It is hard to believe that we have been back in Brazil for one year after our 7 month furlough. The time has gone by quickly, and we continue pressing toward the mark.
In May, our son Joshua, came down to have surgery on his knee for a torn ACL and meniscus. It was a bit of a whirlwind at the beginning. He arrived in Sinop, which is 3 hours south of us and the closest airport. We picked him up there and drove further south to Cuiaba, which was another seven hours. The surgery was the following morning at 7am. The doctor released him around 3pm that same day, then we drove the ten hours back home that night. We are grateful that all went well and also thankful for the time that we had with him. He is now back at PCC working and will start his senior year at the end of August.
While he was here in recovery and physical therapy, he gave crash course guitar lessons to two adolescents from the church. We are hopeful that Isaac and Pedro will continue developing and be able to start playing in church. Please pray for these two young men, that they would see the importance and privilege to be used by the Lord.
I have already started a Bible study with two of the men of the church, Izailton and Daniel. These two men, and their families, are very faithful. We are excited to see what God is going to do in and through them. Please pray for them in this new phase of discipleship. Kelly has also been working with Samara Martins (Izailton’s wife) and Samara Leal (Daniel’s wife), who are already helping with the teaching of the children. She also has Suellen who will begin helping with the children as well.
Daniel came to us from a different city where he said he had made a profession of faith. A discipleship class was done with him and when finished, he was baptized and joined the church. I started using him to do Bible reading during the services. He came up to me one day and said that he wanted to get saved. He wanted the real thing. So, he prayed and asked Jesus in his life. He was baptized the next service. It has been amazing to see the change in his life.
We also had one of our bus kids get saved a few Sundays’ back. Pray for Mateus. Even though it can be challenging, picking up these kids and bringing them in every Sunday, it is exciting to see them give their hearts to Christ.
As mentioned before, we are in the slow process of getting things ready to build much needed classrooms. We have finally gotten all the paperwork together and are now in the process of buying the material. We have already been able to purchase all the brick. We should be purchasing the rebar here soon. As is happening everywhere, construction supplies keep increasing in cost. The estimate that we have to be able to build this project is 20,000 dollars. Please pray for us as we are working on this.
July 18-22 we are going to have our first Vacation Bible School here in Guarantã do Norte. We are very excited about this and for all those from the church that have signed up to help. Pray that we will have a good number of children and that God will work in and through us to not only reach the children but also families with the gospel.