Brazil River of Life Ministries (Jeff, Monica and Isaac Fife)

June 2010, East Tennessee
Dear friends,
Greetings from your co-workers to the Portuguese-Speaking world!

Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. (Acts 20.28 NIV). As Paul met for the last time with the elders from the Ephesus church in Miletus he spoke these words that we find in Acts 20. When we left Brazil on March 31st, we shared these same words with the elders in Sao Paulo, although we plan to see them again, hopefully soon. It is always very important to remember that the Church belongs to the Lord, bought with His own blood and for this reason our responsibility is even greater. We pray that the elders and ministers of the churches in Brazil will be blessed as they shepherd God’s Church.

When we arrive in the USA on April 1st our planes were to:
1. Get Roger through his last year of High School and in to College.
2. Visit all of our supporters.
3. Raise new support.
But as we all know well “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19.21 NIV). We did come earlier than we planned so we could participate at my (Jeff's) parents (Tom & Libby Fife) 50th Ministerial Anniversary on April 5th at ESR (Emmanuel School of Religion). Robert, my oldest brother, who is a missionary to Portugal and is a graduate from ESR (2006) presented me at ESR and I was encouraged to apply for a Master of Divinity Scholarship. By the grace of God I received a Full Presidential Scholarship. This has changed our plans dramatically, as most of you may know the M.Div. at ESR is a 90 hours masters. So these are our new plans, if our supporters agree; (all the supporters we have visited until now have agreed.)

During the school years that I’ll be going to ESR, we will be going to Brazil every summer to keep in contact with the churches and continue to encourage them to plant a new church every other year. Around the Campo Limpo and Jundiai areas, there are 15 cities, with a total population of over 4 million. Our goal is to plant a church in each of these cities. During the school year we will continue to write the weekly discipleship material, the monthly journal for the Portuguese-Speaking churches. We will advise them and meet with the churches' leaders monthly via Skype. We are open to speak, teach and help our supporting churches, in all areas that we can, as well as, hopefully, new supporting congregations. Also we will be speaking at Portuguese-Speaking churches in the USA.

We will need your prayers and financial support more than ever, because all the work that is supported by BRLM in Brazil and Mozambique will continue, plus we will need to survive in the USA, and raise money to travel to Brazil every year and to Mozambique every two years. We intend to visit the work in Mozambique on the winter break. Next trip to Mozambique I'd like to be able to take Monica.

Please pray for us and if you have any questions about our plans, please call or write us; we will be happy to answer your questions.

Here are some highlights of our lives in the last 90 days:
Before we left Brazil we were blessed to be able to dedicate a rental location for the Jundiai church on Saturday March 27, so now they no longer have to meet in a restaurant. I preached at Jundiai church in the morning and at Campo Limpo Church in the evening on Sunday March 28.
We celebrated, along with many family members and friends, my parents' 50th Ministerial Anniversary on April 5th at ESR, and at Central Christian Church in Jonesborough, TN, on Wednesday April 7th. We visited FCC, Johnson City, TN, April 10,21 & 25 and Seymour Heights CC, Seymour, TN, April 14 & 18.

Monica and I went to Nashville, TN, for the World Convention board meeting on April 15-17. Monica is the president for the 2012 Women's Global Connecting and I’m the liaison person for the Brazilian National Committee for the World Convention in Brazil in 2012.
We celebrate Roger’s 17th birthday (April 30) in Dallas, TX, in since he is a big Mavericks fan we took him to the America Airline Center.

We participated in Valley View CC, Dallas, TX, Missions Fair on May 1 & 2.

Roger and I had breakfast and prayer time with pastor Ron Key from Cornerstone CC, Dallas, TX, on May 3.

I had the opportunity to teach a six week Sunday School class (May 9th - June 13th) at First CC, Johnson City, TN, on an Overview of the Restoration (Stone-Campbell) Movement.

We met with Colonial Heights CC, Kingsport, TN, Missions Team on May 16th and on June 7th with First CC, Johnson City, TN, Missions Team.

Our first Skype Elders meeting with elders from Campo Limpo and Jundiai Churches was on May 29th. The churches are doing very well!On June 4th we drove to Charlotte, NC, to renew Monica’s Green Card.

Isaac asked to celebrate his 13th birthday (June 16th) at Fun Expedition in Johnson City, TN.

Monica represented the Women's Global Connection at the Quadrennial Assembly in Greensboro, NC, on June 21-27. She is inviting the ladies to come to Brazil in 2012 for the Women’s Gathering during the World Convention.

God is always taking care of us; we were blessed with a car given to us (2001 Mercury Sable). Since ESR did not have housing available for us we had to rent a house outside campus, and the Lord blessed us with a home at the East Tennessee Christian Home, in Elizabethton, TN, they are charging us the same rent we would pay at ESR plus utilities. The house had some furniture, but through the generosity of God’s people we have received moving-in donations, furniture, food and etc. God is good!

Here are some highlights from the ministry in Mozambique:
The soccer field that they were building when we visited the Hope School in Feb 2009 is ready and they already have a team playing in the Nampula City tournament. They are building a girls' dorm for the girls who have no family, or their family left them at the School because they cannot raise them. At the present they have 19 girls living at the school. They are building a prayer room African-style. They build the roof, and then the walls. The foundation for a guest house at the Hope School campus is ready; as God sends the funds they will continue this construction.

Here are some highlights from the churches in Brazil:
The churches are continuing with all the ministries that we used to take care of; it is a blessing to see them working! The Jundiai church had their first Men’s Breakfast on April 4th and their first Women’s Tea on May 15th.

The Campo Limpo church had their Men’s Breakfast on May 29th and their Women’s Tea on June 12th.

Here are some prayer requests . . .
Thanks for praying for Monica’s health; she is doing a lot better, but please continue to pray for her complete healing. Please pray that we will have all the funds needed to continue the work in Brazil, Mozambique and our living expenses. We need an extra $2,248.34 (US Dollars) per month to meet our budget.

Pray that we will have funds to be able to re-start the Bible College classes in Campo Limpo in August. We need $700 (US Dollars) per month to run the Bible College, and because we had no funds, we had to cancel all classes for the first semester of this year. We have 10 students who want to study so they can become evangelists and ministers of the new churches that we will plant in the future. If we could get 10 monthly gifts of $70 each we could re-open the Bible College. Could you be a sponsor for one student?

Pray for the churches and the leaders in Brazil, for the churches, the school and the leaders in Mozambique, and please pray for us!

Please make plans for us to visit you and your church!
Here is our updated agenda:
Wednesday June 30 through July 7 – Knoxville Area
Saturday July 3 – Leadership Meeting on Skype at Campo Limpo Church (Leaders from all Sao Paulo Churches)
Sunday July 4 – Seymour Heights CC – Knoxville, TN (Preach) Two a.m. Services
Saturday July 10 – First Christian Church – Johnson City (Preach Saturday Night Service) 6:00 p.m.
Sun-Fri July 25 - 30 – Camp Christian – Pennsylvania (Missionaries of the Week)
Thursday August 26 – Emmanuel (Fall Semester Starts)
September 4 - 5 – Portuguese-Speaking Church in Atlanta, GA, Homecoming (Jeff Speaker)
September 19 – Colonial Heights CC – Kingsport, TN (Annual Missions Emphasis Sunday)
November 18 - 21 – Brazil National Convention – Goiania, Brazil (Jeff Speaker)
November 28 – Colonial Heights CC – Kingsport, TN (Missions Moments) Three a.m. Services
Friday December 17 – Emmanuel (Fall Semester Ends)

Special thanks to everyone who helped us during this time, as we settle down in East TN. We've been blessed through your generosity!

Your prayers and financial support are vital for us! Please continue to pray for us - we need all the prayers we can get!

God is good all the time and all the time God is good!
In His love and service,

Jeff, Monica, Roger and Isaac Fife

BRAZIL RIVER OF LIFE MINISTRIES
Reaching the Portuguese-Speaking World for Christ!
Evangelism - Dicipleship - New Church Plant
PO Box 8262 - Gray - TN 37615
Home Ph: 423-543-8061

Mobile: 423-433-8390
E-Mail: RLM_Fifes@hotmail