October 1, 2004

Dearest friends,

For us here in Caraguatatuba, Brazil it has been a busy month with construction going on at the lots and working in the Church and at home. At Church we are beginning to build a sound booth and remodel the old one so as to use the space more effectively. This will help in the music ministry and in the Church services. We are praying to this end.

Discipleship is going good at this time and is having a wonderful impact on the participants. I am personally doing one discipleship training in an underprivileged area. The house where I am doing this discipleship has 3 rooms: a bath (3x5), a kitchen (8x8), and a bedroom, this is maybe 12x12. This is where 6 people live, 4 adult girls and the parents. It is with the parents that I am doing the discipleship. Until now the father has not been baptized. He still has some of his images from the Catholic religion up on the refrigerator. Here is where he and I need your prayers: me for the right words after our classes and him to be able to lay his past aside. We are both enjoying these classes and the fellowship that follows (c&c: coffees and conversation) I am becoming more and more comfortable with the language - not proficient, but comfortable.

Our construction on the lot where we will begin the school is progressing. We are building the walls around the property. Here that is the first thing that you do when you are getting ready to build. Just to complete the walls will probably take another 2-3 months. It is a little bit more difficult here than in the States when you are doing construction. It is basically all by hand, i.e. the concrete for the footer is all mixed by hand, and the mortar is mixed by hand. I have taken some pictures this week and hopefully the next letter will let you see some construction with the walls in progress. I am planning the entrance doors for the lot and the school.

This week we have constructed a temporary shed building over our block making machine. Hopefully in 2-3 weeks we will have the block making machine working. Everything takes time and it never starts when you think it will. The electrical company will have to come out and change out some lines because we will be using 3-phase energy for our machines. Hopefully the construction of the building over the block machine will turn out fine so you can see the work first, or secondhand.

We have purchased the motors for the block machine and the concrete mixer. This week we will be putting the motors in place and I am getting excited about seeing the block making machine in operation. It will be a real savings in the rest of the construction.

We have been really blessed this week with a friend of ours being here with us, Lonnie Stedman, from the Atlantic Shores Baptist Church in Virginia Beach. It has been he that did the painting in the house. Painting is not my strong point and he has kept my nose to the grind stone. We have also been working on the property and getting several things done. We have just about enough money to finish the fence around the property if we get the block machine going. Pray with us that God lay on someone's heart to contribute to this new work so that we can go forward and get this school started.

This month I and our pastor attended a week-long seminar with around 50 other preachers. It was extremely good for me as I had to pay close attention to understand what was being said. I learned lots of Portuguese and lots of things to apply to the ministry.

As always, we are extending the invitation to "come on down". When is a good time, you might ask? Well just about anytime is a good time to see God's work in progress.

Thank you for your endless prayers. Continue to pray for us here and to support our sender, Baptist Faith Missions. Without all of you we would be in the States warming a pew, not here on the mission field winning souls for Christ.

In His service,

Aj and Barbara