Christmas Celebration and Year in Review: 2014

It is amazing to see what an effect Living Stones can have on a whole community. If you want to see what that looks like--visit Cajueiro Claro.

They had a wonderful Christmas celebration, complete with presentations:

And, of course, presents:

God bless you all for your consistent giving, which has enabled us to continue on!

Fourth Anniversary of the Church and Painting the Church

November 2014 marks four years of ministry as a church in Cajueiro Claro: let the celebration begin!

But don't forget all the hard work to paint the church (also an annual tradition).

And finally:

Children's Day at Cajueiro Claro

It has been incredible to see the transformation of Cajueiro Claro, a rural town (with about 30 families) a couple miles off the main road, Cajueiro Claro had no community cohesion or even a school: now the church is the center, a safe area everyone knows they are welcome at. 

Ten years ago, an exhausted ministry gave their building and land to World Renewal, hoping that maybe they could reach this hard, closed community for Christ. A pastor worked for a couple of years, coming in weekends to minister, but still, not much progress was made. In 2010, Pastor Flavio began walking 30 minutes each way every day to come in and minister to the children—winning the hearts of the community. Through Living Stones, a church began.

Around 30 children are ministered to almost every day, as Pastor Flavio and his wife Mercia (due in January with their first daughter), live in one of the Sunday school classrooms of the church. Over 15 of the older children have given their lives to Jesus, many of whom are now running the worship and mime team for the church! Over ten women have given their lives to Jesus, through the women’s ministry, and we are praying for the men to come and join what God is doing. 

The party, with the help of Shelbyville Community Church and Bibles from Molly's Pennies from Bibles program, had over 30 children and lots of laughter. We began by walking through the community, praying and bringing kids with us.

We then played in the sand, "Pin the house on the rock" game, blew bubbles and got to know the kids (special thanks to Craig Olson for all of the amazing photographs). 

At the beginning of our story time, the kids had practiced and had a special presentation for us.

We had a great time of singing and telling the parable of the wise and foolish man, and then Pastor Flavio called up the children, one by one, to read and receive their Action Bible (in Portuguese). 

After a bit, there were still quite a lot of Bibles to give out, and no more children were coming up. Flavio asked incredulously, "No one else knows how to read?" (There were still plenty of more children--even older children) "Well, we will be working on teaching you. And once you do learn to read, the Bibles are here, waiting for you."

Safe and Cold

Pastor Flavio has made it to the USA, and will be here from September 13-28. He is enjoying the food, the people, and trying to survive the weather.

Pastor Flavio shared at Morning Star Friends church, and Rachel Ferguson translated on September 14th, and then shared in a high school the next day.

Please pray for Flavio, as he has important meetings all over Ohio, and then travels to Kansas for a college mission's conference, and then to Colorado and home. He is quite anxious to return to his lovely wife, as she is five months pregnant with their baby girl, Heloise Laila Travassos. 

Women's Ministry

We are so thankful for the vision of Vicki Jordal and a missions team that went down to Brazil last year:

The woman's ministry at Cajueiro Claro just celebrated their first year of consistently meeting. There are around 22 women who participate in this, and in the past year, ten of them have come to know Jesus!

How amazing to see these women, and their children grow: the children from the Living Stones program have now put together a worship band:

Pastor Flavio put together a video of pictures from the year of women's ministry here, and of course there was cake:

Pastor Flavio Comes to the USA

Please keep Pastor Flavio and Mercia in your prayers as Mercia is pregnant with their first child. Flavio will be making a trip to Ohio and Kansas for a couple weeks in September, his first trip to the USA, and their first time apart.

Please pray for wisdom, as traveling to the USA is difficult, especially when you don't speak English (Pastor Flavio speaks "Flavish," and is very creative with his communication). Also, please pray for the meetings he has planned, that he would stay healthy in the busy schedule, and be able to truly share his heart and vision for the ministry. 

VBS with Morning Star

Morning Star Friends church assisted Cajueiro Claro (and many other friends/volunteers) to have an amazing VBS for the kids at Cajueiro and Mussurepe:

We are so excited to have Cassie Hlebovy back in Brazil and working with Living Stones! You can read her blog here and we want to make sure to credit her and the Morning Star team for all of these great pictures (and Flavio)!