February 5, 2006

Dear friends,

Here the temperature is HOT...but from my conversations with family and friends it is somewhat cooler there. We are having some blistering temperatures but it is good for the economy because this is Brazilian tourist season and our people have jobs in this season. The attendance in Church is down because of the long hours that people have to work in this season (December to the last of February). Even the Sunday School attendance is down because lots of the parents have their children working to help implement the family income.

Now for some really great updates: Our Church, New Life Baptist Church will be ordaining two men to the Gospel ministry. One of these men is our new son-in-law, Walmir. This past week our Church voted to place Walmir in full-time ministry work in the Church here in Caraguatatuba. His area of ministry will be overseeing and preaching at the mission points and overseeing the Seminary. He has been doing this work for some six to eight months and now he will have full responsibility of this work. With his degree in Pastoral Studies, he is anxious to get this and other classes started. He requests your prayer as he begins this new ministry. He will begin to recruit new students for the seminary as the classes will begin in February. We started this seminary two and a half years ago to train our Church people in Church leadership and spiritual growth. It is fulfilling that purpose and more. If Walmir had just this job, his hands would be full, so remember him in your prayers. The other man we will ordain is George. He and his wife are leading the newest mission point in Natividade da Serra. This Mission point is three hours from our home Church. They are doing a great job there and it is his desire to be ordained so that people there will take him more seriously.

Our work on the Church building in Morro do Algodao is progressing...we have broken the concrete floor and poured new cement and it is ready to put down tile. The real push to complete the repair work will be in two weeks when we have some American guests who will be coming for the ordination service but will be helping in the manual labor also. For some reason, we seem to get more work accomplished when we have friends come and help!!! I now am beginning to believe that we can save this building. While we are on the subject of guests, our doors are always open and there is always some project waiting to be done. So come on down friends, guests, and future friends. We have just had a group of the aforementioned. There were twelve ladies from three different Churches, some we knew and some we got to know, that came down in January, and they preformed a "miracle". They took a house of one of our members and reformed it into a home for a family of three. You ask, "What could a group of twelve women do?" Well, let me tell you, we painted the inside and out of the house, put new screens on the windows, recovered the couch, made and hung new curtains, and installed tile on the floor and behind the sink in the kitchen. And while we that were good at this kind of labor were working at this, there were others that are good at Bible studies and they were busy, too. These others held Backyard Bible School in the neighborhood where we were reforming the house.The first day the number of kids was low but each day grew until the last day there we had 67 in attendance. We had good results in both areas, the home of Maria, Junior, and Lucas was revitalized, and there were seventeen children that gave their lives to the Lord in those days. Now this is AWESOME.

We had planned a day trip for the ladies but we had bus problems and the trip was cancelled, so they went to Olaria and did one more day of Backyard Bible School, and with just a few visits we started bringing in the children. God always has a plan and when we are open to Him He lets us in on His plan. I had to make two trips with my pickup to bring in the children from some streets farther away and when we arrived at the Mission point it looked like those cars at the circus when the clowns begin to get out. There were in excess of thirty-eight kids in the seats and in the back of the pick-up on one trip. Hopefully next month we will be able to send pictures of the children in the truck. We had sixty-three children at this Backyard Bible School and we had seven children who accepted Christ as their Savior. Oh- how His ways are AWESOME.

Speaking of the truck, we purchased this truck in 2001, almost new, with around 25,000 kilometers and this week I had the oil changed and it has 181,620 kilometers on it. At home there in the States, the life of this truck would be over but this just goes to show us -- when God is in it, All things are different. I'm planning to get many many more kilometers out of this vehicle. Not only do we put many kilometers on our truck but the roads are called Swiss cheese. Can you guess why? We have holes with a road around the chug holes.

Next month Barb and I will be in the States for six weeks, because she has to have some tests done. Pray for her as she does these exams that God will bless and there will be nothing to report.

Well, I'll close for now hoping to be able to see you all in the States, but if not, you are always welcome to come on down and see us here in Caraguatatuba.

In His service,

Aj and Barb