Dear Family and Friends,
SEMINARY NEWS
On March 21st to 22nd we held our 4th installment of the EQUIP Million Leader Mandate training. Once again we were blessed with outstanding teaching by pastors, Norm Poehlke and Dana Goodnough. Since the beginning of this training in 2012, it has been our privilege to have not only Baptist pastors participating, but also pastors and leaders from a number of other denominations. At the end of the training I was able to record some interviews about the training. In the words of one Assembly of God pastor, the training has been life-changing! He shared with me that God is using this training to confirm His calling on this man’s life and that because of this, he has moved his family to another city to begin working in a new church with the youth.
In April, Paulo and I spent the weekend in the city of Paraí with one of our Seminary students, Antônio Serafin, who also happens to be our former national missionary, Florinda Serafin’s, nephew. He is finishing up his Seminary education and is church planting in his city. We had a great weekend with this family as they hosted us and Antônio and I spent some time working on his final Seminary project.
CHURCH PLANTING NEWS
In late December of last year, the mother church of the church plant we had been serving in Eldorado do Sul laid Paulo off because they no longer had the finances to pay his salary. Although we understood the reason we were very sad to leave our small church family in Eldorado do Sul. Since then, Paulo has been doing pulpit supply for another church plant in Santa Cruz do Sul, about 2½ hours from where we live. Also, in April, Paulo was hired as the Chaplain at Chain of Love Homes, our NAB partner ministry for abandoned children here in southern Brazil. He is very excited about this new ministry as he works with the house parents and children! I am also helping out one day a week at Chain of Love.
In this photo, I am doing discipleship with one of the house mothers. I also recently had the privilege of leading one of our newer adolescents to the Lord!
PERSONAL NEWS
Here in Brazil, we are very aware of safety issues as the threat of being robbed or carjacked is quite high. We are so very grateful to the Lord for His protection, especially recently when my NAB colleagues were carjacked at gun point in front of their home. No one was hurt, the carjackers allowed my colleague to remove her youngest daughter from the vehicle as she was still strapped into her car seat, and all they took was the car – they didn’t enter the house at all.
Physically, I’m still facing pain issues with my back and it is now spreading into my hip area. I’ve done some more doctoring and treatment with some results. The next step is to see some other specialists. I’m very thankful that despite the pain and with some adjustments, I’m able to work.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT!