Brazil, June 2012
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Greetings from your co-workers to the Portuguese-Speaking World.
Great things the Lord has done and even greater things He will
do among us! Since I (Jeff) arrived in Brazil on May 3, the Lord has done great
things; however we believe He will do even greater things for His honor and
glory.
On May 6, I became the interim minister at the Pirituba Church,
therefore on April I, asked Gerson, the only elder at the Pirituba Church, to
ask the congregation if they would agree in changing their Friday night service
to Tuesday night. This way I could preach at Pirituba on Tuesday, at Sao Mateus
on Wednesday, at Jundiai on Thursday and at Campo Limpo Paulista on Friday.
They agreed and I've been preaching at these 4 locations every week; this way I
am able to maintain contact with these congregations.
On Friday night May 4, I went to the last Friday night service
at Pirituba before changing to Tuesday; there were 7 people there. On Saturday,
May 5, we had a board meeting at Pirtuba where I discovered that the church has
33 members, however only 22 were attending on Sundays, and 5 on Fridays. I was
surprised to learn that the church had taken a loan at a local bank, without a
congregation meeting, and still owe $8,500 (US Dollars). Another surprise was
to learn that the church has an active debt with the municipal government of
$2,700 (US Dollars) from not getting building permits, past due taxes and a
loud sound fine. Adding the monthly payments for the loan, the municipal fine,
electricity and water, the church monthly financial responsibility is $1,200
(US Dollars). Therefore, I became the interim minister at the Pirituba Church
on Sunday, May 6, knowing that church has all these financial responsibilities,
does not have many active members, half of the lights of the church were burned
out, and have not finished the construction, because it does not have the
financial resources to finish. To finish the construction we need $4,500 (US
Dollars). However, by God’s grace after a month the attendance on Sunday is
over 50 and on Tuesday over 30 and the income in May was close to $2,000 (US
Dollars). We serve a mighty God!
On Saturday, May 5, I had the opportunity to have lunch at a Churrascaria (Brazilian Steak House) in
Campinas with David Giles (CMF–Christian Mission Fellowship), Tom Moen
(Mountain Christian Church), Vinicius Varanda (Minister at CMF Church in
Campinas), Ruben Daniel (Minister at River of Life Churches in Jundiai and
Campo Limpo) and several Brothers and Sisters from the Campinas Church. Brother
Ruben has worked closely with Vinicius, and the River of Life church leaders
have participated in the CMF Community Health Evangelism (CHE) training.
God has blessed us with the opportunity to preach at the Jundiai
Church at 9:30am, at the Bom Retiro (Korean) Church at 1:30pm and at the
Pirituba Church at 6pm on Sundays.
Our house in Brazil has only two small bedrooms and since
Monica’s parents moved to our house in 2010 we were in need of an extra room,
therefore we decided to transform the garage into a bedroom, in order to
transform the garage we had to build a storage room. With a lot of hard work we
were able to finish, and started using the new bedroom a week after Monica and
Isaac arrived in Brazil.
On the last week of May, between 10pm and 2am, we worked at
fixing all the electric and sound issues at the Pirituba Church; now the church
has all the lights working and a sound system that is pleasing to hear. God is
good!
Brazil River of Life promoted a Children's Outreach at Varzea Paulista
on May 12, and also on June 16, a Women's Tea on May 19, and a Couple’s
outreach on June 16 at Jundiai.
The “Hands On” Bible College meets on the last Saturday of the
month; on May 26, I taught on Church History and Stone-Campbell Movement.
On June 3, we had a celebration for Monica’s father, Odelmo,
retirement from the ministry at the Pirituba Church, however as he was driving
to the church with Monica’s mother, Elzi and Isaac in the car with him, he ran
over a 42 year-old man on the highway. We had over 200 people at the church,
ministers from the churches in Campinas, Campo Limpo Paulista, Jundiai, Piracicaba
and Sao Paulo, however Monica’s parents never arrived. We left the police
station at 3:30am and we finally arrived home at 5am. Thank God, Monica’s
parents and Isaac were not injured, however the car was towed. We do not have
information about the man, the police told us not to go after any information,
that they will get in touch with us.
We have personally met with every minister, the elders and other
ministry leaders at Bom Retiro, Campo Limpo, Jundiai and Sao Mateus Churches.
The leadership at these congregations is strong and is doing a great job. We
are training new leaders at the Pirituba Chruch.
We thank the Lord for Isaac’s 15th birthday on June 16.
Prayer Requests: Please pray,
• We are training 3 new elders at the Pirituba Church; we need a
strong leadership at this church.
• May 23 at 4pm, we have a Women's Outreach at Campo Limpo
Paulista Church.
• May 23 at 7:30pm, we have a Couples' Outreach at Pirituba
Church.
• May 30 from 1pm to 8pm, Monica and I will teach at the “Hands
On” Bible College.
• We need God’s grace to be able to speak from Tuesday to Friday
and on Sundays every week, plus the outreaches, teaching, leadership meetings
and training, and all the work at the Pirituba Church.
• We have not had a break since we arrived in Brazil; therefore,
we will take 4 days' vacation from June 26-29.
• Our ticket expenses to come to Brazil was $6,101.83, and so
far, we have only received $2,640.00 for this purpose, so we still need
$3,461.83.
Thanks for your prayers, and please continue to pray for us!
Our phones in Brazil:
Home: 011-55-11-4039-1484
Mobile: 011-55-11-9511-2436
God is good, He is among us, and He is acting!
In HIS Love and Service,
Jeff & Monica Fife
