Sharing the gospel with results

Last night, Dave and Joe caught the 9:30 pm bus to the city of Montes Claros in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais.  They should have arrived there at 4 this morning.   If you look at the map above, you can see the capital city of our state, Salvador, on the eastern coast of Brazil about halfway down the page.  A little inland you can see our city, Vitória da Conquista, then further west is Montes Claros.   From there, Dave and Joe will be catching another bus to the city of Januária, which is not on the map but it is still further inland to the northwest. 

It is a great blessing that Dave has been able to travel to share the gospel.  He will be travelling once a month to Januaria to help the church there as they are without a pastor.  Last month was his first time there.  The church, with the help of the Montes Claros congregation, went out in the neighborhood to invite people to the Sunday evening service, and there were about twenty visitors that night!  After the invitation was given, seven people came forward to receive Christ as Savior!  Here is a picture of members before the service on Sunday morning, with the overflow crowd outside the house where the church is meeting in right now.

Please pray for Dave as he preaches there on Saturday and Sunday. 

Our family also went on a retreat in the beginning of May to the city of Ilheus.  Dave and David Thompson preached wonderful sermons on the theme, “A Life with Purpose”.   One young man gave his life to Christ on the last night, and it was a special joy as we were specifically praying for him.

Service at the retreat: 

Also, a couple of Sundays ago, our family rented a big van, loaded up 18 people, and went out to the rural area of Lagoa de Timóteo to spend the day there.  Pastor Adriano goes out there twice a month, but his car was still being repaired from an accident that happened on the retreat, so we decided to rent a van.  We got the biggest van possible to load our family, Adriano’s family, the youth praise team for our church and the seminary students who are from Lagoa de Timóteo.

We all had a great time as we worshipped together with the church in Lagoa de Timóteo in the morning, ate at members’ homes after the service, played soccer in the afternoon, then returned to the evening service.  Dave and Adriano made a few visits in Estiva, the nearby community I mentioned in the previous post where Dave will be helping Adriano start the first evangelical church.   They visited a couple who had gone on the retreat, and both the husband and wife prayed to receive Christ!  Praise the Lord! 

Here is a picture of the children in the evening service singing a song for their mothers as they celebrated Mother’s Day this night.

Next week, we are looking forward to the arrival of the mission team from First Baptist Church, Waukon, Iowa!  The Pastor of the church is Duane Smith, the Chairman of the Board for the Brazil Inland Mission; and his wife Cristina  is the sister of missionary David Thompson.  They are bringing a group of teens here and we ask for prayers for their safe travel on Monday, June 2, and as they share the gospel in public schools and churches.

We are so excited about the opportunities we’ve had recently to share the gospel, and especially as we are seeing people respond in faith to the offer of eternal life through our Savior, Jesus Christ!

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, TO HIM BE GLORY…”   Ephesians 3:20-21

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