Calvary Chapel Mocamba Update of 2010.

Well I know that I never write blogs, but I just wanted to give a little update from the church perspective. Usually you get Dani talking about our family, and Brazil life, but I wanted to let you know about this past year as a church fellowship.

As many of you know that have been reading this blog, our year started out pretty crazy! We were in the states for the holidays and our whole life was changed forever when after much prayer we made the decision to adopt THREE beautiful children. That decision made quite an impact on everything we did in the past year.
The kids came to live with us in January 2010 making our family go from a family of five to a family of eight! Because of the adoption Dani and the kids stayed in Florida until August 2010, while I traveled back and forth from Brazil to Florida until the adoption was final and we were able to travel home to Brazil.

From the church perspective it was a difficult time to go through, I was not able to be with the people the way I would like to, but I could not ask someone to completely take over because we definitely did not feel called to leave the church or Brazil. God did use that time and blessed it as He always does. During the time when I was back in Brazil on my own I was living with a Brazilian friend, and spending my whole time only speaking Portuguese. God used that tremendously in getting me more comfortable with the language, and my ability to be able to have better communication with the people here in Brazil. Our God being so faithful used this time of growing me in the language so that I would be better prepared to start teaching in Portuguese on a weekly basis as my friend and translator of two years was called to go to the U.S. and I started preaching in Portuguese in August. Teaching in Portuguese has been a challenge and a blessing. My head hurts by the end of a study but the church body is loving it! It has really helped us connect to the people on a much deeper level.

As our whole family came back to Brazil together in August, there were so many adjustments to be made. We had to learn how to live together again as we had been through so many huge life changes as a family, and it was all things we were sill getting used to. As we were going through this learning stage, we decided it was best for the time being to keep the church simple. We did not want to add a lot of new things just because we were back. We decided to be faithful in our two services and prayer meetings to show that those basic things will always be there no matter what else comes and goes. This made us better able to do the other little things here and there as the opportunities came up.

In our church we have a group of Y.W.A.M.ers (Youth With A Mission) that do a surf school for the kids in the area which has been in place for a few years just to show the love of Jesus to the kids here in Rio Vermelho. The surf school has been one way we have been able to continue to be serving and blessing the community as a church, without getting too ahead of ourselves during the transition time.
Another thing that has been a blessing is that I have a neighbor who is 13 years old, and loves basketball! This has been an area that God has opened a door through him to reach him as well as some of his friends and develop friendships. I take them once a week to play basketball together, and share the love of Jesus with them.
The ladies in our church also do an art class that is open to the community, and ministers to a lot of the older ladies in our area. Most of the ladies that are attending are not Christians but our prayer is that they will come to know Jesus as they see Him in the lives of the ladies teaching the class.

In addition to our weekly activities we have many other daily opportunities as people are always seeing all our kids and think we are CRAZY. Everywhere we go people want to know who we are, why were are here, and what we are doing. This always seems to open a door and gives us a chance to tell them why we are here and why we care so much for kids - because we love Jesus and this is what He has called us to do! We have had people tell us that they will listen to what we have to say because we came a very long way to say it!
We are taking these simple opportunities that the Lord has given us as we are continuing faithfully to teach the word at church chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse. We have been so blessed this year as we are now seeing the fruit in the lives of the people who are consistently sitting under the teaching of God’s word.

We now are feeling like this time of transition has come to an end as we have a good routine and the kids have adjusted to our family as well as a new country. This has recently given me more time to be at church to study, and also to look for more opportunities and doors that the Lord might open in the near future. We are praying about a lot of things in this coming year as we are waiting to see what God has planed for our church body as well as our community. We are right now looking to start an English class for adults, and English bible study near the University, as well as a class besides the studies we already doing, to teach the basic doctrines of the Christian faith.
Please keep all of these things in your prayers as we continue to faithfully serve our very faithful God.
Prayer Requests -
-Growth in our personal relationships with the Lord.
-Open door and open hearts with the people in our community, for them to come to know Jesus.
-Dani's health and pregnancy. For a healthy baby due in June.
-Financial Provision
-Wisdom in raising our kids.
-The Lord to send like-minded helpers in the ministry.