February 8, 2002

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Savior:

Once again we greet you dear readers of the “Mission Sheets” in the precious name of the Savior Jesus Christ from the land of eternal summer, the Brazilian State of the Amazonas. This MS letter month began on January 9th and finishes today, February 8th. During this period I preached 8 sermons. On Sunday night, February 3rd, I preached at the Comunhão Baptist Church in the absence of the pastor, Asa Mark Bratcher, who was traveling. On Sunday night, January 20th, at the 24th of March BC, two young people and a man 44 years old made a profession of faith. We rejoice in the Lord. 

During the month of January I bought two hearing aids, one for each ear. I was told after the test that I have lost 40% of my hearing. I am having trouble getting used to them. I trust we have redeemed the time, as you can tell from Marie´s letter. Continue to pray for us, for our health and for our growth in grace. We thank all of you who sent us Holiday greetings. May the Lord continue to bless you as you contribute to BFM, be it to the regular fund or a designated offering to us or one of the other missionaries. In His Service, Harold Bratcher.

From Marie Bratcher:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

This past month, we have attended and Harold preached at the regular Sunday morning , Sunday night and Wednesday night services. Also we have kept up with our weekly Thursday or Friday night visitation, on the church field, which takes us close to half an hour to get there by car. This past Sunday we observed the birthdays of the youngest and the oldest member of the 24th of March Baptist Church. The youngest is Samuel Figueira, 12 years old and very faithful. He lives with his blind grandmother who has raised him since his mother died. Sometimes he has to miss to stay with her. Our oldest member is Sister Maria da Costa who turned 86 years old, Saturday. She did live a good distance from the church and missed services a lot more than she attended. She and her husband have recently moved a lot closer to the church, so now she attends more regularly.

Saturday night February 2nd we attended the special birthday services of the Compensa Segundo Baptist Church. They were celebrating their twenty sixth anniversary. The seats were all filled. The visiting pastor who was the speaker did not get to begin his message until late as a lot of hymns, choruses and special numbers were sung at the beginning of the service. When he finally got up to preach, he smiling said “We sang, we sang, we sang, now let us listen to the word”. 

On the 16th of February the pastors of Mibrafé , (Brazilian Baptist Faith Missions) will meet at the 24th of March BC. The meeting will be in the morning and will last until after the noon hour. These Baptist pastors enjoy talking and discussing until a late hour. We will serve breakfast earlier in the morning but not lunch. The fellowship is usually good during these meetings if they do not get into a heated discussion and start to disagree on certain subjects. When this happens, the fellowship cools down a bit. 

Brethren, we would like you to pray for our evangelist at Olinda. He has seven children and he called us this week to tell us that two of his children are in the hospital at Nova Olinda do Norte. His seven month old baby who has pneumonia and his eight year old boy who suffered a bad cut on his leg. He was helping his Dad and evidently cut himself with a terçado (corn knife). Bro. Ozeno told us that he fears the child will be crippled. He is very concerned for his two children as this is the second time the baby, Manoel Dunga, has had pneumonia. Life in the interior is difficult for our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially whenever there is sickness or an emergency in the family. 

Again, we thank each one of you who pray for us. May God bless each one of you is our prayer. 

Yours in Christ, 

Marie and Harold Bratcher