Bits October 2026

We sat together in a service!

 “Elections have consequences” is a phrase I have heard a lot of in the past few years. Brazil just went through a rough election process that I am sure many of you have heard about. There are many consequences to this election, probably most of which are yet to be seen or understood. But one of them is a month of a stalled church. Our attendance had been going well until October hit, which had the first vote at the beginning of the month and then a strong reaction before the final vote last Saturday. There was so much anger going around, and people didn’t seek out God; they sought an earthly kingdom.

I guess that is not so uncommon: the pursuit of earthly kingdoms. It happened in Jesus’ day; why wouldn’t it happen now? During this month, the church in Arcoverde joined a 40-day prayer and fasting campaign with other churches in our state. We are reading a devotional book together, and each one is praying or fasting in their own way, with some church-wide prayer meeting options in there as well. My main prayer is that our church would have the perspective of living on mission, just like we are studying as we preach through the book of Acts.

On October 3, the Arcoverde church held our annual kids’ day event. We had over 100 kids from all different places. Evelyn and Anna Claire were team captains and led the worship songs as well. They did fabulous. Sarah organized the food, and I was the event director. Stefan told the story of Joseph in five different teaching moments, and we also had games, arts and crafts, snacks, and lots of fun. 

On the following Friday night, we celebrated kids’ day with around 25 kids in Tupanatinga. Now that group is a normal kids’ class group in Tupanatinga, as we have lots of kids that come out for service! 

Tomorrow, Saturday, we have a group of around 60 people that are coming from a partner church in Recife to do an outreach in the community of Batalha. There will be all kinds of doctors and nurses who will be seeing people, and there will be evangelism teams as well. We are also going to try to lay the floor of the building we are constructing there. Pray that this event will see fruit! There have been a lot of trials this past month there, but God is greater. Pray that Jesus will be glorified! 

We appreciate your prayers and support as we work in the Northeast of Brazil for Christ.

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and our two praise leaders, Evie and AC

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.