Overdue

As I mentioned in my last update our month of December was weird! Weird and December have never gone together until this one. I still can't get over hot weather and Christmas. Add to that our Kidless Christmas and you have one of the weirdities (a Mike Jewellism) of this past month.

We weren't actually kidless. We minister with kids and in December we had a Children's cantata that was rehearsed and presented ten times! Dawn used her sewing skills to make all of the kid's robes and the living nativity clothing. Our van was over packed on several occasions as we carted the cantata to different parts of our world. The simple Gospel, if there is such a thing, was shared in no less than ten different settings.

As we approached Christmas day it seemed that all of our missionary friends and families were deserting us too. We even cancelled our annual Baptist Mid-Missions São Paulo station get-together because 90% of our missionaries were elsewhere. Our coworker Alexandre invited us to spend Christmas Eve with his family and that we did. However, we first had a Christmas Eve service in our home and had fifteen present for singing of Christmas carols and a reading of the Chrsitmas story.

New Years Eve we took a group of 15 to a Watch-night (is that still a word?) service at Calvary Baptist Church. We sang and testified of Christ's goodness in our lives in 2009 and looked forward to what He has for us in 2010. Just the other day one of our little girls, Tais (that's her in the picture), testified how scared she was about sharing at Calvary but what a blessing it was once she did share! We didn't get home from that evening until 3:15 A.M..

We are now preparing for a Children's retreat at the end of January. Here is our prayer request. The lady with whom we have been dealing in the rental of the cottage has taken our money, as well as that of many other people, and disappeared! We are currently in negotiations with the owner who lives in Sao Paulo and are praying that he will still allow us to use the cottage for our retreat. It appears that when the lady left she took the scheduling calendar with her and the owner, to recoup his investments, has started to schedule other events in our time-slot. Ours might be lost but for your prayers.

Pray too for Alexandre. He will be going to churches in Curitiba trying to raise financial help for the purchase of land for Faith Baptist Church, our work in Habiteto. We would like to purchase a couple of lots in a new sub that is being developed near our work. Thank you for your faithful giving and prayers.

On Friday night Mario and Juliana visited our home. Both were saved in our first work and are now working as missionaires in a small city about 15 hours north of us and are also looking for construction funds. We had a great visit and praise God for what He is doing in Mario and Juliana's lives. Won't you pray for God's blessings on their efforts as they seek to serve the Savior!