This week I finished another Teen CERT course at a municipal school in the suburb of Granja Spinelli, here in Nova Friburgo - RJ, which was badly impacted by the landslides back in January 2011 and, sadly, still shows the scars of that devastation.

21 young people completed the course, which was very encouraging to see, and I am planning to ran another course for another group starting tomorrow.

Here are some photos from the week.

We had a great Response Team and Teens' Group combined meeting tonight.

Howdy,

Last week we ran another Teen CERT course, this time for a dozen teenagers who study at the Escola Municipal Dante Magliano here Nova Friburgo. The course went very well, and it was good to see how the young people learned the basic of emergency preparedness and response during the 20 hour course.

These courses, which are running free-of-charge, have been very well received, and is good to see that we can help prepare our city, which was impacted by  Brazil's worst natural disaster back in 2011. Unfortunately, the recently released Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Plan shows that over 18,000 residents in our city continue to live in houses which have a high to very-high risk of collapse in the event of heavy rainfall.

This past week we have just finished teaching another Teen CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) course in the suburb of Cordoeira, Nova Friburgo - RJ. As you can see from the photos, there is still a lot of damage around from the landslides that happened in January 2011, and as we are soon to be coming into the rainy season once again, it is good to be focussing once again on community preparedness.

It was a great time, albeit very busy, and you can see how we have been able to obtain and prepare the necessary equipment so as offer the course free of charge to the young people of this at-risk suburb.

Hi,

I have just finished a very busy but profitable week, running the Teen CERT disaster response course for two groups of teenagers at a local school. In all, we had 24 students who completed the training.

One of the highlights of the week, for me, was hearing from a young man who had completed the Teen CERT training last year, and told me how that he had used his new found first-aids skills three times since then, including at two traffic accidents.

Tonight we held a search and rescue exercise at the Municipal Park with our teens' group and response team, which a great opportunity to try out our SKED stretcher.

Here are some photos:

Hi,

On Sunday, the 7th of April, members of our response team participated in a public exhibition, in the main square of the city of Nova Friburgo, put on by the city Civil Defense Department and called "Civil Defense close to you".

We mounted our small tent and, as well showing some of our equipment, we ran some basic first aid lessons for kids from city schools.

Hi,

From the 2nd to the 26th of February I visited the United States once again, primarily to take part in two training courses at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg - MD. I also had the chance to spend some more time at the CRI Base Camp in Lindenhurst - Long Island - NY, which was winding up after three months working with survivors of Superstorm Sandy. During my stay, I also ministered at a church in New York, and had the chance to complete several courses with the American Red Cross, and successfully took an exam at the headquarters of the International Assocation of Emergency Managers (IAEM).

I recently had the opportunity to visit a suburb here in Nova Friburgo - Rio de Janeiro which was devastated by the landslides on the 12th of January of 2011. Despite the fact that this suburb is some 2 - 3 km from the centre of the city, as you can see from these photos that I took, it seems that little or nothing has been done in the intervening timespan, and the vast majority of the residents have been forced find other accomodation elsewhere.

Today we held a training exercise for our response team with the participation of members of our teens' group.

Hi,

I am now back in Brazil having spent nearly four weeks in the east coast of the United States. Most of this time was spent volunteering with Crisis Response International in the city of Lindenhurst, on Long Island, where we were helping and ministering to victims of Super Storm Sandy.

CRI has a field camp set up on the seashore, and their base camp currently at the Rainbow Center, a local community center. Most of our work involves helping landowners and residents remove debris from the hurricane, and stripping out dry-wall and flooring which has been soaked and contaminated by the flood waters, so that the houses can dry out prior to reconstruction.

Hi,

From the 13th to the 26th of October I was in Israel, where I participated in advanced disaster response training with Crisis Response International and the Israeli Emergency Volunteers Project (EVP). As well as participating in valuable training with search and rescue professionals, the ambulance service and the fire service, I also had opportunity to visit some of the historic and Biblical locations within the land.

Here are some photos from the trip.

Tonight our response team participated in the Resilient Response online flood response exercise, which was went very well.

Here are some photos from the exercise:

Back from a quick trip to Brasilia - 1,000 kms there and 1,000 back. A good meeting with the Director of the Chinese National Institute of Emergency Management and we signed a Memorandum of Understanding for further cooperation between the two countries.

You never know just what you'll uncover when find yourself with something that's "broken", a Philips' screwdriver and a little bit of time on your hand.

Because of our work with volunteer rescue teamsI was pleased to find that there two models of rechargeable flashlights (torches) here in Brazil, that are both quite cheap and often easily available. Both of them come with a dynamo that is supposed to recharge the internal battery.

This is the model that we purchased for the CERT teams that we trained in Teresópolis and Nova Friburgo:

In June and July I ran three Teen-CERT courses in schools in Rio de Janeiro's mountainous region, in the cities of Petrópolis, Teresópolis and Nova Friburgo.

These courses were part of an ongoing program run by Fundação Abrinq / Save The Children Brazil, in partnership with CARE Brazil and with funding from the European Comission.

Hi,

Over the weekend over the 25th to the 28th of May, our response team ran a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) course, in partnership with CARE Brazil, to train Civil Defense volunteers in the suburb of Duas Pedras, Nova Friburgo.

The course went very well, and we even featured in an article in the local TV news on the Saturday evening. We finished the training on the Sunday afternoon with a full-scale simulation which was held inside a bus station.

Hi,

We all thought that this year's rainy season, with the risk of flooding and landslides, had well and truly passed by the start of April. However, on Good Friday, the 6th, we had unusually heavy rainfall here in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro state, especially in the cities of Nova Friburgo and Teresópolis. In Friburgo we had some surface flooding, but fortunately no serious landslides, however Teresópolis was badly hit with both flooding downtown and landslides in some of the hillside communities.

Gidday,

Over this past weekend, two volunteers from our Crisis Response Unit and myself taught the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) course to nearly three-dozen volunteers in two at-risk communities in the neighbouring city of Teresópolis. The training was in partnership with CARE Brazil, with support from the European Commission, Brazilian charity Abrinq, and Save The Children Fund. CARE funded the expenses of the course, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the participants, and team equipment, although we donated our time to teach the 20 hour course.

It was exactly one year ago today that a message began to circulate through email and Christian websites claiming that a team of American missionaries had resurrected 16 victims of the floods and landslides that had devastated the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro state, resulting in at least a thousand deaths.

Due to factual inconsistencies in the story, compared to my understanding of events as I had experienced them in the aftermath of the disaster, it immediately raised my suspicions - suspicions which were further confirmed when the supposed newspaper front page that accompanied the story was quickly shown to be a fake. Sadly, my many attempts to make contact with the team and with those propagating the story, met with responses ranging from silence to some quite aggressive replies! Eventually, the newspaper front page was admitted to be fake, but the principal parties promoting the story, the Healing Herald site and Bethel church in Redding - CA, maintained that the story was true.

This Saturday, the 14th of January, three members of our response teams, including myself, visited the city of Além Paraíba, in the neighbour state of Minas Gerais, together with a team from the Nova Friburgo Red Cross chapter. We took supplies of food, water and other donations, and also visited a shelter for victims of the recent floods and landslides there.

On the 11th to 13th of January 2012, our response team ran a short Teen CERT course for teenagers from the Morro of Cordoeira. The kids loved it and have asked if we can't run another course next week!

Here are some photos from the course.

Today, the 12th of January 2012, is exactly one year since the devastating flooding landslides that hit the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro state, and especially the city of Nova Friburgo, resulting in an official death toll of nearly 1,000 and a probable total of around 3,000 fatalities. Our response team participated in a public meeting in the town square, where a community emergency plan, in which we participated, was also presented. Here are some photos of that event.

On New Year's day, around 9 pm at night, we were told by the local Residents' Association vice-president that, due to the heavy rain that was falling and forecast, all the at-risk areas in the city were placed on alert. As our suburb of Cordoeira has a siren system to warn residents of impending danger, we opened the Association hall as an Evacuation Area and staffed it overnight, in case the alert was sounded to evacuate the danger zones.

On the 29th of December, our response team held a simulated search and rescue exercise in the suburb of Cordoeira, Nova Friburgo - RJ. Despite the rain, which added a certain realism to the exercise, the simulation went very well, and both our team members and ""victims"" performed heroically.

Here are some photos from the exercise.

Howdy,

This weekend (the 3rd and 4th of December), I prepared and taught a short (20 hour) training course for the members of the Nova Friburgo Response Team. Subjects covered included an introduction to CERT, CISM, basic First Aid, Light Search and Rescue, Triage, and basic Fire Suppression.

Hi,

It's been a while since I updated my blog, and I'll try to put update some of my recent activities when I can. However, after a quick trip to New Zealand for my brother Nate's wedding, I'm now back in Nova Friburgo, where I have been working to set up a volunteer response team. This seems to be especially important at the moment as we are coming into the rainy season again at the moment, and there is a very real risk of further landslides (just this weekend, Friburgo was in a situation of alert due to the heavy rainfall).

During my visit to the US, I happened to be staying in Queens, in New York city, on the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and was able to visit the World Trade Centre ""ground zero"" site on the morning of Sunday, the 11th of September.

Here are some photos from that visit.

I was staying in Greenwich CT before and during Hurricane Irene, which fortunately became a tropical storm by the time it came inland. The house here didn't lose electricity or water, fortunately. On the Monday, the day after Irene hit, I helped the Red Cross with a shelter at Stamford High School - CT.

Here are some photos from before and after Irene.

Howdy,

I spent from the 13th to the 20th of August at Bear Lake, in Southern California, at an altitude of some 8,000 feet, where I helped train some 250 Christian volunteers for disaster response with Crisis Response International. I was a unit leader, responsible for four teams of trainees and co-leader of the Yellow Unit, and although it was a very intense time (as trained responders we slept in tents and even had a bear visit our campsite overnight), it was also wonderful to see both the practical training and the wonderful times that we had in the presence of the Holy Spirit, especially during our worship and prayer meetings.

Hi,

I'm now getting ready to travel back to São Paulo tomorrow, it's a been a great two weeks here in Friburgo.

Here are some random photos from my time here.

Hi,

I've now been visiting Friburgo for just over a week, and it's been great to catch up with folk, especially at the Iris Ministries church that I planted in the slum of Cordoeira. I ministered at the church ysterdayy (Wednesday), last Sunday and last Wednesday night and also at a youth group last Thursday night and tonight.

I spent this week, from Monday to Saturday, in Kansas City - MO where I participated in an intensive responder training course with Crisis Response International. Although it was very intense (16 hour days), and snowed on the first day, it was a great time with both pratical training and wonderful moments in the presence of the Holy Spirt. I really loved the focus on bringing the presence and power of Jesus into crisis situations while ministering in pratical ways.

Things look really bad in Christchurch, with the much of the central city - and some other suburbs - destroyed, and the official death toll is already over 100. Fortunately my brothers Nate, and James and James' wife Anna are all ok, although communication is still very difficult with folk in Christchurch at this point.

Today a shallow and close 6.3 shock has hit the city, the damage this time is much worse than the previous ones and there are reports of deaths.

Photos from news sites:

Today, which marks the one month aniversary of the rains, floods and landslides which have killed at least 890 people in the Região Serrana of Rio de Janeiro, I visited some areas nearby the city of Nova Friburgo which have been devasted. My visit, with some members of the CERT team that I trained here in Friburgo, was primarily so that we could take some photos that would help enhance further CERT training course.

I was amazed at the destruction that we encountered so close to the city center.

Yesterday and today I held an eight hour CERT team refresher for some of the local folk. There was a small turnout but the training went well. Here are some photos:

Today I've been preparing for the upcoming Community Emergency Response Team</a> refresher course which I will run for some of the folk here in Friburgo who I've previously trained in first aid and rescue (I founded and led an Iris Ministries church here in Cordoeira for nearly eight years, before moving to São Paulo  in 2009 to found a ministry called Avivamento Já).

Anyway, as part of this preparation we took some photos of houses in the suburb of Cordoeira which were destroyed during the landslide (although, with two reported deaths this suburb got off lightly compared to many others).

Hi,

Yesterday Leo and I took the last of the donations that we had received to shelters in the city of Nova Friburgo. Here are some photos of the shelters and of the destruction that we saw.

Hi,

Today we took some of the left over donations to a wefare centre in a nearby suburb, from where a local church took them for distribution to an isolated community.

On the Thursday we took supplies to shelters further out of town.

In São Paulo I bought supplies - mostly food and water - with which I filled my car before taking the trip to Friburgo (which ended up taking 12 and half hours).

I decided to get up early today, my first day back in São Paulo, get my car checked out and serviced after it's three-month hibernation, buy some needed supplies for Friburgo, purchase a 3G internet plan and hit the road by about lunch-time.

A great plan! However, thinks didn't quite work out that way.

The death toll in the mountain region of Rio continues to climb, this is now the worst climatic disaster in Brazil's history.

As I write, there are current 534 confirmed deaths, with 246 in Friburgo. It appears that Cordoeira where the church is hasn't been hit as hard as some other parts of town.

Shocking news from Nova Friburgo and the surrounding region - heavy rains have caused landslides resulting in the deaths of at least 155 people in Friburgo and 335 in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Friburgo has had at least 30 landslides and is without power, water or communications, including telephones, internet and mobiles and I haven't yet heard from Trina about the situation there in Cordoeira.

Here are a couple more photos that I took yesterday around Christchurch.

Gidday,

I'm now in my last few days here in Christchurch before I go back to Brazil, and I've been doing a bit of ""he tourist thing" with my brother Nate. Here are some photos I've taken at the Ferrymead Historical Park, the Orana Wildlife Park and just around town in general.

Well, 2011 is finally here.

2010 was a bit of dog in a lot of ways, really. But it was also cool to see God doing so many neat things, and I'm sure He's got some cool stuff in store for us all this year.

After a month of no seismic activity, I was rudely awakened at 2 am this morning by a strong aftershock, followed by another at 2:30. Since then we have had over 25 aftershocks today, mostly in the 3 - 4.5 range, the largest of which was a 4.9 at 10:30 during church. Most of these shocks have been felt quite strongly due to their shallow depth (most 2 to 5 kms) and the fact that they have been directly under the city.

Yesterday morning was the Addington fair and my brother Nate was involved both through the local Anglican church and as president of the Addington Neighbourhood Association. I tagged along and ended up with the job of looking after the bouncey castle.

On Saturday there was a free concert in Hagley park, organized by the City Council and with participation of a number of New Zealand groups and musicians - even the mayor was going to play guitar. Around 120 thousand people showed up - I was amazed by how well behaved Kiwi crowds are!

It's now been two days without any noticable aftershocks, but here are some photos that I've taken around Christchurch.

There was a strong 5.0 aftershock this morning, which disrupted power to some parts of the city and resulted in the Riccarton mall and other places being evacuated.

I took some photos today while on a quick stroll around the nearby suburbs of Sydenham and Beckenham.

Yesterday I arrived in Christchurch, after flying around 24 hours from São Paulo, with stop overs in Buenos Aires and Auckland. It was great to catch up with my family and some friends.

I experienced my first after-shock, a 3.6 level shock, last night and was woken up around 9:30 am this morning by a bigger one, a 4.4, which was obviously wanting to help me get quickly adjusted to the NZ time zone!