As I was preparing to write this blog, I was overwhelmed by just how much we did this last month! It was supposed to be a deep winter, freezing temperature, slow down a little bit August. But instead, we have perfect temperatures, sunny days, flowers blooming, and a lot of work to do preparing for an early spring! We trimmed our fruit trees, cut branches off of our massive pecan trees, and cut weeds. These are things we usually do each year after the last frost. With the Yelles returning at the beginning of September!...we made sure that their side of the property looked nice, their house was ready, and a few projects were completed. Meanwhile, I am still the pastor of our church! With discipleship, counseling, preaching, and Father’s Day…….it was a chaotic month!
It has officially been a full year since the Yelles went on furlough…AND WE’RE STILL ALIVE! Of course we’re still alive, God has been helping us. God has given us a wonderful church family who is growing; our discipleship group is thriving. This month was pretty normal. We had a Friend Day event at church, and we celebrated the 4th of July with other missionaries about 2 hours south of us. We worked on projects around the property. As winter has officially begun, many things here calm down. Life is normal, and we are doing well.
Another busy month of ministry, but full of incredible blessings. We began discipleship again with a new group this month! Our goal is for all of our members to go through discipleship. We are doing this course with four ladies of our church: Vilma, Marcia, Michele, and Taisa. We have learned that discipleship can be a very difficult process, and requires preparation to encounter spiritual battles, and our discipleship students’ eyes have been opened to the spiritual war around them. In the few short weeks since we started, we have seen them grow spiritually, have a renewed spiritual hunger, and have become stronger in their faith and unity. We are excited for them in this process. Please be praying for them as they have committed themselves to discipleship.
Mother’s Day tea was a wonderful event! We had 11 visitors, and Joneia clearly presented the gospel. We were so grateful for resources we gained from Southwest Baptist Church for planning events. Joneia used the theme “The Measure of Christ” to create decorations of flowers made from flexible sewing tape measures. All the decorations looked beautiful. One of the challenges of missionaries is using English resources in a foreign country. Fortunately, “The Measure of Christ” translates perfectly into the Portuguese, and we were able to use the theme and details we were given. It is one of the ways that deputation helped prepare us for our ministry here. As we have spent time on the mission field, we have seen our many supporting churches come together to help us in prayer, in finances, and in resources. We understand now more than ever how important and wonderful deputation really is for missionaries.
Our dear friends from Texas returned to the States, and we immediately hit the ground running. We had Easter, the Lord’s Supper, our Mothers’ day event, and many other preparations this month! Easter is naturally one of the busiest times in a church year. We had choir preparations and an early church potluck on easter morning. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work for us. We have really been blessed with our wonderful church and love what we have been able to do so far this year. It almost feels like me sitting here writing this blog is the first time I’ve gotten to sit down this month (exaggerating only a little)! The life God has given us is challenging, but very rewarding.
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