December 28, 2006

Dear Friends,

Just a short letter to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

This year we were on furlough for four months and were privileged to be able to be able to attend the Missions Conference at Calvary Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana. This helped motivate us to return to Brazil with renewed zeal for the Kingdom work.

As this year ends and we look back on what God has done through us, one of our greatest accomplishments is that we have planted another church in another highly concentrated Catholic town. We have a native pastor for this work and he and his wife are on fire for the Lord. They are averaging twenty people in regular attendance. There have been six people accept Christ as their personal Savior. These six are awaiting baptism and are in regular attendance. The church we planted last year continues to grow and have thirty to thirty-five in regular attendance.

We have a total of six home churches that meet on weeknights and we are blessed to say that out of one of these we have had a 25-year-old young man surrender to the ministry. We have been privileged to start two of these home churches this year. In all, about 92 people that don't have conditions to come to the mother church hear the gospel during these weekday meetings. We have also built a building where one of these home churches can begin to have services. We have just been over a year getting the electric services to the building and are praying that we will be in the building by January or February.

We are happy to say that the seminary has concluded its third year and still has eleven students that are sticking with it. This is a great accomplishment as our people have a hard time getting to class because of time and money.

We have made great strides with the Vocational School this year. We have two students and they are learning carpentry, key making, block making, framing pictures, and general construction skills. We are looking forward to next year, hoping to be able to build the dorm so that there will be a place for the students to live. We will be able to have more students with this facility. Besides the labor skills, the students are learning evangelism and visitation skills. With the skills they are learning they have built the director's home on the school grounds and a church building for a home church that has outgrown the home where it is meeting.

In the past two years we have given Bibles to over 1,000 new converts and are looking forward to many more years of the same. Just know that we are here doing these things ONLY because people like you care enough to support us through your prayers and financing. You will know the results of your giving when we meet in Heaven.

Barbara and I are glad to be a part of your lives through our connection of missions. Our year has been a busy one and we have felt sometimes as though we were lagging behind, but we just rely on the Lord for the strength to continue on. We completed forty years of marriage this year and were blessed to be able to go on a much needed vacation, thanks to Atlantic Shores Baptist Church in Virginia Beach.

Again, THANK YOU for one more year here on the field, serving as missionaries. Don't forget to look at the picture below, our family picture for 2006. Our God is AWESOME!

In His service,

AJ and Barbara