Tuesday, December 12, 2023

December Update

 

Hello friends,

I pray you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Every year I am not in the US at Thanksgiving I get so hungry for the traditional feast with turkey, mash potatoes and gravy along with green bean casserole with crescent rolls and who can forget the incredible desserts!  Okay, I will stop!  I do hope you had a great time with family and friends!

Boy, the heat has started up early here and the rain has been a little absent.  Put on the sun screen!

We are busy getting ready for some church events, a quick trip to Belo Horizonte, and a party to close out the year.

 ·       Our English Project is putting on our first Coffee House here in Nova Viçosa.  This will be this Thursday night (14th).  The students will order their food and drinks (in English of course) along with paying with our fake US money.  Some English speaking friends will help with the food prep, and one will provide music for our Coffee House.  It will be a fun way to end the year with this class.

 ·       Our church will come together on Saturday (16th) for a time of barbecue (churrasco), fellowship and swimming.  This will be at a local Pousada (like a hotel).  This is the first time we have done this.  Hopefully all will go well.

 ·       On Wednesday, December 20th, we will have our Christmas Service.  Our children will sing, we will have a special dance presentation and our English Project Class will sing “Mary Did You Know”.  We will have a Christmas message from Nayara.

 ·       We will be going to Belo Horizonte to celebrate Christmas with Nayara’s family.  We will leave on Thursday 21st and return on the 26th.

 ·       We will have service together on Wednesday the 27th and on Sunday night 31st with a party to follow to bring in the new year of 2024!

 ·       Our online classes with AME will continue until the end of December and will resume in February.

One unique thing we experience here in Nova Viçosa is that tourist season gets in full swing by the end of the year and goes through February.  This has some impact on our church.  Some people end up having 2+ jobs during that season to make as much money as possible and unfortunately that means we don’t see them at the services.  So, we try to go where they are working (usually at a restaurant or a cabana at the beach) and have something to eat to see them and support them.  At the same time, we also get to meet some tourists who seek out a church.  We have met some very interesting people!  

During this time in December, I pray that you have a blessed holiday time with your family and friends.  Thank you for your prayer and financial support for this ministry in southern Bahia.  God is working and you are a vital part of the team!!!  God Bless you my friends!

 

Lisa

October Update

 

Hello from sunny and hot Nova Viçosa!

The temperature is rising here as it is going down there in the US!  Enjoy the fall season for me.

Life has been 100 mph since we returned from our trip to the US.  Here are some bullet points so this won’t be a novel.

·       My home church, New Covenant Fellowship in Stillwater, blessed us with a walker for a precious lady who is the mother of one of our members.  She has terrible knees and literally was bending over, using a low plastic stool to get around.  My heart was breaking for her.  At the Mission’s Conference I was telling Johnny Underwood about it and instantly he said, “The church can take care of that with a walker!”  This walker comes with a seat, brakes and was able to be adjusted to a lower height setting.  We bought it and brought it back here.  What a joy it was to see her reaction to this gift.  Tears flowed!  Tears of joy and gratitude.  Now she can get around easier, her back and hands feels better, and she can even go to her neighbor’s house!

·       One of our dear sisters had a massive stroke shortly after we returned from the US.  She held on for several weeks but then went on to be with the Lord.  This was an emotional time with the family, her kids, grandkids and many other family and friends.  She was 54 years old.  Nayara did a wonderful job coordinating all the funeral arrangements.  This was our first funeral here at the church.  God’s presence was so strong.  I will miss her smile and hugs!

 ·       In the month of October, Brazil celebrates “Children’s Day”.  It is actually a weeklong holiday, no school and lots of activities.  We had special activities on Wednesday night, Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon.  It was a fun time focusing on the children.

 ·       In October we have started a discipleship time with the leaders on Sunday morning at 9 am.  This has been a rich time with them.  Paty is leading that time and is doing very well.  We will conclude this time in November.  Paty is also discipling 2 girls youth age and 2 young adult ladies during the week.

 ·       When the discipleship time ends with the leaders, then we will hold some training meetings on Sunday morning. We hope to start having Bible School in February.  We are using some really cool material from New Tribes Ministry using the Chronological approach.  We will start with Genesis and end at the Resurrection.  We are looking at having 3 classes; children (Nayara), youth (Paty), adults (Lisa and Isabell, missionary from Canada).  Pray for us, this is a huge step for our church, a much needed step!

 ·       We are having about 40-45 people in service now, which is great!  Developing relationships with people is time consuming but necessary.  Paty is leading worship and is now trying to develop the Praise Team.  She is doing a great job.  Nayara and I are praying and planning the direction for the messages for the remainder of the year and next year. 

 ·       Our English Project is continuing with our in person class on Thursday.  This has been a great challenge with many people in the class.  Many of them are not disciplined and really make it hard for us to push forward.  We have had a few who have really been working.  We have asked 2 of them already to pray about helping us next year.  This will help them continue to learn and will help us facilitate learning activities.

 ·       Last but not least, our online English continues.  We had our first ever English Workshop talking about visiting the US.  This workshop was on video, and Paty edited it to be sold online with AME.  We will be doing more workshops in the future.  We are also working towards putting our course online for purchase as well.  AME has been a blessing to help us financially.  God is good!

 

This is just a glimpse of our activities so far.  We are blessed to be here working.  Yes, it does get challenging, but God is faithful and guiding us each day.  Please continue to pray for us for financial resources, strength, and wisdom as we serve Him every day.  You are a blessing!  Thank you so much!

 

Lisa