Looking back on 2014!

From the bottom of our hearts we want to thank all of our family and friends who have faithfully prayed for and financially supported us in the year 2014. We know that missions is a team effort and we are so very thankful for every individual on our team both near and far. Please continue with us as we look forward to all that the Lord has for us in 2015! 

With love from Brazil, The Cate family 

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Psa 34:8

Our September 2014 Video Update.

It has been a busy few months since our last video update! Here are some of the highlights in the video link above. From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank you for your support. Whether it is remembering us through prayers, financial support, a word of encouragement or even a "like" or comment on Facebook we feel your love and plead with you to continue with us on our missionary team as we seek to serve Jesus and the people in Brazil. God bless!  

Praise Reports:

- A blessed time in Sao Vicente teaching at the Family Conference and Ladies Conference.

- Healthy Church, God is doing AMAZING things and we are so excited!!  

- Y.W.A.M. team serving and interceding 

- A great discipleship group

Prayer Requests:

- Planning and provision for Reggae for Life 3

- Family finances 

- A van, we have been without a vehicle for the past 10 months 

- The families health (specifically for Jeremiah's health and for Dani's health)

- Emotional and physical endurance to keep up with our busy routine of family and ministry.

- Strength for our marriage and wisdom in raising our kids in the Lord. 

9 Lessons I have learned through Adoption.

Adoption Day July 22nd, 2010

Note: A few months ago I had the privilege of teaching at a Woman's Conference at Calvary Chapel Sao Vicente. CCSV is a church that is very near and dear to our hearts. Our family had a blessed time with our friends Pastor Celso and his beautiful wife Tati. One of the three messages that the Lord put on my heart to teach was "9 Lessons I have learned   through Adoption". For whatever reason the Lord put it on my heart today to post my notes from this teaching. I have already shared some of these ideas on this blog but I wanted to re post them to keep a record of what the Lord has been teaching this mom of many and I hope that He will use it to encourage someone else. With much love - Dani

Lesson 1.) We are chosen to be sons of God. 

(Rom 8:15) For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

 I have learned that it is very important to teach our children that adoption means acceptance and adoption means love. My oldest son Josiah has been told this so many times he started to tell people “Did you know I am the best kid in the whole world? Do you know why I am the best kid in the whole world? My parents could have picked any kid in the whole world but they chose me.” 

In fact our family has put such an emphasis on making sure that our children know that adoption is a special thing our biological son Ezekiel who is 4 years old started telling people that he was adopted. Adoption is acceptance. Adoption is love. We were chosen to be sons of God. Did you know that you are loved? Sometimes we as women just need to hear that don’t we? YOU ARE ACCEPTED! YOU ARE LOVED! YOU are loved by the God of the universe.  

Lesson 2 .) The Lord made a sacrifice to have a relationship with me. (John 3:16 )“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  When we first got our kids it was really difficult. The kids came to us with lots of issues. It wasn’t their fault, they had come from a difficult life but never the less in the beginning it was very hard to parent them. I remember a time about a month after we got the kids, Nathan had gone back to Brazil to take care of the church and the kids and I had to stay in the U.S.A. to finalize the adoption. At the time we had 6 kids. Our oldest son Josiah was 5 years old, Hope was 4 years old, Grace, Lilly and Jer were ALL 2 years old and E.Z. was only 6 months old. Imagine 6 kids under 5 years old. Four of the kids were under 2 years old and FOUR babies were using diapers!! That is over a 1,000 diapers a month!! Imagine! I remember one day I was really sick, super sleep deprived, missing my husband and dealing with some MAJOR bad attitudes (mine was the worst I am sure). By noon, I had poop thrown at me, been bit, dealt with TONS of screaming, and to top it all off my face was dripping with spit from an angry two year old. My 5 year old had told me that he hated me and he wanted to go back to his “old mom”.  After I finally got everyone settled and down for a nap I sat on my bed and cried out to the Lord and said,

"Father, what am I doing? Are these kids ever going to realize what we are doing for them? Are they ever going to appreciate what we have given up for them? Are they ever going to love me the way that I love them?" 

As I sat on my bed listening to the unusually quiet house I heard my answer in the form of a question. The Lord said to me - 

“Do you realize what I have given up for you? Do you love ME the way that I love you?" 

Wow! It was in that moment that something in my mind clicked. Jesus ALREADY knew what I was feeling because He had ALREADY done it. He gave up being with His Father (WOW!) - so I should be able to get through being away from Nate for a time while we finalized the adoption. 

The Lord knew what it was like to have His kids spit in His face because He ALREADY did it - AND (here is the crazy part) He did it all for me and He did it for YOU.

Lesson 3.) Jesus is not ashamed to call us HIS brothers!  (Heb 2:11)“For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren” 

 Shortly after adopting our kids, I remember shopping at Walmart in our pretty conservative little town. Because I had 6 little kids we usually did our shopping in the afternoon which also happens to be when the older/ sometimes rather judgemental senior citizens of our town would also do their shopping. On this particular shopping trip I remember Josiah gleefully singing the “Thong Song” as loud as he could while I avoided eye contact from more than one horrified fellow shoppers. Poor Hope wanted to hide under the cart as all attempts to quiet Josiah's concert only encouraged him to sing louder. In the moment good girl Hope was a little ashamed for people to think Josiah was her brother but Jesus is not ashamed to call us HIS brothers. Wow!

Lesson 4.) We are considered joint heirs and brothers with Jesus.  

(Gal 4:5-6) to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

 July 22nd, 2010, our adoption day was one of the best days of my life. Like our wedding day or our other children's births is was a day that was much anticipated, planned for, and prayed over. Because it was such a crazy day I remember very little details of the day and the adoption ceremony itself. So while the details of the day are foggy one thing is forever etched in my mind and I will remember it for the rest of my life and that is what the judge said to us right before she pronounced the kids "Cates forever". The judge looked Nathan and I in the eye and very seriously said  “Mr. and Mrs. Cate I see that you already have three biological children and I want to make one thing very clear. These children that you are adopting today will be considered the same as your biological children. They have every right and every inheritance as if they were born to you.” We as Christians are considered joint heirs of Jesus. We are sons of God. 

Lesson 5.) When we spend time with the Lord we look more like Him.  (2Corinthians 3:18) “ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding a(2Corinthians 3:18) “ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” One of my favorite things as an adoptive mother is watching our family grow and mold together. Everywhere we go people try to “figure us out”. Everyone wants to know how on earth two 28 year olds could have 8 kids. Sometimes we will tell people that we adopted but I always hate when people want to know WHO was adopted. My favorite response is, “I forgot”. Nate likes to say, “Hey if you can’t tell why should we?” I love that people can’t tell who is adopted and who is biological; this means that we are doing our job as adoptive parents. 

 Lately I have been seeing traits of Nathan in the kids more than ever, whether it is Josiah making a cheesy joke, Jeremiah making a funny face, or Lilly having an unnatural obsession for chocolate I am always finding myself telling the kids 

“You get that from your dad!” Every day the kids are becoming more like Nate because they are spending TIME with him, they have a relationship with him, and they are picking up on who he is as a person. I hope and pray that this is how I am with my Father Jesus Christ. I want to become more like Him as I spend time with Him just growing in our relationship and growing in His Word. I want to look like my Dad. 

Lesson 6.) The Lord sacrificed His perfect SON to have a relationship with me and imperfect sinner.  (yes, this verse again, hey it is that good!!)  (John 3:16 )“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

 I remember when my kids first came to us Lilly was having a really hard time. Like I have already said, it was not her fault, she had been through a lot in her life and she just didn’t really like people. At the time out of all the people that she didn't like the one that she hated most (again, just in the beginning) was me. It was SO hard trying to love someone who only hated me. I remember one day she did something bad and I had to put her in a time out. When I asked her to go to the time out chair for her discipline she was so angry she put her hands on her hips and marched away. As she was walking away and glaring at me from across the room she spotted my 6 month old baby Ezekiel who was laying on the floor. Before I had time to make it across the room she got to the baby and kicked him in the face with her cowboy boots on! My heart broke! I loved the kids so much but I did not want to see my biological kids suffer because I had chosen to adopt my other 3 kids. I would do anything for any of my kids. I would lay down my life for any of my kids. The only thing that I would not be able to do would be to sacrifice the life of one of my kids for another kid. That kind of sacrifice would be an almost impossible sacrifice but if we really stop and think about it our Lord made an even greater sacrifice for us! At the time of this story my Lilly was bad but nothing compared to the sinner than I am. My baby Ezekiel was innocent but nothing compared to the innocence of the sinless Son of God Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) The Lord sacrificed His perfect Son to have a relationship with me. THIS IS LOVE!

Lesson 7.) There is no evidence of our past life. We are new creations in Him.  (2 Corinthians 5:17) “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”  I have been talking a lot about the horror stories of when the kids first came to us, but something very interesting is in only four and a half years of being in our family our kids are totally different people. Most people who meet our family are not even able to tell who is adopted and who are our biological children. Why? Because there is little to no evidence of the pain and the past life that my kids had. They have become new people. The old has passed away and new life has begun.   My kids have new names, new identity and a new family. This is something that the Lord desires to do in our lives as well when we accept Him as our Savior.

 Lesson 8.) The Lord has patience with me as I continue to grow in Him. 

 (Philippians 1:6)“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”

My kids are still not perfect (none of them are, they are sinners just like their mom ;) .) but they are continuing to grow every day. Sometimes the kids have bad days but I am trusting that the Lord will be faithful to complete the good work that He has started in their lives. When my kids have a bad day do I get mad and say “Ok, you have gone back to your old ways, no more love for you!” NO! I know that my kids are not perfect and I still love them. The Lord knows that we are not perfect and He choses to love us anyways. He will have patience and grace to forgive us when we fall and He will be faithful to continue the good work that HE has begun in our lives. 

Lesson 9.) I must choose a relationship with Him. We have sacrificed a lot for our kids and over the years we have had a lot of people say funny things like “You guys are saints!” or “What a blessing you are to those kids” but the reality is it isn’t only the kids who were blessed when we adopted them. Nathan and I are blessed every day to have every one of our kids as part of our family!o We love watching them play, we love watching them learn, and we love watching them grow. We love seeing their different personalities and we love getting to know them more everyday. There is no greater joy than having a relationship with our kids. When our kids choose to talk to us, when they choose to spend time with us and share their hearts with us everything that we have done for them is totally worth it. Our Heavenly Father is also wanting to have that same kind of relationship with us. The only thing is we need to do is accept that relationship with Him. We need to choose to walk in that relationship and to spend time growing in that relationship daily. You have the opportunity to become a daughter of the Living God. If you are have already accepted Jesus as your Savior ask yourself “Do I look like my Dad?”, are you looking more like Jesus daily? If you don’t see that you are growing in your relationship with Him now is the time to recommit yourself to Him and start the process of becoming more and more like Him.  

(Rev. 3:20)“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

7 years on the Mission Field.

 Seven years ago today I said goodbye to my family and friends in Florida and got on a plane with my husband Nate and my 16 month old daughter Hope as we made the move that would change our lives forever. I remember being really sick the whole flight partly because Nate and I both had the flu and partly because I was 7 months pregnant with our second daughter Grace. I remember spending most of the flight taking turns with Nate in the bathroom on the plane, and I remember other passengers handing us their barf bags after we filled ours (ugh!). I remember handing baby Hope to our pastor’s wife Patti while I was getting sick and then I remember moments later looking up to see that Hope had vomited all over her. I remember Nate telling me to put on a sweatshirt to cover my big belly when we went through customs to avoid any problems and I remember that it was raining when we landed on the island of Florianopolis that would be my new home.  

 Seven years ago today I fell in love with Brazil. For me It was love at first sight and I loved EVERYTHING about Brazil. 

 I always say that life on the missions field passes through the same three stages of love that most marriages pass through. 1.) There is the Honeymoon Stage where you are in love with EVERYTHING about the country and culture. 2.) There in the Real Life Stage where all of those things that you originally fell in love with in the Honeymoon stage start to drive you crazy. 3.) There is the Real Love Stage that happens after you realize that the country that you are called to serve isn’t perfect but you choose to love it anyways. 

 Seven years into living in Brazil I believe that Nate and I are in the Real Love phase with both Brazil and life on the missions field. We know that Brazil is far from perfect but we are in love anyways. We have been so blessed to live in Brazil and I am absolutely amazed at all the Lord has done in and through our lives in the last seven years. Nathan and I came here as young 21 year old kids with one baby and just a couple of years of ministry experience. We have learned how to become a family here in Brazil, I have learned how to become a mom here in Brazil. We have added SEVEN children to our family and I can not imagine raising them anywhere else. We have made Brazil our home. We have been so incredibly blessed to have made SO many friends that are so close we consider them family here in Brazil. We have seen many people make decisions for Jesus and we have seen lives transformed. I stand in awe of all that the Lord has done and I look forward to all the He has in store for the future. 

 From the bottom of our hearts we want to say thank you to all of you who have been supporting us and praying for us over the years. We know that missions is a team effort and we are very thankful to have you as part of our team. Please keep praying for our family and the work that the Lord is doing in Brazil. 

 With much love, 

 Dani Cate and Family 

"being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phl 1:6)

The Cate Family and the Ministry in Brazil Update, April 2014. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Upcoming in November...

 Between the  daily life of living in Brazil,  studying, teaching, keeping up with 8 kids, and homeschooling we have been VERY busy to say the least. The church body of Calvary Moçamba has also been busy and we have been blessed to have our doors open everyday. On top of our normal Sunday and Wednesday church services we have had Monday school of discipleship, Tuesday Jujitsu  and ladies bible study, Thursday Jujitsu, ladies art class, and a Foundations of the Faith class, and Friday school of discipleship. The Lord has been raising up leaders in the church to help carry this new work load and we are so excited to see both our personal family and our family in Christ grow and mature daily.  

Reggae for Life 

We are very excited about the upcoming event we will have the opportunity to host here in our town in Florianopolis, Brazil. On November 7, we will be putting on our first annual (Lord willing) “Reggae for Life” event. We will have musical guest Dominic Balli here from California as well as a couple of local christian bands where we expect to have anywhere from 500 to 2500 people attend this event. 

 We ask for your prayers as we make all of the final plans and preparations. We also ask you to be praying that God would bring every person that needs to be at the event and for good weather on that day. The focus of the event is evangelistic as we want to share the love of Jesus and we hope to see many make a decision for Christ. Please pray for the hearts of the people to be prepared to receive the good news, but also that our hearts would be prepared to share God’s heart for the people that are there.

 The last thing we would ask for the event is that you pray for finances in all of the last minute things. We have a few final needs that need to be taken care of, and we would also like to buy bibles to be able to give away to anyone that gets saved that night. If you are interested in helping buy bibles please email me for more information at nateandani@hotmail.com .

Travel Plans

 Our other big prayer request this month is for our family as we travel to the states November 15th. We are very excited for the opportunity to go back with our whole family after 3 and a half years of not visiting. God opened the door for us to be able to buy the tickets and get passports for all the kids and for that we are so grateful! There are however always many financial needs in traveling as we will still be paying our bills in Brazil, but also have new bills in the US for our 6 weeks there. We ask your prayers for financial provision, as well as health and traveling mercies as we travel with 8 kids for almost 30 hours to get to Florida. 

 We know that the Lord has given us this time for our family to be able to visit the US, but it is still difficult to leave the church here for that long. Please be praying for the church body in our absence, especially for Fabio as he oversees the church, and all those that will be teaching during that time. 

 Thank you all for your prayers and your support, we are very excited to see all the wonderful things God is going to do over these next few months, and it is amazing to be able to be apart of His plan here on the earth! We love you and appreciate your heart for the work here, and our family.

Blessings,

Nathan, Dani and kids

Contact info:

Email: nateandani@hotmail.com   Blog: thecate8@blogspot.com

Ministry and Family Update.

 Here is a long overdue update of just a few of the things that have been going on in our family and the ministry here in Brazil. We are overjoyed with all the the Lord is doing and we look forward to what He has in store for the future. As always we covet your prayers and thank you for your support.
God bless! Love, The Cate Crew

Steps of Faith, 3 Years Later.

'For we walk by faith, not by sight. ' ( 2 Corinthians 5:7 ) Three years ago today I woke up a mom of three children and by the time I went to bed I was a mom of six kids all five years old and under. Today as we celebrated our "Happy Homecoming Day" with our every growing family I could not help thinking about the "what ifs".

  What if we had not been in the U.S. when we got the call about the kids? If that call had been two days later we would have been in Brazil.

 What if we had not trusted what we heard from the Lord when He told us to adopt our kids?

 What if we had not trusted that He would provide the funds needed for the adoption?

 What if we had been too scared that adopting three little ones at once would be too much for us?

 What if we had worried more about what people were saying and less about what we knew the Lord was telling us to do?


 I do not know the answers to most of these questions but I am sure of a few things. If we had not trusted the Lord and taken the GIANT leap of faith that it took to adopt our kids we would have missed out on a huge opportunity not only to bless others and change their lives, but we would have missed out on so many blessing ourselves. I can not even begin to imagine our lives without Josiah, Lilliana, or Jeremiah - they themselves are HUGE blessings to us!


 In our crazy life I often feel like Abraham as we hold to the promises that the Lord has given us even when we have no physical way of seeing how those promises can possibly be fulfilled. I have had times that I have felt like Moses wandering around the desert trying to trust that he actually did hear from the Lord. I have also had days where I have felt like Peter moments after he stepped out of the boat when he started to sink and all he could do was cry out "Lord save me!". Yes, like all of these guys I know that taking a step of faith is HARD but I also know that it is worth it.

 If you are reading this and you know that the Lord is calling you to do something I want to encourage you to obey His voice and take that step of faith and do whatever it is that He is calling you to do. 

 Will it be easy?- No.
 Will you have doubts? -Yes.
 Will the Lord be faithful to you? Will He take care of you? Will He keep His promises? - 
YES, YES, YES! 

"Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments"  (Deuteronomy 7:9)

Baby #8 is on her way!!

Video Update for Calvary Chapel Brandon Sep. 2012

 Hi friends! I apologize for being an absent blogger! It seems that we have been so busy living our lives that we have forgotten to take the time to write about it. That being said I know how important it is to keep you all updated and we covet your prayers as we continue in the ministry in Brazil. I am going to do my best to help catch you up on what the Lord has been doing in our lives, and I will start by posting a video update that was sent to our sending church Calvary Chapel Brandon in September 2012.

 Stay tuned for another update and we will catch you up on all of the great things that the Lord has done from September until now. God bless! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE_GB1NB3vo&feature=g-upl

Cate Family Newsletter February 2012.

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope and pray that this newsletter finds you all well and in love with Jesus. It has been a few months since we have posted our last update so we would like to take a minute and catch you up on our news from Brazil.

Church - We’re baaaack!!! After over 7 months of being without a building the body of Calvary Chapel Mocamba is moving back to our old building. The owners finally decided that it would be better for them to rent the place out until they find a buyer (IF they ever find a buyer), and they are letting us return to the building that we put so much of our time, money, and hearts into over the last four years. The building and yard are pretty trashed, but after some T.L.C. , hard work , and lots of paint we should have it back to normal. We are moving back with a fresh excitement and new vision for what the Lord is going to use this special place for. We are going to set it up with more of a relaxed “home-style / coffee shop” vibe and we are praying that this will be well received in our community. We want to have a place that people feel welcomed and comfortable to come in and hear about the love of Jesus. We hope to reach the people in our area that would not normally go to a “church” building.

The Lord is already using the old building for His glory. The day that Nate got the keys and went to let off a few very needed bug bombs he had the opportunity to share Jesus with a man who desperately needed to hear about Him. The man was sitting outside the church with two other guys that we know to be drug dealers in the area. We have always had a good relationship with these guys, and Nate talked to them and told them that we would be moving back into the building soon, and we would really appreciate them letting everyone know that we were going to be back. The guys were happy to hear that the church was coming back and they said that they would let everyone know that had been using the front of the building as a hang out (for bad stuff) that it was off limits now. After two of the guys left Nate had the chance to hear the other man’s life story and pray with him. It was exciting to see how open this guy was to being prayed for, most people would look at him from the outside and think he was a big scary man with a bunch of tattoos , but in reality on the inside he is just a broken man in need of Jesus. Please keep praying for this man and all of the people in our community. We want to see a revival for Jesus in Rio Vermelho!

In January we had the awesome privilege of having Pastor John Hwang come and teach on a Sunday morning. We were joined by some of our brothers and sisters from C.C. Floripa. The body enjoyed the encouraging message as well as the fellowship and great food after the service.

Other church news includes plans to attend the C.C. Brazil Retreat at the C.C. Bible College in Campo Mauro next week. Our family as well as some individuals from the church will be going to the retreat, we always look forward to our time together with the other pastors and missionaries in Brazil and we are so very thankful that the Lord miraculously provided for us to be able to go. Be praying that the Lord will do great things in our hearts at the retreat and that we would have smooth traveling for the 14 hours it will take to get to the Bible College.

Family- Our family enjoyed a simple and sweet Christmas together. The kids were so blessed by their gifts of baby dolls for the girls and stuffed animals for the boys and they again just went on and on about how great Jesus was for letting them get presents on HIS birthday! J For our meals on Christmas day I decided rather than trying to make an “American” Christmas meal (and getting disappointed because I cannot get the ingredients needed) I would let each person in the family pick a favorite food and have it show up in the menu on Christmas Day. It was interesting trying to figure out how to make meals including cracker chicken, green peppers, sweet rice, cake, beans and rice, pancakes, pasta, apple pie, and sushi but we made it work and the kids had SO much fun looking for their personal favorite dish during the day. For the most part, life in Brazil is what our kids know so we can make up our own family traditions as we go and have fun with it.

January 9th we celebrated Hope turning 6 years old and we celebrated our two year “Homecoming Day” for Jeremiah, Lilliana and Josiah on Jan. 21^st.

February4^th was the twins 4^th Birthday and we are now enjoying having THREE 4 year olds in the house. Even though we currently have a 7 month old, a 2 year old, three 4 year olds, a 6 year old, and a 7 year old in our family, I find it FAR easier than having three 2 years olds !! The older kids are learning to be helpers and it has been such a blessing to see their servant’s hearts during this time of waiting for my surgery. We are very proud of them all.

We are excited to announce that after almost 5 years of living in Brazil, mountains of paperwork, and loads of money, we finally have our permanent visa cards! It is a HUGE praise report that has been years in the making!!

Thank you again for all of your prayers, love, and support!! We love and miss you all and look forward to spending eternity with you. God bless!

Love,

Nathan,Danielle, Josiah, Hope, Grace, Lilliana, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah Cate

Prayer Requests:

- - Time of refreshing during the retreat.

- - Personal growth in our individual relationships with the Lord.

The Lord to use the church building in mighty ways for His glory and that more people may come to know Jesus.

- - Financial provision for a van, church building repairs, and for a surgery for Dani.

- - Strength for our marriage.

- - A house for the Cate family – we found out yesterday that the owners of the house that we are renting will be moving back in so we need to find a new place to live.

"Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for HE is good! For His mercy endures forever." Psalm 118:1

"Oh for gross!!"

  Lately I have been feeling like our family has been battling sickness and stomach bugs more than ever. At first it seemed like a mystery to me as to why we keep getting sick, because for the most part we eat really healthy-  beans and rice, lots of fruits, tons of veggies and mostly organic everything.  But yesterday as I was filling up my pot to make some homemade chicken soup I noticed a few unwanted guests in the water... worms  ugg!!

I asked Nate to climb up and take a look at our water box to see if it needed cleaning and this is 

what he found.............

 It turns out that the cap of our water box had been broken and instead of replacing it our 

landlord tried to just cover the hole with a plastic bag. The plastic bag broke leaving our water 

 completely exposed to rain, bugs, birds and anything and everything else that came along.  

 Nate spent the day cleaning out the box and we made sure that everyone took their worm pills. It was a neat opportunity to talk to the kids about sin. I told them like the 

yucky green water sin can also start off as what we think is a very tiny problem that we may not 

even see  but if we do not open our hearts and clean out the "yucky stuff"  we

can be left with a very big problem that can do a lot of damage.

It was a great lesson about how important it is to repent of our sins and ask Jesus to 

cleanse our heart of our own yucky stuff. 

 

 I love how the Lord can use even the grossest of adventures in our life as an opportunity to 

teach our kids. 

 

 That was our adventure of the day in a nutshell. I am pretty sure that we don't even have a 

chance of ever having a boring day around here!

 

Thank You Jesus for protecting us from the "yucky  green stuff" for who knows how long! 

November 2011 Newsletter

Calvary Chapel Mocamba and Cate Family Update.

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Brazil! We wanted to take a few minutes to catch you all up on the latest happenings on our side of the world in both the ministry and in the Cate family.

Church -

4 months ago the church body had to move out of the building that we had been renting. Since then we have been meeting in different houses and in spite of the many difficulties that have come with that we have seen the Lord use this time for good. It has been so awesome to see the people committed to showing up no matter where we are meeting and we are excited to be seeing growth in the body spiritually, in maturity, in our relationships with each other and even in numbers. It is truly something that only Jesus could do and while we are still praying to find a building soon we are thankful that the Lord is using this time to bring glory to Himself.

We are continuing in the book of Romans on Sundays and in Exodus during our midweek service. In addition to the Men’s Group on Tuesday mornings we have added a Women’s Bible Study on Friday nights. All of the women have been so blessed during this time together and it is very needed during this time of not having a church building because most of the moms are not able to come to the services because no one in the church has a house with room for the 17 kids that are now in the body.

We are in the process of planning a group for married couples and we are excited to see what the Lord has in store for that.

Ministry -

Surf School is still going great. The kids always have such a blast and the guys that are teaching are so excited to be given the opportunity to show these kids the love of Jesus in such a fun way.

The last few weeks we have had to cancel / take fewer kids to the beach because our car has been broken for some time. We are always sad to have to cancel but because we were not financially able to fix the car we just had to. Anyway, this week one of the little boys that goes to Surf School came to tell Nathan that he asked his mother if she would ask his uncle who is a mechanic to fix our car so we could have Surf School on Saturday. The car has not been repaired yet but they did come and look at it and more importantly the whole situation gave us a chance to see how much this time spent loving on the kids means to them. It was the little boy’s idea to find a way to fix the car and he is only 9 years old. So sweet! Please be praying for the Surf School and the car situation. While we as a family have had to learn to live without a car (being that our car only had 5 seats and we are a family of 9) it would be a blessing to be able to someday have a van both for the family and the ministry.

Family -

Our family is also doing well. We have been having such a fun time getting used to being a family of 9! We had all forgotten how much fun babies are. Little Isaiah Douglas (or “Dougie”) who is 4 months old now is growing like a weed and probably the world’s most spoiled baby. He absolutely refuses to be sat down but it works because in such a big family there is always someone who wants to hold him.
Ezekiel (2) and Jeremiah (3) have been potty training lately. They seem to be taking to it well and with 3 boys in cloth diapers we could not be more excited at the thought of only having ONE baby using diapers!
Lilliana (3) and Grace (3) are doing great. The enjoy spending their days playing "Laura Ingles and Baby Carrie" in the sun and hauling around their beloved cat Meow - meow.
Hope (5) and Josiah (7 ) are growing up SO fast. They are now in the first grade and doing great. They are both reading and writing in cursive beautifully. They also continue to be our big helpers around the house and with the younger kids. They both truly are a blessing.
Nate has been very busy studying, teaching, taking care of the church, and the family. He still has to help around the house until I am able to have the surgery to repair the hernias. I laugh a lot because since he has taken over most of the house work just about every machine that we did have has broken. I don’t know many husbands who would attempt washing clothes by hand for 10 people (including cloth diapers!!) but he somehow does it all and he has been such a trooper!!
As for me I still have days that I am in pain but I manage to stay busy and keep going most days. I spend my mornings bouncing between homeschooling the older kids, chasing the younger boys, taking care of the baby and cooking. We have all been blessed to have Nate’s sister Koyah here helping for the last 3 months and we are really going to miss her when she leaves next week.

Prayer Requests for the church -

- A building that meets the needs of the body.

- Opportunity for evangelism, and vision for outreach.

- Continued growth and unity for the body

- Vision and direction for an upcoming missions trip

Prayer Requests for the family -

- Dani’s health, and financial provision for her hernia surgery.

- Wisdom in raising our kids in a Godly way.

- Daily refreshing from the Lord that we may have the grace to minister to others.

- Jeremiah’s appointment with the neurologist on Nov. 25th. (He has hydrocephalus and a VP shunt on the right side of his brain.)

Thank you all for your continued support whether financially or in prayer. Missions is a team effort, and we are very thankful for the “team” that helps us continue in this work.

- “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ,

assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” -(Mark 9:41)