Bits December

Happy New Year! What a crazy year it has been. We started out with a trip to the states from January to April, came back to Brazil hoping we would about be in our building which led to a big focus on construction and finally getting in the building in November! 

Since our first services in November we have kept going on some detail work in the building and then ferociously cleaning the building for use on the weekends. It has been a whirlwind of activity. We did two courses for two weekends and then we focused on our Sunday services and Christmas party. Cam Woolford, the director for Servant Leaders came and visited, saw what we have going here and taught a course with me on Processing your life biblically. We had a really good time. 

The Christmas party was fun! We had around 60 people at the service and dinner and enjoyed wonderful decorations and food. Sarah has done a great job with this organization, mainly because a lot of it was delegated (even though she worked really hard too). We have had several key helpers for events, which is key for the church! 

Sarah has also been running the kid’s programs and they did a little presentation on Christmas night at our dinner. The kids are loving their class and the space of the church, although one night we had 18 kids and it was already a little tight. Sarah has the focus of II Timothy 3 that says from a child we should know the Bible because it makes us wise to salvation (David paraphrase). 

We are grateful that this season sees a lot of people traveling and little activity. We have needed some rest and gotten some, although we have had quite a few party invitations. We told the church how they have been a family to us. It certainly is a blessing to be surrounded by many wonderful people. That includes you all who pray and support us. So many of you are faithful in giving and that means a lot to us. 

We are launching into 2018 with great expectations for what God will do in the church here. There are some great things happening with the contacts God has given us over the past few years and we look forward to the miracles he sends us as we work for His glory in the Sertão!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our two little angels for our Christmas program. 

Evelyn playing her ukulele for the first time in front of a crowd. She played Jingle Bells on Christmas day while people were eating dinner. She played with her teacher Filipe. 

Evie at her ballet open practice

Bits November

I’m late! I always try to get the update out at the end of the month and the latest the first of the month! But I have learned that you can’t win them all. :)

Well, we are in our building! We started using it a couple of weeks ago as we started on a Saturday night and had a great group. We did more of a thanksgiving type service (more thanksgiving for being there then for the pilgrims :) as Brazilians do not celebrate that holiday). We had three of us give a devotional surrounded by times of praise and prayer. We feel so blessed to be able to use the building…even though it is not quite finished. We continue to work on it to have the finished product downstairs.

We also inaugurated having courses! Dan and Kelly Cook came from Recife to teach Good Soil along with a camp worker he is training. We had a good group and a great time. The students were all faithful to the classes and it was really encouraging to have them there. We are currently teaching another course with Cam Woolford, the director of Servant Leaders International. He has come down for a visit and to see where we live and minister. He has said it has already given him a good context for where we are. 

These courses are giving us a good feel for how course times, prices and logistics will work out. It will also help us determine our target audiences for the courses. We also were able to film the course last night and hope to start to populate our training site so that we can have more people using the content at a longer distance. 

God is good! We praise Him for His many blessings in our life. One blessing was after our first service having our last football game for the year and being able to go to the beach afterwards as our neighbors let us stay in their apartment close to the beach in the city in which we were playing. It was just a day there, but it was nice to get away. We have been blessed in so many ways, including you all who are reading this. I had the opportunity to speak at the Northeast Brazil’s Word of Life Bible Institute on Wednesday about ministry in our region and I told them about the blessing of having supporters like you all that pray and give and that it is a humbling blessing that really keeps us going. So a big Merry Christmas to you and a blessed New Year in which you learn more and more about what it means to be conformed to Christ’s image!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my braces girl that loves ballet and independence, and my little cat that has recently been painting her face to look like a cat….yeah, it is weird, but it is really cute. :)