Of all the holidays, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was always one of my favorites. This may seem like an odd holiday to list as a favorite, but it gets that title for the simple reason that it always falls within a week of my birthday! So I always got a three-day weekend to celebrate. But here in Brazil, I have no such luck, so birthday # 28 came and went. I was blessed by my wife with some homemade pumpkin ice cream with pecans!
As we returned from our holidays with Silvia's family, we hit the ground running here in Santarém. We landed on the 3rd and got to see our new furniture! It is great to finally be all settled in and be able to host people! We have already been able to have several lunches with our disciples and others to whom we are ministering! And special thanks to all of you who have helped us financially and made it possible to establish our home!
On the 5th, the biannual PAZ leadership conference kicked off at our camp outside of the city. For this event we spent over fours days at the camp, serving and sitting under awesome teaching of the word! This conference is sponsored by PAZ and designed specifically for the leaders and workers scattered around the Amazon and Brazil. Families come by boat, truck and plane to participate. Our guest speaker came from southern Brazil and spoke about familial inheritance and how that can affect our ministries. Overall, the conference went off without a hitch and the attendees were blessed by the moving of the Spirit! Thanks for your prayers!
The day after the conference ended, we began an intensive three-week course focused on ministering people and liberating them from their sin. We are privileged to sit in this course with 150 other leaders and look forward to applying all that we are learning in future ministry opportunities. We just finished the second week of the course, and at 9 hours of class per day, it is very intensive and feels a bit like being back in college. Please pray with us for stamina in learning and then applying all this! It's really the ministry aspect that we look forward to!
Our cell group is exploding with some new growth and we are quickly approaching the time of multiplication! Thanks for your prayers! This is really the focus of our ministry right now as we really learn the techniques and skills necessary to care for budding as well as mature Christians. These are the skills we will need as we look to fulfill our desire of participating in a new church plant!
Praises
- A successful and Spirit-filled PAZ Leadership Conference
- Safe holiday travels
- Growth in our Cell Group
- A God who lives within us, and continues to demonstrate His Power through grace and saving faith in a Savior
Prayer Requests
- Growth in our cell group - members who are excited to share their knowledge and grow in their personal relationship with the Lord
- For our disciples to maintain strong relationships with the Lord and to desire growth and embrace leadership possibilities
- Our marriage relationship, for strength and protection against the enemy, that we could model and lead as examples
- For the Lord's hand on our plans to start another cell group in our home, focusing on young adults and couples
In Christ,
John & Silvia
As we returned from our holidays with Silvia's family, we hit the ground running here in Santarém. We landed on the 3rd and got to see our new furniture! It is great to finally be all settled in and be able to host people! We have already been able to have several lunches with our disciples and others to whom we are ministering! And special thanks to all of you who have helped us financially and made it possible to establish our home!
On the 5th, the biannual PAZ leadership conference kicked off at our camp outside of the city. For this event we spent over fours days at the camp, serving and sitting under awesome teaching of the word! This conference is sponsored by PAZ and designed specifically for the leaders and workers scattered around the Amazon and Brazil. Families come by boat, truck and plane to participate. Our guest speaker came from southern Brazil and spoke about familial inheritance and how that can affect our ministries. Overall, the conference went off without a hitch and the attendees were blessed by the moving of the Spirit! Thanks for your prayers!
The day after the conference ended, we began an intensive three-week course focused on ministering people and liberating them from their sin. We are privileged to sit in this course with 150 other leaders and look forward to applying all that we are learning in future ministry opportunities. We just finished the second week of the course, and at 9 hours of class per day, it is very intensive and feels a bit like being back in college. Please pray with us for stamina in learning and then applying all this! It's really the ministry aspect that we look forward to!
Our cell group is exploding with some new growth and we are quickly approaching the time of multiplication! Thanks for your prayers! This is really the focus of our ministry right now as we really learn the techniques and skills necessary to care for budding as well as mature Christians. These are the skills we will need as we look to fulfill our desire of participating in a new church plant!
Praises
- A successful and Spirit-filled PAZ Leadership Conference
- Safe holiday travels
- Growth in our Cell Group
- A God who lives within us, and continues to demonstrate His Power through grace and saving faith in a Savior
Prayer Requests
- Growth in our cell group - members who are excited to share their knowledge and grow in their personal relationship with the Lord
- For our disciples to maintain strong relationships with the Lord and to desire growth and embrace leadership possibilities
- Our marriage relationship, for strength and protection against the enemy, that we could model and lead as examples
- For the Lord's hand on our plans to start another cell group in our home, focusing on young adults and couples
In Christ,
John & Silvia
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| Rappelling in Santarém |
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