Hello dear friends,

Sarah & Laura’s Episode
Laura, our 8 months old daughter, had high fever for more than 48 hours and red dots were appearing on her body. We had already consulted a doctor, but the prescribed medication didn’t seem to have much effect. Saturday, 11:00am I received a phone call from our neighbor. Sarah, our 2 year old daughter, had shut and turned the key on the door that went to the bedrooms. Raquel was on the other side of the door, locked in with no cell phone and Sarah didn’t know how to turn the key in the opposite direction. 45 minutes passed when finally the neighbor heard Raquel calling for help through the small bathroom window. The neighbor called me. I rushed to the house to unlock the door. If that wasn’t enough, we quickly discovered that Sarah drank the whole bottle of Laura’s medication. We rushed to the public children’s emergency hospital. There the waiting period was long and medical attention precarious, but the doctor gave us instructions as to how to take care of Sarah and to not let her sleep for the following 4 hours. We went back home only to leave shortly thereafter to take Laura to see a pediatrician at a different public hospital. My parents, Paul & Wanda Hatcher, drove us, as we do not have car. There the doctor informed us that Laura had dengue fever, we quickly rushed her to the tropical disease Hospital. The doctor looked her over, consulted a few colleagues, came back and said “it’s not dengue fever, you need to take her to a pediatrician”. So, we rushed her over to the closest children’s hospital, the pediatrician checked her ears and said “she has an ear infection.” None of the other doctors had looked in her ear. He prescribed medication for the ear infection and thankfully Laura arrived home at 11:30pm. Next morning, she woke up swollen. We went back to the hospital suspecting an allergic reaction to the medication. The doctor prescribed a medication 12x more expensive than the first, a few days later and little Laura was back to smiling again. Sarah is okay, too.

in Natal and João Pessoa
This last month Raquel and I traveled by airplane to northeastern Brazil to see how the works in the capitol cities of Natal and João Pessoa are developing.

The church in Natal was started in September 2005. There is a solid growing base of new Christians, young and old. The church is still learning how to tithe, but we pray the will soon be able to support their pastoral team fulltime. The team (saved, trained and sent from Manaus) is dynamic in Evangelism and discipleship. They are currently planning on expanding the size of the building to more than double their seating capacity.

I spoke Saturday and Sunday, we had 5 salvation decisions, and 8 baptized on Sunday. The Lord’s Supper was served after the service on Sunday night. After the Lord’s Supper, a young man excitedly came up to the local pastor and I and said “Today I participated in the Lord’s Supper!! I asked for forgiveness from every one of them.” In the previous Lord’s Supper, the pastor encouraged the members “not to partake in the Lord’s Supper if they had unresolved grievances with others.” This young man hadn’t participated in the first Lord’s Suppers because he had 81 people with whom he had unresolved grievances. He had resolved them all and now with great pleasure before the Lord partook in the Lord’s Supper. PRAISE THE LORD!!

The church in João Pessoa was started in June 2006. They too, have a solid growing base of new Christians. We had two conference sessions with the missionary team (all of them saved, trained and sent from Manaus). They have started a weekly musical training ministry, which includes vocal training, piano/keyboard, acoustic guitar and saxophone lessons. I spoke on Saturday and Sunday, there were 3 decisions.

We meet a young radio DJ who accepted Christ 8 months ago at the church. This young DJ almost died due to a tumor in his throat. The tumor was not malignant, but made it impossible for him eat and eventually blocked his breathing. His joy for living a life in Christ is radiating.

Robbed at Gunpoint.
While in the Northeast, Raquel and Sarah (2 years old) were robbed at gun point. Raquel was taking pictures of Sarah when a thief came upon them riding a bicycle. He threatened to shoot if Raquel did not hand over the digital camera. Raquel’s been robbed before, but never with one of our children with her. That evening I was explaining to Sarah that it’s not nice when people steal things, she looked up at me and said “the man took mommy’s camera.” Thank the Lord, for it was only the camera that was taken.

“AdorArte” Training Center for the Arts
Last year we began a training center for arts called “AdorArte”. AdorArte is a play on words in Portuguese which means “Worship Him”. It is a local church, one-on-one discipleship and leadership training ministry. We seek to equip people to live Biblical principles in all areas of life and maximize the use of their talents. We currently have 164 people in training. We have: Musical Theory 1 & 2, vocal, acoustic guitar and piano/keyboard lessons. In April we begin a course called “Script Development and Directing Theatrical Plays.” We also offer ministry opportunities in preaching, choir, journalism, photography, graphic arts, web development, painting, sound, theater and have five singing teams.

Congregations, Evangelistic Crusades & High Schools
I speak every weekend at different congregations throughout the city. Normally two of the ministry teams from “AdorArte” come along with me. We arrive at the church at 3:00 p.m., then we go out for visitation house-to-house inviting people for the evangelistic event that evening.

I am mentoring 5 young preachers, all in their mid & late-twenties. The young preachers lead and speak under my supervision. As they have improved we are able to multiply our efforts with multiple evangelistic outings on the same weekend. We’ve been to the congregations/churches in Alvorada, Bairro Novo, Coroado 2, Nova Jerusalem, Japiim, St. Etelvina, Riacho Doce & Cachoeirinha. We are scheduled to go to Cacau-Pireira, Coroado 3, Colonia Atonio Aleixo, Francisca Mendes and to the churches in other capital cities of Boa Vista, Natal and Belém.

Recently we received invitations from high school principals to come with “AdorArte” ministry teams where we can openly speak about Christ. We have been to Escola Estadual Major Silva Coutinho and Escola Estadual Luizinha Nascimento. We have also started Open Air Evangelistic Crusades in soccer fields and parking lots.

Impact Teams
As many people are making salvation decisions we started a ministry called “Impact Teams”. They organize small scale involvement opportunities for newly saved to be discipled in the basics of Christianity. As they grow in the faith they are encouraged to transition and get involved in an “AdorArte” ministry team.

Expanding in Brazil
Please, be in prayer as we reach the goal to expand into other capitals with new churches in Teresina & Fortaleza. Every congregation/church we’ve started in the past contributes 20% of the budget towards starting other churches. Even still, the burden is big, all too big for us to go at it alone. Jointly we can have a much greater impact. Please, join us in this process too. The task of church planting is financially exhausting, time consuming, and at times even risky. But, one thing I’m sure of: It’s always a joy to see lives changed and families restored. Please, make designated donations to Baptist Faith Missions – Church Planting - Paul & Judson Hatcher

We love what we do
Raquel and I absolutely love the mission work God has called us to accomplish. Recruit, train, send Brazilian Pastors and Lay Leaders to Start New Churches.
It’s a lot of fun. We’d like to invite you to come and stay for a while. We have a spare room. All we are missing is you!

In Christ,
Judson, Raquel, Sarah & Laura Hatcher