Bits June

Fireworks were going off late into the night yesterday as the June Harvest parties finished. June has been a party month around here; for both the city and for us. We continue to meet new people here that we pray will be involved in the ministry here some day. We hosted my sister Kim and her husband Kevin for a couple weeks. Now we have my parents in town for two weeks as well. Both have helped us in ministry and in playing with the girls.

The groups have been slower this month, but we did have a good seminar on Conflict. Most of the people from the first seminar returned and then asked when the next one would be. The unbelievers did not seem too interested in Bible studies, but the seminars really capture their interest (and are filled with Bible as well). Pray these continue to go well. This month we will try to do one on depression that a Christian friend who works in mental health will give.

Our second service will be Saturday and I get to preach! I am pretty excited as it will be the first time for me to preach to our people here; I have taught many times, but this feels pretty different. Pray that God will speak through me and that the right people will be at the service. Yesterday I appealed for support from the football team. As of yet they have not come to many studies and I really hope that they can be more involved.

Construction! The last couple months the Pastors have been working on the land documents, but we now in the stage of receiving plans from the architect to begin construction. We will be working in phases as none of you have donated a million dollars as of yet to complete the whole thing. :) But we are not planning on a huge donation coming in as we know that God will use many people to come together for this project! As of right now we have had a couple gifts come in through our prayer letters, some anonymous, then our colleagues Roger and Marcy Smith have raised some money, and then their church Koinonia (the mother church to this church plant) has raised some as well! It is neat to see us all work together. You can give through ABWE as usual and designate it to our account 0133233; mark it for church planting.

This month is a big month as we have an intern arriving next week and then a team coming down from July 17-24. Pray that Zach will learn about the mission field and be a help while he is here and that West Huntsville Baptist church will be a blessing here. We also have a new colleague arriving this month as well. Ashley Hancock is transferring from South Brazil and will work with youth here! That is a big answer to prayer that happened very quickly. Pray for her move, her funds through the move, for her to find a place to live and be able to start integrating into ministry soon!

Your prayers are such a blessing. Keep them coming! Also, please check out the other pages to the blog, especially the girls' pages as I just updated them.

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, Evelyn and Anna Claire

The downward Spiral

Scrolling through the news reminds me of the downward spiral our society is in. Last week I taught a seminar on conflict and the material addressed how destructive conflict is a downward spiral. We constantly attack each other, fail to find common ground and destroy relationships through conflict. Most people don't want there to be poor people, injustice, war or violence, yet our lack of proper communication causes those very things. We constantly use violent communication as we try to defend what we value. Though conflict is necessary for growth, the negative affects of bad dialogue do not have to be necessary. 

When I started blogging, a transgender friend named Seda reached out to me for open dialogue through non-violent communication. Seda thinks we should talk to one another and share what we feel, but be careful in how we go about the process. We do not need to attack, but to understand, seek to be understood, and to love. I think society could start to mend if we took one another seriously and asked ourselves the question, "why would a rational human being act/believe that way?" Admittedly, not all people are rational, but my optimistic self would like to think that a good 99% of people are not against everyone else in the world. In conflict try backing out of the subject to find common ground and purposes before you reenter the subject to solve the conflict.


Constructive conflict must start in the every day. It would be hypocritical to try peacekeeping conversations with the world without first practicing them in your everyday relationships. Those closest to you know whether or not you live on the downward spiral or give priority to relationships over always being right.

Here are some tips for conflict to turn constructive:
1. Give priority to relationship. The friendship should be more important than the problem.
2. Follow OICA: Observe, Interpret, Clarify and Accuse. Make sure you understand all that is going on with the conflict before you start your demands.
3. Show that the others values are heard and important.
4. Create a secure environment for the others involved.
5. Show respect
6. Make sure it is obvious that you are both listening and understanding.
7. Show mercy and grace, both with others and with yourself.
8. Celebrate being different and not just conforming.
9. We have a great opportunity in conflict to show the gospel at work in our lives.

The material from this blog is from the seminar "Constructive Conflict" written by the missionaries behind the website servantleaderstraining.com

Bits May

We are in our new house. It took a bit, but we moved on May 9th to a mostly finished house. Now at the end of the month it is more finished, but still needs a bunch of little details (which will be the case until we are 80). This has not kept us from using the house! We had a birthday party for Anna Claire (a postponed birthday party) and the following day we grilled out and had a potluck style meal in which we had around 20 people, two unchurched families and a couple families from our groups. We are going to try to do this once a month. Last week we had our first Sunday night group and had more than normal. Sarah also organized a play date for some women to bring their kids, learn a new recipe and hear a testimony that came from another colleague who was visiting. She is looking forward to doing this again while my sister is here from the states.

Pray for rain! Usually it rains a bunch around this time of year, but it hasn’t rained much so far. Mentally I equate the lack of rain to the lack of the gospel in the area; pray the gospel will continue to spread here in Arcoverde. This month saw a growth of unity in the pastor’s group. We have talked several times about uniting for the gospel which would jump a cultural barrier with the churches here. Cooperation between the churches has never been the norm. Usually the members transfer between churches generating hard feelings and few new converts, but the churches seem to be better focused now. 

I was able to teach the first theology module in the church in Recife this month. I always enjoy teaching theology. Please pray that doors would open here in Arcoverde to teach Old and New Testament, and then theology later. This month we did start our seminars in Arcoverde. The first one about finances saw some new faces to our training building and generated interest in our church. Pastor Claudio from Recife taught it and did a great job. Next month I will be teaching on Constructive Conflict. 

The main prayer request and reason I am writing a day or two early is because tomorrow night (Saturday night) will be our first service here in Arcoverde. We are really excited and inviting lots of people we know. There is a group of almost 50 coming from Recife to pass out pamphlets as well as participate in the service. Please pray that it all goes smoothly and that there will be fruit from this meeting! 

This month we received news of a possible future missionary here. We also will have some visitors; my sister Kim and her husband Kevin will be here next week and stay for a couple weeks. Right after that my parents will be here for a couple weeks while Sarah goes to the states and spends a couple weeks with her family; particularly her sister Anna and her new baby that is supposed to be born tonight in China (there is another immediate prayer request). The girls are staying here with my parents and I. :) So that might need a little prayer. :) 

May God bless you and keep you and make His face shine down upon you! With lots of love from your friends down south.

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my bilingual chatterbox, and my big two year old monkey who is also starting to talk away; both went with me two days in a row for an early morning walk to the church property where we have been able to pray for God’s work here, in the church and in our lives.  

A relationship that works

The last few months have been very exciting and difficult. We are building a house in Arcoverde, Northeast, Brazil and it is the first (and probably last) time we have built a house. I was warned it would be difficult and so I shouldn't be surprised that it has been.

When I go to work on the house I feel as if I am doing it for my family and thus feel as if it is family time. My wife and I have talked about this because being gone so much between ministry and building a house has been hard on the family. In my mind I am doing it for them, but my wife brought in a new perspective. She said that she appreciated my work and knew that my motives are good, but that what she really wants is to spend time with me. All the work I am doing for the family is good, but means

nothing without the relationship. What a great point. A point I must learn from not just inside our family, but in my relationship with God.

Many times we want to work, work, work for God and do everything for Him, but that cannot go without a relationship with Him. This is the same thing Jesus was saying with Mary and Martha. Perhaps the better part is not in the service, but in sitting at Jesus' feet. God desires mercy and not sacrifice (Hoseia 6:6). Our works for Him will never mean more than our love for Him. Of course the love should be what drives the works (Ef. 2:10).

A few years ago the book "The Shack" came out with a little bit of controversy. I usually do not try to sign bad intentions to people and read it for what it was worth. And I learned something very important to me from the book. The author concentrated on the relationship and interaction between the persons of the trinity. They are three separate personalities that have different roles, yet they are one in Spirit and with their unity. God wants us to be part of that relationship. He wants us, not to be God of course, but to be part of that very close relationship.

Many work to provide a better life for their family, but remember that the family will only be there as long as the relationship is there. And remember that God wants that same relationship with you.

Bits April

Last weekend I was able to teach a New Testament Survey module to a group of students from Arcoverde. I didn't know if we would get through the whole New Testament in 13 hours, but we made it. 

On Thursday mornings I participate in a Pastor's group from the Arcoverde area. It is an informal time to pray and encourage each other...and eat breakfast. The last few weeks the group has seen growth as far as participation as well as deeper conversation on cultural issues in the church. It has been neat to be a part of and see some possible progression in relation between the churches. The culture here has certainly been different than any other area I have seen and it has been hard to see the lack of unity between churches. But I think this is getting better, at least between the Pastors.

On May 30 we will have our first "preview service" where we will have a worship time with some of the mother church members from the "big city" Recife. We will be handing out invitations all month as well as getting a good push when the church bus rolls in. Pray for people to come and get interested in the studies! I have many people I want to invite. 

This month, Lord willing, we will be moving into our house (I think I said that last month as well). We are looking forward to opportunities to have people over. Sarah is already planning some play dates on at least one afternoon per week. We are excited about Sundays now where we will have a place for kids to have a good time while the parents study. Please pray that we will use our new house for His glory!

This month we will have a financial class on May 21. We hope to reach out through that. On May 22 and 23 I will be teaching the first module of Theology at the church in Recife. Pray that goes well! We also had an exciting meeting about our Servant Leader's program and we are looking forward to some pretty cool opportunities with what we can do through the website. 

Thanks for all the prayers! This summer we have a lot going on; pray for fruit from 4 different couples/groups that will be coming down. (My sister and her husband (Kevin and Kim Patton, my parents Dan and Bonny Carrel, West Huntsville Baptist Church, and a college intern named Zach). 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, our big 1st grader who finished Abeka Academy's kindergarten class earlier this month, and our big talking away 2 year old

Bits March

I am pretty sure April will be moving month and I am even more sure that we are excited. Construction has taken up too much of my time and finishing will be a big relief for us. We are hoping that we will have enough money leftover to throw a party and invite all those who helped on the house, whether by working on it, or the store people with which we have built relationships to other friends as well. We will see what happens, but we would like to use it as a platform to invite people deeper into our lives. 

This month we were able to have a new family come over for dinner. We are hoping that they will be interested in coming to the study some time. We are on our 6th week in a new study out of the Purpose Driven Life book and it is generating some good discussion. We have had some family members from some of our participants show up at our study and we weren't really expecting it.

The football team participation has died down in both the studies and in the team practices. I am hoping that a church group coming in July will help give a good shove to the team in both areas. West Huntsville Baptist will be here July 17-25. This is our first mission team ever! We are excited about them and have been planning for ESL, VBS, football clinics, construction and a beauty night. If you are interested in coming down here on a trip; it could be a game changer for making contacts here! 

This month I have been able to teach a couple times and preach a couple times. I went with our co-worker Dan Cook to a city a few hours away to teach the Good Soil course. It went well and we get to teach it here in Arcoverde in a couple weeks. Pray it fills up and that all the materials arrive on time. 

Evelyn has been sick over half the month with four different types of sickness. Pray that she can build up her immune system soon and avoid any more sickness. Her being in school has helped us with meeting people here and we are hoping to make some more personal contacts as the year rolls on. In her homeschool she has worked hard to get ahead and this month will be done with her first year. 

We were hoping to set up a little field this month, but a neighbor behind us decided to put all his bricks on our lot. Then they decided to store all the sewage tubes exactly on our lot as well. The good thing is that proves we have the central lot in the neighborhood. We are dreaming of what we can do with this piece of land God has given to us. Please pray about giving towards it! 

We have been blessed with your financial faithfulness and it is humbling to see how you all give so generously. To the anonymous donor this month, thanks! And to all of you who read and say a simple prayer, to those of you who wear your knees out interceding for us, we love you and thank you.

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our hard working, intelligent, talkative 5 year old Evelyn, and our energetic, bouncing, climbing, mess making birthday girl (next Monday is her birthday).

Bits February

Launch time is coming! I am going to use the excuse of being in Brazil (or latin america for that matter) as to why I do not have exact dates, but we will soon be launching several new ministries. Our land will soon be planed with a small field to be used for soccer, football and maybe some other events. This will be the first step in using our church property! We are excited! There are also several houses shooting up around the church. We bought in an up and coming neighborhood thinking mainly in the future, but it is neat to see that we will already have neighbors to the church.

For the past few months we have been looking into a Servant Leaders training program for developing leaders in churches. This has been developed in some Spanish speaking countries and now in English but are both a work in progress. We have been working on it in Portuguese as well and are hoping it will offer training to Portuguese speaking churches around Brazil and even beyond. We are hoping to have enough on the site to feel good about launching it this month. I have already emailed some files to China for a Brazilian deacon in an international church that has a small group of Brazilians. He is hoping to do studies in Portuguese there, but is not trained. Another Pastor from South Brazil is looking for a training program they can do in the church that will train his members to reach out into dozens of surrounding cities. A friend Maicol who is signing up for long term missions with ABWE is working with me on this project and we are looking for all the help we can get.

Servant leaders uses short courses through modules, seminars (2-4 hours on a specific topic) and discipleship to mold leaders in the church. The main job right now is putting together courses (hopefully already written) and seminars and getting them online. We then hope to have videos available. The goal is for Pastors to have material available at their finger tips without having to develop everything before teaching. The project is big and I am sure will take years of development. Pray for us as we develop one seminar at a time. The first seminar slide show (Constructive Conflict) has been through the first translation. The next seminar (Finances) will be given by a Pastor from Koinonia in Recife. We hope to use these topics as high quality seminars to use as outreach as well as maturing those who are in the church.  

In February the whole family went to Word of Life camp in Recife and I was the morning speaker. We have continued our small groups and been involved with football. Finishing our house has also taken up a lot of time and we should be in it within a couple of months. Evelyn has started school in a Brazilian school this month and we are keeping our eyes open for contacts through the school. We have already scheduled a dinner with a family of a girl from her classroom.

I don’t think our account at ABWE has ever been better as it has been lately. Hopefully some of it will be able to go to the church construction project, but we need much more! Please pray about sponsoring a part of the construction (it will cost around $50 a square foot). This month we will be meeting with the Pastors and wives before we present something to an architect! God bless you all!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my schoolgirl who does Brazilian school in the morning and online homeschool in the afternoon, and the pre2year old bouncing marathoner who could make us a lot of money if we could figure out how to bottle her energy.