Bits January 2026

A couple of months ago, I made an appeal for funds. Not only are our accounts back to a healthy level, but we now have enough to work on the apartment in Tupanatinga, as well as starting the project in Batalha. In Batalha, we have been trying to start for a while. We have been waiting for a bulldozer, and it is now scheduled to work on Tuesday. They are going to level off the land, and then we can get the building started. The apartment in Tupanatinga is scheduled to get started next weekend. We are planning a workday to take the roof off, clear out the property and the upstairs where the apartment is being built. We might also have time to carry all the bricks up the stairs to get them started. 

In Brazil, the year doesn’t start officially until after Carnaval, which is in February this year. January is the summer here, and so kids have just started back to school, or will go back next week. As a church, we take January off from a lot of different ministries as we get organized for the year. Pray for a good organization for the year! 

On January 8, our family had the privilege of going to a conference for leadership at ABWE. Sarah and I are at the lowest tier of leadership to be able to attend the event, but it was great to be able to participate! It was in Spain! We flew through Paris, and so we were able to spend some time there as well. The girls insisted on going, and it was a really fun family trip. The conference was focused on conflict resolution using “Peace Pursuit,” which is a simple way of resolving conflict (simple, not necessarily easy). Jesus told us that people will know we are His disciples by our love for our brothers. Resolving conflict takes honest self-reflection and humility. But God has called us to the ministry of reconciliation.

In January and February, Sarah has women over to the house to read a book. They are really enjoying their book this year, and a good number of women are showing up. Books can change your life. We try to encourage a good amount of reading at the church. 

In February, Cindy Cook is bringing a couple of women during Carnaval. They are doing three different painting events for women where they learn to paint something and hear about God. Pray that we can have a good amount of ladies who are interested in hearing more about the gospel!

Thank you all so much for reading, praying, and supporting. We have thought of you all suffering in the cold this month. Feel free to come down here sometime! God bless!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our student Evelyn, who is checking out college options, and our early riser AC, who is now feeding her cats in the morning cause she is up earlier than me

Bits December 2025

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. A couple of months ago, I told you all that our accounts were low, but now we have enough to be working on two projects: a Tupanatinga apartment (parsonage essentially) and the Batalha project. Thank you all for your faithful and generous giving! 

Sarah had a wonderful time planning the annual Tupanatinga Christmas tea. They had a great number of people, volunteers, and help. They plan on doing two next year, as they had more women they wanted to be able to invite. Cindy Cook, who leads this same tea in Chattanooga (at a slightly different level of having thousands of women), was able to be present and help out. 

Cindy’s husband Jeremiah, came down with his coworker, Kurt and put on police and firemen training for medical and firearms. Later, he delivered 100 thank-you bags to the police. The police couldn’t believe that someone was actually giving them something and thanking them. They are usually delivering generous gifts rather than being on the receiving end. 

For Christmas, we share a dinner together as a church. We had one in Arcoverde on the 21st and Tupanatinga on the 26th. Everyone enjoyed the food, fellowship, and a shorter message. 

We closed out the year with a pastor's family from Recife who came to get some relaxing days. We hiked out at Catimbau, the national park close to our house. We have missed our families a little more this year, but we haven’t been alone here! We are so grateful for many family and friends! Happy New Year! God bless!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and my polylinguist, Evelyn, who is learning Russian, and our talented artist Anna Claire, who is crocheting up a storm. 

Christmas with the Cooks and Wondraceks

Bits November

We have been so grateful the last couple of days. Hopefully, we always are, but with Thanksgiving, we have a great moment to reflect on the many blessings in our lives. You all are a huge blessing to us. 

We have had ups and downs in ministry this month. It is not always peaches and cream (I hope that is the right phrase; my English is getting worse). But there are lots of ups! This month, we had an ice cream night in Tupanatinga. It was a normal service with ice cream afterwards, but the church was packed, especially the kids’ room, as over 20 kids came. That is not too many more than the average this month. 

A missions team from a church in Recife came for a one-day event in Batalha. There were doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and others who held consultations for the community. I was in charge of the demolition of the house where we will be building. At night, we held a service and several made decisions for Christ. We continue to have interest there in the community and continue to serve. Pray for funds as we start to build! We have some already to get started, as well as some of you have asked to let you know. 

We also hope to build an apartment for the church in Tupanatinga. Life is usually more complex when we are building something, but it is also a sign of progress. We hope to one day have a Pastor in Tupanatinga, and an apartment there would help a lot with that. For now, it would allow us to go more often and stay at the church. 

This last Sunday, we held our baptismal service and grill out for the Arcoverde church. We had 11 people get baptized. Jeison is a friend of someone who attends. Fabinho’s wife has been a member for several years, and we thought he would take a bit to get saved. Italo and Thalita, David and Ana are couples who were invited by people from our church. Several college and career-age youth made the decision to be baptized as well. After the baptism, it was fun sitting around talking and eating. 

The holidays are upon us! I hope that you have time to spend with family and friends. The end of the year is always a great time to reflect on the goodness of God. I also like to think about Jesus coming to earth, but also coming into my life and the difference it has made.

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and my reader Evelyn (she is taking on the challenge of reading War and Peace), and Anna Claire, the crochet master; she is really taking it on. 

Bits October 2025

ABWE All Brazil conference

Climbing the corporate ladder. A common phrase for most jobs, but what does that mean as a missionary? The most common reaction to this phrase among missionaries is a little laugh. Often, our job is to work ourselves out of a job and then start smaller. But don’t we have bosses and such? Yes! And they are great. They serve us and are a great blessing in our lives. I don’t think it really comes with a raise (if it does, the missionary has to raise support for his raise)! 

Arcoverde service

Why do I bring this up in a prayer letter? Last month, we were able to go to the All Brazil conference in South Brazil and see our colleagues. There is a bit of leadership within our Brazil team, and we were kind of put there by default a few years ago. But with that came some benefits. One being that we stay longer for these conferences and receive more training. This year, we heard from Kyle Farran, a missionary leader in Europe, who gave some great training from the book Lead, Develop, Care. 

Men's activity in Tup

In a couple of months, we will receive another benefit by receiving more training on peacemaking and Biblical Counseling held in Spain. We are excited about the trip, and a benefit is that we get to do some sightseeing as well! But it also costs money… that we need to raise. Actually, we had the money in our accounts, but it used a good chunk of our undesignated funds. As the end of the year draws near, if you are thinking of an end-of-the-year gift, I humbly ask that you consider us! We first need to get our account a little healthier, but we also would like to build an apartment at the Tupanatinga property, as that will help with having a Pastor present there at some point, hopefully in the near future (our goal is by the summer of 2027). The estimate for building the apartment is around 20,000 dollars, but we could get a great chunk of it done for half of that. 

AC painting faces

This month was a whirlwind! We went to South Brazil for the conference, but also spoke in two churches (Stefan’s family’s church and the church where Stefan worked before joining us) and reported about the work in Northeast Brazil. We held a kids’ day before that, which Sarah did an excellent job organizing. Then this last weekend we stayed in Tupanatinga after the service on Friday night and did a men’s study/activity Saturday morning, a kids’ club Saturday afternoon as a church missionary outreach, ate at four different members’ houses, and performed a wedding Sunday afternoon before rushing home for the Arcoverde church service. 

Saturday, we have an outreach in Batalha. A church from Recife is bringing a busload of people on Friday night. Pray that the outreach will encourage the community and that people will be more interested in the gospel! On the 23rd of November, we are planning a baptism for the church in Arcoverde, and we have around 10 on the list to be baptized. Praise the Lord for salvations! 

Pray we finish off the year strong! Thank you all for your consistent support and prayers!

All for HIS glory,
David, Sarah, and our historian, political science, language-loving Evelyn, and our designer, crocheter (this month she finished a blanket and a purse, and a lot more) Anna Claire 

Bits September 2025

The Arcoverde church is experiencing a slow growth over time, with a good bit of visitors. We have ups and downs as a church, and we feel a new time is coming for growth. On my heart, as the next phase of ministry is healthy churches. Our town, as well as others, experiences a lot of church growth through division. Church members often float from one church to the next. Our church is not the exception. 

So what is a healthy church? Mark Dever wrote a book called 9 Marks of a Healthy Church and it has some great content on the subject. But you can’t just say, this is how it is going to be without needing to change some regional church culture. We have plenty of people who grew up or are used to different church cultures, and we are trying to establish our church culture. Old habits are not easily broken. 

This month, we had a day in which we talked about what a healthy ch
urch looks like and what we try to do in our church to be a healthy church. We had over forty people present on a Saturday afternoon! It went well; people seemed genuinely interested in what was presented. 

Sarah continues to be involved in different women’s ministry activities, whether it is conversations, going for walks, organizing, or serving. 

On September 20, besides Evie’s birthday, Camp Paradise celebrated 60 years of existence. We went to the camp for the celebration along with some of our bosses. It was a great weekend to talk to them as well as be at the camp. I am on the board of directors… but really, I don’t do much. The girls enjoyed walking around the places they aren't allowed to go during camp season

On Saturday, we have our annual kids day celebration. We have over 60 kids signed up to come praise, hear the gospel, play, and eat cotton candy. We are excited, and Sarah is working overtime on all the details. Pray for these kids! 

The following day, we travel to All Brazil, a conference for ABWE missionaries in Brazil. We will be gone a week and be able to speak in a couple of churches in Porto Alegre (where Evie was born), see our colleagues, and have a good time. 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and our sweet sixteen-year-old Evelyn (no, she is not driving yet, cause Brazil doesn’t allow until 18), and our crocheting Anna Claire, who is working hard on her big blanket, amongst other projects

Bits August 2025

Jeremiah and Cindy Cook often come down to visit and serve. They arrived two days after we arrived back in Brasil. Jeremiah was able to get into the local police station for a day and teach a training on first aid and shooting. He was also able to share the importance of Christ in his life as a police officer. 

A group of five friends from Oregon came down on the invite of the english school Fisk. Claudia, who owns Fisk and we have known since arriving in Arcoverde, started coming to our church about three years ago. This year she has had more of a burden for her students and has set up times of immersion in which the students are in contact with native American speakers…. us. She inserts times for spiritual conversation as well. 

She organized a beach trip with these friends from Oregon, our family and the Cook family, and 15 students. We had a great time with plenty of conversation moments. On Saturday afternoon, the groups rotated between three groups talking about sports, money, and religion. They all heard the gospel from Ellen and were respectful and even receptive. After the trip, on Tuesday and Thursday, we organized conversation times in the church. The Fisk classes were held at the church, and we had over 100 students. It was open to the public as well. There were five different groups that had Americans in it. It was a great opportunity to invest in lives, as well as having a different group of people see that our church exists and where it is located. 

On Saturday, September 13th, we are planning a time at the church where we talk about how the church works as well as the vision for the church. The pastors are excited about this and we ask for prayer that our people will be excited as well. 

Sarah had surgery for varicose veins on August 11, and it has been a fun month for recuperation. She is almost back to normal, and for that, we will all be grateful. Thank you for your prayers and constant support!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and teacher and swimmer Evelyn, and our artsy AC 

Bits from Brazil

This month was a blessing for us with our rest and recuperation goals. Mainly, the mental rest. We find that we are normal people in that we can get drained living in a different culture. We love Brasil and can’t picture ourselves anywhere else, but we needed a break before our trip. We now feel ready to return and get to work. We feel rejuvenated and are excited for the second semester of activities for the year. 

Being able to worship in church services without responsibilities has been helpful for paying attention to the Word and letting praise music speak to us. Several times we sang teary-eyed. Let me encourage you all, wherever you are, to advocate for your Pastor to have time off so that he can be in a healthy spiritual place. It seems like there is a generation of Pastors retiring, and so the less Pastors there are who are quitting, the better for the church. We were encouraged to meet an Air Force chaplain while hiking a mountain; he asked everyone at the top of Mount Major (in New Hampshire) for a photo together, asking where they were from. 

One Sunday this month, we were able to speak at a North Georgia church where Sarah’s parents attend and her uncle is pastoring. We also attended two small groups in which we talked about what God is doing in Brasil. It was very encouraging to dialogue and be able to have questions as we talked about the different church plants. This Sunday, we will be able to speak at our sending church in Michigan. 

In Batalha, Stefan has had a couple of workdays for the new property. An architect who attends our church, but is not yet a member, is volunteering to work on the design. Because there was no rebar or solid structure in the walls, we decided to take down the current structure and build it the way we would really like it built, rather than adapt an unstable building to our needs. It was a blessing that several men from Batalha worked on it the first day, and then several men from the Arcoverde church worked on it the second day.

On Tuesday, the 5th of August, we fly back to Brasil, arriving on the 6th. Pray for smooth travels and a good entrance back into ministry! We have a busy few months coming up, with a couple of groups this month visiting, a module, preaching and organizing in the church. 

We so enjoyed seeing a few of you all this trip. Please know how much we appreciate you all! 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my girl with her driver’s permit, and our trampoline gymnast