Thank you all for your prayers for our Christmas Cantata.  We had a fantastic turnout!  We ran out of seating and people had to stand up the rear stairwell!  (Praise the Lord we are beginning the auditorium expansion.)  At first, we were concerned that we would have problems with a concert which was scheduled to take place at the end of the road.  Basically, they bring in a truck about the size of a semi-trailer made entirely of giant speakers.  By God’s grace it never became a problem for the presentation.  This years cantata was around the theme of “Christ was Born to Die.”  It was such a blessing to be able to bring a group of our other church plant from Agua Espraiada and they sang two beautiful songs for the Cantata.  It is very exciting to see this growth in the lives of these young believers.  Please be in prayer now for the many decisions which were made and for the follow-up with the numerous visitors.

Today we are to tear down the original part of the church building so we can commence building the new auditorium. Thank you all for your prayers. The removal of the debris was going to cost 10,000. Through your prayers, the final price was 3,000!

Thank you all for your diligent prayers for our housing situation.  The Lord has provided a new house for our family.  It is very close to the newest church plant.  We still have a lot of work to do on it, but it is much larger than our current home and is not much more expensive.  Please continue to pray as we now work to begin the moving process again.

Thank you all for your prayers for our families protection. Just last week, three men robbed this bakery right across the street from our house. Thank you all for your faithful prayers for our family.

Our church plant in Agua Espraiada is continuing to grow and experience the hand of God.  Plans are continuing forward with preparations for the first official building for the church.  We have been working to tear down the existing buildings and clear the area for the foundation.  God has laid it on the heart of a gentleman in the area to provide 1,000 cement blocks for the commencement of the construction.  We also have had the providence of a truck-load of rock and sand as well.  We have been having regular visitors for both Sunday and mid-week services.  We are praying that we will be able to begin construction very soon because we have been running out of space for the visitors that have been attending.  We consistently have 30+ people in attendance with about 5-10 children.

In the month of October, Brazil has a holiday called “The Day of the Child.”  By the Lord’s help, we were able to organize a one-day youth outreach in the local area.  It was a tremendous opportunity to introduce the church to the community.  To the Glory of the Lord, we had about 50 children with over 80 community people in all!  A tremendous turnout for the church’s first outreach.

Praise the Lord!  We got our carteiras with absolutely no problems.  It only took an hour and a half to get them.  Pretty painless compared to the ten hours it took to apply for them.  Thank you all for your prayers!

Please be in prayer.  Tomorrow we all go into the big city to the federal police.  They emailed us and told us that our Carteiras are available to be picked up.  Please pray for safety in travel and that we will be able to pick up the cards without any problems.  These cards are necessary in order for us to open Brazilian bank accounts, post boxes, and numerous other things we need.

We had a really intense spiritual battle last night which became a vitory for the Glory of God. Last night we decided to have a churrasco (grill out) and decided to invite our new next-door neighbors to join us. There were 10 of them. The wife also brought her cousin. Both are Candomblé Catholics. Basically, they are voodoo worshipers who practice their religion in catholic ritual. When they first arrived, the cousin seemed to be somewhat hostile and wanted us to know right away that she was Candomblé. We figure that it was her first real interaction with true Christians, much less foreign Christians Baptist. It was such a blessing to see her walls come down and she actually began to smile and laugh. It was such a joy to see the love of Christ shine through us. What a good reminder that ministry most often does not happen in the 4 walls of a church, but is expressed in the actions and witness of His children in every day living.