Prayer Requests for PoA Church Planters - André Luís and Ivone

André Luís is a sergeant in the Brazilian army, a seminary student, a pastor, and is in the process of becoming a church planter. He took over a church in a city 1 1/2 hours away from where he lives that was down to 4 people, and has built it up to a congregation of about 20 adults and 20 more children. He has a tremendous vision not only to see his church grow, but to see 16 more churches started in the city of General Câmera and the four surrounding cities. André Luis wrote today and said:

"I have a lot that I could share about my ministry and also about everything that God is doing in General Camera and the region. But, I would like to ask you...that you would specifically pray about some attacks that Satan is launching against the work that we intend to carry out in the region.

If it is possible for you to ask your intercessors to pray for us, that would be good. Ever since I started the ministry in General Camera, there were some things that needed to be organized and some positions that I needed to take. When I made the decisions following God's direction, things started to get complicated, and some barriers started to be raised, trying to keep me from working there. Despite this, I decided to do what God told me to do. I rented a house in General Camera, and I started to direct the church in the area of training. I also started family groups, and I started the process of beginning preaching points in the region. As soon as I started this, many unnatural things have happened. Two Sundays ago, after a week full of victories (including Jeff being with me on Sunday, but the victories were throughout the entire holiday weekend), on my return from General Camera that night, when I went to pick up my kids, my car was broken into and they stole everything we had in the car, including all of our bags with our clothes, my bookbag, and everything. This Sunday, on my way back, one of the water hoses on the car broke and I didn't notice it, and the motor locked up and it appears that it destroyed the entire motor. I had to be towed home. These are just two of the primary examples of things that have happened in the last month.

I believe in a powerful God, but I know that the enemy of our souls is not happy with God's purposes for that region. So I ask you to pray for me, for Ivone, and for my children Jonathan and Jessica. Also pray that God will free that region from the hands of Satan...

On the 7th of June, I will be with Jeff again, and will be holding an evangelism impact and getting ready for July, when I will be receiving 12 (short-term Brazilian missionaries). I believe that this is also a motive for prayer...May God bless you, André Luis."

Prayer requests for PoA church planters - Delton and Fatima

Delton and Fatima are a couple from São Paulo who moved to Porto Alegre a little over a year ago to plant a church in the neighborhood called "Vila Jardim." This is a crime and drug-ridden neighborhood full of spiritist witch doctors. While they are doing excellent work and God is using them in wonderful ways, they have faced a series of challenges during their time here.

Their latest challenge is that Delton's sister Claudia, who lives in a small city in the state of São Paulo, has a severe case of cancer. They travelled to be with her a few weeks ago. She has tumors in her lungs, around her heart, and on her neck, and the cancer is throughout her entire body. She was wracked with constant fever and could barely get out of bed. The doctors are giving her massive doses of radiation for lack of anything better to do, have given up hope, and have given her between days and weeks to live.

However, many people have been praying for Claudia. Today Delton wrote "thank you for your prayers in favor of my sister Claudia. These prayers have had powerful effects. She had a reduction in the size of the tumor, which has been confirmed by the medical team, and she has gone for 6 days without fever and is eating very well. So, we need to continue our prayers until we achieve the grace of our Lord. Thank you for your support and shortly we will be able to share what God is doing through all of this. May God richly bless you in Jesus name, Delton."

Please join us in thanking God for the healing He is working Claudia's life, and pray that God will completely heal her, and that HE will recieve all of the glory and honor for doing so. Also, please thank God for Delton and Fatima's ministry here in PoA, and ask Him to use this to grow them and to richly bless their ministry and the church plant in Vila Jardim.

Translator Testimonies

Here are some testimonies from some of the Brazilian translators that work with our American volunteer teams.

"It's just wonderful to serve the Lord! I got very happy because I could finally use what God gave me. I'm sure the Lord is going to do muuuuch more in our beloved Rio Grande do Sul....God bless you all."

"My faith is coming back from the ashes. Praise the Lord!"



"First of all, I thank God for bringing people like you and your countrymen from the United States to Brazil do this marvilous work of starting churches and evangelizing. I had already heard about this work, but nothing compares to actually being in the middle of things and participating. I learned a lot and God spoke to me a great deal during the time that I was together with all of you. I want to thank you for the marvilous time that I had with all of you....May God bless each one with blessings without measure. I miss my brothers and sisters here and in the United States. I am at your disposal whenever you need and when I am free, because nothing compares to seeing a person accepting Jesus."

More Team Testimonies

Here's another quote from one of our recent American volunteer team members:

"I really don't know where to start. So I'll just start throwing it out there. I pray to God everyday to thank Him for allowing Lynn and I to have experienced what we experienced in Brazil. I thank our church for the emphasis they put on doing mission work at home and throughout the world. I deeply appreciate what Chuck and Herb do in the field of evangelism and their dedication. But, I have to say that my appreciation of what you do and your family, the sacrifices you all make on a daily basis, was not truly appreciated or realized. This trip was an eye opener for Lynn and I. Even though we are know about these things, we were somewhat ignorant. I am sure that Jesus smiles and is pleased every time he thinks about your family and the other missionaries that are dedicated to spreading His word. I just can not express our gratitude for the 'translator's' and how comfortable and welcome they made us feel. Although I used the word translators, I think that it no longer speaks about who they are and what they meant to us. I am sure I speak for our group in that even in the short time span we had together that we have just expanded our families. One thing about most families is that they come without you choosing who will be in them. This is not the case here. There isn't one I would not be proud of to have as a member of my family." God Bless, Fred

Volunteer Team Testimony

Here is the testimony of one of the members of our recent volunteer team:

"I had the privilege of visiting Eroni and Lourdes. Our team shared the gospel and they both prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. After praying to receive Christ they told the team that today they received Christ because they realized the importance of what the team shared with them. They realized it because we had come all the way from America to share Jesus with them and we did not ask them for anything, nor did we want anything from them, but to serve and grow in Jesus. They hugged the team and said we could come back anytime we wanted to!"

Herbert T. Long
First Baptist Church, Oviedo, FL

FBC Oveido Team

Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf and on behalf of our volunteer teams. Your prayers were both felt and observed in very real ways during the last week. Despite intense spiritual opposition ranging from accidents, sickness, relational problems, and scheduling conflicts, God answered your prayers and showed Himself to be far stronger than the obstacles that were thrown in our way.

The team of 6 from FBC Oviedo, FL left early this morning after five days of ministry. I don’t have exact numbers yet, but they conducted nearly 70 intensive Bible studies in the homes of unbelievers, led in 3 worship services, and trained 12 current and future Baptist leaders in evangelism techniques and strategy. The result of all of this was more than 70 initial decisions to follow Christ, 1 church plant started from scratch, a significant boost to another church plant, and the strengthening of two existing churches. In addition, the team from Belgrade Baptist in Montana conducted numerous sports clinics and opened up a number of long-term ministry opportunities in the public school system for these churches and church plants. The Montana team will be returning home early next week.


We praise God for His faithfulness and guidance during this intense week of ministry. We had the privilege of seeing Him work radical transformations in the lives of many people – both people who received God’s gift of eternal life for the first time, as well as believers who were trained in how to share their faith and encouraged by seeing God’s hand at work around them. It was incredible to see a young woman and her mother rejoicing and embracing for over five minutes as they celebrated the new life in Christ of five of their friends that they had quite literally been praying for and witnessing to for several decades. God is good!

We would ask you to continue in prayer for us and the follow up efforts from the team. The pattern we have seen multiple times in the past is that the forces of evil do not only attack before and during a major push into their territory, but afterwards as well. Please pray for protection and guidance for us, the team members, and the church planters and believers who worked with us, as well as for those who are beginning their walk with Christ. Please pray as well that each one of these new believers would grow and flourish in their walk with Christ, and become strong, reproducing members of these new churches.

Thank you SO MUCH for your prayers and your partnership with us in reaching urban Gaúchos with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The difference when God’s people unite to pray is very obvious to those of us here on the ground – we can’t do it without you.

Prayer update

Here is an update Jeff wrote early this morning before leaving to be with the team:



Thank you so much for your prayers. We’ll write with more details later, but suffice it to say that your prayers are already making a major difference. The team did manage to get to the city where they were working yesterday without major difficulty, and even though we were down two translators, everything ended up meshing together in the end. The team led about 29 Bible studies yesterday, and many indicated a desire to follow Christ, including the president of the neighborhood association, who was like ripe fruit falling off into our hands – it was a wonderful thing to see. The kickoff service for the new church plant was a success, with a number of visitors present to sing and hear a story from the Bible. In short, God turned many of the difficulties on their heads and brought blessings. However, we still need your prayers – there is a lot of week left. We appear to have lost one of our translators for the duration to sickness, and there are still many challenges ahead of us.



Please continue to pray for God’s protection over the team, translators, missionaries, church planters, and the families of all involved. Pray that God would anoint us with His boldness, wisdom and protection, and that Satan would not be able to gain any foothold or have any influence at all in the work that is going on or in the lives of those involved. Thank Him for the fruit that we have already begun to see, and ask Him to bring a great harvest in the next few days of work, for His glory and honor.
Thank you for your prayers – they REALLY DO make a HUGE difference – we can tell.
Love,
Jeff

Urgent Prayer Request

Greetings from Porto Alegre. We would like for you to pray for the work of our volunteer teams from Oviedo, Florida and Belgrade, Montana, who are currently here working with us. They arrived on Saturday, and will be with us throughout the week working to evangelize alongside a number of our national church planters.
We are only one and a half days into the trip and we are already experiencing major resistance from the forces of evil. Translators are getting sick, Jeff is suddenly sick and has barely slept, there are several other major problems going on, and to top it all off, and we just got notice that the main interstate highway which is the only route to the neighborhood in Novo Hamburgo where we will be working to start a church from scratch today is blocked both ways because of an accident. This is interesting, as the last time this same group from Florida came to work in the city of Novo Hamburgo, the exact same road was blocked both ways on the very morning that the team was on their way to the church plant – this is obviously more than a coincidence.
Please pray that the forces of evil would be rebuked by our Lord and would not be able to interfere in any way in what God wants to do here in Metropolitan Porto Alegre this week. Pray that God would protect the teams, the missionaries involved, the church planters, and the people who will be receiving the Word this week – not just physically, but also relationally, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. Pray that God would bring much fruit, and that all of the forces of evil would be pushed back and would be completely powerless to interfere.
We are not ignorant of Satan’s schemes, and we have seen many of these exact same things happen time and time again when there has been a major push to evangelize and bring light to the darkness. People are already being saved, and God has great plans for this week.
Please join us in prayer for God’s light to shine brightly, and ask that the forces of darkness would not be able to stand against it.
With gratitude for your prayers,
Jeff