Things Are Happenning!

Just because we have been quiet recently doesn't mean things haven't been happening here in Brazil! The contrary! When we are quiet that typically means lots of things are happening at the same time!

The elementary (Juniors) of the church in Santo Amaro, Palmas had a day outing in June! It was a great day! Many of the adults that would be responsible were afraid that the children would not listen, but that did not happen! We had a great day on the beach by the lake here in Palmas. We threw the American football but that quickly turned to football (soccer)! One of the other fears was the infestation of piranhas on this beach, but the kids braved the waters and not one was bitten on their toes! Since then the local goverment had installed a metal screen to keep the piranhas out of the swimming area. Click on the pictures for a larger version.


The juniors Sunday School department also had a pie in the face contest where squared off against each other answering questions on the book of Ruth! It was fun for everyone that participted, and tasty too!



We saw Julio Cesar become engaged to Layane at the Santo Amaro church, they have marked their wedding for December. In Brazil it is not uncommon to have an engagement party and have a special service at church to celebrate the engagement.



Also in June we had a special day in Sunday school with the primary department! The children had their June Festival party which included a corn dish that is very sweet, sort of looks like mush to me, but tastes really good. The children normally dress up like hillbillies during this month of June in the schools and such places. Square dancing is one part of the parties. While the Catholic church celebrates this party to catholic saints, we celebrated the month of June and explained that we were not celebrating these saints! It was a fun time for the children and they enjoyed dressing up!
June 24th God blessed us with six people completing the discipleship course of the church. This is for anyone that wants to participate, but usually for new believers. There were actually seven people, but only six were present when we had the certificate presentation.

Taquari Outreach

Please be in prayer for the outreach and church planting program in Taquari! A neighborhood in Palmas. We have been working in evangelizing the neighborhood but still have a lot more work in front of us. We hope to have a visit from two of our seminary students in Bahia either at the end of this month or in July. This visit will allow them to see the area and also get a better idea if this is where God is calling them in their pastoral ministry. We would like to see one of these pastors living in the neighborhood allowing for more friendships and contacts to be made which is very important in planting a new church. Pray that God would speak to the heart of each of these men and that their decision can be God's decision. Also pray that God would open doors in this neighborhood.

Two twins learning how to read at Friday tutoring sessions.

This year saw us begin a new tutoring program at the church in Taquari with children of the neighborhood, since it is a free service to the neighborhood we hope that people can see that the church is interested in helping their community.

Family that is attending Taquari church plant to left of Natinha (Natinha in Center).

We also saw our first couple begin attending services on a regular basis. The church has had visitors come and go, but this family decided they would stay and attend services with us. They have been a great support to this ministry. Last week they announced that they would be moving to another city sometime before the end of this year, this saddened us but we rejoiced with them in the hope of a better life in the other state. Pray that God would form a core group for this church.

Thank you.

A lot of times we get a lot of cards, especially at Christmas and near our Birthdays. We usually can't respond back because of the amount. So it is nice to have this form of saying thank you. We want to say thank you to everyone who expressed their sympathy toward us in the loss of our child. Your prayers and encouraging words were and are very important to us. Never think that we don't read cards and letters that we get just because we do not respond back to you. If we responded back to every card, letter or email that we get we wouldn't get any work done down here and I know you don't want that.

So once again thank you for your kinds words and support and God bless.

Mike and Natinha