Where to Go?

Part of the great missionary call is deciding where to go.  When Byron and I went to missionary candidate school way back in 1991, we heard speaker's from many different mission fields talk about the great necessities of their regions.  We were both convinced beforehand that God wanted us to work in the country of Brazil.  We left with the same conviction.

BMM Candidate School, 1991

Fast forward 26 years to 2017!  Here we are nearing the end of five terms of missionary service in Northeast Brazil.  We've worked with churches in a big city of millions.  We taught at a MK school.  We helped with a camp ministry.  We've worked with a small congregation in a little interior town.  And now we look towards the future and ask, 

What's next?  

To help answer that question, Byron recently attended an inter-agency missionary conference near the city of Belém on the mouth of the Amazon River.  He heard about the needs of people along the giant Amazon River system who are among the least evangelized group in our country.  He said after arriving home that with each speaker he felt burdened, but as he traveled on four different rivers of the area over the three weeks of his trip, he realized that the needs there are very similar to the needs right here nearby.  

Seems there are people who need the Lord all over the place!  So how does a missionary choose?  Through much prayer and some counsel of colleagues and elder pastors!  In November we plan to visit another area of the least evangelized of Brazil, the middle of our own state where the days are hot and dry - the desert Northeast. 

We know this region and who knows that God might not want us to go too far away after all.  But, we are open to God's will and still searching for what He would have us do with the remainder of our healthy years in His great service.   

Byron is still organizing the notes from his travel diary.  He plans to post some excerpts shortly with photos.  We'll most likely post them here or on the Big Brazil Trip blog.  This weekend the new national pastor will be installed at our work here in Sobradinho.  Prayers as we make our trip to the area around Irecê, Bahia in early November and get the house in order for furlough that starts in December.

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise

Hebrews 10:36 

 

Going to need a new prayer card soon!  Lots of info to update! Email is the same.  We are still working with BWMOM.  Camp is closed.  Camp website is no longer.  theathas.com is gone.  But we are still the same good looking people working to serve the King of Kings in Brazil and beyond.