Pastor Bona and wife visit Triunfo

Pastor Bona and Mabel visited the Outback with us the other day. Jorge and Josy are from their church here in Recife. Jorge and Josy also took their boys on this trip to see the city of Triunfo where they are wanting to work with Chico and Dalva. We had a great weekend with this group and things look like they are moving forward for a team to form. The group in Triunfo are now meeting regularly on Sundays at Oto and Rita's house.

Missionary Ana Lucia returns to Africa

We mentioned Ana Lucia to you the other day. She is leaving tomorrow for Africa to continue her ministry in the village she lives and works in. She needs our prayers as she serves our Lord and shows the love of Christ to many there. Please uplift her in prayers for her health and emotional well-being living in a difficult place. Koinonia is pleased to help her in her support and our love for her is great. She is one of our heroes even though we know she would not consider herself as such.

Faith Promise Missions

It was a joy to have our Faith Promise conference at Koinonia recently. We heard Testimonies from our Outback missionaries Chico and Dalva as well as Jorge and Josy who were with us along with their two boys. A special treat was to have our missionary to Africa Ana Lucia. She was here on a short furlough. Her stories of how she and other missionaries had to flee the Ivory Coast a few years back at a very dangerous time kept our people on the edge of their seats. She now serves in a Muslem tribe in Africa. We appreciate her dedication to our Lord and are so proud to have a Brazilian from our State serving over seas. Koinonia also supports a couple in Iran.

Oh yes, our Faith Promise commitments exceeded last year's. Praise our precious Lord for this!

North Carolina Group

Thanks for your prayers for the group from North Carolina. They had an intense few days in the Outback along with Carlos. Many houses were visited and some meetings were held. The number of decisions reported was 170! We will need wisdom in following up in the various communities, but are thankful to the dear brothers and sisters in Christ who passionately shared Christ with so many. Pastor Claudio and I were able to join them for a day of ministry after our missions conference here at Koinonia. The team had the blessing of having Pastor Airton from the Brazilian Church in N.C. along and some of his people who were able to be the translators for the team. We will try to give more details and pictures of the new rural communities that were visited in future posts.

Cooks Free to travel

We are so grateful to God for Dan's improvement so that he can travel as planned tomorrow to the States along with his family for their year long furlough. Please contiune to pray for his improvement and adjustments they will have to make. Sunday was their send-off at Koinonia. It was a moving time of celebration for God's grace for our family in sparing Dan as well as a time of hard good-bye's.

Group in the Outback and Missions Conference

A lot is going on these days. First off - thanks for all the prayers for Dan Cook and family. He is now at home and the doctor has cleared them to travel on schedule to the States on June 11th. Please continue to pray for a full recovery for Dan. Thanks so much for remembering him these days.

Yesterday a group got here from the States to help out in the Outback. Carlos is mostly hosting them himself. The group has various Brazilians who live in the States along, so translating should be well taken care of. This church sent a group less than a year ago and is back with some of the same ones and new ones. Pray for all the efforts and outreach these days. Pray for the group's safety and health. They will do mostly rural evangelism but will also be in Solidão and Ingazeira as well as Afogados. Pastor Claudio and I will join them for their last two days there.

Meanwhile our missions conference at Koinonia starts tomorrow. We will have a two day conference with three missionary families giving their reports along with a special speaker. Pray that Koinonia will continue to grow in our missionary vision.

If you happen to be reading this on the post day pray for me as I interpret tonight for a British evangelist at an outreach we are expecting a few thousand to show up for. I have been in four of our prisons here in Recife with this evangelist to interpret for him these last few days. We have seen some prisoners receive Christ!

A Prayer Request for Triunfo

In our recent survey trip with Jorge and Josy (pictured on the right) we saw the possibility of a team forming. Jorge and Josi came back to Recife to pray more about it, but are seriously considering teaming up with Chico and Dalva. We are going to take a trip there along with their local pastor who is a good friend of ours for the church to be involved in the process. We do need your prayer that God's perfect will will be done. Chico has recently reported with joy that a neighbor lady (Rita) who is studying the Bible with them recently gave her life to Christ. They now have Bible studies with three more neighbors.