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. 

Bits January

January is vacation time, drought time (we had a couple weeks with little to no running water), and for us, building time. I had a Brazilian in front of the work, but he could not continue; so it has taken up a lot of my time lately. I am really looking forward to finishing the house in the next few months and taking that load off my back. We are also excited about the opportunities the house will allow us to have with ministry. I asked Sarah the other day what we will talk about once the house is built. Of course, we have launched a fundraising campaign for the church building and will hopefully start that soon! Click here to watch the video!

At the beginning of the month I was able to be a speaker for Adventure week at Camp Paradise. I enjoyed going through Colossians chapter 3 with the group and getting to know them. Sarah and the girls stayed back in Arcoverde and it gave me the chance to miss them quite a bit, but also to get to know more of the campers and camp staff. I had some good conversations with one guy named Henrique and my colleague Dan Cook led him to the Lord on the last night. During February we will all go to the Word of Life camp in Recife where I will get another opportunity as a camp speaker. I grew up going to Word of Life camps, so I think I will really enjoy going back in a different country. 

Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday and we are not missing out on the chance for a party. We have invited a few people from the football team to come over. We will have the Bible study before and then watch the game. Pray that they come for the Bible study and not just the game! This month they asked me to give a short devotional before every practice. Here is a picture of the first one.

This next Saturday we will be running a "Big Meeting" for young people from the city. We will have a soccer tournament during the day and a service at night. We are inviting young people from the area churches in hopes that they will invite others as well. 

We love and appreciate you all. Your prayers are evident and sustaining. 

All for HIS glory,

David, a very excited to get a new house Sarah, my big 5 year old who is on her 109th day of homeschool and in addition will start Brazilian kindergarten on Monday, and my little energy ball, into everything almost 2 year old who is just getting a little cough.

So young

I just found out that a college friend, Jack Blevins, passed away from a 4-5 year battle with cancer. Last year another friend from high school passed away as well. Death is cruel. It does not come at our convenience. Mike was a good father and husband and Jack was an amazing person. Both parted in their early thirties, an age way too young to die.

Before I found out the news today I was doing a Bible study on the return of Christ and was able to share about Jack and the hope that he had and the faith it gave him to live life despite the cruelest of circumstances. It struck me once again how the reality of the resurrection of Christ allows us to look forward to a certain time in the future when we will resurrect with Christ and be with God forever. We have hope like no other. The reality of forever with God puts our life in perspective today allowing us not to worry about our present circumstance, hate those wronging us, and not live in fear of whatever is around the corner.

Jack encouraged me often in the last year through humbling comments that left me in awe. Please be in prayer for his wife Cherri as she goes through this time. She took the last few months off from work to spend with him before he departed. She stood by his side, lovingly caring for him while he weakened and his pain strengthened. Praise the Lord that she lives with this same hope that we can all live with as we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

Bits from Brasil December

It is nice to feel at home. It is not uncommon for missionaries to never feel that way during the holidays. Sarah said she felt that way this year and that makes me super happy. We have not even made it to the year mark here in Arcoverde and we are already feeling like we fit in here.

We had our Christmas party on the 17th and it was a blast. We had around 30 people there, sang for the first time and had a little message. No one wanted to leave and we didn't leave until late. Many expressed gratitude for the group and what it meant for them. We are hoping that the momentum carries to 2015 even though we have taken a couple week break.

Our life right now is divided into major projects and daily tasks. The major projects going on currently include the youth event for February 5-7 that is at a huge building. We are praying for many youth as we could have anywhere from 50-400 youth. The uncertainty of the numbers makes the planning a little difficult. I am also working on a website that will have courses and seminars available for churches in Brazil. This involves networking with missionaries, gathering and organizing material. The house construction is also a major project that we hope to finish in 3-4 months, Lord willing.

On Sunday I get on a bus for Recife where I will speak at Adventure week for Camp Paradise for a week. I will be speaking on Colossians 3. Pray that the time there would be effective and that Sarah will be ok with the girls for a week here in Arcoverde. 

This year we will be trying to build the church and start services, host a church from Alabama that will serve here for a week, have outreach events, host more training events (we will do a Good Soil seminar in April), make more friends and disciples! 

We pray for a prosperous new year for you all and appreciate your faithfulness. A couple weeks ago I wrote this blog about our financial situation and how you all have been a blessing. Thanks!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, our five year old who is growing an inch a day, learning to read, make up songs and stories and ballet, and our little tornado with gusts ranging from 80-120 miles per hour that is starting to talk a little more each day. (Evelyn and Anna Claire, since I never mention their names :)

Support!

This year has been amazing for us as far as support goes. We started off being super blessed in our return to Brazil by people going above and beyond for us to arrive back in Brazil on schedule. We are continually humbled by the sacrifice of many for us; from people who scrape money to get by and send in a once every couple years offering of $60, to one who is facing cancer with little time left and is still making giving a priority, to a big chunk of friends who budget us in monthly. We count it a privilege to serve the Lord and alongside you all.

As I shared the gospel on Saturday with a friend, he told me how he did not want to be religious because he had to be; he wants to do whatever he actually wants to do. I told him how we are here and we serve because we want to, not out of obligation. And I am pretty sure (or at least hope) you all are the same way when it comes to giving to us.

God has blessed us this year to the point where we have not been in the red in our general support account; which used to live in the red! We are still at full support after almost a year of being back on the field (usually people start forgetting about you after a few months). And usually we receive extra gifts around Christmas that make up for lower support towards the end of the year. That has not been necessary.

I just wanted to write all this to say thank you. (We will ask for money later with the youth event and church construction coming up, but not in this post :).