Last Investigative Bible Study Of The Year

Tuesday night, 12/23/08, we will host the last investigative Bible study of the year. These past nine weeks have been great fun as we have gotten to know these new friends better and have studied God's word together and have sought to understand better who is Jesus and why did He come. Our journey through the Gospel of Luke has been fruitful and adventurous! This week things will climax with the resurrection of Jesus. Pray with us that God will cause the truth of His word to take root in their hearts and that God will bring them to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

We have had on average 8-10 people participating in these studies. For four of them this is their first experience of any kind studying the Bible! Praise God for the privilege and thank you Dr. Beaudreau for the case of new NIV Portuguese Bibles. These guys went nuts over having their very own Bible!!!

We hope to continue a Bible study with these families after the first of the year that will focus on growing in Christ. This will be a key developmental opportunity as I have been training one of the Brazilian couples to take over the leadership of this study! Go God! Pray with us that God will continue to draw these people to Himself and will continue to give us this great privilege of collaborating with Him as He reconciles the world unto Himself!

P.S. We need more NIV Portuguese Bibles!

John's 8th Birthday!

What a blessing God has given us! Family and children are a blessing from God and each year is sweeter! Today John turned eight and we celebrated with a few of his friends.

As you can see by John's uniforms, he loves soccer. And he is really good if I do say so myself! He is a fierce competitor on the field and wonderful love bug at home.

Thank you Lord for John and the way you uniquely made, that he might bring glory and honor to your name! I pray that you will grow him into a godly man who would love you with all his heart and serve you all of his life!

(Click on the collage image to enlarge!)

A Great Day in the Life of Our Family and Church

O what a day it was! After all that our church and ministry have been through over the last several months we were so thankful to have a day of celebration and thankfulness! We came together as a family to celebrate God's faithfulness and goodness, to celebrate new lives in Christ, and to celebrate His gracious blessings as He works in and through us as his church. We also came together for rich fellowship and renewal of tattered relationships.


It was a special joy for Wendy and I as Emmi was baptized together with 10 other new members to our church. It was a wonderful celebration of new life and the promises of God. As you can see in the picture below each of the people shared a special word for them that captures what God has done for them. They shared such words as: Loved, Humility,Hope, Thanks, Freedom, Life, Brokenness, Joy, Love, and Transformation! Their testimonies were powerful and clear as to the great miracle God had done in their lives, making dead men alive!

Please join with us in prayer for these and the many other new Christians God has given us; that they might be made full and complete in Christ! Please continue to pray for our Church as God restores it and heals its wounds caused by the untimely and ungodly departure of three of our young Brazilian staff.

Emmi's Gymnastics Presentation

Earlier this year Emmi was recruited by a local gymnastics team to begin training for Olympic Gymnastics. She has been such a trooper as she has had to endure long three and four hour training sessions three-four days a week as well as a wonderful and perfectionist coach. That is quite a bit for a six year old. In all it has been a great compliment to Emmi's ballet.

She has made great friends and learned many new things! Her favorite things to do are cartwheels, back hand springs, hand stands, and back flips. She loves working on the trampoline. She also enjoys the floor exercise and the balance beam the best.

Great job Emmi! Well done!

(Click on collage image to see it enlarged!)

Emmi's Ballet Presentation

Never was there a prettier butterfly! We are so proud of Emmi. She has worked hard this year and loved every minute of it! She has become quite the ballerina if I do say so myself!

Her presentation was The Enchanted Forrest! Each age group and class played a different roll in the forest. Emmi's class were the beautiful butterflies!

It makes a moma and papa proud!