May 8, 2006

Dear Friends,

Time does not stop or wait.  It is hard to believe that April is here and it seems like there is not enough time to do everything that we need to do. We are all doing great and we pray that all of you are doing great as well. Things at the church are doing great. Several things happened in the last few months. Kathy and I and some of the deacons and their wives have visited the mission points. We went to Iguacu Falls and to Alvorado do Sul. The work in Iguacu Falls is doing great. They are running around forty in Sunday School and services. They had three baptized while we were there. There are three more to be baptized. This work is only ten months old. The Pastor there is Edson. Please pray for him and his family.

We also went to visit the work in Alvorado do Sul. It is a mission that a couple that were members here in Garca are helping at. We helped them start the foundation for the building in February. We took a group from the church in Garca. Kathy and I with a Pastor friend and his wife went to visit one of our missionaries in the state of Minas Gerais. It was a very long trip. It took 15 hours to get there. The roads were really bad and we ran into lots of rain, but we had a wonderful visit. The name of the city is Ervalia. It is a very small city and very poor in resources. The pastor there is Celso, who was saved in the church in Garca when Brother John Hatcher was pastor. Please pray for these three new ministries and the pastors and their families that God will direct their path and keep them encouraged.

The kids at Alpha and Omega Home are doing great. We have seen some big changes in several kids. You can see that they are really in love with God. There is a group of them that are having Bible studies with each other. It is a real blessng to see them growing in the Lord.

We have lots of new kids, so we are doing lots of evangelism with them. Please pray for them and for us as we tell the story of God's love for them. It seems that things run in phases. There is a group of kids that are developing the desire to help us and each other. That is always great to see. We also had one of the girls from the home get married. She married a young man who worked here at the home. In December we had one more wedding of a young man and a young lady that lived here at the home and now are moving to Manaus to help with the home there.

Edson baptizing a girl at Iguacu Falls Mission Point.

Things in the school are doing pretty good.  It has been a little harder because we have several new teachers.  It sometimes takes them a while to learn how to deal with kids that don't like school and don't like to study.  Please pray for Kathy as she tries to keep the school with creative study.  She helps with giving the teachers ideas on how to make their lessons more interesting.  Keeping the kids excited about school is a real challenge.  We had twelve kids that graduated from eighth grade.   It is always exciting to see these kids at graduation and to see how far they have come.

Please help with getting more people to be a partner in the sponsor a child program.  If you have been here, you know our needs first hand.  There is nothing like friends encouraging another.  Pray for us as we go through this New Year. A special thanks to all those who continually pray and support this ministry and God bless you.

Love in Christ,

Odali and Kathy