Bits October

October was a really busy month for us with two different groups that came down. Pastor David Frye, and Jamie and Kelly Nicholson came down for a preview trip. They will be bringing a group from their church in Raleigh next July. While they were here they helped us with some events for children’s day. The next week Jeremiah and Cindy Cook with their two kids came down to help with a women’s day event as well as for Jeremiah to speak to the police. 

Kid’s day in Brazil is pretty close in importance present wise and activity wise to Christmas. In fact, kids are probably more likely to receive a present on kid’s day than on Christmas. They have the day off from school after a week of special activities at school. We had a two day event at the church. The kids came, played on the playground, learned songs and games and even had some kitchen cooking activities. Then they had plays where they learned about God and fitting in. They crammed in a lot in two days! Jamie, Kelly and David did a skit as well as dressing up as clowns and doing fun clown stuff with the kids. The event was a blast.

The next day we took a group from church to Tupanatinga and did some of the plays with kids there. It was our first outreach event in Tupanatinga! We had a good time and our study group there did a great job of organizing the event. They were able to get a gym and bouncy houses to play on. I was proud of them for their iniciative. 

The next weekend Sarah and the ladies organized a women’s event with Cindy there. Cindy has a blog where she talks about making crafts for their home. She is involved with moms at their church and around Chattanooga. She was able to share her testimony as well as teaching how to do a craft. The women loved it. Sarah is doing a wonderful job with the women’s group! 

Jeremiah has served on the Chattanooga police force for eight years and the SWAT team for four years. This drew the interest of many people around here. We went to the Police station on Monday morning where he talked to them about SWAT. They loved the experience. They then gave us a tour and we talked to the commander for a while. The next night we held a time at the church that was open to the community. We had many unchurched people there. On Sunday night two families came as a result of being here that Tuesday night! So great to see. 

Pray for us this month as Roger and I go to Tupanatinga to check out options for the future of having an organized church there. Last night I talked to the study group about it and they loved it and are already looking at some options. As we head to the states for furlough November 20, this will be one of the things we will be raising money for. We need to get a new car when we come back to Brazil which will probably cost a good 12,000 dollars (yes, cars are much more expensive here). Then we want to see what our options are in Tupanatinga, whether we rent or buy or build. Pray for wisdom for those details! 

Thanks for your prayers and support. We would love to see some of you when we are back in the states! God bless!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my motivated, growing up, smoked our visitors in Monopoly, Evelyn, and our rambunctious little kitty cat Anna Claire.

Bits September

On Sunday Brazil will have their presidential elections. The political climate is very similar to the US two years ago, except they have more candidates. Please pray for God’s will to be done and for their not to be a bad response from the results. Unfortunately there are problems with relationships due to political choices. Pray for unity!

This month we continued our study of Philippians at the church which focuses on joy and unity in the church. It has been really good for us to study! We generally have attendance ups and downs. Usually every other week we have a good crowd. For the last two Sundays we were supposed to have a down week, at least in my mind. Last night we had four key families who were travelling and could not be with us. Yet, we have not had a down week! We have had people coming from all walks of life and that has been very encouraging. We have all been fed by His Word. 

One major project has been finishing up the playground. We are practically there, just need to stain it for a couple more hours, but we pretty much have it all done. This has been a good bit of work.

The women’s prayer group has been very strong! Sarah does a great job helping with organizing it along with several other women in the church. Praise the Lord we have a lot of people in our church who enjoy serving and using their spiritual gifts. 

I continue studies in the Story of Hope. Pray for my organization! I am doing the study with several people and I keep forgetting where each study stopped! :) 

Pray for new unchurched families for the church. I am hesitant to use names as these days anyone can access these letters, but we have several families with whom we invest in that need Christ. We continue to reach out within our neighborhood as well. I keep praying that God would just give us ten percent of our neighborhood. There are around eighty families in our neighborhood now. We have opened up the playground to them on some days and have seen some come. This month we also had a conversation night about suicide as it is suicide awareness month. We hope to continue to offer opportunities (like neighborhood meetings) to get the neighborhood involved in the church. 

This month we will have two groups coming down. The first is Calvary Baptist from Raleigh and they will be scouting out some ministries for a trip next summer. We are going to do two events for kid’s day (October 12) with them. One is a two day event at our church in Arcoverde. The other is a Sunday morning event in Tupanatinga with our study group. This is the first event with them there in which we hope to see more interest in having a church there start up possibly next summer!

The next group is a family, Jeremiah and Cindy Cook. Jeremiah was the best man in our wedding and a Chattanooga police officer (actually just received the officer of the year award for the department). He is going to give a talk about the SWAT team to the police station here. Cindy has a successful blog and ministry with moms and doing really neat artwork. She is going to do a women’s event at the church October 22nd. Then both of them will also be involved in a field day type event with the local English school with whom we have a strong partnership. It is going to be a busy month! 

Thanks for your prayers! Life has been so good here and we are thankful for you all. We look forward to seeing some of you on our furlough from November 20- March 20! God bless!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my little roller skater who turned 9 on September 20! And my little kitty cat who enjoys roller blading, playing with Pollys and now learning her letters in her kindergarten class!