July 3, 2003

Dear friends,

What a response!!! How Awesome is the God we serve!! For the past 3 months we have been planning a youth evangelism revival in our town, and now listen to this; we are doing it through our school systems. Or I should say we DID it through the school system.

We organized our youth at out Church to be competent in presenting the Gospel and to be able to counsel with anyone who responded to the Gospel call. We also had several adult couples who willingly helped--this was a great blessing for us.

Well how did we do this? We have been planning for some time for a visit from the Atlantic Shores Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The pastor there is Jim Wolfgale and their administrative pastor is Rob Vincent, these two men have an awesome commitment to missions. They have a group of young people 14 to 18 years old, who have a commitment to present the gospel in different ways. They do this through gymnastics, songs, drama and personal testimonies. The message is then presented by a pastor or one of the youth. These presentations are inspiring and the messages presented by the youth are encouraging.

Well by now you re saying, what's the bottom line? After nine schools and one open air meeting in a public park (the mayor's park) there were over 1,100 commitments to Jesus Christ made in these services. AWESOME!!!!!!!

What made this all come to such an awesome conclusion? One word-----PRAYER!! Our Church and missions(2) here have been praying for 500 souls to be saved and likewise there, in the Atlantic Shores Church they have been praying for the same amount. You know that sometimes we have a tendency to limit what God can do and here is a clear example of this. God answers our prayers and gives us more than we have asked. He gave us 1,100 souls and not all of them were youth.

Some more of the story, we rented two buses with drivers for the group, you guessed it. Both of the drivers accepted Christ and on Sunday night both went before the Church to publicly profess Christ as Savior.

We were not able to get in about half the schools in our city and we are receiving calls from principals to come to their school. Doors have been opened and we are trying to reach them all. Through Christ all things are possible!

Can you imagine the response when we begin the follow up on all of these names we have? This is where your work comes in. We need to be constantly held up in PRAYER because you and I know that when good things are happening Satan will begin to try to interfere. So I will thank you in advance for the support you are going to give us in the coming months and for what you are doing now. Through B.F.M. and your support we are able to see these great things happen.

One last word of thanks to the Atlantic Shores Baptist Church, pastors and youth - you have helped begin the revival of evangelism here in Caraguatatuba Sao Paulo Brazil.

In His service,

Aj and Barb

AJ Hensley showing his skill as a block layer