Visit with Sarah's Mamaw
Since December is generally slower for missionaries visiting churches, we were ale to be at our church in Fort Oglethorpe, GA for all the Sundays. We were able to be involved in the Christmas program at the church and the girls did a great job. The play was about a missionary family being overseas for Christmas and looking to Jesus for happiness.
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| Missionaries Pascal and Becky |
We also received lots of visits this month! Missionaries to Mauritius Pascal and Becky Grenade were in town and we were able to catch up with them and see how similar are lives are! Jason and Pam Horton from Oregon visited us in the US for the first time, rather than being in Brazil. Sarah Rogers finished her time in Brazil this month and drove through with her boyfriend Samuel. We just arrived home from a visit to south Alabama to see Sarah’s family.
Sarah’s counseling has gone full swing and she has more counselees than she was planning on having. It is going well for her though. Pray that she can manage the heavier load and for wisdom.
The Tupanatinga church held the annual Christmas tea for the women. In past years the number was capped to 24 because of space, but this year in the new building they had 46! They also ran it with Sarah far away. I preached via video call the following Sunday and noticed faces in the crowd of women I did not recognize, so it seems it is already seeing fruit.
A new year always brings a certain excitement. What can happen this year? What will the new year bring? A furlough year has some of the same feelings. As we return to Brazil we know that we have some changes we will need to make because our situation will be changing. We will have the task of pastoring two churches in two different locations but that have service at the same time. While it might be more convenient to be able to have different service times, it can be positive because it will force us to develop more leaders. Right now, Roger and Marcy Smith are mentoring leaders in preparation for this. Pray for them as they pass their many years of experience on to our current leaders.
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| Anniversary trip |
Because of your giving to ABWE through which we receive our salary, we have been sustained all year. We also finished two phases of our building in Tupanatinga! We feel so blessed and so very much appreciate it. Even though we are down in our projected support, enough came in by the end of each month for us to receive our salary.
All for HIS glory,
David, Sarah and our organized two girls Evelyn and Anna Claire
Evie and her friends going
to a school social
