April 3, 2003

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

This month marks eleven years since our arrival here in Brazil .  We thank the Lord for His grace and mercy which has enabled us to continue on here in the ministry. 

In February, John led his oldest convert to the Lord since his profession of faith in 1986.  Dercilio, at age 72, received Christ as his Savior and has been a tremendous testimony of the power of the Gospel.  With him, “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”   Dercilio had been a smoker since the age of ten, and quit cold turkey the day of his salvation.  He also had been a long time drinker, a behavior which also has stopped.  Lost family members thought it would be a phase, and he’d soon fall back into the old habits.  By God’s grace, he hasn’t.  His daughter, Solange (whom we baptized last October), tells us that his transformed life has been well noted by family and friends alike.  Praise the Lord.  He was baptized in the middle of March.  Please pray much for him, as he is a new convert with a rough past, and is just now getting grounded in the faith.  He is illiterate, a problem we pray will be soon resolved.

At our March baptismal service, besides Dercilio, John baptized three others:  Ivanir (single mom of four, three of which are still at home), and two of our daughters, Joneia and Leila.  What a blessing it is to know your children are born-again believers, willing to obey the Lord and be baptized.  Please pray for all these we baptized.

With the arrival of fall weather (we live in the southern hemisphere), sickness, school starting and also some confusion stirred up by envy and strife, our attendance has dropped off a bit.  Our average for the month of March was 38, a 24% drop from February.  The spirit of the church, however, is very good.  Also, most of the attendance we’re seeing are adults and youth.

The Lord hasn’t enabled us to finish our church building construction yet.  As we patiently wait, we pray for a little more extra funds to be able to secure our loan.  With the current currency exchange rate, we seem to be lacking approximately $3,000.00.  Please pray with us that the Lord will very soon supply for the need.  Once again we thank those who have already helped financially.  We are also thank those who faithfully pray for our family and for the ministry here in southern Brazil .

Until He comes,

John & Neila and girls