Bits September 2026

This last weekend we were all over! Thursday and Friday, I was able to work on the Pastoral apartment in Tupanatinga before preaching at night. On Saturday, the girls served at the nonprofit kids’ ministry by teaching the story (Evie) and then running the craft (Anna Claire). While they were serving, Sarah and I were driving to Recife (the capital city, 3.5 hours away). I preached Sunday morning at a partner church (Redemption Church). They will come at the end of October on a church missions trip to serve in Batalha, the community our team is planting a church in. After preaching and a quick lunch, we drove back to Arcoverde, and I preached the night service. We slept well Sunday night! 

We are ready to finish these construction projects! In Tupanatinga, we are almost done with the cement work and on to the finishing details. We hope that before the end of November we will be able to sleep there as well as Pastor Douglas, who also ministers in Tupanatinga. 

In Batalha, we plan on pouring the roof this Saturday. This will allow us to have a roof over our heads for the studies there! It won’t be finished, but the group from Redemption church is going to help out, along with some other time and financial donations as we make it more and more usable. But in a few weeks, when we can take out the support poles for the roof pour, we should have a good space to use. 

In both churches, we are gearing up for end-of-year baptisms. In my study with Gabriel this week, he says that he wants to be baptized. His mom had attended our church, and I met him, and he agreed to a study earlier this year. We are about to finish the second book on discipleship after we did one on understanding the gospel. It is really neat to see his interest. Another young man who has attended our church off and on for many years has also said he would like to be baptized. 

This month we also had another grill out for men. My friend David and I built a grill to use! We had 26 men out for it; several former football players. I think I had 10 or so unchurched friends that came. Pray for fruit from this ministry! 

It feels like we have so many fronts that we are working on right now: issues in the US, starting a business group, thinking about training, evangelistic events in several different places, mission teams from the US and Brazil to coordinate. It all can feel overwhelming sometimes. Your prayers sustain us! Thank you so much!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, our personal history teacher Evelyn, and our art instructor Anna Claire

Bits August 2026

The women’s book study required enough attention that we changed our preaching series for the month of August. The women read the book Divine Design that talks about men’s and women’s roles. The women really wanted that information passed onto their husbands and so during August we focused our preaching on that very topic. Pray for me Sunday as I preach the last message and summarize what we have learned and give a “now what” type message. 

We were able to have a good time with the men in Arcoverde one Saturday night as we grilled out on the roof. We played games, talked, ate, and then talked about being a man. We are hoping to have more moments like this to help grow the involvement of the men in the church. 

We organized a book launch in Tupanatinga this month. It was encouraging to see many of our church people present and buying books for themselves and to gift to their friends. The book is on the gospel, and my hope is that many come to a greater understanding of the power of the gospel. Tupanatinga has continued to add families. They are very consistent in their attendance and attentive to the message. We studied Daniel this month, which encouraged faith despite different cultures or beliefs. 

The Tupanatinga apartment is getting close to being ready. The construction in Batalha is also closing in on finishing the first phase. We will probably be able to use it next month for the studies held there, even though it will not be completed. It will be covered and be a good wide open space and so that will be better than what we currently have. 

Lately, we have been working on future plans, as next May we will go back to the US for the summer. The reason is to put Evelyn in her senior year of high school. We are preparing for this major adjustment in our life. She wants to work to earn money to buy a car. Then she will attend Oakwood Christian Academy, where she studied several years ago. She still has friends there and will be able to graduate there. Sarah, Anna Claire, and I will return to Brazil for a few months during that first semester and then be back in the US for the holidays, through Evie’s graduation, and then to put her in college. Thanks for your prayers on that. I know some of you are going through that right now and have seen it is not easy! 

When we are in the States, we would like to offer our services! We love putting on a marriage conference we call “The gospel and Marriage.” We also have other courses we can offer, but if you are interested in us coming to your church, please reach out! I am going to try to start scheduling already for next summer as well as 2028. We actually taught that conference in our church this month.  

Thank you for your prayers and support as we make disciples in the Sertão of Brazil!

All for HIS glory,

David, and his troop of children’s church teachers: Sarah, Evelyn, and Anna Claire (who just joined the ranks this last month)

Catimbau with Sarah's family

Little Deive was born! 

Bits July 2026

We are having a wonderful time with Sarah’s family here (her parents, brother, and nephew). Work projects have taken up our time as well as lots of delicious meals together! We have painted, poured concrete, and set up water drainage systems. We also worked at Batalha for a morning putting up trusses, carving out bricks to install conduit, and even working on the road. On Friday we will work some in Tupanatinga and attend the service there. 

We also had a group from Upward Flag Football out of Bethany Baptist Church in Salem, Oregon come. They ran three days of flag football in Arcoverde, one day in Tupanatinga and three nights of English conversation. We saw many old friends and made some new friends. The church in Tupanatinga had several extra visitors that week as some of the kids from the football activity came. Our girls enjoyed having 6 other young people here from the US. 

Pray for the contacts we have made to continue to be interested in coming to church. Groups generate excitement, which is great, but often fades. Pray that God would touch these lives and that they would seek Him. 

The construction projects are coming along, but are both about to be at a standstill financially speaking. We have some possible funds coming from Brazil for Batalha, and hopefully we won’t need to stop. We estimate that we need $7000 more to finish the apartment in Tupanatinga. For now, we are trying to work mainly with the material we have and keep the brickmasons going for a little bit longer as they cement the bricks that are already up. 

I am finishing up our chronological Bible study with a young man, and this week he said he didn’t think he could know his name is written in the book of life. This question in the study always causes thinking and good discussion. Pray for him as he has been prepared to receive the gospel and will now hear how to accept Christ in his life. 

Sarah is finishing up a study with the women on God’s design for us. It has caused such a stir that we will now take the month of August to preach on the topic. Pray for hearts willing to follow God’s plan laid out in the Bible. 

God has blessed us so much to be living this missionary life. Thank you for your prayers and support the keeps us here. 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, Evelyn our English conversation coordinator and Anna Claire, who is now also on translation duty and also learning to play the guitar 

Bits June 2026

This month’s email comes early because Sarah and I are going on a trip to celebrate our 20th anniversary (which is actually only in December). We are excited to have a nice time away together with a couple of my brothers who are also celebrating.

The World Cup started this month, and Brazil always shuts down for their national team. We had a watch party at the church for the first and third games. Brazilians love their soccer and having parties. This month is also June, and our city has concerts downtown for two weeks straight. Sarah has been doing a women’s study a couple of times a week, and I have continued to try to meet for discipleship, but it seems like some things are put on hold. 

We also held a book launch party as my book on the gospel-transformed life was finally completed in Portuguese. It was published by an actual publisher here, and the quality turned out really nice. At the launch party, there were a lot of people that do not attend our church. A good group of former football players came, and it was a fun reunion. Pray that people will read the book and have a deeper understanding of the gospel and its power in our lives. 

We also had a colleague come visit us to see about a possible future here. Pray for Lloyd and Athena as they need to leave the Amazon due to health reasons. While here, Lloyd was able to serve through maintenance as well as meeting people and different ministries. They have several options on what to do, but they seemed to fit in well here. 

In July, we will have a group from Bethany Baptist Church in Salem, Oregon. They have come several times in the past. We will be teaching Flag Football and having English conversation as well as several other activities. Pray for a safe and effective trip for them! At the end of July, Sarah’s family will be down here! We are excited to do construction projects with them, as well as a couple of speaking events. 

Our construction projects are moving along. They always seem to take long, but we have seen progress. We hope that they both have roofs during the month of July! 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and my history loving Evelyn and crochet master AC

Bits May 2026

Mother's Day Tupanatinga

 On Tuesday, I attended a small group led by Wanderson. They are reading a book about pride and talking about it around a dinner they each prepare. On Wednesday, I drove to Tupanatinga to participate in the study on Proverbs. Chico and Rodryggo are leading the study. They did a great job. Last night, we had our service in Tupanatinga and Matheus preached on Lot and decisions. He did a great job as well. 

Not every week is like this week; I am generally leading the studies and preaching, but lately we are able to hand some of these tasks off. In a year from now we plan on being in the states for a good bit and so the Brazilians here will need to be doing all of the ministries. We are not worried. The churches are getting more and more stable, praise the Lord.

Going to a concert! 

The last couple of weekends we administered a Parenting course. We used the book Parenting by Paul Tripp, an excellent resource on changing one’s perspective in how they raise their kids. Probably my favorite ministry activity is teaching courses like this one. We had a good turnout and Wanderson’s group plans to read that same book for their next study.

Sarah started a study with women this week. She had a great first night with them. On Tuesday night she was in a different group participating, not as the leader, but observing how they do their small group. This group is younger single ladies, a group we have never really had in our church, but lately we have had more of. 

Youth car wash

We are grateful for making it through the last few weeks of sickness. Sarah was hit hard with what seemed like the flu. It took her 9-10 days to feel better. It then hit the rest of us, although thankfully we didn’t get it quite as bad. 

For the next couple of months we will have visitors; family and friends and a church group. Pray that we can keep everything organized and running! Our next update might come a little early as at the end of this month Sarah and I will be doing a 20th anniversary celebration trip (our actual anniversary is in December, but it worked out schedule wise to do it now). Sarah and I are really looking forward to this trip. 

Construction in Batalha

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, our writer Evelyn, and art master AC

Bits April 26

In early April, we celebrate Anna Claire’s birthday and the Arcoverde church anniversary. This year, Easter coincided. We had an Easter play for the first time this year, and Evelyn was one of the three main characters. She did a fabulous job. Our church, plus some visitors, plus the non-profit kids’ ministry we are associated with, and a group in Batalha, all seemed to enjoy it. Stefan wrote the play and did a great job of explaining the true meaning of Easter. 

We also had a Praise and Worship service on the Saturday of Easter weekend. Our youth participated as well as our main Worship group. The youth really enjoyed it. We love seeing youth being excited about church events. 

In Tupanatinga, we finished studying James on Wednesday nights. We have been focusing on Bible study, including a study on Methods of Bible Study. In a leadership meeting last week, some of the leaders expressed the desire to do the study without us needing to be there. That has been the goal. Pray for them to be able to fulfill that desire. At the same time, once the apartment is built there, we hope to spend a little more time there at the church. The growth lately has been really neat to see. New families, lots of kids, even one kid who has convinced his parents to come, and his mom has come four weeks in a row, and his dad a couple of times. 

Roberta is a joy to have in the church. She helps with the older college and career group. She has been inviting people to church, and several are attending with her now. She also started a small group in her house with some of the newer young ladies. One of those we are trying to help with her small business so that she can stay in town. Pray for us to be able to offer wise help. 

In March, I found out about a part of our mission that does business for mission. I have always been interested in the subject and saw how we have so many small business owners in our church, and thought it would be really interesting. Upon contacting them, I found out that when they come, they recommend a follow-up program to be run by someone in the location for 16 weeks. I also found out that the person needed to do a course… and that the course started only a couple of days later…. So I am doing an entrepreneur course designed to help Christian small business owners. I am about halfway done now. Pray that it will be a blessing to those in our church as well as an outreach to those outside of the church. 

I am also doing a leadership cohort through ABWE this year. So I ended up having a study year. Fortunately, it is not heavy lifting classes and only requires a few hours a week. Thank you so much for your prayers for us as we spread the good news here in Brasil. We appreciate you all! 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our Evelyn who has pretty much finished 10th grade and is looking to start her last year of homeschool before going to the states for her senior year, and Anna Claire our crochet master who is spitting out projects one after another.

                                                                           

   

Bits March 2026

 We were privileged to have missionaries Shane and Erin Latham with us this month. On the Saturday morning, we went to a jiu-jitsu class in which Shane taught some techniques and integrated them with spiritual conversation. I grew up wrestling, and that was his platform, one that I didn’t realize I could have. I am not sure I want my body to go through that much, but maybe it would be a good opportunity to invest in people’s lives in that community. Pray that I would have wisdom regarding the open door they left in my lap. That night, Shane and Erin spoke for a couple’s dinner in which they gave tips to help their marriage. The next day, they taught a Sunday School group and then on Sunday night preached. It was a blessing to hear from them for the weekend. 

The girls and I also heard from them the following weekend as we went to Recife for English camp. This is our third year attending and helping out with our second-tier english abilities. We were able to have a good time while also hearing some good life lessons. 

Sarah’s big event this month was the Arcoverde women’s tea that we always do in March. She has handed over the official organization to Luma, who did a wonderful job, but somehow always stays busy in preparation for the tea. This year, Luma talked about how pearls come from irritations and how God is molding us. Sarah then interviewed Iana and Julia about their lives and how God has used different circumstances to mold them. 

As we look forward to this Easter weekend, we have a busy one planned. It is also the Arcoverde church anniversary. We are going to have a praise service Saturday night with several groups leading in worship. We are also putting on an Easter play. Evelyn has a main part. She is the daughter of an inventor, who goes back in time with the help of a time machine, to find out about the lamb of Easter. Stefan wrote the play, and it should be really good. Pray that we would have a good group of people to watch! 

Construction is starting in Batalha! We are excited for this as it has been a long time coming. For a long time, we couldn’t find land, then we couldn’t find a tractor to clear it, and then it took a while to find a builder! After another contractor told us it would be a while last week, we got a lead as a result of a prayer request. Now we will have two Koinonia buildings in construction, so pray we have the patience, finances, and good workers! 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and our diligent daughters,
who have worked ahead on their school work and are winding down the official classes and doing more unofficial learning. Also, AC turns 13 next Monday!