Cactus Flower

On July 13 we picked up 8 people at the Petrolina airport, then we ran and ran and ran for 16 days with a small pause in the middle to deal with a Covid case. The group was great and included our first born, Pastor Will,  and our lovely daughter-in-law, Kerri,  as well as six young people from  the Community Baptist Pulse group. They came well prepared and assisted with church services and kids' works in various communities along our route and in the big city. Of special importance was the start of outreach in a new community which was targetted during the weeks just prior to the team's arrival with Pastor Mike  and his daughter Amber along with our summer intern, Pedro Pereira. We were also blessed to be able to use a VW Kombi for the days  of the NC team.  This was a tremendous help with the transport of the group and with various projects. Pray for us as we work to build on the contacts and impacts of our summer teams and assistants.  Sometimes the ...

Saullo Dannylck This past weekend all of these people were with us in Lage dos Negros - all of them!  Involved.  In sync.  Interested.   In prayer.  In action.  It was great! Ione Fotos They came from several local churches and a few from other states.  Two pastors were in charge, Pastor Reginaldo of the Hope Baptist Church of Juazeiro, Bahia, and Pastor Silvany of the Reaching the Sertão Mission.  Several other pastors were present. Ione Fotos What is a School of Missions?  It's like a family camp with lots of evangelism thrown in for fun.  There were kids, senior citizens, and young people.  Everyone paid to participate to help with food costs.  Pastor Silvany brought encouraging missions-minded messages in the mornings.  In the afternoons everyone hits the streets of Lage for children's evangelism, door-to-door visitation, and plain old street preaching among other activities.  On Saturday evening there w...

  Yesterday someone in Lage dos Negros asked me what it is that I do...  Good question!  Every day is different!  My Fridays as a missionary don't look much like the other days of my week.  I don't take as many photos of people.  We travel in a dune buggy, and our visits are in homes, a little more personal.  I do often find willing goats just dying to get their picture taken. We leave our house in Sobradinho early in the morning and make various stops visiting people along dirt roads.  In some places Byron tells a Bible story for adults and prays.  In others he presents a more formal interactive Bible study.   My job is to take lots of snacks, help navigate ("Watch out for that...") and entertain kids along the way.  I take a Bible lesson and songs, but I never know exactly who I may find in each place.  Sometimes the crowd is small, sometimes it's big. Over the past two years that Byron and I have been traveling the dirt...

  When the Americans were in Lage, we had a delay as we were checking out of the little inn where we spent the night.  As we waited I encouraged the guys and girls to talk to all the people standing out staring at the foreigners.  To help add to the attractions, I "played steal the basketball" with kids that wanted to participate!  I gave a pretty good show! Years ago I did a little basketball playing at Piedmont Bible College.  Just a little!

  July 2021 has been one busy month!  We started off the days with our Peniel Bible Institute students home for their summer break.  We did our best to get them all involved in the work at Abreus.  Then our team from Community Baptist of Reidsville, North Carolina arrived on July 17.  They had been delayed by a full day so all our previous planning had to be rearranged. But they were troopers and all fell in line with no problemOs.  We visited Abreus twice for the weekly Bible club.  The guys all went back for a campover with older fellows from the interior community.  We were in Lage dos Negros for three days of activities with intermittant rain throwing more loops in our delicate schedule. Everywhere the team went they were a big crowd drawing success. The evangelism sketch board proved to be effective with children and adults.  The whole group had an opportunity to minister with young men who practice basketball together weekly.  The ...

Can you help us pray over the next two weeks for these four?  They need to be Covid-free to make the trip from Sobradinho in Bahia to the big city of São Paulo and on to the Peniel Bible Institute in Jacutinga, Minas Gerais.  Classes start in early February.  Students have been asked to arrive early.  These four have tickets for January 25th. Each one also needs around US$200 a month to pay for food and housing for the year of training.  Some gifts have already come in, and Felipe has funds in his account leftover from last year.  When classes went online, he did not have to pay since costs at the institute are not for tuition, just for eating and sleeping. Each one of these four are active church members looking to serve the Lord with their lives in missions.  Byron and I will miss them greatly over the next year.  They have all been helping us in our interior work. Felipe is a returning student.  He completed the one year program and decide...

School of Missions, January 2020 Bruno, Byron and Pedro Henrique Byron and I have known Pedro Henrique for quite a few years now, and we like him a whole lot.  He is a faithful member of the congregation here in Sobradinho.  He is the only one of his immediate family that goes to church.  A teenager that goes to church on his own says a lot.  He doesn't just go, he participates actively.   This next week he's getting ready to buy plane tickets to travel on his fourth missions trip with Wordless Ministries.  He doesn't need much help, as he works a full time job.  The tickets are a little out of his reach, so any help you can give would be well appreciated.   These trips are an investment in the lives of young men and women.  Wordless Ministry trips are both missions oriented and full of discipleship.  My prayer for Pedro is to see him dedicate his life to full time Christian service.  Perhaps this trip will be the d...

See that fellow in the middle with a teeth smile?  I first met him in 2010 here in Sobradinho, Bahia, Brazil.  We had a missions team coming from the USA in conjunction with other missionaries.  One of the things on the list for the group to do was children's activities.  Somehow we thought a camp for boys and girls out on the then-still-in-use Treasure Island Camp would be a great idea.   It was a crazy idea!  We had a horrible time convincing mother's to let us "take" their children.  Many were certain we, the Americans, were going to haul their precious babes off to slave labor in the states or worse.  At one point we had no kids signed up and the clock was ticking before our team would fly in.  Somehow we had to find children. I felt like the person in the Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang movie who went through the streets looking for boys and girls with his wagon while all the parents hid their littles ones... what to do. In the midst...

Seems our holiday season was a full one with back to back missions events!  Just two weeks after the Wordless Ministries event, Byron and I traveled to another state to participate in what is called a "School of Missions."   It's basically a missions trip where each participant has to make his own way to the spot where the action is.  During the mornings classes are held about missions sort of like a missions conference.  In the afternoons and evenings there are door to door evangelism, kids activities and street preaching. This particular "School" was held in a small town of about 4000 people in the state of Paraíba.  It is located near a slightly larger town that already has a small church.  The purpose of the event was to try to make contacts with residents in the hopes of getting some interest to start a small congregation that could be taken care of by the nearby church and pastor. These events are run by a local pastor/missionary with ...