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SEMINARY NEWS
It’s hard to believe but we are in our final semester of our first term of the Pastoral Formation program, which means we will have our first graduates of this program at the end of June! However, we will wait until the end of the year to have the actual graduation ceremonies as more students who joined the program in its second semester will be finishing then. Also, thanks so much for your prayers for more students–God answered your prayers in a powerful way! At the end of 2016, we had 15 students in the Pastoral Formation program and at the start of this semester we had 35! Eight of those students are from a city an hour and 20 minutes from where the Seminary is located. They are all from a church plant that has been established there and are being mentored by the church planting pastoral couple. Typically, they participate with us in our online virtual classroom but twice I had the opportunity to teach from their city while our Seminary classroom watched through our virtual classroom. I have also been invited to speak at an event for the women in the city on May 13, the day before Mother’s Day. The topic will be about “Women as Leaders.”
Another exciting new venture for us is that we have a church from the state of Rio de Janeiro participating through our online virtual classroom in one of our lay leadership classes going on right now.
This last month I had the opportunity to preach on the missions emphasis Sunday at a church where one of my former students is pastor. Half of the congregation at this church are immigrants from Haiti so it’s exciting to see how this church is practicing missions right where they are planted!
CHURCH NEWS
Paulo and I have been blessed to serve the Niteroí Baptist Church for two months now. It is a great group of people and we already feel connected to them. While Paulo serves as senior pastor, I lead the church women and am using the EQUIP Million Leader Mandate material to train our leaders. I also have the privilege of discipling two young women in the congregation.
A HUGE THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT!