Dear Fellow Saints,

Greetings once again this side of glory. As we see the news we see that this world is a mess as usual. I must remind myself at times to remember that our Sovereign God is in control and that Romans 8:28 applies to me also. If I sound discouraged it is because we have been confronted with a lot of sickness and death in our churches here this past two months. We lost one of our most faithful and beloved young men in April. Now one of our beloved pastors is with serious cancer. His name is Joao Candido and is the pastor of the Good Hope Baptist Church. On the 3rd of June, he will have surgery to see if they can remove a malignant tumor that is in his bile duct. It is not known if it has spread or is localized. We are praying that it will be operable.

On the home front we can say that our works are doing well. Steady growth is the word. With all of the religious confusion of our day we have a lot of competition. I have determined to just preach the word and leave the results with the Lord.

I am trying to prepare the Altos do Coxipo church for the young preacher to take over completely in December. He has a very strong personality and has been slow to grow in some ways but is showing signs now that he may be about ready. Pray with us about this. We will be coming home in 2003 for furlough and must have him or somebody ready to take over the work by then. We are praying the Lord will spare the life of the Good Hope church's pastor. Good sound men are hard to find. His will be done.

Ursula is having some real difficulties with her arthritis. Her neck where she had the surgery 4 years ago is giving her a lot of pain. We are trying to hold out until the middle of December so that Michelle can finish High School before we come to the States for Ursula to get her check-up. She gave me a real scare 3 weeks ago with much pain and swelling in the area. It is some better now. Michelle is very busy with her school work. It is a challenge to change languages at the High School level, but she is making up for that now.

We continue to enjoy the blessings of the Lord are so thankful for your support. We haven't yet started to build at our newest work in Primavera do Leste due to the sickness of Pastor Joao Candido. He is to help head up the project. Out of respect for him we are holding up for just a little while. If you feel led to give to our New Work Fund it will be used in these new works. Next month I will give a rundown of all the missions and churches. Pray for us as we come to mind.

Yours in Christ,

Harold and Ursula Draper