September 1, 2003

Hi friends, 

Well another month has passed and I don't know where it has gone. I don't know whether it is living in a foreign country or my age that is causing this phenomenon.

Our Brazilian pastor has been away for the past two weeks and I have had the pleasure of leading the Church. I have had the opportunity to preach more than normal---and it has done wonders for my Portuguese!! As a result I have had to spend a lot of time in the office. Actually this has been really great. I have had much time in prayer and that is good for all of us, especially me. Preaching in another language requires a lot more preparation and concentration. So thanks for the prayers you have been saying for me even though you did not know why God was putting me on your mind.

We have had a great month of harvest here. Our Saturday visitation groups had seven people saved. Then on Sunday night when I preached there were five more people who accepted Christ as their personal Savior. Then Barbara and I went on a visit Monday and the whole family got saved ( 4 people). Also there have been twelve people saved in our different mission works. What an AWESOME God we serve!!! On the Saturday visitation there was a nine year old boy who got saved and he was at Church for Sunday School and then he brought his mother with him on Sunday night. Pray for this young boy, his name is Bruno, he went for a hair cut and the barber used contaminated sheers and he is loosing his hair. This may not seem like much to us but to a nine year old boy it is tragic.

On part of our work here in the New Life Baptist Church is benevolent work. A great number of the women in our Church are raising their family alone. Work is hard for a woman to find and if she finds work she has to work for minimum wage which is 240 reais (86 dollars) per month. We try to make sure that they always have food to eat and then help with the other necessities, cooking gas, electricity, water, and clothing. As you can imagine that takes a large part of our monthly salary. This month we also bought three pair of glasses for people who have needed glasses for over a year and did not have the funds to buy them. Sometimes, in our comfort, we forget our Christian brothers who have less only because they were born in a different area.

We are still in search for the piece of property on which to build the Second Chance Ministries Vocational School. Even though God has not shown us the exact location that has not stopped Eder and Marcello from getting started on their education. This month they are learning carpentry. They have made 18 wooden folding chairs. Sixteen of these chairs are now in one of our Mission points and one of the first ones is in the trash. The boys said that they made so many mistakes that the wood was so full of holes that it would not stand up to even the smallest person sitting on it. So we just chalked that one up to learning. These classes are taking place on our patio, we are using what we have until the right place comes along. Continue to pray for us to have the wisdom to teach these boys what they need to learn to return to a productive life and for us to always seek God's Will in everything that we do.

As always, we invite you to come down and see your mission dollar at work here in Caraguatatuba. It is just now getting the time of year for us to have visitors, we are going into spring. So when it is getting cool in the States think of us here and get away from the cold and come on down.

In His service,

Aj and Barbara

Eder and Marcelo and AJ working on the patio

AJ and pastor Epetacio and wife outside of church

Eder and Marcelo painting the wall at the house