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| Donations Stats |
| January´s Goal: |
$20.00 |
| Due Date: |
Jan 31 |
| Amount in: |
$0.00 |
| Balance: |
$0.00 |
| Left to go: |
$20.00 |
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| Author |
Message |
doulos
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 141
Location: Springfield, MA
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 Posted:
Sat Jan 20, 2007 4:01 am |
 
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Dear Family, Friends and Prayer Warriors,
I want to express how joyful and refreshing it is to know that we have people who care and pray for us. You are in our prayers as well. We have gone through probably one of our most difficult weeks since arriving in Brazil back in April of 2000. Last Sunday night, January 7, we faced the possibility of loosing one or more families from the new church plant that we are working with. The problem stemmed from a lack of understanding and some unknowns. Not doctrinal problems. We are praying for true change in attitudes on their part as this particular family has created problems in the past. They also are part of a larger extended family that makes up half of our membership.
After all was discussed and clarified in an orderly fashion over the next four days; the father removed his protest to leave the church. We had to then help him see that the attitude he held was not right. Wow! God is good and we are so grateful that all turned out well and that other difficulties were also resolved through this struggle. I know that I am being painfully simple discussing this, but what is most important is that God gets the praise for moving in the heart of our dear brother in Christ. We did not want to see them leave. Fellowship has been restored.
(UPDATE to the last paragraph: January 17, 2007. Well, maybe not all is resolved. The wife of the man who threatened to leave the church, is not showing signs of repentance nor is there hardly any fruit in her life. We are praying for her salvation or repentance – only God knows her heart. We need wisdom, and God’s grace to show love and compassion to her.)
Back to our letter, last night, Saturday, January 13, we celebrated Thanksgiving at our church. It was an opportunity to share the historical and Biblical background of our Thanksgiving holiday in the States. The Brazilians of our church brought in various dishes and we used chickens (turkey is real expensive here) and other “fixins.” There were a few items missing from what would have been a “traditional American Thanksgiving (no American Football games on the TV), but what food we had was delicious. Jeff carved 6 chickens for the forty-four people that came. We even had leftovers.
Lucio, our Brazilian pastor that is doing his internship with us, gave a wonderful message on giving thanks. Jeff told the story of how the first Thanksgiving was held at the Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. Then, we had a time for each person to share at least one thing that for which he was thankful. Not everyone spoke, but it was an emotional time as we heard various praises of salvation, changed lives, thankfulness for the church, thankfulness for the Americans who have given time and time again to help build our building, and for the American missionaries that left their homeland to share the gospel with them. There was a note of sadness as there are a number of ladies who attend our church whose husbands are not yet saved. After weeks and weeks of other conflicts, backbiting and trials, God has restored joy to the hearts of His people. Praise Him!
We praise the Lord for the news of another $50,000 that our co-workers, the Forans, received this past week as well! The last gift of $10,000 is nearly gone as work has continued on the building since October 25. Our colleagues, the Sundbergs, received that gift. Construction on the actual auditorium has begun. We still lack much more funds to complete the building. To be able to give an actual amount at this time is very difficult as the value of the dollar continues to drop. We are looking at probably another $40,000 more after this money is gone.
Also, please pray for our exchange rate to improve. Each time the exchange rate lowers, we loose purchasing power. For example, what we used to buy for one dollar at R$2,47 now costs us US$1.15 at R$2,14. Exchanging US$10,000 @ R$2,47 would yield R$24,700 in Brazilian currency. Exchanging the same $10,000 today only yields R$21,700. That’s a R$3000 difference. That’s a loss of nearly $1,400.00 dollars of purchasing power. In other words, it takes an additional $1,400.00 dollars to make the same amount of purchases that we made over a year ago when we returned to Brazil. God is not surprised and we trust Him to provide, and He has not failed.
Our family’s support level continues to lower along with the weakening dollar. We are $800.00 short each month in the commitments that we have. Each month we fall further and further behind. I wish I knew what to do. It is REAL difficult to raise new support while here on the field. We have received some new support since returning and we are SO VERY grateful for every penny of it. However, the added stress of not having enough money for our needs is weighing heavily. We are asking for your prayers that some of the churches we were at during our furlough might take us on for support. We are asking for you to pray for God to provide as only He can. I do not want to limit how God will provide. We have maintenance on our vehicle that needs urgent attention. Please pray.
Today’s services were much sweeter and there was freshness in the services. Three people went forward at the invitation to pray and two hands were raised for salvation. Thank the Lord for receptive hearts.
There are a couple of future events that we also request prayer: We will be holding a vacation Bible school in the mornings on January 24 – 28, also during the evenings of January 26 & 27 our teen group will be participating in a regional vacation Bible school. Then on February 16 – 20 our teens will be at camp. This camp is to evangelize and encourage them as well as to get them away from the wickedness of carnival here in Brazil.
Again, we thank each and every one of you for your prayers on our behalf. We can tell that people are praying because God is getting the praise and giving us the strength to carry on. Thank You!
Jeff, Judy, Anna, Alicia & Emily Traver |
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doulos
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 141
Location: Springfield, MA
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| Posted:
Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:29 am |
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We are enjoying a great start to our first Vacation Bible School in our new building. Wednesday, there was 61 children between the ages of 5 & 12. Four salvation decisions were made. Yesterday, Thursday, there was 87 children present and 16 decisions. Jeff dealt with 11 of those for salvation. Our prayer is for this fruit to remain.
Thank you for praying, and please continue to pray as we have three more days to go.
Love in Christ,
Jeff -n- Judy, Anna, Alicia & Emily Traver |
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