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It's been awhile since my last update. We are in the States for those of you who didn't know and living in Oxford, MI. We are setting up meetings with our supporting churches and hoping to be able to get into some new churches. We would like to raise some more support and also raise money for a piece of property for our next work. Our support level is actually good but we had made a commitment with our sending church to help them be able to back off a bit of the support that they give us each month (nearly a third). So, with that goal in mind I will be making calls during the next few weeks for those meetings. I was talking to a friend of mine recently and he asked about the money thing. This man is a long time professional whom God has called into ministry. He said something interesting, "I hate the thought of asking little old ladies for their money so that I can go and plant a church somewhere!" To be frank, this very thing was one of my hesitations when the Lord f...

Saturday at Bible Club we had eleven boys and girls and Eliana came with her kids again. Mara and Carlinhos lead singing and finished telling the missionary story. I brought some games and decided to play one with the kids. BIG mistake. The game I chose was a running game and I was actually trying to get little five year old Sabrina involved. She didn't want to play so I grabbed her hand and started to run. Just as I did I felt an awful shooting pain in my hamstring and began to tumble out of control to the ground. I almost landed on top of Sabrina while actually throwing her down. She scrubbed her knee and as I tried to console her I was thinking... WHAT ON EARTH HAVE I DONE NOW! I got up haltingly and staggered to the wall. I sat there embarrassed and hurting like a dog. But after recovering my composure a bit I was able to share some more Gospel with Eliana. The story that Carlinhos gave was exactly what I needed to ask her THE question, “So, when are you going to accept Chris...

Father's Day falls the second Sunday of the month of august in Brazil (didn't I say this last year?). So, our evangelistic outreach event was a men and boy's banquet. Donna, Dani, and our ladies put on a luscious spread and Donna had some great ideas for games as well. We had thirty men present with several visitors. It was, bar none, our best Father's Day to date. I read a story that I had written last year for Father's Day (I had written it as one of my updates). It told my story, or rather the history of my story which began in 1904 with the marriage of my paternal grandparents. The essence of the story was that I am being blessed today because of wise and important decisions that my father made in his youth and through out his life. He accepted Christ, and was faithful in serving his Savior his entire life. I asked the men this question, “In fifty years will your sons be saying about you, like I am about my dad, 'I am blessed!'” I was excited that Jose (...

Long story short (for the prayer sheet) – Mike Jewell is rejoicing that Jose, Eliana, Marcia, Eduardo, Edson, Sabrina, and Tadeu (the family that Mike has been working with for some time now)came to church as a family for the first time last night! Pray for their salvation. Short story long – read on if you want to know how God brought it all together. In computerese “ALL CAPS” is equal to SCREAMING (oops... sorry about that). But that is what I feel like doing this morning. Not in anger nor frustration but in excitement, joy, and praise to God! Being alone for these last few days (13 days and 16 hours at this writing) has been teaching me things about myself that I had never learned in my fifty-five years. I am selfish, I am not as sloppy as I thought I might be (no dishes in the sink, most of the dirty clothes washed and put away, and I even vacuumed the house!), I can cook if I have to, I have my moods, I love my wife and family, and I need God (good thing for a missionary to know)...

I'll explain the title in a minute. But here is another story in the extremes God uses to save a soul. Luiza is 38 and looks 60 (sorry about that 60 year olds). She has had a rough life. Drugs, alcohol, physical and mental abuse, have all played their sordid roles in her short existence. Her religious hodgepodge has ranged from Catholicism to spiritism. She has had 10 kids in just 15 years, 7 in the last 9; all with a man who is married to someone else! She is illiterate. To look at her you might say that she is a hopeless case. I did. But just a few weeks ago God was urging me to visit her. “But Father ... (that is not usually a good way to begin a conversation with Sovereign God), Luiza is hopeless.” He quickly reminded me in my daily Bible reading (He has done this a lot lately) of Isa 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save.... “But Father (I'm a slow learner) she has been asked a 100 times and never comes! OK I'LL GO, but I think it...

We started club again today after a three week winter break. There were six kids present. The story was told of a little boy who was born into a Christian home. I asked the kids if they knew what a “Christian home” was. None did. The little boy in the story always went to church and he knew a lot of stories from the Bible. But he didn't know Jesus as his Savior. Until one day his junior church teacher told the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Then that little boy got scared about going to hell and asked his teacher to help him be able to go to heaven. His teacher tried to explain how but the he didn't understand. The following week the little boy was sick and didn't go to church. It was that morning that he got saved as his mother knelt beside the sofa and shared Jesus with him. That occurred at 66 East Burdick Street, in Oxford Michigan on October 30, of 1960. The little boy's name? Michael David Jewell. The kids were surprised to hear that the story I tol...

Psa 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. This was my prayer meditation this morning. If I delight in the LORD, He will give me the desires of my heart! What struck me was the fact that if I delight in Him then He will be fulfilling His will in and through me. My desires will be His desires! His will will become my will. Though my heart was heavy with sad news and desperation, He has a plan! My LORD has a perfect plan that will be fulfilled. As I delight in Him and His perfect plan I will rejoice in Him at its fulfillment. That's neat!