April 30, 2004

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Savior,

This month's Mission Sheets letter tells of our happenings from April 2 to April 30. During the month of April, I heard 19 sermons preached (Marie heard most of them), and I preached 10 sermons at 4 different Baptist churches in Kentucky.

Stephen (as I wrote in our letter of April 1st) arrived on March 26th and was our driver until he returned home, leaving us at 5:00 am on the 4th of this month.

On the 6th we left Lexington with Charles and Reva Bratcher and arrived six hours later in Uniontown KY. During the 14 days we spent there, I served as interim pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church. Kenneth Mayberry, the only deacon of the church, is leading the church while the church is without a pastor. Pray with us that the church will soon have a good, faithful, permanent pastor. The largest attendance was 70 on Easter Sunday. The smallest was 8 on the 14th. We had 30 on Sunday morning, the 18th. Brother Albert Hoag visited with me on several days. We rejoiced when an elderly lady, Doris Naylor, made a profession of faith in her home.

On the morning of April 19th, Charles and Reva picked us up in Uniontown and left us at 1012 Balsam Drive in Lexington, our dwelling place. We attended all of the Spring Conference at Thompson Road Baptist Church where Dave Parks is the pastor. We were blessed by the good fellowship, food, and preaching during the 3 days of the Conference. I brought the first message during the last night.

Permit me to return to April 4th. On that Sunday I preached at both services of the Faith Decision Baptist Church, Berea KY, where Jimmy Costerman is the pastor.

On the 25th I preached during the evening worship service at the Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church of this city where Earl W. Thomas is the pastor.
The Lord willing, Stephen will arrive in Lexington on the afternoon of June 21st and then the three of us will leave Lexington at around noon on Wednesday the 23rd to go to Cincinnati airport to catch Delta flight No. 673 to Miami and then we will fly on to Manaus, arriving at 2:35 am on Thursday. Pray for us, please. We still have the first two Sundays in June open to visit and preach in any Baptist Church that writes us.

Yes, we thank all of you who have made us to rejoice in the Lord during the furlough year. We are both sad and glad to return to Manaus. We will miss the sweet fellowship and kindnesses we have enjoyed here in the USA. We have many brothers and sisters in the Lord awaiting our return. We are not looking forward to the rats and roaches that invade our house in Manaus.

Pray for us, especially Marie, that she will enjoy better health.

Please continue to give to the General Fund of BFM and designate any offerings to us as the Lord leads. We received more than one request from our Brazilian brethren to help them buy a boat, build a building, and buy a car.

May the Lord bless you in our prayer.

Yours in the service of the Savior.

Harold and Marie Bratcher