Bits May

Tomorrow starts a busy couple weeks for us. We head out early morning to the airport in Recife where we will pick up a team of 8 that will help us run a football clinic for area teams. Well, we initially intended it to be for area teams and there are a couple, but we have players coming from all over Brazil for the clinic. Right now there are around 50 players scheduled to come. Pray for a great clinic!

They will leave next Monday and on Tuesday we will pick up Jonathan and Michelle Watson and their daughter Victoria. We studied in college together (and played soccer) for four years and now he is a Pastor. He will be speaking in our service on the 11th. We also have some other activities for them to do. Pray for a good trip for them!

This month we did a matching gift campaign for the Cetak construction. There is still a little time left if you want to give towards the matching gift, but you can always give after that because we will still be needing funds for the project! As of right now, around $1250 has come in that we know of. The matching gift is for $2000. The construction is really coming along too! I am excited about the progress and can’t wait to see it in a week as I am used to seeing it almost every day. 

This month the football team was a mess. We struggle with lack of commitment, jealousy, emotional phases, etc… A couple weeks ago I took the middle of the practice to tell them that we need the gospel. We need to serve each other. Many of these guys have nothing to do with church and we know that it will take time to reach them. I am just glad that they are listening and some of them are coming to the studies. 

This last week on Sunday night we had a really good group for the second week in a row. This is very exciting for us. We have a couple new families that have decided to be involved. It really stunk for us when our main couple we had in our group moved 50 minutes away to their hometown. We thought they would be back, but it looks more and more like they won’t be. So we are going to start going there more. This last week we went and had a little service there in their house. We are committing ourselves to go more often. Please pray for this work as we do not know exactly what God will have in store for it. 

Sarah is organizing and preparing to offer cheerleading for little girls. They will learn cheers, character principles and verses as well as have a good time. She is going to do a camp at the end of June and beginning of July and then start weekly practices. Please pray for this ministry to reach more families. 

We got to meet the Consul for Northeast Brazil this month. That was a big privilege. He enjoys working with the development of American sports and was curious about our story. I later wrote up a little bit about the history of football in Brazil for them and maybe I will post it soon. 

This month we worked with evangelism, discipleship and leadership development. It is neat to be in the different phases of the spiritual life with different people. Some of our main friends are now hearing the gospel for the 5th,6th or 7th times. We know it can take a while. Your prayers are crucial! And we know they are present! 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, our little Molly Maid Evelyn whose firstborn personality thrives on a chore chart on which she goes above and beyond, and our little hairstylist Anna Claire….Yes, she cut her own hair…No, Sarah won’t let me post pictures. 

Matching Gift!

Hello friends! Good news! We are building on our property here in Arcoverde and hope to be able to use it soon, but there are still funds to raise. We have an anonymous donor that would like to offer a matching gift. Here is their note:

“Hello, we would like to help out with the construction in Arcoverde. We don’t have a lot, but we would like to help out through doing a matching gift because we also know that a lot of little ends up being a lot. Many people are like us and if we all give a little it can go a long ways! Whatever comes in during the month of May we will match up to $2000. We know it doesn’t seem like a lot for construction, but with the exchange rate down there it will go a lot further. God bless.” 

To participate, please go to abwe.org/give and click on one time gift. Then put in our account number: 0133233-006 towards Church planting for David and Sarah Carrel. Then send me an email at carrelda@gmail.com so that we can make sure everything goes through alright and be able to tell where we are at. If you wish to remain anonymous, that is fine too, just give sooner so that we can see it goes through during the month of May. (sometimes it takes a bit for it to appear in our account). 

Looking forward to seeing the advance in the construction this month. It is super encouraging to know of all your prayers and to see the investment you all have in God’s work down here. In the meantime the girls and I often go out to the property to put a little work in (and sometimes I leave them at home). 

Bits April

Baptism day (link is for pictures of it on facebook). Our first baptism as a church took place today (Sunday) and it went really well! Pastor Roger Smith gave a little devotional in which he talked about the meaning of baptism as well as the spiritual warfare that goes on when it comes to baptisms. Gabriel was planning on being a half hour early, but his dad went to the store and didn’t come back for a long time. His family had not been totally in favor of the baptism, but he still wanted to get baptized. His dad has said he would come to different activities, including today, but still hasn’t come. After Gabriel was baptized he gave me a huge hug.  

Pedro, Bia’s little brother, was also going to be baptized but his mom didn’t allow him. But his mom was there! She was able to see her daughter (Bia) and son-in-law (Chico) be baptized. She has come to several studies and we will see what God does in their lives in the future. Chico and Bia were thrilled to be baptized and I hope that it will be a big step in their spiritual life. They moved about 50 minutes away due to work. Now we will see about doing a study in their town every couple of weeks or once a month and they will come here for some services and studies as well. Sickness has been hindering more fellowship with them for the last couple of months which makes the spiritual life even harder.

Roberta was also baptized. Her husband dropped her off after coming yesterday as well for the baptism (she messed up on the date). We went out to lunch with them and it went pretty well (they have actually been separated for about 7 months). While we were at the restaurant Breno and Mis showed up. They have really enjoyed going through a Christian family study! Mis has a church background but this church/God thing is totally new for Breno. This last Wednesday he remembered the contents of a verse and left us all amazed. 

The other to be baptized was Evelyn. I am always nervous about kids and their understanding but Evelyn has really expressed a good understanding of the gospel. I think many of you know how special it is to be able to baptize your own children. Here is a link to watch the video if you would like.  She did so well! 

This month with football we have had a good deal of adversity. I have inserted the gospel a couple times through it all. Please pray that the players will see their need for the it! In a month from today a team will arrive from the US to do a football clinic for teams from NE Brazil. We are really pumped about it as there is some great experience coming. We plan on showing the movie Woodlawn which has the gospel in it as well as doing talks on character and the spiritual side of life. 

The Cetak building now has walls! They have been working on the foundation and a couple days ago they started laying the bricks for the walls. We are super excited! But we also know that our funds are getting low. Mid-year is a great time for a donation! Hint hint!

You all are great! We love and appreciate you so much. Your sustaining prayers have done so much more than you know!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my six year old baptized little helper, and our energetic three year old (she turned 3 on April 6)!