Bits June

June started with football camp. We had a great time and I wrote in detail about it here along with talking about the following week when we had Jonathan and Michelle Watson here helping out. We had a great couple of weeks!

After resting a couple days…. we got back to some rhythm here in Arcoverde. I always enjoy working on the construction site, although it is only a few hours a week. It is really coming along! God continues to provide funds. In May there was a matching gift where 1200 dollars came in. Another church gave a couple thousand dollars and the mission team over 1000. In the last few days we prayed a little harder as funds were running low again and then another gift came in to keep us going! God seems to provide at just the right time. Although we would love a huge gift where we really know we will have what we need for the whole project, we know that this is helping us continue to trust God and see His constant provision.

Today Sarah started a three day cheerleading clinic during the afternoon for 6-8 year old girls. She has spent a lot of time organizing and researching to put on this event and now it is coming all together. Evelyn had a great time with her friends and there have been several outreach benefits already through this ministry! Add this to the list of things we did not think we would be doing on the mission field!

For a while I have thought and looked into getting my master’s degree. I always seem to come up with an excuse. Recently a program was brought to my attention that peaked my interest. I looked a little deeper into it and it looks like I can get a Master’s in Organizational Leadership all online as I work on the Servant Leader’s project in Portuguese. This would be great as it would both keep me motivated in developing Servant Leaders as well as accomplish another purpose educationally. Pray for wisdom as I look into details.

This month has started the winter season here and has brought big temperature changes during the day. We have all fought some sort of cold/bacteria/allergies. Please pray that we would be able to stay healthy!

We did have a football game this month and lost a close one. The team has improved so much though. We have now contracted two Americans to play for us. One ex-military guy named Quintin played at the University of Tulsa and the other, Tyler played D3 college ball at Northwestern in Minnesota. Tyler will help with the church as well. But I hope to be able to invest in the lives of both these guys as they are here helping our team out! They both seem like solid guys and I am excited about having them arrive July 14. 

Our Sunday nights continue to be a blessing. We seem to have good groups and to have gained some families that are more faithful. Tonight I will be giving a lecture on leadership to the football team before practice. We are also going through “Proactive Parenting” material with some couples. Also we are looking to travel more often to see Chico and Bia in Tupanatinga (50 minutes away) and do Bible studies there. 

Thanks so much for your sustaining prayers! God bless!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah (my birthday girl this month!), my cute little loud cheerleader Evelyn, and our energetic cat loving(we are on our second cat after the first one disappeared) Anna Claire 

Short term trips!

In some arenas short term mission trips are criticized for how much money is spent on a short term investment, but we believe that they are worth it! The last two weeks we had two different groups come down to Brazil. The first one was a group of football coaches to do a camp for football players in the Northeast. The second was a family, friends from college. Jonathan played soccer with me for four years and is now a Pastor.

The football clinic went really well. We picked up the team on a Wednesday and after a missed flight ended up getting to the camp in Igarassu, a neighboring town to Recife,  pretty late with half of the group. On Thursday we had a couple coaches arrive. The team was able to focus on them in a more laid back atmosphere. They passed on quite a bit to these guys and me as well!




On Friday afternoon seven of us loaded up our car (loaded up is an understatement) and went to the big city and after a slight detour (slight meaning we went to the wrong place and then got lost and ended up driving on the sidewalk to avoid getting lost again) we arrived at an English school where a big group of English students awaited us. Some kids sat on the floor and other adults stood as the room was packed. We talked about football and the coaches took in some stardom. We put some equipment on a little kid and had him hit the group leader Hoss who played Offensive Lineman in the NFL. The afternoon was set up by the american consulate which has been a neat relationship in the last couple of months.

On Friday night the players started showing up. We had 40-50 players that came and it was the perfect number for providing good attention for all of them. On the field was fabulous for everyone and then when the sun was a little hotter or on the other side of the earth we did 6 character lessons on the mental, emotional, social, intellectual, physical and spiritual side of football. The guys really liked it. My team especially needed a lot of these extra sessions.

The camp went really well and the group could clearly see our ministry with the football team. We really connected as a team as well and their testimonies throughout the week ministered to my soul. On Monday they headed home.

On Tuesday we picked up Jonathan and Michelle Watson and their daughter Victoria and we headed back to Arcoverde. We did not do too many extra things with them, just our normal ministries. But having them along was a lot of fun. They provided advise for friends, worked on the construction, made pom-poms for Sarah's cheerleading team she is starting up, prepared for a party and then on Saturday night Jonathan preached at our service where we had a great turnout.

They were very encouraging the whole time and it was neat to share life with them once again. We talked about our time in college and our lives since then. Sunday night we had a party and had around 40 people in our house and just ate and had a good time. Probably half of those people are unchurched and it was neat to have interaction with everyone in that way.

Short term mission trips help in several ways.
1. It gives a great boost to the missionaries.
2. It impacts the nationals and peaks their interest.
3. It impacts those on the trip.

Michelle said that everyone needs to go on at least one foreign mission trip because it opens your eyes to a different world. We would love for more teams to come down to help build a sport's court, do football clinics or do English clinics or VBS and there are more ideas as well!