How to Start a Church???

We are finally here in Floripa...
Now the work begins, but how do you start a church? I have to admit I was struggling with the overwhelming job ahead of us. When I asked James what the plan was, he shared that he and David had decided that we should spend a week in prayer.

I cannot tell you the peace that filled my soul upon hearing this news. How can we go wrong when we start by seeking Him?

Well, last week was our week of prayer. Every afternoon while our two oldest kids were at school, we would meet for prayer. It was such a great time of fellowship as we came to our Savior and prayed over the contacts we had made and sought the Lord's direction for His work here.

It was so neat to see God leading us as the week progressed. We were able to finalize our tract and have it printed. We began work translating a 6-week Bible study through the book of Mark that we will use to present the Gospel to unbelievers.

We don't know all the steps to planting a church but we know the first few steps and we are taking them.

1. Always we be ready to meet someone new and have a tract ready to leave with them.
2. If the opportunity is there, share the Gospel in a short, concise manner.
3. Invite people to 6-week Bible studies which explains the Gospel
4. Follow-up
5. Pray, Pray, Pray!

Please pray for us as Saturday is our big day of passing out invitations for our first series of Bible studies for unbelievers.

Pray that interested people will come.

Pray that God will use us for His glory here.

House Pictures

A few of you have asked about our house. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what it is like.

Last night we broke in the grill, which is in our carport area. It worked great!

Upstairs we have 3 bedrooms and James office. Here is Hannah's room.

James office as a beautiful patio that looks out at the ocean. We are up high on a hill which enables us to see it.
The second floor here shows a side view of the patio and James office window.

This is our bedroom.

This looks from our bedroom into the attached bathroom. I am thrilled that it has a bathtub! That is a rarity here in Brazil. All the bedrooms have built in closets and cabinets. We haven't purchased wardrobes for everyone so this was another added blessing of this house.

This is Daniel and Jeremiah's room.

Our pretty and safe stairway. So many stairways here are more for decoration than kids. We praise the Lord for hand railings!!

Here is our living room.
This is our laundry room, which is partially covered. The area where the plants are is open to the rain. The laundry room is off the kitchen. This shot is looking back into the kitchen.

A little more of the kitchen.
Well, that is pretty much it. We are so thankful for our God. He provides over and abundantly, more than we can ask or imagine!

New School

Last week we found a Christian school that we thought would work for the kids. We went as a family to look it over and we all liked it. That very afternoon the kids started school!

They didn't have uniforms the first day but James and I were able to purchase them that afternoon so they looked official on their second day.Hannah is in the very center leaning forward and grinning from ear to ear.

Friday they had a Mother's day program that I went to. They each participated the best they could with only 3 days of practice. I was very proud of both of them.
Daniel is on the second row in the middle, pointing to his eyes.

Hannah looks like she is just thoroughly enjoying every ounce of life and Daniel is adjusting well as usual.

Here they are standing beside their desks in their new classrooms.

Our Farewell in Curitiba

We arrived back in Curitiba, on Saturday, in time for James to participate in a men's meeting and a final youth meeting.

Sunday Morning James preached his last message at Nova Vida. That afternoon we had a churrasco for lunch. We all gathered at Pr. Alberto's house for most of the afternoon and had a wonderful time.

The youth group sang a farewell song for us and that evening many shared testimonies that were such an encouragement.


Here are just some recent Nova Vida pictures:

Jer drinking his after-service coffee (watered down of course!)

James singing with his Dad

Hannah being loved

Daniel with his best friend Leo

We are so thankful for our time in Curitiba. We were blessed to live close to several missionary couples from whom we learned much. Our time with the people of Nova Vida was a special blessing; they accepted us and loved us when most of us spoke not one word of their language.

We're Connected!

We are finally moved and "set up." I guess that means we have the essential items working, (i.e. the internet and phone!)

I am going to do a series of blogs that are an overview of the past 3 weeks! Hope you enjoy.

THE MOVE...

Wednesday, April 22, our moving truck arrived.

The moving company provided 5 guys, one to organize the truck, (also the driver) and the rest to do any packing, wrapping, and all the loading. We were all packed up except for the last minute bedding I was working on when they arrived.
We were all loaded up by lunch time but had to wait till Thursday to drive down to Floripa.


At 4:30 a.m. Thursday, the 23rd, James, Daniel, me, our 2 dogs and our bird headed down to Floripa. Our car was full and a little stinky. Our dogs had never been in the car so we weren't sure how it would go. All was well till our little dog got car sick on Daniel. Thankfully the bird towel was handy to clean things up. We had arrive earlier than the truck to pick up the keys from the Realtor and be ready before the truck got there at 10:00 a.m. The truck was late. At 1:00 p.m. we started to unload. This time there were only 2 guys to help carry everything up hill and into our house. We all got workouts! by 5 p.m. we were unloaded and saying goodbye to the movers.

Getting everything into the house was not without its challenges. See the refrigerator? It had to be passed over the counter where the bird is sitting. Several times while they were trying to get things in I had to leave so I wouldn't get stressed out.

God blessed and only one planter was broken. We are so thankful for His provision and protection during the move. Saturday morning we drove back up to Curitiba for our last service at Nova Vida and to be reunited with our other two kids. That will be the next blog! See you there!