Well, after many months of silence, we have decided to just forget about trying to catch up and have decided to just move on from here. We are so thankful to Loretta Young for sending out the weekly Brazil Bytes prayer letter so that you have at least had some news and have kept up with our prayer requests. If you did not sign up to receive the Bytes, it has indeed been a long time since you have heard from us!
We have been blessed with many volunteer teams since our last post. They have done basketball clinics, neighborhood visits, Bible School for children, ladies’ teas, construction work, medical clinics, and have worked with orphanages and drug rehab centers. We have had some wonderful short-term missionaries who have come to minister here and we praise the Lord for sending them our way. We have also had some significant family events – visits from two of our children and their families, a wedding, the birth of a new granddaughter, an 80th birthday celebration, etc. We will write more about those in another post. Here are some photo highlights of the last year and a half. Enjoy…
January 2009 – The Ipiranga congregation was officially organized as a church.
Holly Gibbs – volunteered from January through May, 2009. Holly lived and worked with the women of NURREVI, the women’s drug rehab center.
March 2009. Campout with some of the guys from the rehab center
April 2009. Team from FBC Ellisville, MO – in Ilhota and Palhoça doing home visits, school visits, and vision clinics
April 2009. Santa Catarina State Baptist Convention – meeting new Brazilian missionaries in our state.
May 2009. Woodmont Singles group – ministered in Ilhota and Frei Damião doing home visits, sports ministry and a ladies’ tea.
Bill Rogers and Cameron Olive also came with the Woodmont team.
June 2009. Ralph and Martha Nelson, emeritus missionaries, came for a visit. Pictured here with Ralph are several Brazilian pastors who came by to see them while they were here.
Chris Bowman, journeyman from April to December, 2009. Chris worked mainly with the CADI, helping with home visits to the families of the PAI program, the sports program, and anything else they needed. He also preached on a number of occasions and helped with volunteer teams.
July 2009. Beginning of a congregation in Lisboa. Tiago, Nazareno and Rui are young seminary students, committed to serving the Lord. We are thankful to be working with them.
July 2009. Youth team from Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio, TX did drama in many schools in São José. Their leader is MK Doug Dixon.
July 2009. Team from Nettleton Baptist Church did door-to-door evangelism in Lisboa and ministered in the school at Lisboa as well as at NURREVI.
July 2009. Team from Park Place Baptist Church in Pearl, MS, ministered in Pinheira through a basketball camp at the public school.
August 2009 – Medical team from Woodmont Baptist Church and UNA nursing students. They held a medical clinic at the public health center in Frei Damião and did home visits with the local health agents.
September 2009. Women’s ministry team from First Baptist Church in Oviedo, FL ministered in Forquilhinhas, Lisboa, and Rio Tavares. They did home visits and ladies’ teas. They also had a very special evening for the teenaged girls from the Vinde a Mim orphanage.
Malcolm and Dana Philips – wonderful ISC couple who served from January 2008 to October 2009.
November 2009. Group of Canadians visit the CETE orphanage, which was built by a similar group of Canadians about 10 years ago.
November 2009. First Baptist Church of Minden, LA sent a team to help do some work on the roof and on the ceiling at Forquilhinhas Church. The team also ministered in schools and held ladies’ teas in Forquilhinhas and Lisboa.
Kristen Vaughan, Hands on missionary from August – December, 2009. She worked primarily at the CADI teaching art and sports. She was also active in the Eldorado Baptist Church and taught art lessons to the women.
January/February 2010. Two girls from the orphanage spent 6 weeks of their summer vacation with us.
February 2010. Once again, For We Care organization from Canada sent a great group of workers. This year they worked on the third dorm at the Men’s Drug Rehab Center in Estiva.
February 2010. This team from FBC Wylie and FBC Murphy, TX had a great week of ministry at Rio Tavares. They did door-to-door evangelism, evangelistic services in homes, school ministry and a family night at the congregation in Rio Tavares which included a ladies’ tea, children’s activities, and a men’s Bible study.
March 2010. FBC Winter Park has been sending teams to work with us since 1987. This year they served in Garopaba with the local Baptist church which they had helped build back in 2000. The church finished their building and is a growing, dynamic church. The team helped tear down some walls in an existing house and raise up new walls to provide space for their ministry to senior adults. The church has a very active social ministry including weekday early education and a ministry to senior adults in the community.
Sara Cadden, journeyman. Sara’s ministry will be with the women and children of Frei Damião. She will be working with the CADI, ministering to the families in the PAI program as well as children and teens. She arrived in May 2010 and will be serving through the summer of 2011.
May 2010. First service of the congregation in Vila Nova Palhoça.
May 2010. The campus ministries from University of Louisiana at Monroe ministered in Frei Damião through children’s ministries and visits to the families of the PAI program. The team was led by former journeyman, Jenny Harrington Street.
June 2010. Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, AR once again brought a great team. They ministered in Frei Damião with the children and doing health visits to the PAI children. They were here during the World Cup and got to see Brazil win this game!
Landon Williams – ISC missionary. Landon will mainly be working with the Rio Tavares congregation and with a church plant in Jurerê. He will be here until January 2012.
June 2010. FBC Collierville, TN sent a team to work with us at the brand new congregation in Vila Nova Palhoça. They did several days of door-to-door visitation, handing out invitations to visit the new congregation and talking to people who expressed interest. They did a block party on the last day of ministry in Vila Nova Palhoça. They also ministered to the children of the AEBAS project in Frei Damião one day. They also caught two games of the World Cup while here. Unfortunately, Brazil lost the second one 😦
July 2010. Park Place Baptist Church in Pearl, MS, sent a team to do a basketball camp at the public school in Ilhota. The response was great! There were over 100 children participating. On Awards night, even though it was very cold and rainy, there was a very good group of parents who attended as well and heard the gospel story.
July 2010. At our annual mission meeting, two couples were honored for their service in Brazil. They will be retiring soon. Vic and Sharon Johnston and Dennis and Alita Blackmon. They are good friends and faithful servants of the Lord.
Filed under: Ministry | 1 Comment »
Each Thursday afternoon Sara, Jan and Alana visit homes of the children sponsored through the PAI program that is part of the ministry of the CADI. The visits are part of the spiritual development emphasis of the program.
Time for a break! Laying bricks is hard work!
On the way to D. Bila’s house
Lunch with a friend
Malibu Beach
Ron and Alana Greenwich 
