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 :).

A selfie culture

Smart phones have brought in a lot of time/energy saving resources. They have also put a high quality camera into something you have with you all the time; allowing picture-making to happen much more often. We can see first walks, random acts of kindness, crimes, and all sorts of activities because cameras are always a reach in the pocket away.

Phones also have games on them. All kinds of games from simple word search games, to time consuming games like candy crush to video games where the phone is the controller, screen and audio. The sky is the limit with the apps you can purchase or download to your phone.

Unfortunately the camera and the games have mixed into a new culture buzzword: the selfie. Apparently, the game is to find the most creative way to make yourself look good while still holding your camera. The object is to receive the most praise possible by one picture. This game is almost addicting as candy crush as people take the game to all different levels. Level one started years ago when no one was around to help take a picture and couples had to creatively extend their arm and catch a picture of themselves. Hopefully this has nothing to do with the busy-ness of our culture in not being able to ask someone to help you out when your group is wanting to take a group picture. This whole game might be avoided if we were all friendlier!

The part of the selfie culture I find most devastating is the selfie mirror picture. Find the best angle that will make you look impeccable; put on your seductive smile and BOOM, you conquer the highest level. You can expect dozens of comments on your beauty that should boost your self-esteem for a whole three days!

I tried not to be too sarcastic and brief with the above comments, but the whole selfie culture really makes me sick to my stomach. Not every time; the group ones can be fun, and I realize that. But I wonder what we are trying to prove when we post pictures of ourselves all over the internet. What is the motivation?

It seems Jesus and the Bible highlight thinking of God and others first. I wonder how selfies fit into seeking to bring honor to God and serve others. I know that it is hard to fit that phrase into every aspect of life, it just seems that generally selfies have the opposite effect.

But just so you know, whether you take selfies or not, you are beautiful in the eyes of the most important person in the world and He loves you unconditionally. He wants you to be even more beautiful on the inside than you are on the outside and has provided a way in which you can accomplish this. And I love you too because you are important; God made you in His image! I hope you can receive worth as a child of God and accept the praise of man only as a little bonus.

Bits November

Our small group on Wednesdays has officially passed the small group magic number of 13. We are thrilled to have so many participating. Roger and Carlos are doing a series called God our Provider. On Sunday nights we are starting out small scale. A couple of the football guys have come to the studies and a few others have said they would come. We will continue to encourage them to come out!

I am finishing up the Story of Hope with Breno and am halfway through the Way to Joy with Chico and Bia. We always face other tasks that get in the way, but have still met a few times this month. We are unsure how December will affect all of our groups and discipleships; we will see! We are planning a couple Christmas parties though. Pray that people will have a good time at the parties and be interested in participating in a study group. 

This month we have had meetings about developing the land for the church. We are blessed to have several people around us with experience in church building. We have decided to build in stages as we do not yet need the building to fit a hundred thousand people. :) We are planning to plane the land, sod it, and put up some lights in order to have a field to play on. We will then build a small building on the other side that will have a bigger room that will serve as an auditorium, a nursery, kitchen, bathrooms, office and another room or two. We estimate the cost will be 100,000 dollars and is our first goal for the construction. We are looking at a180 square meter building. The cost right now is around $575 per square meter. Would you consider donating a square meter or two (or 180)? Praise the Lord we are at a great advantage right now with a high exchange rate! (To give, go to www.abwe.org/give, David and Sarah Carrel Account 013323 and sub account 006).

Speaking of construction, they started on the second floor of our house this week. Click here to see the video of me stepping through the roof. :) Thanks for all your prayers; I know they are out there. As I told Cousin Carolyn on Thanksgiving when she said she is praying; “I know, that is why enjoy sending the updates each month, cause I know there are people out there praying for us!” 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my little school girl that is reading some words, and my climber that recognizes when we are praying and in trying to close her eyes puts on a mad face. :)

Bits October

Boom. We have land for the church. God blessed us with a gift of land from money from the sale of land in a different part of Brazil. We did not even imagine we would receive this and we have been rejoicing since we found out of its probability. This month we will start drawing up plans for the development of the property in phases as the church here grows. We look forward to presenting that to you soon, but if you are just too excited and want to give to whatever it will be you can send money to our ABWE account and reserve it for the church plant construction (David and Sarah Carrel sub-account 006). 

(We have the lots in the middle; 6 lots and 1200 square meters)

Wednesday night we had a party at our training center as we finished going through the Story of Hope this month. We had some good conversations about salvation and are looking forward to one over lunch on Sunday. Please pray for God to continue to work in their hearts in regard to Him. Also pray as we make decisions on our next step as far as studies go. At the moment of writing this, times, locations and child care are issues to work through as we think about what would be best for the work here. At the moment we are planning a Sunday night study and a Wednesday night study. 

This month we traveled to Fortaleza, Brazil for a conference for all the ABWE Brazil missionaries. It was awesome. We have lived on 3 different fields in Brazil and many of our colleagues are great friends. We shared conversation over meals, fun in the sun (or pool) and ideas from ministry with many of them. 

We also stayed a couple of days more for some separate meetings about strategy in Brazil. I have the task of working on some church/seminary education ideas. Please pray for wisdom as we try to organize training that would work for the churches in Brazil as they develop leaders. 

This Saturday we will have the English conversation and the following Saturday we will be watching “Facing the Giants” with the football team. The following weekend we will have the last NT module in Recife. Sarah is also wanting to start an afternoon coffee for ladies. Are those enough prayer requests for you all? We appreciate your prayers so much!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, ms project lady Evie, and the little one that makes her daddy stand at the door before he leaves each day to hear her say bye in a strong southern accent (compare it to what a sheep says). 

Bits September

This month has been exciting on the church front here. Our best friends here Francisco and Bia accepted Christ. Salvation is so beautiful; and to witness the process of understanding the gospel and it culminating into a point of realization and acceptance is thrilling. They are both hungry and thirsty for righteousness and say that there is so much to learn. We have also taken some steps as far as a future property goes. Later this month I will send out more information on what is happening with this and how you can help.

Evelyn’s birthday party went really well and we had quite a crowd at CeTAK where we held it. One of our main goals now is to get people exposed to the building and then give invites for some new studies there at the end of this month. We have been friends with some people that do not always show too much interest in God, but with some difficulties that come up, you start to see them show more interest. Pray that God can use us to help them out during these times. We will be doing some movie nights and hopefully start a new Bible study there by the end of the month. Pray that there will be some crossover of people from other social networks like soccer, football and English. 

This month (week of the 19th) we have All-Brazil, a conference for all the ABWE missionaries in Brazil held every three years. We are excited to see so many friends/colleagues as well as participate in training/services/worship. The girls will have child care provided. Pray they do well in their classes and that Sarah and I will be able to have some relaxing time together. 

Evelyn is five now, in school and doing really well with Portuguese. She keeps getting injured with swings though! This month a swing broke while I was pushing her and she had a hard fall to the ground and then last weekend a swing busted her lip open! She is doing fine though. Anna Claire is very mobile and dangerous and has such a cute smile that at only 1 year and 6 months she already knows how manipulative it can be. :) Here is a video showing Evie’s birthday party and the past few months.

We have some interest in short term groups and we are excited! If you have any interest in doing a youth event in February, a football clinic once high school football is done in the winter (any level coach/player would be helpful), or any other type of trip, please let me know! 

All for HIS glory!

David, Sarah, our little Brazilian American bilingual 5 year old and our quick little climbing monkey.

Behave wisely/ Se comporta com sabedoria

"I will behave wisely in a perfect way,
Oh, when will you come to me?
I will walk within my house with a perfect heart."
David says this in the 101st Psalm in verse 2.

Behaving wisely is a difficult thing to do all the time. We may make some wise moves every once in a while, but on a consistent basis is difficult to do. "In a perfect way" is even harder. How do we know perfect behavior? We must be immersed in the Bible to understand how to live perfectly.

Then we need God. Because being perfect is no easy task; in fact, it is an impossible task without God. I can try my hardest on my own, but ultimately I fail when I do not give God the controls; when I do not willingly submit to His will in my life.

The most difficult place to live perfectly is in your own house. I think that in the public eye I do alright usually, but my house is a different story. David did not talk about just having a good reputation outside of the walls of his house, he wanted to have a perfect heart within his own house.

Life is full time. We do not just need God once a week, we need Him for all of life.

Seguirei o caminho da integridade; quando virás ao meu encontro?
Em minha casa viverei de coração íntegro. 

Davi fala isto em Salmos 101:2.
O caminho da integridade não é fácil. Talvez sejamos sábios de vez em quando, mas é difícil ser sábio continuamente. Integridade quer dizer que sempre agimos com caráter boa, mesmo que seja na escuridão quando parece que ninguém nos vê. Como é que podemos agir perfeitamente? Precisamos da Bíblia para nos guiar.

E precisamos de Deus. Ser perfeito não é tarefa fácil; na verdade, é impossível sem Deus. Eu posso me esforçar muito, mas enfim, eu vou falhar quando não dou os controles para Deus; quando eu não submeto minha vida para a vontade de Deus.

O lugar mais difícil viver com integridade é na sua própria casa. Nos olhos do público eu ago razoável normalmente, mas dentro da casa é outra história. David não só falou sobre ter uma boa reputação fora das paredes da casa, mas queria integridade dentro da casa também.

A vida é tempo integral. Não só precisamos de Deus uma vez por semana, precisamos dEle for toda a vida.