One of the new mothers of our church asked to dedicate her baby in our church! It was my privilege as pastor to lead my first baby dedication. We met with her and the father about what this dedication means, and they were both happy to continue. We dedicated young Aurora to the Lord and encouraged the parents to live their lives as an example to her and raise her to follow the Lord wherever He would lead. Since that dedication, we have seen Janaina (Aurora’s mother) coming very faithfully to church! It was a joyous time where our church prayed over the family, and it has been wonderful to see Janaina taking this dedication seriously. This blessing was just the start of this month!
We had our teen camp! Due to the bizarre schedule of the holiday’s this year, the schools did not give a long summer break. The time we usually would have had an overnight teen camp became impossible because of the suddenly complicated school schedules. So, this year, all we could do was a day camp. We had a great day with our teens during a hot summer day in March. The theme this year was “Running the Race with Patience.” We taught them that life is more like a marathon than a sprint, and they need to listen to God’s voice if they want to succeed. We had a lot of fun with group games and a scavenger hunt. We pray that some good decisions were made.
Then, on March 17th, some of our dearest friends from Texas came and visited us for three weeks! Besides me, they are the first friends that had ever come to visit Joneia in Brazil (some family have visited before, and my parents visited in November of last year). We felt truly blessed that they would take time to come and stay with us. We showed them around our city, and took a much anticipated trip to lay on the beach for a couple of days. They say one of the biggest battles on the mission field is loneliness. We feel truly blessed that in this last year we have had my parents and our friends visit us. It actually ends up working out perfectly for this year by ourselves! When the Yelle’s left, four months later my parents came to visit, four months after that our friends come to visit, and in four more months Joneia’s parents will be back! It has divided our year up beautifully and has not made it feel as long and lonely. We thank God for His perfect timing and the refreshing familiar faces that He brings our way to encourage us.
One event that we are blessed with attending each year is the Ladies retreat with some of our fellow missionaries about two hours away. He rented a bus, and had over 20 ladies of our church go to this event! Our church actually won “The Largest Group Attending”! Our ladies had a wonderful time of fellowship with women of other churches. It is always good to see that God is working in Brazil, even outside of our city of Caxias do Sul.
This next month we have a few things that we are planning and praying about. Please be praying about our next discipleship group. We are still discussing with our people and praying about who we will have for our next discipleship class. Also be praying for some decisions we will be making about scheduling rearrangements. Currently, we have teen church every other Saturday, but we are trying to arrange things so we can have teen church every Sunday. It is difficult with a lack of teachers, but as my Portuguese improves, we may be able to begin our Teen Sunday School this next month. Please be praying with us about this decision, as it could open up other opportunities as well.
Thank you so much for your prayers and for your support!