June/July 2010
Dear Praying Amigos,
June 3, 2010 was a National Holiday here in Brazil: it is called Corpus Christi. Since I arrived in the northern part of our state in 2002, I have been trying to get our churches to start holding area regular meetings for the youth, men, and women of our churches.
In 2003, our churches started holding youth meetings once or twice each year. Two years ago the ladies held their first area wide meeting. Last year the men held their first area wide meeting. On June 3, we held our men´s meeting for this year. All of our area churches from 4 hours away participated in the daylong event
Area Wide Men´s Meeting.
Missions in Japurá
During the next five months, my Brazilian pastor and I will be traveling once a month to a church 3 ˝ hours away in Japurá, Paraná to hold services for a BMM missionary who is home for a six month furlough. Two other people from our church went with us and we enjoyed the time there. Pray for this church named Boas Novas Baptist Church. Their missionary pastor will be back in October.
During May, we made a quick trip home for four weeks since we will be staying on the field for a six year term instead of the regular four year term before furlough. We were able to visit only 7 supporting churches, but when we return home for our regular furlough in two years, we plan on visiting all of our supporting churches. During that time, our daughters Maria and Rachel were able to spend a week with us.
Since December 2009, our attendance has continued to increase. We have planned out everything for the rest of the year and praying for, working for, and striving for the growth of our church. Our giving has just about doubled since December 2009.
While we here in the USA in May, our church had two special events: Mother´s Day and Family Seminar.
Mother´s Day 2010
On Mother´s Day, we had 48 people out to our services on a very cold fall evening.
Also in May, our church held a special Family Seminar /Conference. Pastor Dan Johnson preached for us on that Day. He spoke on the family and how to home and family that honors the Lord. Those that attended appreciated the Biblical teaching on the home.