Much on our minds

We have had such a good first year. Officially July 2 was our 1 year anniversary in Brazil, but we got to Foz around the 20th. There is still so much to learn about Brazil, about being missionaries, about us as a family but this seems to be a time to start focusing on how to bring the different ideas and visions together into a plan.

What I mean, after a year of being here inhibited by language and newness you realize a lot of ideas have crossed your mind. It feels very much like the first year I had in business, everything you do you think is going to be the thing that takes off. Often it is actually just a one time thing but then later becomes a small piece of the overall picture. The lack of ability to communicate and a family of 6 prevent most of them from taking off. Eventually as many of you have read we began helping the church do a lunch for people who need help. This then led to us starting a service for kids because of the response we have been getting.

We had a group from Canada here for 2 weeks. They really focused much of their energy on youth ministry and outreach with that group of kids. They gave us a great boost and now we have a large group that seem to desire to grow.

Now what? We are able to get going. We have some momentum. Now what? God seems to be giving us clear eyes to see mistakes we have made. To see things we can do better. To see a picture of how those ideas fit  together. A vision of the ministry that is before us.

We need to learn how to incorporate this group of kids into the church. Right now it isn’t working real well. We are trying to get a service going for them on another day and get the parents to quit sending younger ones to services. We don’t have the space to educate adults and kids. We end up trying to contain the kids instead of educating.

We are going to begin praying about starting a youth center in one of the more at risk neighborhoods. Somewhere that would be set up as a youth outreach but could have bible studies. We are going to pray for people to come along side us in this and pray for contacts with churches in the area that want to learn and grow in youth outreach.

We are going to look for an opportunity to visit the west of Brazil. The Pantanal is perhaps the poorest and least evangelized part of Brazil. Melissa and I have a continuous growing desire to minister in a simpler place.

Next week we are going to leave on vacation in faith. We don’t exactly have the money but we need some papers from the US embassy. It will cost us an extra $650 or so to have the family go to Rio instead of just me. I believe this is a necessary time of rest and prayer. Tim is leaving and the church is transitioning to Brazilian leadership. I may or may not be a part of helping them. Regardless this is our time to begin stepping out and building our ministry. We need to pray first. Pray for God’s provision and an opportunity to connect with the YWAM bases that are already doing much of what is on our heart.

 

Thanks and love you all.