Bits January

 

We’ve got land! Last month I said that we hoped in 2021 that we could find a more permanent location for the church in Tupanatinga. We started searching for land and what it would look like and God already supplied a donor that took care of a land purchase! A relative of our colleagues Roger and Marcy Smith asked about projects and Roger graciously told him about Tupanatinga. His donated amount takes care of pretty much all of the land cost and the Arcoverde church has enough saved to cover the rest and some of the purchasing costs and then start building some. We also have some ministry funds saved up to start working on it. We really wanted a good location and God provided it; it even has a wall, well and small office building. Rodrygo is a civil engineer and started working on a project as soon as he negotiated the price. The next afternoon he had this programed out. We are working through how we would really want it, but this was better than we could all picture.

 

If you are interested in being involved in this church construction project, please let me know! We could start as early as this month. We are all pretty excited. The Arcoverde church already has some fund raising ideas as well. 

My mom came to visit us. She arrived on Monday and we are enjoying our time with her. The girls especially enjoyed Nana’s arrival. We also are about to receive a new coworker! Sarah Rogers visited us a year and a half ago and has decided to come back as a short term missionary for two years. Pray for her this month as she arrives on the third, looks to get settled and get going in ministry. 

I included a picture of some from our church praise team just to say that they have been a blessing to the church. There used to be more conflict and the group has grown to really do well in having a peaceful environment so that when the praise service time arrives we can have more meaningful worship. I am really grateful for the serviceful hearts and talent God has sent our way! We structured this year’s preaching around the Servant Leader’s curriculum we are going through; hoping to go deeper in Old Testament, New Testament, Bible study methods, Christian Family, Processing Life biblically and Good Soil (Evangelism and Discipleship). Sarah’s counseling classes have helped with some dynamic book requirements for the classes. 

She did her first module of the year this week. It was also the last module in which our colleagues and her professor, Al and Kim Yoder will be active on the field as they are retiring. Well, they love ministry and counseling and will continue to be active with the classes, but technically they are retiring. I met Al and Kim as a 10 year old in the Amazon. We then did an internship with them in the Amazon in 2010. Kim counseled Sarah during our first term and had a great impact on Sarah’s spiritual growth. When they moved to Fortaleza they started offering a master’s class for Biblical counseling and convinced Sarah to take the course. They have been very instrumental in Sarah’s studies and honing her abilities in the area and we are very grateful for them! 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and my little fish that love having Nana here

 Tomorrow we will be staying up late to make sure 2020 leaves us for good. Recent unofficial polls would have 80-90 percent agreement to the rough year. This past week though I received an audio saying that 2020 was one couple from our church’s best year. They had decided to read the Bible through together in 2020 and finished it up early. They had grown so much as a couple this year that they together agreed it had been their best year. Another friend, Padim talked about how his life radically changed for the good this year and it has been the best thing that has happened to him. He was baptized this last month and is seeking reconciliation in his marriage. Pray for that reconciliation!

Jeremiah and Cindy Cook and their kids Hudson and Nora visited us this month for two weeks and we had a great time! Cindy is a women’s ministry leader in her home church and she is Sarah’s go to for women’s ministry questions. She and Sarah put together a Christmas tea for the women in Tupanatinga. They all loved it and there has already been visitors to our services from the visitors at the tea. 

Tupanatinga has picked up some steam the last few weeks. We had a baptismal service with four of our adult main attenders being baptized. There were some tears shed as we thought about life change, growth and our friendship. We do not have a huge group in Tupanatinga, but we are really close as they are very faithful. One of our main goals for 2021 is getting into more of a permanent building situation. The Arcoverde church has been putting away some money for this and we have had some donations from family come in to the point where we will be seriously looking at purchasing either a building or land to start building. Please pray God shows us the right place! 

Jeremiah is a police officer and SWAT team member in Chattanooga and so that always draws interest here. We did another informational event at our church building and then we did two training events at local police stations. One station was for BEPI which is basically a specialized force that can survive the elements, has the guns, and is enacted versus the worst of criminals. It was humbling to see their courage, seriousness and interest in what Jeremiah had to teach. Jeremiah started with a talk showing the respect he had for them and then prayed for them. After that moment they were all ears and very involved. It was neat to exchange tactical information and we had a great day. The commander has promised to come to church as well and a couple of the guys were interested in Servant Leaders. 

Please pray for the Servant Leader certificate development for this year! It is a lot to organize but it has been encouraging to see excitement from several different people. I am recording classes and preparing material to be used as well as advertising. 

May you have a blessed New Year! Thanks so much for your prayers and support!

 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and my roller skating girls Evelyn and Anna Claire

Bits November

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! Sarah started putting up lights the begining of November and our tree is already up. After so many years in Brazil it is still weird to be working and sweating outside and come in and hear Christmas music playing. We are excited to see friends and family for the next few months. Jeremiah and Cindy Cook will make their third trip to visit us as they arrive with their kids Hudson and Nora on Sunday. Jeremiah is a police officer and will speak and train some local officers. Cindy does women’s ministry and will do a couple events with women. 

November started big for the church. We had a church organizational meeting in order to be a legally organized non-profit in Brazil. The next day we had a baptismal service in which we baptized five adults and two children. We also had a good meal and fellowship time. 

In Pesqueira we are a few months into our Bible study we do every other week. Ricardo and Wilker are very faithful and even do extra reading. We are studying the Story of Hope and just finished some lessons on Moses. They had some very good observations. 

Sarah had her last module of the year and we went to Fortaleza as a family again. This time another couple from our church went and we were able to go to a water park again. It was nice to have a couple days to have fun in the sun. While we were gone we left a member of the church to preach (our colleagues Roger and Marcy Smith left for a 9 month furlough). The day before his father passed away (pray for William during this difficult time); this meant that the church in Tupanatinga wouldn’t have a preacher or the church in Arcoverde. The church of Tupanatinga ended up having a time where they shared Bible verses and prayed together. I was glad they were still active in our absence. In Arcoverde I called José who has been nervous about preaching and hadn’t made the leap yet. He agreed to help out and did a great job. It seems God in His providence had a way to help our friend make a great stride in his life. 

We are already planning for next year and covet your prayers! We are offering a Servant Leader’s Bible certificate and we are structuring the preaching around it as well. Pray it is a year of spiritual growth in the lives of our members, but also with other churches. Pray that they will take up the challenge to equip leaders in their own churches. Despite officially being a couple hundred dollars short per month, on average more than we need is coming in each month. Thanks to “Anonymous” and others who have gone above and beyond, we are extremely blessed and we thank all of you, especially those who faithfully send in a gift each month. We are so grateful for you!

God bless, 

David, Sarah and my growing like a weed firstborn who could overtake her daddy soon, and the second one who is turning into a super organizer, pulling weeds outside and sorting our clothes in the closet, all by her own initiative. 

Evie also made a Thanksgiving video...in portuguese.

 

Bits October

 It was the sweetest little prayer I could hardly believe. Due to a Covid situation we have a mother and daughter staying at the church and we have had lunch together the last couple of days. The daughter asked to pray yesterday and thanked God for our family that was teaching her about God; of course the way she said it was super sweet and encouraging to hear. 

Prep time. In the last couple of weeks I have been working on strategic planning for life and ministry as well as preparing for our official organizational meeting followed by a baptismal service next weekend. We are also preparing for the furlough of our colleagues Roger and Marcy Smith who will be gone for 8 months and leave a huge hole here! We are working on training leaders that will step up and help out with the load. 

Sarah has kept busy with counseling, discipleship and classes. She has started some new extensive discipleship material with a couple of women and they are doing well with it. She has also counseled a couple of ladies regarding baptism and we are having a baptismal service on the 8th. We have around 7-8 people to baptize. We will also have a church organization meeting the day before to officially start the church legally. We are working on getting all the legal aspects in order and so this will be a big step. Then the baptism service will be the next day and serve as a celebration time as well. We rent a place with a pool, grill and space to spend the day and are looking forward to a great time. 

Every other week I do the Story of Hope Bible study in the city of Pesqueira with my friends Wilker and Ricardo. They have really enjoyed the study and seem to be learning a good bit. Ricardo is reading the Bible through as we do the study. Wilker is very studious and so he has done some extra study as well. 

This month we are taking the 10 hour drive to Fortaleza and going to a big water park with some friends. It was originally scheduled for Sarah’s August module, but pushed back to November cause of Covid. And actually the module will be on zoom, but since we had already scheduled everything we are still going. We are feeling the need for some rest and so we hope that we also get another couple of days off this month or early next month. 

Next year looks to be the year in which we offer a certificate through a US Bible college for Servant Leader’s curriculum. I am working on organizing a team, material and logistics to pull this off. If the system is good, it could take off in Brazil and we could have a good impact on leadership training. My main prayer is that we have a few people in our church that go through with the program and will feel more confident in leadership roles. We have some great people around us and see how God could really raise up leadership and use our church and leadership team to impact the region for Christ. This week some famous pastors in Brazil went viral for teaching false doctrine. Although apparently Brazil is growing in evangelicals, the doctrine is all over the place. Not that God can’t use people with different doctrine than we have, but the doctrine in Brazil needs some solid biblical influence. We pray that we can be a part of that positive influence here that will help grow healthy churches within Brazil. 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and my little fish who are ready for Beach Park

Bits September

 When hammered with tasks early in the pandemic we felt somewhat overloaded in our Pastors and wive’s group. We then proceeded to divvy up tasks by expanding our leadership structure. We welcomed new leaders over all kinds of areas in the church and worked on training them individually. This month we did a training for all those who serve in ministries. Although our average main service attendance had been under 30 at the time, we had 31 take the course! It was a Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning event and we decided to do it up big for our people. They came, participated, learned and enjoyed. We hope this will give us a good excitement as we push past 2020 and try to leave it in the dust! Haha

One ministry that sprouted up this year was a social ministry. The church seeks to meet social needs to open a door for spiritual needs as well. One young lady in our church is a single mom and Sarah has been working hard counseling her as well as trying to set her up in a business that will provide for her needs. However, with this there are lots of different issues to work through. Please pray for wisdom in this situation!

Our discipleship groups are still going well. One of our men’s groups that had been slow to start back up is now getting some momentum. Sarah’s Sunday morning group has been starting to meet personally instead of online. Then our new study in Pesqueira had one week online and then another week together (it is an every other week study). The next time in Pesqueira our study group will start the book The Story of Hope. 

Raphael started coming to our church a couple years ago. We had a membership interview with he and his wife. His wife said she would be involved with music and kids and was excited about her involvement. I looked at Raphael and asked him about his gifting and about any ministry he could be involved in. I kind of received a blank stare for an answer. We decided that we would see and something would come up. In the last year or so, I do not remember exactly when, Raphael came to me and said, “I am ready.” 

“Ready for what?” 

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter, but whatever God wants me to do I will do.” Raphael has been in our pilot group for the systematic theology class as well as our homiletics class we started this year. This past month he helped teach our Theology and Practice of Servant Leaders module and then preached that very same Sunday night. Our worry now is that we are overloading him with tasks. His wife Viviane is the same way; she was one of two to leave Sarah’s discipleship group in order to start a new one. They are a huge blessing to us. 

Their growth the last couple of years has been a testament of the power of the gospel transforming lives and it is these types of stories that make us think we have the best job in the world. We appreciate how God has touched your life to participate with us in His work!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our now 11 year old Evelyn that is in those not totally a kid, not yet a teen years, but she is doing great as she navigates this tricky road, and Anna Claire who is enjoying being able to play a lot more with her friends than the last few months. 

Bits August

 “It’s a miracle.” Chico and Rodrygo said about Richard, their friend who has started coming to church in the last year. Richard was practically voted most likely to not be in church about a year ago, but due to some life circumstances he started coming and has gone all in. A couple weeks ago we had a preaching class on a Sunday morning that Chico is attending. They live in Tupanatinga and Richard came with them for the day. We did a church feijoada (traditional Brazilian meal consisting of beans and pork essentially) for lunch for people to come pick up. So they all came for the day. Padim didn’t want to say anything in the class, but he ended up really interested. He bought a Bible for himself and his wife with whom he would like to get back together. Pray that God uses the Bible in her life to transform her just like God is transforming Richard. 

A couple new people have come to the church since we started up after the pandemic. Mathew is even taking the theology class and doing a good job keeping up with it. Sarah finished counseling a couple of ladies recently. Most of these situations are confidential, but it is really exciting to see how God is using Sarah and this way of making disciples. The counseling is basically a discipleship for people in crisis. Really, we could all use that type of counsel. Sarah is super busy!!! Pray for her as she juggles all these events. 

We started a new Bible study in a new town (Pesqueira) on Thursday of last week. The intention is to make disciples there and see if eventually there can be a church. Our contacts there are with a couple guys that were on the football team. We plan on starting slowly as we are busy elsewhere but an advantage to having a long term vision for reaching a region and staying in the same place over the long run is that you can work on multiple plants at once. I just edited our Outback Vision page of our blog to talk about the advantages of having a long term vision of staying in one place and reaching cities around you.

We are excited about the leadership training phase happening around us. The next two Sundays we will have two men from our church preaching. They are in the preaching class Roger Smith is teaching. The theology classes are going slowly but surely. On the 12th and 13th of this month we are going to do a module for those serving in our church. The Theology and Practice of Servant Leaders is great material and we hope this will launch into a great season of service for the Kingdom. We are going all out on the event in preparation that it will be a time in which our people feel very blessed. 

Two disciples that we are excited about as well are Evelyn and Anna Claire. They each like to help out in their own little way. A house they frequently play at is our neighbor’s, Ana Paula who announced during the pandemic she wanted to be a member of our church. Sarah had a good talk with her a couple months back about salvation but had not really heard anything, but in her membership interview she talked about how she had decided to follow Christ. Sarah has now started a long, deep discipleship booklet with her. Pray for her in her new faith as well as her husband who says he wants to start coming and even wants to put in a pool at their house so they can get baptized in it. There is no doubt that the lives of our little girls played a role in her coming to Christ.

We are so blessed! As all the memes about 2020 being a disaster are so true and we do go through trying times in the church and ministry, we understand that the blessing of God has been abundant as well. Thank you for your part in that blessing. 

Evelyn's new glasses

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our sprouting fifth grade Evelyn who should pass her father soon enough and our puzzle queen Claire bear.  

Bits July

A higher standard! This Sunday I am speaking out of I Corinthians on how Christians live by a different set of rules. We are to be more generous, loving, forgiving than the normal standards of this world. How applicable is that to these days. We have so much to learn. 

Sarah's counseling continues to go well along with encouragement in the women's group. At some point I hope to be more specific with counseling stories, but for now you can trust me that it is going really well! I posted on facebook this month about how proud I am of her and yes, she did approve of what I wrote, in case you are wondering! haha. Here is a picture of her at her annual surprise birthday party. I think she was surprised this time because it happened a couple days before her actual birthday. 

This month the second online Theology class started. We started with over fifty names in the system! I didn't think all of them would go through with the work, and we are right, but at least half of them are! They are enjoying the class as well. So far it is reaching the goal of not being too time consuming yet at the same time giving them the ability to learn as much as they want to learn. I really think this is a great  start to more of an online learning platform that can be very effective. 

We had a couple trips this month! First off was a much needed four day vacation to the beach! We had been waiting for things to open up enough to get away. It was great. The second trip was by myself as I went to the US to grab the girls' school books. Like literally, I was there for two days and had enough to pack my overweight luggage (I paid for one extra bag and dragged the rest through the airport in a check in bag and my backpack. Fortunately they didn't check the weight of those bags, haha). This trip was basically as cheap as finding another way for the bags as all the groups coming down had been cancelled and the post office isn't sending internationally! How crazy is that. The easiest way was for me to take the quick trip. I did get to see my sister and brother-in-law and their new daughter! 

When I arrived home the girls announced they wanted to start school already! So this past Monday they started back up. They are lovely and doing a great job. 

We have opened up our services but are having low attendance as the virus seemed to pop up strongest at this time. Several in our church have contracted it (not from church) and are doing fine. We praise the Lord for that and are now praying for wisdom as we work with the people on coming back to services. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our fifth grade Evelyn and second grader Anna Claire