Travers Update - March 20, 2008

Joined: Feb 25, 2006 Posts: 141 Location: Springfield, MA

Dear praying Family and Co-laborers,

After a cooler than normal summer, we packed away the wading pool this past week. It feels like it time to pull out the fall decorations as our days get shorter. Actually, here in São Paulo we do get rather chilly. If you can believe it, we suffer more with cool weather than hot since we have no real good source of heating in our home or in public buildings. But, from what some of you suffered this past November through March, we are not complaining. Even after eight years in Brazil, it’s hard for this former New Englander to get used to experiencing “reversed” seasons.

January VBS:
During the last week of January, we held a Vacation Bible School. There were over twenty salvation decisions and half a dozen rededication decisions. Jeff and Judy were more than delighted to lead four of those children to a saving knowledge of Christ. For the most part, many of the children come regularly to our VBS activities, but not regularly to our Sunday school program. However, we did gain a few 12 and 13 year old boys from the neighborhood in our youth program as a result of the VBS. They have been coming faithfully to our teen activities every Saturday night which now has an average of 14 teens attending.

Beginning Feb 1 and lasting until the 5th we held our yearly youth retreat. Three teen groups from different churches joined together to make up a special get away from the wicked carnival celebrations. We had 16 teens from our church participate. They returned refreshed and challenged from the preaching and exhausted from the fun.

Jeff was in charge of the games for the camp. The big ball activities proved to be exciting, but dangerous. Usually there are bumps and bruises. One of the teen guys we gained from the VBS broke his arm – he is recovering well. A few others got run over by the “gang” trying to control the ball. It was great fun – especially for us who were watching from a distance! Very Happy

The Berean Baptist Church mission team kept us going in high gear. The team is from near Atlanta, GA. They were a tremendous blessing to our family and at the south region’s missionary conference. We hosted four teams last May – August (one a month), but never saw so many challenges in one day brought on by the air lines.

Let me explain. Their flight from Atlanta which was to carry the majority of the team members was cancelled due to mechanical problems and that scattered the team. Some arrived here in São Paulo via Mexico City, others through Newark and still one more group passed through Huston, Texas on a Japanese airline. (Did you know that the largest concentration of Japanese folks outside of Japan live in São Paulo, Brazil?)

We thank the Lord that all made it safely. Even the lost bags made the trip safely – only two days later. Tremendous blessings in music, songs and preaching started that night and continued nearly every night the team was here from Feb 14 through Feb 22.

They ministered in 6 church services in four different churches during the first four days. Then they blessed our hearts and our families by hosting the VBS for the missionary children of the south region conference the week of Feb 18. They challenged our kids and our kids challenged them right back (I guess you all have heard about how missionary’s kids and preacher’s kids can act.)

We gained new friends in the team and were able to share wonderful fellowship together as we hosted 6 of the 16 team members in our home. We must say that every team that comes here touches our hearts in a special way and really encourages us in our service to the Lord. May I encourage all of you reading this letter that might be considering a mission trip this coming year? Do all in your power and trust God to provide so that you can minister for Him on a foreign field.

Church News:
A new flurry of activities is under way. The attitudes and spirits of our church folks are much more unified than we have seen for many, many months. We hope to encourage evangelistic outreach in the hearts of the church people through a 6 week campaign called, “Producing Fruit.” That will be followed by a couple of mission teams from the States. Please pray for these events.

There was a couple who trusted in Christ during our visitation program two weeks ago. We are praying for Neto and Tereza to grow in their new found faith. They carry many scars from the old nature, but God is faithful. We are doing an in-home Bible study from the book of John with Neto on Tuesday nights. Neto is practically illiterate, so we read the lesson and he responds. Also, on March 18, another young man, David, who lives in our neighborhood, accepted Christ.

Church Construction:
We rejoice because of various financial gifts that have come in this year. We expect that we now have enough to put the roof on the building. The auditorium still lacks windows, doors, flooring, the baptistry and stucco on the exterior (it’s a shell). Once the roof is on we can concentrate on those necessities. We ask for your prayers for God to provide for these needs too.

Family News:
Please pray for our family as we are facing some health problems. Judy is recovering from carpal tunnel surgery on her right hand (left hand was done in Dec.). Her hands used to "tingle" (fall asleep) not only at night, but during the day with certain activities and cause her discomfort. Also, Emily, our youngest (5 yrs), has a skin disease (scleroderma) that the doctor says is very rare. We are still in the "finding out" stages. We don't know how deep the effects are on her back are where she has a patch of area that is affected. Please pray she has no disfiguration from this disease.

We continue to lack over $700.00 in monthly support and the dollar continues to loose value as well. Please pray this situation will improve for us. We praise the Lord for some new support and some special gifts that have met our needs in the past.

We appreciate so very much all you do for us and look forward to seeing you all again. Our furlough begins next summer (June 2009). It’s not too early to start scheduling meetings. Email us if you already have your mission’s conference schedule for July 2009 through 2010. We anticipate sharing in person with you how God continues to work through our joint mission endeavor. Until then and God bless!

Love in Christ,
Your missionaries to São Paulo Brazil,
Jeff-n-Judy, Anna, Alicia & Emily Traver

Field address:
Rua Singapura, 450
São Fernando Residencia
06448-020 Barueri, SP

Email: jeffnjudytraver@aol.com

Mission address:
Baptist Mid-Missions
P.O. Box 308011
Cleveland, OH 44130-8011
Phone: (440) 826-3930


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