Bits December

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We have had a great holiday season so far. It is our third in a row in Brasil and the plans are to have the next one in the US Lord willing. We are planning a furlough from July 2022 until June 2023! The girls are going to attend a school in the US, in the Chattanooga area and we will have a chance to visit some of our supporting churches as well. If you would like a visit, please reach out with some possible dates! 

This month started out with our fourth module of the year. This time Dan Cook (colleague who lives in Recife, our state capital) and I taught the Good Soil seminar. It went really well and our people learned a lot in regards to evangelism and discipleship. 

Following that we picked up Jeremiah and Cindy Cook from the airport for their two weeks here. This was their fourth trip to visit us dating back to our Amazon days when their trip home made us think they would never visit us again! Cindy works in the women's ministry of a large church in Chattanooga that puts on a women's tea every Christmas. For the last two years she put it on in Tupanatinga for the women there. Sarah and her had a great time hosting it this year and we were at maximum capacity. Next time we should have the new building and be able to fit more women! 

Jeremiah, a member of the Chattanooga SWAT team as well as a Sargent in the police force, has had plenty of opportunities to teach here in our state. This trip he had a couple opportunities as well. It was neat translating for him as he prayed for the police forces during his teaching time. His training was also very practical and the service members enjoyed the interaction. He had lots of questions in both trainings. 

This month we received a big blessing from a great friend who pushed us through phase two of the construction in Tupanatinga! This means that Lord willing, if our projections are correct, we will not have to stop the construction work in Tupanatinga and can complete both phases! We are really excited about this and about God's provision. (Before that gift we received another substantial gift that kept the work going when we were slightly nervous it would have to stop for lack of finances). Praise the Lord for His provision!

Thank you all for your support and prayers. We are excited for what God is doing here! 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our organizers Evie and Anna Claire who received almost no toys for Christmas this year. They are growing up! 

Bits November

Last month I started by saying what a terrible month…. But this month has been pretty good. It started off well because of a great visit with Pastor Ken Lowe. We had several good events with him. The first one had to do with the leadership group we are forming in the church. Leadership is really important and we have not taken it lightly these years. We think it is important not to rush people into leadership just because of a need. The Bible has qualifications for leadership for a reason; to protect everyone involved! 

In our leadership meeting with Ken we looked at Acts and how churches were planted; in each church there was an establishing work, a strengthening work and then a leadership was formed. Our guys saw why leadership is needed and it really opened their eyes about being a church that looks to plant other churches. We had a follow up meeting last week and looked at a map of our area to see where churches could be planted around us. We could tell they were processing all this and that planting churches as a church had never really occurred to them, as this important responsibility often doesn’t occur to us in church. Now we will see how this affects them as they ponder their role in planting churches.

The building in Tupanatinga is really going up! God always sends gifts in the right timing and so far we haven’t had to stop! We were considering a little pause in buying things but even that was cancelled for now. We are hoping that in the next few months we can have the inauguration of the sanctuary. We would love to continue on to the kid’s building right after depending on our resources at the time. 

Evelyn has entered the youth group here in Arcoverde which has been excited. Sarah Rogers, the short termer is heading up the organization with the help of our colleagues Roger and Marcy. It has been neat seeing some action with youth around here as we have not had much of a focus on this age. Pray that God would bring us a good group that can grow as disciples and encourage the church. 

Speaking of our colleagues; we had a great Thanksgiving with them as we had a great Thanksgiving spread, a great time together as well as eating leftovers at night. We have one more colleague, Dan Cook who came from Recife to celebrate. We will also be teaching Good Soil, a seminar on Evangelism and Discipleship, this weekend! Pray we have a good turnout for our final module of the year. We are heading into the holiday season which in Brazil extends a couple months into the New Year as it is their summer. Events tend to slow down, attendance lowers, and we make decisions going into the next year. Please pray for wisdom with our time! 

Thank you all for your love and support and prayers. 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our youth group attender, nursery worker Evelyn and our home edit professional Anna Claire (for those of you familiar with home editing; our pantry, closet and other areas have all been edited this month by a little 8 year old hard worker). 

Bits October

I preached a city event for
churches in Tupanatinga

What a terrible month. Ever have those months? So it wasn’t that terrible for us personally as much as bad things happening with people we love around us. Poor choices have tough consequences and pastoring during those times can be difficult. A good bit of time, prayer, energy was spent on a couple different situations this month and so it was good to have a time to get away this last week. We had an ABWE meeting to go to in another city which took us out of town for a couple days and when we flew back to Recife we stayed at the beach for a couple days while we waited for a Pastor and his wife to arrive and help minister in the Sertão for about ten days.

Relaxing time at a rural
house in Tupanatinga

Dr. Ken and Amy Lowe were missionaries in Portugal for 17 years and we connected through Servant Leaders. He has a similar vision for Leadership Training within the church. He teaches courses and I invited him down mainly as a mentor, but also to help teach modules and cast a vision for leadership training. On Tuesday we are gathering some of the main leaders in the church to talk about leadership. We hope to have elders and deacons in the future but have taken it slowly. Pray this meeting goes well for us! 

Kid's day! 

Thursday he will be helping the pastors of the city work through some of those ideas and then Saturday and Sunday we have a module on Bible Study Methods. It is neat to see our church sign up and participate in these modules. We were interrupted some this year, but it seems like we have a good group that likes to participate. We would really like to have a good group that practices what they learn and grows in their leadership in their home and with their friends and family. Sometimes we see evident growth, sometimes it seems like we are taking steps back, but overall we can tell that God is developing a good group of disciple-makers and it is neat to be a part of what God is doing. 

Construction progress! From no dirt to filled in!

The Tupanatinga church has seen visitors most services! The construction is moving along as well! Pretty soon I will be making more urgent requests for financial help with it, but for now we have seen some Brazilians being active. One member of our church in Arcoverde decided to donate ten sacks of cement per month; another member of the Tupanatinga church paid a larger bill and said it was his donation. Others from the church have been involved in getting things organized for the construction. The guy who designed the project and is overseeing the work refuses to be paid even though things are tight for him right now. There is a good excitement in the church and for good reason. 

So I started off saying it was a terrible month, but we had some great events happen as well. We did a concert at our church that went well one Saturday night. Then we had a big activity for kid's day that was lots of fun for everyone. 

Thanks for your prayers! They are sustaining just as God’s grace is sustaining. 

All for HIS glory,

Girls and their books

David, Sarah and our home editors; I guess you need to watch about home edit to know what that means, but basically the girls have gotten into house organization 

Bits September

Evie helping with kids and
participating in a women's Bible study

Evelyn turned twelve years old this month! She had a nice dinner with her good friend Julia.
Evie has not had much luck with friends here. Anna Claire has about 50 girls her age at church (take that number to be slightly exaggerated), but Evie’s age is mostly boys. Her best friend for a couple years when we moved here was Alice who moved to Tupanatinga; so Evie still sees her but she isn’t around as much. After that she has met some girls, but last year she was really praying for a good friend. We got a call one day from a friend wondering if his daughter could come over and play with Evie. It turned out they had a lot in common and are both just really good girls. So she comes over on Wednesdays and they hang out and sometimes see each other on the weekend as well, like this month when Julie participated in our New Testament module. Well, this month we learned the Julie is also moving away, to the capital city of Recife, which will limit how often Evie gets to see her. While Evie is disappointed she has had a great attitude. Pray God will bless her with more good friends! 

Anna Claire insisted on
helping fill this hole

Construction is at full stride in Tupanatinga! I got to work a couple of times there; when I say work what I really mean is play in the dirt. Anna Claire has enjoyed filling the holes with dirt whenever we visit the site. We are hoping the building goes up quickly and that we have enough to finish it! We have a good bit saved, but it is going quickly. If you would like to contribute you can send it to ABWE and designate it for the Carrel church planting fund. 

Sarah’s counseling has ups and downs. Sometimes it seems like miracles happen and other times like the counselee ignored everything, but for the most part they are growing. Sarah and I have been able to counsel together a few times together and it is neat to work together and see progress. This month she helped a couple ladies with their two year olds. One of them immediately went out and advertised in the church. Sarah is even planning a parenting class with another woman in the church. Speaking of classes, Sarah has one more class to go before her dissertation year. She has done very well academically. She also was very involved this month with the weekly women’s meetings and a baby shower. 

Tupanatinga construction

This month I have felt has been a problem solving month. Lots of issues to deal with which leaves you a little tired. Pray that our rest would be in the Lord and that we can see problems as growth opportunities. I was recently gifted a book where the author says he feels like he writes a bunch of different books with the same content in them, just the title that changes. The gospel affects all areas of life and the gospel is important in our problem solving opportunities as well. 

Please pray for us this month as we have services, trips, a concert, counseling, a course, and who knows what else! Thanks so much!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my twelve year old servant (I mean that she has a good servant hearted spirit), and my other little baby sitting helper 

Evie opening presents

Evie after her surgery to take out
her adenoid

Bits August

It's party time woody. We like to use that phrase from Toy Story around the house. As I looked at pictures on my phone of the last month to think about what to write on it popped in my mind! I like to tell people that the name of our church (Koinonia) is greek for fellowship, which basically means we like to party. This month we went to birthday parties, dinner parties, grill out parties, a family party (referring to another family’s party that I crashed, although at the beginning of this month we were actually just leaving my family’s week long get together in Florida), neighborhood party (we invited the neighborhood to the church to snack at our kitchen with good food at low prices), and then Sarah had a beach party with one of her discipleship groups. 

Although we do organize lots of church events and strive for structure in ministry, some of our best ministry opportunities come in informal moments around a table or sitting in a yard. This last weekend Sarah took one of her small groups to the beach and they just had fun together for a couple days. They had a good group Bible study time one night but most was informal and they came back refreshed and encouraged. Most are moms with jobs that rarely ever get away from the rat races they are in. 

While Sarah was gone people usually feel pity and invite me over so the girls and I do not starve to death. Both Saturday and Sunday I went to grill outs with unchurched people. On Sunday I had an especially good conversation about heaven and hell and how to get to each place. Personal evangelism is important and can come in unexpected moments. Missionaries have a good advantage because one of the main questions we are asked is why we are here in Brazil and the answer usually sprouts out more questions. While it is common to want to impose beliefs I think the gospel is better received when we first ask questions to hear what others believe. 

We are starting to see a decent comeback from the pandemic. One person we are very glad to have is Roger Smith who is our senior pastor in Arcoverde. He was gone for nine months and so it will be great to divide tasks with him again. His wife had to stay behind for a few weeks because of a family situation but has now arrived and so it will be good to have Marcy back as well. We sat down earlier this month to talk about goals as they will be retiring in a couple years and so we want to be on the same page. We are both excited about the leadership that is being raised and hope to even raise a sanctuary beside our current building that will hold more people. We had seen the need pre-covid and hadn’t seen that need again until this month. Pray for wisdom as we look at our options in that regard.

Speaking of construction; the construction began this week on the church in Tupanatinga! We have a pretty simple building and so hopefully it will not take that long. There is also a decent chance that we already have the funds for this first phase, although I don’t know for sure cause of rising prices and because they are just estimates! Construction usually costs more than what you think! I had mentioned the beginning of the year that we were starting, but the workers have not been available! As we held out for reliable workers our ministry funds have built up, which we have been trying to save for the construction project. 

Pray this month for the women’s meetings each week, new discipleship groups to pop up, two separate groups studying systematic theology, a new contact in Pesqueira, our New Testament module Saturday and Sunday, and new opportunities for outsiders to come to the church! 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! God bless!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and my two little missionaries Evelyn who takes care of little ones while their mothers serve and Anna Claire that gets along with all these little girls and includes them in the church activities.   

Bits July

We are on our last day of vacation in Florida with my family which has been a blessing. It had been 2.5 years since we were in the states and even longer since most of my family was together; so it has been great being with them. Tomorrow we go back to Chattanooga to organize with covid tests and packing to fly back to Brasil on Wednesday. 

Our first few weeks were spent on the farm in the Chattanooga area with Sarah’s family. We have tried to treat this time like a sabattical where we can get some mental rest. I feel like we have been pretty successful with that and will hopefully bring that mentality back to Brasil. The sabbath is an important principle that I am not sure we have fully learned or understand yet. Resting in God and understanding that our rest comes from Him, that we are dependent on Him, means that we can live in peace in this chaotic world. 

Another reason for our trip has been scouting out the US for next year when we are on our furlough. One of the main reasons we have had a longer term besides our normal less than two year terms is so that we can put the girls in a US school for a year. So our plan will be to have them in school for the 2022-2023 school year. We will also travel to some churches and have thought about what else to do to occupy our time. Sarah will be working on her dissertation for her master’s degree and probably counseling some. Pray for wisdom in that regards that we would know how to best use our time. 

During this month the services continued in both church plants with sermons from four different members. It is neat to see their growth. We also learned that one of them who probably preaches the most out of all of them, will be moving to south Brasil (where her family is from). This is tough for us cause of their proximity to us and the growth we have seen in their lives. However, we look at it as training Brazilians to go out and reach Brasil. They are moving to an area where a friend of mine is trying to reach because there are not a lot of solid churches. I am not sure where they will attend, but I know that they will be great members/servants in whatever church they are in. Pray for Raphael and Viviane as we send them out! 

Thank you all so much for your love, prayers and support. We truly live a blessed life. 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, and my two fish who have been in pools for this month. 

Bits June

My favorite ministry time this month was when we brought the newly formed music group from Tupanatinga to spend a few hours with our group in Arcoverde. They arrived around ten in the morning, had a snack and then listened to one of our music leaders about the difference between secular and Christian music. It was very informative and interactive. Then most of our group arrived for lunch. After lunch we had a small meeting sharing some of how praise groups work as well as working through some of the issues that are faced. Then they just started playing a few songs together. Both groups enjoyed the experience and it gave me a good idea of how we can function more as a training center in the future.

We saw our friend and new attender at a
restaurant on the way to the airport

The church in Tupanatinga has really turned a corner. We have had consistent services with several new faithful families. Then having visitors is common. On Friday we used every last chair we have in our small room we rent. We are hoping to start construction soon as we have a good bit of funds, but we are waiting on the trustworthy workers  that our people know to be done with another project before we start. 

After a month without in person church services in Arcoverde we were able to meet Sunday morning. We had a good group there but still a good bit of people are waiting for it to be safer. Small groups have been able to continue though. This month we had some of the men together to study the qualifications of deacons and elders. While we haven’t placed any in positions yet, it was good to challenge them in these areas. Some of them already functionally act as deacons or elders as they preach, lead music or take care of the finances. 

Sarah continues to stay busy with her master’s classes. She only has a couple left and will be done with the classes before the end of the year and then next year will be spent writing her dissertation. She has stayed very busy with all of her commitments. 

Vinicius was a flight attendant on our first flight to
Brazil in 2008. On that flight he read Joshua 1
to encourage us. We ran into him at the airport!

Tuesday afternoon we arrived in Chattanooga to spend around a month here on vacation. It has been almost two and a half years since we have been to the farm (where Sarah’s parents live). We are planning on spending a lot of time with her family and see some of my family as well at the end of this month. This trip will give several people in the church the chance to stand up and lead, preach or just function without us! 

Thanks for all you do for the kingdom! May God bless you. 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, our little reader and our little imaginitive girl who loves to play! 

The girls looking over the city

Bits May

Mother's Day breakfast

This Sunday Raphael preached a great message on being salt and light in the world. We started a sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount and it has already taught me so much. It is neat to see someone from our church preaching so well. He has probably preached 10-12 times since last year and he does an excellent job of preparing and delivering. This month William also preached and did a great job. A good group of preachers is a blessing and it will be good to have our coworkers Roger and Marcy Smith back with us in August. At the beginning of our services we also have a little word and prayer and we have had some excellent thoughts come out of that time where we hear from different members of the congregation. 

Raising up leadership is important to us and we thought the pandemic would help fast track that last year when we decided to divvy up a bunch of tasks. Unfortunately a lot of ministries have been stalled. We hope to have a module this month, but the uprise in cases in town has left a good bit of people hesitant about coming to church, much less eight hours of class on a weekend. Lord willing we will get the module done by the end of the month. 

Mother's Day breakfast families

Local Pastor's prayer breakfast

Our mission board ABWE likes to emphasize teamwork and having support around you. We are grateful for those who help us. We have a regional administrator, Cal Clark, who is currently in a rough spot with pancreatic cancer; please pray for him! In Brazil we have our colleagues that are an encouragement. We also have a local Pastor’s group that meets for breakfast on Tuesdays. They have helped especially during this time of navigating Covid laws. Sarah has her counseling classes that have brought friendships that help her with a good sense of community. On Mondays I meet and pray with a group of missionaries with Servant Leaders and they have been important in regards to productivity accountability. I hope that you all reading this have a group in which you can be accountable and that helps encourage your spiritual growth! 

Tupanatinga has a preais

Sarah’s small groups have been doing pretty well. The Sunday morning group had great attendance the last couple of weeks. This month it seems like we have gained an extra assistant. Evelyn has been super helpful in setting up for church. She also helps with the slides during the service. The girls just finished their school year last week and so are planning their summer routine which will include some responsibilities. Today I was able to teach the kids upstairs at church and it was neat seeing how sweet and participative my own daughters are. 

Thanks for your prayers! The gospel is spreading here. Tupanatinga had record attendances this month thanks to a couple more faithful families! We had a Mother's Day breakfast in Arcoverde that had a bunch of people here. 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our now sixth grader Evelyn and third grader Anna Claire! 

Bits April

Teaching a module at another church

Vidão. That is the Portuguese word for Big life, or good life. When things are going well. It is the expression I like to use when people ask how life is going. This month we finished the Story of Hope Bible study in Pesqueira. They decided to start a new one and study the book of James. In Arcoverde we have had ups and downs as far as groups and meetings and services. Brazil is still having Covid problems and some have lost friends and relatives and it has made them more hesitant about coming to church. 

The church in Tupanatinga is seeing a good bit of visitors. A couple of the women started an Instagram account for the church and have been faithful with posting and that has drawn more people. We are looking into having a praise group from there soon which has gotten me excited. The group there has also been excited. I am going through the Pastoral epistles with some of them just to kind of paint a vision of church leadership. We talked to some brickmasons about starting the church building in a month or so. 

Here is a picture of Rodrygo in Tupanatinga reading the Bible with his father-in-law who is unchurched. The group there has taken to heart God’s Word. Rodrygo will now pray in our Bible study after being ashamed to for a long time. In a meeting about possibly starting a praise group one of the guys talked about how he came partly because of the encouragement of Rodrygo. The group there are getting answers for life from the Bible and sharing with others how the Word can help their lives as well. 

I just had a conversation about the social ministry with our colleague that has now been here three months, Sarah Rogers. There are so many needy people around us and how do we know when it is wise to give and not give. Our church has adopted a community called Batalha in which we have taken food baskets as well as our little thrift store where they can buy items inexpensively. We have a “person of peace” in Batalha who knows where the needs are and we have tried to empower her to help her community. On their own they have asked for services and Bible studies and so we have one person interested in doing a Bible study there. We also have someone in our church that we helped start a small business making signs. Please pray that Roberta can keep up the business. 

This month we watched the series The Chosen as a family. It has been a blessing and helped give us a different view point on Scripture that we have appreciated. Each disciple has their own story, just as each of us has our own story. May our stories point others to Christ!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and our two little disciples of Christ that are learning more and more what it means to follow Him. 

Bits March

Raphael preached last week
on the family

I found a passion. Family difficulties are a problem here in Brasil as well as in the US. We hear of and counsel couples from our church in regards to their marital relationship as well as raising children. We started out the year structuring our messages and small groups around the Servant Leader’s certificate structure and after an Old Testament module we moved into talking about the Christian Family. We have great material, but I felt like it was missing something. Then God gave us the missing part right before the first message by way of song. 

I am now convinced that the gospel can radically change every Christian home. Of course it can, you say. But I am not convinced that we as Christians think about its implications too often. 

The Tupanatinga church meeting on their own

Meeting in Pesqueira

A peaceful place, without screaming, where smiles are abundant and conflicts resolved without feelings of anger; compassion, forgiveness, patience, mercy, grace, love. Is that a description of your home? It isn’t a description of mine necessarily, but it is closer to this now than it was 10 years ago. When we let the gospel settle in to our lives we realize that it changes us. As the gospel is effective it molds us into the image of Christ and this changes everything. As sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters we received inheritances. The legacy of our parents and grandparents passed on to us. Their tendencies became our tendencies, but their choices don’t have to be our choices. Yes of course, take the good stuff; and I am grateful for a lot of great character traits from my family and from Sarah’s family as well. But we can live that legacy or we can let the gospel transform that legacy even more into a Christlike character that will honor God.

Pastors united to pray for the city

These thoughts have been prevalent this month in which a new quarantine was put in place that hindered the great rhythm we have built up. The month of April already has a different quarantine in which we can meet on Sundays but not at our normal time. We feel this is an attack on what God is doing in our families. Pray that God will continue to do this work despite the difficulties! 

We made our first purchase (water boxes) for the construction in Tupanatinga. Now we need to hook up the energy and get the water running. We are also still waiting on a document which is inhibiting some other needed actions to take place. Pray for our CNPJ to come through!  

Grateful for your love and prayers! 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah and my bi-lingual firstborn who is learning sign language, and my birthday girl (next week on the 6th) who will be 8!