Bits November

Christmas time is here. Just don’t think cool weather for us. Well, kind of; it got to the low 80’s for a bit and even rained some this week! Thanksgiving is a great time to remember how much God has blessed us. You all who read these updates and pray for us are a great blessing. This year our colleagues Dan and Carol Cook came from Recife to celebrate with us. They stayed three days and so we were able to catch up, have a meeting, and then stuff our faces for Thanksgiving lunch. We even got to watch our Lions lose on the big screen, a Thanksgiving day tradition. We had a couple of other visitors as well, Mike Smith (Roger and Marcy’s son) and his two kids, and then Marvin and Rebecca from our church (Marvin lived almost 20 years in the states). 

Last month we asked for prayer as a Brazilian couple would be visiting us and praying about moving to Arcoverde to help with church planting. Stefan and Julia had a whirlwind trip. We did two prayer meetings at each of the churches so that they could meet some of our members. We had some good conversations. After praying for a couple of weeks they have decided as a family to come to Arcoverde! What an unexpected blessing. They plan on helping out in the church in Arcoverde as well as helping advance another possible church plant. They will come as missionaries sent out of their church in south Brasil and so they will spend the next couple of months raising support. They will start with a two-year term and then see what happens from there. I hope to have more information on how you could help them financially in next month’s update.

Jailson, an elder in training, has been quite involved in preaching and trips to Tupanatinga. He suggested we take the Arcoverde youth group to Tupanatinga. That happened this month and everyone had a great time. The youth went in Jailson’s kombi, played music, games and listened to a lesson on what it means to be a disciple. Then we had some pizza. The event really encouraged both groups. Pray that we would have a youth group that brings energy to the church. Sunday night three of our youth led the music for a prayer meeting. That is exciting! 

The last six months have been a lot of organizing and structuring and working through conflict. Sometimes we feel like we are making little progress and other times there is great hope that the churches will burst at any time, in maturity and growth. Whatever happens, we are not called to grow churches, we are called to be faithful and to make disciples. Please for us to remain faithful!

Sarah and a young lady
wanting to know about baptism

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and my two favorite Bible students. This year we are going in depth on the Old Testament and have studied spiritual disciplines, devotionals and now are doing a hospitality class as well.