Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Prayer for Lindsay

Please pray for Lindsay because she has been having weird joint pain for about 2 weeks now. It wasn't a lot of pain for a while so we thought it would just go away but it has gotten a little worse. We have gone to see Dr. Santos (those of you who have been on a medical trip know him) and he has ordered some blood tests. We will be going tomorrow morning for the tests.

Please pray that Dr. Santos will discover why Lindsay is having this joint pain and find something that will take it away. It normally hurts the most in the mornings which makes it very difficult to get going and start teaching.


Tele is in the US right now, so don't forget to see him and hear more about what is going on here in Brazil.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Rest & More Work

Last week we had Monday and Tuesday off from school because of children's day and teacher's day. It is very strange that those two days are so close together. Technically teacher's day wasn't until Thursday but the school decided to stick them right next to each other. Because we had some time off we thought it would be a good idea to go to the beach. We have been trying to take the couple that is here teaching from Kansas lots of different places. We have been doing this partly to get used to driving more and to figure out how to get to all of these fun places. The beach trip was the same. We went to Porto de Galinhas which is the biggest tourist beach in the region. We stayed over night at a beach close by because it was a little cheaper. It was a very fun and relaxing time. I think we are all prepared to take Lindsay's parents there when they come here in late December.

God has been stretching me (Jeff) recently. I am so very thankful for my brother in Christ Pastor Ricardo. He always seem to try to challenge me and keep me growing. He asked me to preach at his church a few weeks ago and I always give the excuse that I am not a pastor and don't have the skills. But, I told him I would be willing to if I could make it more of a testimony/sermon. So, last week I talked about my life and how God brought me to Brazil. A lot of my life has revolved around the verse John 10:10: 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.. God has shown me in many ways that He wants to the best life for me possible. I talked about the time in my life that I finally gave up complete control of my life to God.
It sermon went well and it was encouraging to see how people responded. So, then Ricardo said that he was going to go to his first church plant at Guadalajara and asked me if I could preach the same thing there. This was last night. It was a lot bigger church but again I trusted in God and He worked through me while I was preaching. Normally I feel very ackward preaching but God gave me a peace. After I preached yesterday Ricardo asked me if I would talk at a youth conference they will have in November. He asked me to talk to a group of all boys about sexual purity. Now, that is a big difference of giving my testimony/ life story to actually preaching about sexual purity. But, God gave me a peace about saying yes and I have agreed to talk about that subject at the youth conference. Please pray for me about this. I will give you the dates later.

It took us a while to get back into the swing of things once we got back from the beach. I have been working on a video about Pastor Asseurio going to Africa. Tele will be presenting that video while he is in the USA. I will also put it online soon. I want to start a video mini series about the church and town in Lagoa de Itaenga. I am not sure if I will start that soon or wait a few months after I get some more video equipment.

Please keep us in your prayers.