Church buildings and meaning

It has sometimes been hard for the outback folks to venture into a building of "another religion" as we are seen. So much of their upbringing has been to see church as the building. They sometimes feel disloyal to even visit... Well, the house meetings don't pose as much a threat to those who may be investigating the Gospel as we preach it. This tool works well and opens many doors.

"RadaR" (A new youth ministry)

A few weeks ago our college-age young people held a Mexican food night to do fund raising for the new youth ministry format called "RadaR". The night was lots of fun and now this Saturday will be the first night of the new ministry. Pray for all that will be working and attending this new outreach. We have been praying for our youth group for a number of years now, so are hopeful this will help us win many teens for the Savior. The plan is to have it every Saturday from here on where we don't have some other event going on at Koinonia.

Triunfo team encourages Pastor Paulino

Our Triunfo team has been helping a struggling work in a city about 20 minutes away. Both of our missionaries Chico and Jorge along with their key leader Oto are pictured here with Pastor Paulino who has been delighted over the team's help. They have been able to add weekly ministries at Pastor Paulino's church along with evangelizing and making disciples in Triunfo. This fits in so well with one of our goals of encouraging and helping existing works and their leaders. Pastor Paulino is pictured lower right. The city he works is "São José da Baixa Verde".

Sweetheart Banquet at Koinonia

This weekend we had a special emphasis on the Christian home that started out with our sweetheart banquet on Saturday. Then on Sunday our special speakers Salomão and Cíntia ministered to our couples during S.S. and in the church service. It was a great weekend in every way.

Fireproof in the Outback

It is an interesting world... Recently Carlos was able to show the film "Fireproof" to couples in Ingazeira. It is neat that these tools are coming out pretty fast in various languages. It makes for a good option for an evangelistic event.

Missions Conference

We recently had our annual missions conference at Koinonia. We had ABWE missionary Jerry Neuman as our speaker. We also had national missionary Carlos Heron who gave his testimony and presented the work God has called him too in the Gambia. The neat thing about it is that he is a dentist and will be working in partnership with ABWE in the clinic there. Carlos was a blessing to our folks with his willingness to give up a successful practice here in Brazil to make a difference in missions. May his tribe increase! Please pray for this family as they prepare to go.

Conference in Outback

We had a good conference in the Outback city of Serra Talhada. There were more than 60 pastors missionaries and leaders. It was a good time for Marcy and I to be with our missionaries at an event together. The music had a genuine outback flavor. We hope to have more of these events. Each one was encouraged and challenged to live and minister with integrity.