This month, a lot of focus was shifted toward sending the Yelles off on their furlough. Obviously preparing to be away from your house and ministry for a year takes a lot of preparation. What made it even harder was the fact that Mrs. Yelle was sick for almost 4 weeks straight! Two of those weeks were practically bed-ridden! We were very happy to be available to help. There were some projects that needed to get finished, and some construction projects that needed to get started before they left! When the storms hit hard a couple of months ago, the bridge to the Yelle’s house was compromised. But if that project was started before they left, then we would be WALKING down from their house with enough suit cases for a year of traveling! That project will be starting in this next month after they leave. We spent a lot of time and work transferring things over to our name so we can take care of everything while they are gone. And now, at the end of the month… they have left. Joneia and I are now in charge of Igreja Batista Vitória in Caxias do Sul.

It has been such a privilege to now be the pastor of a church. But that also means that our lives have changed drastically again. It feels like, since college, our lives have been turned upside-down about a dozen times. Now it is happening again! I am grateful to be on a preaching schedule again! What was originally going to be a once-a-week preaching schedule has now become a two to three times a week schedule! One of our men had to back out of a weekly preaching schedule because of his health, so I volunteered to help. I normally wouldn’t have hesitated, but the fact that this a preaching schedule in PORTUGUESE kind of influenced my decision. The time for us to make and translate a single lesson takes DAYS. With that in mind, looking ahead, it seemed impossible for us to have a twice weekly preaching schedule, church ministry and keep up with the daily life of our house and property AND THE YELLE’S house and property. But what seems impossible with men is always possible with God. THE DAY BEFORE THE YELLE’S LEFT…I had another leap in my fluency level. Without any papers or prompting I was leading the church, leading in prayers, talking and conversing with people, and generally understanding everyone! With my sudden level of fluency, and now the ability to use more resources, what took DAYS is now possible within HOURS! God has been so good to us, and has made this year seem a lot more possible! We give full glory to God for my sufficient fluency right on time. Even if it was FOUR DAYS LATE!!! He’d still be on time. This was a huge praise for us.

And now, on to the events we did this month. We celebrated the fourth of July at our house with other American missionaries. These missionaries had only seen the house before our renovations and loved what we were able to do! We had hot dogs and burgers, and prayed for the United States. It was almost a shock for me to speak English with people other than my family in our house!

Another blessing we encountered this month, the exchange rate for the US Dollar to Brazilian Real jumped from 1 to 5 to almost 1 to 6! Because of this almost 20% increase, we were able to get a lot of things done and several projects that had been on hold started back up! We now finally have our own washer and dryer (Joneia is EXTRA thankful for this)! It has helped alleviate a lot of inconvenience and has been a huge blessing.

In terms of church events and holidays, there were no federal holidays, and no scheduled events. So we planned a full day Teen Event! We played games, ate food, and just had a lot of fun together with both Pr. John and me giving devotionals and messages at different times. Something else we had been working on with our teens was memorizing the books of the Bible in order. This was also a benefit for me! For the ones who succeeded, we purchased Bible covers and cases, which were surprisingly difficult to find. The ones we found online were wonderful prizes, and our teens were thrilled. None of them had ever seen a Bible case before!

As I’ve said, our lives have turned upside-down, now for the third time within 2 years. Admittedly this has brought a lot of physical strain, emotional stress, and mental exhaustion for both Joneia and me. But God is helping us day by day, and our work here continues. I am learning more and more about sacrifice and hard work, and we are being careful to not let work take over our love for our people and our ministry here. Please pray for us as we learn our new rhythm again. Pray for me as the new head pastor of our church! Keep praying for Robson and Sabrina as we disciple them. They show a lot of hunger for God’s Word, and a passion for spiritual things. Robson, actually, wants to get involved with the preaching schedule for this year! He has volunteered to preach every other Sunday School! Pr. John has already been training him in preaching and teaching, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to exercise his preaching skills! He and I are alternating the Sunday Morning lesson. Please be praying for him as he begins his preaching journey. Pray for us for this next year for God’s fortitude in our lives, bodies, marriage, work, minds, spirit…house…church…you get the idea. Everything. The ministry continues, and we are extremely grateful to get to be here too during this season so that the Yelles can have a focused and fruitful furlough.

Thank you for your prayers, and God bless you.

(SORRY THIS WAS UPLOADED SO LATE! TIME RAN AWAY!)