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The time between Christmas and New Year’s Day is weird! Just a week ago Sunday we had over a 100 in church to see our Cantata 2010 . This past Sunday we had 19. What was that all about? Was your church service sparsely populated too? We attributed the lack to the Holidays. Tomorrow we will be taking a group of 21 Juniors and Teens on a hike . Our Omega group from Bible Club earned this hike by doing their best in their Bible memory work. We’re going to a farm about an hour away where we’ll spend the day. We discovered this farm via our Cantata. One of the ladies who was watching at the supermarket was really thrilled with our kids. We made a visit on her and she and her husband offered the use of their farm for a day. So, we’ll be spending Wednesday with this family and an American guest who is staying with them. This will give us a great opportunity to share Christ with them. Friday night we will be going to Calvary Baptist Church to pray in the New Year. We will also be baptizi...

We had a busy week with the 18 man BJ soccer ministry team here from Thursday until Sunday afternoon. There were several exciting opportunities to share the Gospel and literally hundreds heard the message. Many were talked to one on one and several made decisions for Christ! (That is Gil with the kids from next door at right.) Wow! That was refreshing to write. Things around these parts are definitely getting exciting. Which makes it even harder to think about leaving for a year! Our Sunday school class had 10 kids for the second week in a row! And that with 4 visitors. Jose Carlos, a little boy I met while talking with the kids next door, and who basically lives on the street, brought his parents to church last night and both raised their hands for salvation! Carol, Ana Luiza's friend was back too and she also raised her hand at the invitation. Man do we have work to do. I am so thankful for all of your prayers and look forward to sharing what the Lord will be doing in the near fu...

Have you ever had to invent something from virtually nothing. That is what Rich found himself doing in today's wiring project. He invented the Jewbis (a combination of Jewell Dobis, I actually helped with the invention). With the Jewbis you have a couple of long aluminum tubes a small piece of wood to connect the two tubes, some plastic "binding twine" and a roll of electrical tape. What you do is: Throw the tape with the twine hooked from one truss to the other, stretching the twine to taut. Then you you stretch the wires (including light bulb) over the twine to their proper location. Sound fun? It ain't. But it got the job done for today. Tonight is the last of the art classes. They have been going well with good participation from our ladies. We have made some good contacts and are asking for God's blessing on the seed that is being planted. In the pictures you see Jan doing the translation for Susan. Susan helping Zelha, Alenildes, and Isis. And Fransisca on h...

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...

While the Bob Jones soccer team was with us last week I noticed how often the girls were attracted to different members of the squad. Not that any one of them, the team members that is, sought that attention, it just happened. In the video below you will notice the pandemonium at one of the schools in the after game autograph session. One of the girls asked me, "Are they soccer players or are they models?!" Another one said, "I think that the number one qualification for being a part of this team is that you have to be cute!" In the excitement of having a whole team of young men from the United States I even heard the the lady director of the one of the schools say, "They are lovely!" My take on this seeming undue attention of course could be attributed to many and differing factors but a large part of it, in my opinion, is the lack of a father figure in the lives of most of these kids. They're starving for attention. When the teams come and the studen...

A fundamental doctrine of the Baptist church is that of potluck (though we cringe at the use of the word "Luck" we all understand the term). Whenever there is food at church there is seldom a dissenting vote cast. Potluck is a staple of our faith. All kidding aside, there are many many examples of Jesus using a meal to teach great truths to His disciples and others (it is an interesting Bible study). Ever participate in the Lord’s Supper? Yesterday, at Hope, we tried something a bit different. We had a "Fifth Sunday Fellowship". Each month with five Sundays this year we will have our regular morning activities. It is in the afternoon that we've changed the routine. Shortly after choir practice concludes we all gathered for lunch. Yesterday's meal was: baked chicken, rice, beans, and salad, with various desserts. It was good! A meal has a way of bringing people together. The fellowship seems sweeter over supper doesn't it? Our church folk need more sweet ...