Bits January 2023

 

Down by the creek

After the holidays it is common to have some January blues. We broke down one day on the way to school. Anna Claire woke up missing Brazil. Then on the car ride, she received some bad news about her cat. By the time we arrived at school, we parked and were all crying and hugging outside the car in the parking lot. I am guessing we were quite a sight! We are over halfway done with our furlough now and we are all missing Brazil. Fortunately, God has given us purpose here in the USA. We have been able to minister and be ministered to.

Date trip to speak

We have ministered through our travels to churches as well as counseling. This month we were in Indiana, North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. We loved spending time with friends, Pastors, and speaking about Brazil. On the counseling end, Sarah has been busy. God has blessed and some of her old friends and new friends are learning Biblical ways to cope during hard times. Some friends told us they know God had us here at this time and we felt really encouraged by that. Sunday we started teaching one of our courses, Processing Life Biblically, in our Sunday school class. We are excited to open up about God’s difficult work in our lives as He conforms us to the image of Christ. 

This month construction started on an auditorium for the Arcoverde church. We are blessed to be here and not over the construction at this time as our colleague Roger is handling that. He also raised funds for the project and so we have not needed to worry about raising funds or construction oversight! Pray for a smooth project. 

No power, no problem
toasted bagel 

“Preaching the gospel to yourself daily” has been a new idea to explore while being on furlough. We have done a good bit of reading and study. Those of you who have heard me speak this year have probably heard something about the gospel for our daily life. Out of the impact of that message, I ended up writing a book. I have finished the manuscript and it is now being read by a few people and I will need to decide on how to publish/self-publish. Please pray for the message of the book, the gospel for daily life. 

Creative discovery museum!

Let me close with a link to a Gospel Coalition article regarding missionary kids. Evelyn read it and said it was 100% correct. I thought it was pretty short, simple, and accurate and if anyone would like to understand our girls a little more, this is a great resource. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/missionary-kids-want-you-know/ 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! We are a few hundred dollars short on our monthly support. Pray that comes in soon!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and our two great students; both received good grades for their first semester of school in the US.