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We still don’t have word on the “ FREE ” land deal. We have spoken again with the lady concerned and she seems willing to help us but we are waiting on a meeting with the proper government officials. We are asking continued prayer on this one. The old saying, “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is!” holds true in this deal. We do not want to accept something that will compromise our testimony or the Gospel and would appreciate your prayers. While Ann and Gabriel were here during their extended stay Ann discovered that she is with child! This is her and Jackson’s second and will probably be born in the United States. Thus making them a real Brasil vs. United States family. We don’t have any further details on the baby’s sex or due date but will keep you posted. World Cup – Most of the world is tuned in to the World Cup and excited about their country’s possibility of winning the golden challis. It is difficult being an American in Brasil. I want like crazy for the U.S....

Our Bible club has been exciting recently after nearly dying. We were down to around 25 kids when Alexandre came up with the idea of changing our theme. We went from “normal” club to Sector Alpha! Just like that. As I mentioned in a previous post we have a weekly Mission that we have to work on as a team. Last week’s task was to bring five kids with the same name to earn our 5000 points and complete the mission. Even though we fell one kid short we still had TWO Grazieles and TWO Jonatas. Three of the four were nearly yanked from their homes by our own Graziele (left). She is our little missionary and always ready to seek out that unknown kid. GREEN came close to winning our first Gold Star but the blue team took the day again. We had over 60 kids at club. The mission has already been given for this week and it included a bombshell for Sunday. All of the kids that came to club on Saturday had to return Sunday morning for Sunday School. EVERY ONE OF THEM or NO points were giv...

Yesterday, Tuesday, we had our first Bible study with Marcia (left to right: Dawn, Jonatas, Marcia and Joelma, our coworker). She had informed me earlier that it was her birthday and so Dawn made a birthday cake. She celebrated her ___ years with the FIRST (yes first!) birthday cake she has ever had! Man that is hard for me to believe. I’ve been spoiled with about 56 in my lifetime! During the study she related time and again how confusing her religious past has been. At one point she said, “ I have been in church since childhood and NONE of my pastors have ever told me how I could have the Holy Spirit’s peace until you all shared it with me just two weeks ago !” She also had many good questions about spiritual things. Marcia has four sons. It was her teen son João that got baptized just three weeks ago and we are seeing God begin to move in this family. The oldest, Josué (Joshua), is a big 250 lbs teddy bear and is in my juniors Sunday school class. He just LOVES his teacher and...

There we sat, surrounded by smelly tennis shoes, and sweaty teenagers, in awe of what was taking place. Dawn and I were in a missions conference weekend and we had been invited to participate in a Gym Night activity with the teens of the church. I had given a Bible challenge, on increasing ones faith by giving our all to Christ, when something unexpected happened that really increased MY faith! Another missionary couple was there too. His challenge was about allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us with His life giving breath so that we might serve and live for Him. His presentation was dynamic and gripped our attention. It was what happened next that took me by surprise. Pastor Steve divided the missionaries by couples and called for his teens to surround each couple. They were to place their hands on us and pray for us. As the teens were beginning to take their places I selfishly begged the Lord to have at least some teens come to us. Me being the "Old Guy" I didn't want to...

When you are on a team of eight with no reserves in sight and two of your best players leave it is a rough blow. It could even be considered a killer blow. Last night Ed preached from Acts on the growth of the early church. He challenged our small congregation to the task of that type of Spirit lead growth. It was he and Jan's last service at Hope and their last as a part of the "team" which they have lead for nearly 20 years here in Sorocaba. Now the question comes, "What happens after the 'end of an era'?" Many times a team that loses a top quality player (or players) loses it's potential to win, or at least loses the winning edge. In other cases we've all seen teams that have grit their teeth, rolled up their collective sleeves, and worked even harder to win, and have succeeded at just that, winning! As I observed our service last night I watched with bittersweet emotions. Realizing that life is change. That is one part of life that makes it i...

A MK is a missionary's kid, a PK is a preacher's kid, and neither are easy roles to fill. Abby (Amy and Annie too for that matter) has the tremendous privilege of being both! Being a PK or MK, I believe, is apt to bring on the BIG-shoes-to-fill syndrome. It is the pressure and trauma of having an aura to fulfill. The same thing happens to movie star's kids (would that be a MSK?). There is the mistaken idea that because the parents are "huge" personalities, the kids are different, and have to be huge too. I grew up in a "normal" family (though some would definitely debate that!). I had a normal job at GM for 22 years. Dawn and I spent many years in "normal" ministry at FBC in Lake Orion, MI . It so happened that God worked in my life to the degree that my family and I became missionaries to Brazil. It wasn't until after our second term that I became aware of the fact that we had an "aura". I never saw it in the mirror for sure! I...

Saturday we had the double blessing of having the quarterly youth rally (Hope, Calvary, New Life, and Bible Baptist of Jundiaí) at our church. We had 40 young people present for games, fellowship, and snacks. e also had missionary pastor Divino from Mozambique Africa with us for an evening mission challenge. With the addition of the adults for this special service we had over a hundred present to hear of the work in Africa. It was a challenge for our people who have never been exposed to a real live missionary (other than us Americans). Divino is a Brazilian who felt God's call and has really pioneered the field of Mosambique for our movement. There were several testimonies given in our Sunday morning worship time of the blessing received from that challenge.

No, we're not talking chalk talks we are talking God's direction in several lives. What started as an idea to complete the electrical part of our auditorium ended up being that and an evangelistic art class for the ladies of our neighborhood. Rich Dobis is an electrician, his wife Susan likes to paint. While talking to Rich about the possibility of coming down and helping us I noticed Susan in the background (I was using Skype video phone) and said, "You should bring Susan down!" When I said that I noticed that she quickly glanced at the camera and with a slight smile said, "I'm afraid of flying!" I thought that that was the end of the conversation with regard to her coming to Brazil. As God would have it He provided enough money for two people to come within hours of our Skype conversation and Susan had change her mind and was now interested in coming. In fact she wrote a note telling me that she was willing to be used in any way that the Lord might se...

Seminary and excitement are two words that don't seem to go together. Unless, that is, you are really excited about serving the Lord. Ronaldo has really been realizing God's call on his life lately. His salvation story is really incredible and I'll have to have him share it with you in a future update. God brought this man from the brink of destruction to Salvation as only He can and Ronaldo is seeking God's perfect direction and will for he and his family. He lacks two years of seminary training and would like to complete that at our seminary in Curitiba as soon as God opens that door. Currently the family is living on a shoestring ($384 per month!) so God's provision will definitely be needed. The other day he called me and said, "Pastor, I had the day off today and said to myself, 'I'm not going to just sit around and do nothing today. I'm going to hand out tracts in my neighborhood!'" So for the next few hours he did just that and had t...

For five months my Juniors have been saving their nickels, quarters, and dollars, to buy a special Bible for a missionary. It is the Child Evangelism Bible, recently translated into Portuguese, with tons of resources in it. It is an excellent tool that every missionary (or Sunday school teacher for that matter) should have. The cost? R$98.00! That is more than most of them have ever seen in their young lives. During the weeks of saving it has been fun to watch them counting the change, adding it up, and being anxious to give more. The day finally came, last Sunday, when we reached our grand total goal of R$101.50! So, I set a time for the class to go into town to pick up the special gift. There is a really nice little bookstore called Imago Dei (the Image of God) which has many good books and several that I would love to be able to purchase for our class library. We're praying to that end, that God would open someone's heart for a book purchase. Anyway, we went to the store an...

The Carnaval Retreat this year was completely Brazilian run. The teens and families that participated had a great time. We had nine teen there. The theme was Be Different! and the daily devotions and nightly challenges were geared to help teens see the importance of being a Christian in a pagan world. In the pictures at (left from top to bottom) Rodolfo, Abby, Felipe, Ariel, and Paulinho share a chat time. David and Felipe dressed for costume night. Monise dressed as Fiona, David and I with our red noses (thanks photoshop elements)and like father like son hair cuts, and Joice eating a raw egg as part of a game.

In the olden days when we BMM missionaries said that we were going to camp it meant, mud, mosquitoes, mold, and mato (weeds). The camp was run down and made for a real missionary experience. Now-a-days (like my grammar?) it means a very nice hotel with a lot of neat things to do. We spent this past week at a hotel near the city of Avaré, about three hours interior from Sorocaba. Our speaker for the week was pastor Ron Wigand from Caro, Michigan. He brought timely messages from Jesus' parables. It was a great time to renew friendships with other BMM missionaries and get to know others. We were also able to take Annie and Jackson with us. They helped with the junior church during the evening sessions and with the youth during the day. It was a fun week!