Quarterly 3, 2010

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Dear Supporters and Praying Friends,

While on Deputation

This may very well be our last full-fledged prayer letter to you while we are in the States.  The Lord willing, our next will be composed from Brazil. 

Currently we are working on the visa work so that we can leave for Brazil.  Once the Visas have been approved, we are heading out.  It would be nice to have the final five churches partner with us before we go in order to shore up our support level and we are praying that it will happen by the same time that the visas are completed. Regardless, however, once the visas are approved we are flying out.  I know I mentioned some of the visa work on the last prayer letter.  It has been a long process, but we have finally been able to secure all the known needed documents required for obtaining our visas.  We have also received our “Official Invitation” from the churches in Brazil, certified by the government as part of the process for obtaining our visas to get into the country. 
Right now we have a family in Brazil looking for various housing opportunities for our family.  As soon as the visas are secured, Ashley and I work on planning out a 2 week trip down to Mirante, Brazil to secure housing and transportation.  Once that is finalized we will be returning to pick up our children and head back to Brazil.

Please diligently pray that the visa process will go smoothly, expediently, and that there will be no red tape or bureaucratic delays in the approval. We have found that the total cost for the visas will be around $2,500!
While our visas are pending approval, please be in prayer for some of the financial needs associated with relocating to another country.  We have the majority of our outfit and passage but still lack some finances for setting up house in Brazil.  Also pray for the supply for the additional trip Ashley and I will need to make in order to secure housing and vehicle after the visas are approved.

We have something special for our prayer partners to hold before the throne.
So often, as we present out ministry to churches, we share about many cities with seemingly innumerable people who are asking for a missionary to come to their city and start a church. Many shake their heads as if in unbelief but yet this week, I talked with a Brazilian woman with just such a request. A member at one of our churches put us into contact with a Brazilian woman who currently lives in the states. I called her and listened as she broke down in sobbing tears over the phone. She is from a region in Northern Brazil and she owns a significant amount of land an hour from the city. The area where this land is located is populated by Brazilians, who, for the most part, do not have vehicles. I listened through her tears as she recounted how this area is home to scores of people but there is not even one church within an hour’s drive which makes it even more of a desperate plight for the majority who do not have available transportation. She is strongly looking for a missionary to outright give this land to for the purposes of beginning churches in this region. My heart broke as I listened to her passion for her people.
I do not know if the Lord will lead us to this area while we are there or not. However, I cannot overlook the fact that the Lord has placed this before me and I desperately covet your prayers as to whether this is somewhere He intends for our family to work or if we are merely a vessel of contact for some other as yet unknown missionary in the area.
People constantly ask us why we are going to Brazil. I look at Brazilians such as this lady who are begging for missionaries to come and start churches in their unchurched cities and I ask, “How can I not go!”

Back in Brazil

Each month, Tuesday evening prayer times are held in homes of our church people. Men and women meet in separate homes for a devotional and prayer time. It is an encouraging time in which various ones give the devotionals, including teen girls. Some of our church men are having home Bible studies with people they have met at work and elsewhere. Through these studies we have seen people make decisions for Christ. A couple of the home Bible studies are held in near-by cities and because of lack of transportation they have not been able to visit our church yet. Pray for these families that are being reached for Christ. This year our women enjoyed another special meal for Mother’s Day put on by our men and young people. Twenty-five mothers attended this special event on Saturday evening. Some Sunday school children read a verse for Mother’s Day and presented the mothers with a small gift. The church construction is progressing rapidly. We are presently working on the pastor’s apartment. Osmar, one of our faithful church men, is a construction worker who does basically everything from laying block to all the finishing work such as laying tile and doing plumbing. We have installed all the windows to the apartment and are currently putting in the doors and texturing all the inside walls. Osmar has a helper named Jose who is unsaved. Osmar has witnessed to him and invited him to church. Please pray that Jose will give his heart to the Lord.

For those of you who hold us in prayer,
1. Praise the Lord for good VBS turnout and decisions.
2. Praise the Lord that we have been able to gather all of the known required documents.
3. Praise the Lord for providing a visa company to help with obtaining our visas
4. Pray that the Lord will supply the final $600 of needed support.
5. Pray for the final supply of our outfit and passage.
6. Pray as we prepare to turn in our visa documents and apply for our visas.

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Your Fellow-Laborers,
The Kovachs