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E-mail us
jnyelle@terra.com.br
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John
and Neila Yelle |
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Our Newsletters
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Sending church: Dear
prayer partners, Greetings from the high wetlands of Southern Brazil! The ground has gotten mighty soggy over the past month, due to the winter rains (it is winter here in the southern hemisphere). We’ve been so busy, however, that we haven’t let the weather get us down. The best news since our last letter is in the area of evangelism. In June, Solange (a single mom) made a profession of faith and has been coming when possible. We are praying she soon would submit to believer’s baptism. Her father (who lives with her) has come a few times and is enjoying the services and the fellowship. A young man named Josimar has also been coming off and on. He is a result of our young people handing out tracts and invitations. With our youth meetings, we had three first time visiting youth at one of last month’s get togethers. This was due to our young people inviting their friends. It is good to see the new faces. Please pray for all these, that the Lord’s will be done in their spiritual decisions. In handing out invites and tracts in the neighborhood over the last two months, John had a few good contacts. Please pray for our follow-ups. Also, in visiting acquaintances in the suburb, there’s recently been a commonly asked question: “Are you planning to finish your building soon?” After three years of using just a basement (our building is very “low profile”), it is time to go “up”. The personality of the people of our neighborhood is such that a larger building would attract more first time visitors. Our building as it is now is easily passed by and a bit cramped. A Southern Baptist missionary friend of ours (who’s been in Caxias about ten years longer than us) assures us that the building would be very positive for our evangelistic outreach. We’ve received quotes, and it appears we’ll need about $15,000 to complete the project. We would only need about $8,000 to easily land a low interest loan for construction. Please be in prayer for this project. If you are touched of the Lord to give toward this end, please send your offering in our name marked “building” to the World Baptist Fellowship mission office. Speaking of construction, because of the increasing currency exchange rate, our funds are going a long ways towards the camp construction. The bathroom/dormitory facilities are taking shape. We’ve had one general work day where workers from four other independent Baptist churches in the state came to help. We still have a ways to go, however. Winter is here, and the weather has slowed us up. We sure appreciate your prayers on our behalf, and for our ministry. We are also grateful for the financial help. The Lord has a work going here, and by the grace of God it’s going forward. Thank you for your participation. Lord bless you. In His service, John
& Neila,
Dear Brethren, Depressing news is never to be dwelt upon, for we are commanded that “…
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Eph.
4:8). If all the members of the church here in Caxias would have applied this verse and a few others over the past few months, we wouldn’t have passed through the most recent trial. Gossip, lies, and murmuring against the God given leadership (us) led to the exiting of a few members. This is not pleasant news, so we will not dwell on it. However, the good report, virtue and praise of the situation are that God’s grace is sufficient, and we’ve seen strengthening in some of those remaining. Though we lost two of our Sunday School teachers, we already have two members in training that possibly will be able to take some classes by the end of the year. The Lord is faithful; the Lord is good! In March we baptized five, two of which are still with us after our recent trial. As far as attendance is concerned, our numbers really haven’t fallen much, except in Sunday School. We praise the Lord we didn’t have to start over. Please pray for us and the congregation, focusing on evangelistic outreach, and spiritual growth and strengthening. The focus during April was “Christian Stewardship”. It was the first time the congregation focused on the subject, and it seems to have been received well. The people heard from three Brazilian pastors on the subject, and also John taught an eight page study using the overhead projector. The highlight was the stewardship dinner, with an attendance of 34. We spoiled the congregation with some of the best pizza in town, played a game, and heard a timely message from Pr. Cirineu Boff. One of our members summed the night up perfectly: “Pastor, those who didn’t come sure missed out on the blessing, didn’t they!” Our family is doing well. Joneia and Leila have just a little over a month left of home school studies, and teacher Mom is ready for the break! We’re in the middle of autumn now, and Katherine was the first to catch a cold. Please pray for our health during these months. Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for us and our ministry. In His service, John & Neila
Dear prayer partners: The past month and a half has been manifestly blessed. We thank all of you who pray for our ministry here in Brazil. The Lord is proving once again that endurance through difficulty is blessed of Him. We read in Acts 11:21 that “… the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord.” Though we have not seen the multitudes saved as did the believers of the first century, we have seen four adults and six young people make professions of faith since the end of January. This, for the southern region of Brazil, is a great number! Catholicism has a stronghold in our city, with a Catholic church in nearly every neighborhood and suburb. Please pray for the new converts, who all are facing some sort of difficulty in their lives. Lord willing we’ll be baptizing a few this month. One for sure that we will be baptizing is Paulo, whom we asked prayer for in our last letter. Thank you for the prayers. The church outreach ministry has expanded to now include a children’s Bible club. The first two we’ve done have been a success. Praise the Lord; we have adults and youth who enjoy being involved in this ministry. With how the Lord’s hand has been working, we
now need to finish construction of our building which will cost around
$10,000. The extra space
will give us an assembly area a little over double what we now have,
plus more Sunday School rooms. We’ve
been averaging around thirty in our Sunday services, and around
twenty-five at times during the mid-week service.
If everyone shows up at the same service that usually
participates, we’d average close to forty.
Our space gets cramped at forty-five.
We also need to begin a children’s church in the near future.
With the new building we’ll have that capability.
Please remember this need in your Camp development is slowly under way. Preliminary preparations have been made for construction of the bathroom facilities. Our goal is that the bathrooms would be ready for use by the end of the year, so we can at least hold day camps. We still lack funds to have the camp fully developed and operating. Please pray we’ll soon have enough funds to finish the camp. Thank you all for the prayers and support for our ministry. You are an encouragement to us. In His service, John
& Neila,
The Yelle Family
Dear prayer partners: It doesn’t seem like we’ve only been back home on the field for six weeks. So much has transpired that it seems as though we’ve been back for several months. Our return flight was uneventful, which is good. Check-in was a hassle, but we are thankful for the extra security measures. We flew back with fifteen pieces of luggage, all of which had to pass one-by-one through a huge x-ray machine. Five pieces had to be opened, examined manually, pass through the machine a second time, and then re-packed. The whole check-in procedure took about two hours! When we arrived at our final destination, all our things had arrived safely. We thank the Lord for this. Neila’s parents were taking care of our work and house, so they picked us up at the airport. Several people from the church also were there waiting. It was a fun and joyous reunion. When we got to the house, Shadow (our dog) was very excited to see us. The horses were indifferent. We sure are glad to be home. Since we arrived mid-November, we had to get on top of the Christmas program plans. We had more help this time than in times past, but we were still much occupied between the program, church cleaning, and decorating. The program was presented on December 16, the theme being “Giving gifts to Jesus.” We had a crowd of about fifty! The presentation and dinner after went extremely well. At least two people were first time visitors. Please pray for our follow-up. We soon discovered after our arrival that Paulo, one of our member’s husband, a few months back made a profession of faith. He is now studying a discipleship program. Paulo and his wife Terezinha are coming quite faithfully now to the services. Please pray that Paulo soon will understand the need to obey the Lord in being scripturally baptized. Many other things are happening here in Caxias
with our ministry and family. Two
such things are camp development, and that our girls have a pet snail
named “Dolphin.” Space
on this paper won’t allow me to expound on these, but our e-mail
updates do. We’ve lost
ALL our old addresses (my fault), so PLEASE e-mail us if you can, so
we can get you back on our e-mailing lists: Please
Thank you all for your prayers and support over this past year.
May God bless you abundantly in 2002!
Sincerely, John Yelle and family
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