Gravata

Since 2011, Pastor Flavio has been serving, once a month, in Gravata. This is a long overdue update on all that God is doing in this ministry.

Sports ministries with boys involved with drugs. Please pray that God would raise up more workers to re-begin this ministry!

Watching God bring together children that beg and children that don't. 

Using the Kombi God blessed us with.

Bubble gum contests

Piece of land we are praying for being the future home of a church plant/Living Stones program

3 People Come to Jesus

These past couple of weeks, God has been blessing. First, a woman from the soup ministry in Cajueiro Claro accepted Christ. Second, the mother of two of the children in the Living Stones program, gave her life to the Lord. This last week, one more gave his life to the Lord.

We have been praying for this man (in the middle) for awhile now. His wife had rededicated her life to God some time back, and was actually so busy praying for her husband that she didn't see him go forward in the church service! Pastor Flavio is overjoyed: this is the first man saved through the ministry in Cajueiro Claro. "We have a ministry for children, for women, and now we can begin a ministry for the men." Were his words. 

VBS

In June we had a group of American's from Morning Star Friends church come and put on vacation Bible school for the children in Cajueiro Claro and Mussurepe. In the afternoons, the second half of the group was in Carpina (Santo Antonio), running the same program. Over 100 children made new friends from around the world and heard about the good news of Jesus, in English and Portuguese.

Nothing bonds faster than some good ol' soccer.

They loved arts and crafts with "Grandma."

We had stories from the perspective of Mary and others from the Biblical time period, and great translation skills from Tyago.

Luana was also such a blessing to us! Thank you to everyone who made this possible! 

New Tables

Special thanks to Bob, who came to Cajueiro Claro and helped us out with his super fixing skills and these amazing new tables for the children: our official cafeteria!

(Anginha, Eduarda's mom, our amazing cook!)

We so appreciate you, Bob, and the time you have invested! Hope you come back soon!

 

 

"What's all that Blue?"

For Living Stones Cajueiro Claro, we were learning basic geography. I brought a map, and the children held it and said "What's all that blue?"
"Water." I said, not knowing if I should laugh or cry. They had never seen a full map before.They learned where Brazil was. Where Indiana was. Where China and Africa are, and where Santa Clause would be, if he were...

For some reason, Brazilians love cold water. I have gotten used to lukewarm water because I am too lazy to put water in the fridge and wait for it to cool. But Pastor Flavio thought it would be really nice for the kids to have cold water--especially after a hot game of soccer. The church started saving up money for an electric water dispenser that cooled water.
Money wasn't coming in very quickly, but Pastor Flavio continued on. One night we had a visitor, who drank a cup of lukewarm water and said, "I want to donate an electric water dispenser to this church." Within a week, not only did we have cold water, but all the money needed for a second one came in--and was used to make our younger children's room absolutely perfect:

The only problem we have now is getting the kids to leave at the end of the service.

 

Mother's Day

While my mother wasn't able to stay for Mother's day, she brought special gifts to give to the mothers in Cajueiro Claro. We had 26 mothers come celebrate with us at church! We were bursting at the seams with children--what a blessing.

Mercia and the younger children also had a special presentation:

It was an amazing time of encouragement for the women who work so hard, and for the leaders to see the community really come together on this special day.

Building Living Stones: Word of Life 2013

Building Living Stones: Word of Life 2013: Word of Life invited Living Stones (and Athletes in Action and Massa Humana) to bring around 200 children to a day camp: transportation, foo...