End of term christmas party

Friday night we had an end-of-term-party for the English course, we had some English guests Dave and Vanda who are missionaries too. They've been here for about five weeks now. I thought I would chuck Dave in at the deep end a little before the party started and ask him to share a little something with the group about Jesus, which I translated. It was a fun night with lots of food and a rendition of 'silent night' in English and Portuguese. Enjoy the photos.

shark attack

I thought I would share some shark photos from the zoo with you. enjoy!

update

Hi all
I thought it was about time I updated this blog. Stuff is going well with us. The youth stuff is ticking over, next Sunday we'll be are last meeting with them before we go down to Presidente Prudente to spend Christmas with Katia's family, so we’ll do something special and have lunch together. The English course at church is going well, those guys are really enjoying it and they are really open to God, to praying and we introduce a worship songs in English which they have really enjoyed.
Teaching in the school is going well my group of teenagers won a prize for a presentation they did. This past Friday it was a holiday so Katia and I went to the zoo with some friends.
Friday and Saturday we caught a Randy Clark conference here in Recife, he's an American preacher with a healing ministry. Apart from starting late it was really good and God was there in a big way, there were a lot of healings. It was really nice to go to a meeting like that and meet with God in a big way.

Shootout in Recife

Whilst I was in the gym I saw an incident on the TV of a police chase involving a shootout with two guys who robbed a lottery house. Someone alerted the police during the incident and they ran off with the money in the direction of the office block where my wife works. Katia later told me that she and her colleagues heard gun shots fired in the street and ran to the window to see, by this time one of thieves escaped and the other jumped into the river trying to escape. The police embarked a fisherman’s boat in pursuit of the thief and caught him, he surrender at gun point. This served as a reminded of how dangerous it can be here in Recife, also several people have been robbed at gun point recently on our street by two guys on a bike and yesterday night we heard a gun shot around the corner from where we live.
It’s not that surprising considering the state of Pernambuco has the second highest rate of murder of young people in Brazil and Recife has the highest rate for a city in Brazil beating even Rio de Janeiro.
Do remember to keep us in your prayers.

The Latest in Brazil

The last couple of weeks we have had an interesting time, a week ago Friday we had our biggest turn out for the English course we had 20 students come. But also on that day just before the lesson started the power was cut whilst I was doing some photocopying. The power cut was due to a misunderstanding with the electricity supplier and resulted in them coming out to cut the power. It was a bit dim to the lesson inside also it was to hot to do the lesson without a fan, so we ended up doing the lesson outside in the shade. At the end we had one of the students, who’s a Christian give a testimony of how she was delivered from an arm robbery that week and share a proverb from the bible, which led to some off us sharing testimony as well and to talk about God.
Last Saturday, We had a youth advent ‘O Caminho’ after some worship Katia spoke. Afterwards we watch a DVD ‘ The Chronicles of Narnia’ whilst eating popcorn.
For December we’re trying to do a mission in the local school, there’s a holiday on the 8th so we will try and do a football competition, perhaps volley ball or dance for the girls with an evangelistic celebration that evening. Keep that in your prayers.

Update

The English course is going really well, we are seeing lots of new people come to the course on Wednesday nights, Friday afternoons and Friday evenings. Everyone is really enthusiastic about it and keen to learn. Also everyone is really open to praying at the beginning and at the end of the lesson. Friday we had a largest turn out and they were mostly teenagers.
We are also back in the local secondary school this coming week I’ve been ask to talk about choosing the right path in life so were go in with a guitar we’ll do some songs, talk about how Jesus makes a difference in our life whilst other paths such as drugs etc are destructive. As well this coming Saturday (4th of November) we will have our youth advent ‘O Caminho,’ so we’re hoping that many of these new guys and girls on the course and the pupils from the local school will come and join us as we worship the Lord hear his word and watch a film with some popcorn. We would appreciate your prayers for it.

Outreach through English teaching

I thought I would write to update you all about a new project we have started for the community here. Last week we launch a new English course for the local residence. English courses in Brazil are sought after, speaking English is viewed as something necessary, but to study English is very expensive here. The idea of this project is to provide a good course that is almost free and which will incorporate the bible and would break down barriers between the church and the local community, reaching more people for Christ. So fare it's going well and those who are studying have been really impacted by it and can't believe that a church would offer such a course for just 5 Brazilian reals per month and that’s only if they can afford it. The idea with the cost of 5 reals is simply by paying a little sum per month helps people to value the course and stay committed and it pays for materials and photo copies.
We open and finish each lesson with a prayer and everyone is really open about praying and sharing prayer request. As were starting with the very basics, were introducing small verses or small pieces of verses in English for people to memorise such as ‘God is Love’. Do keep this project in your prayer, and prayer that as well as improving their English that these people would meet with Jesus through this project.

Plodding on in Brazil

Hey all Hope your well. Thought I would update you on how things are going here, today we had our youth advent ‘O Caminho’, which I felt went well despite numbers being down. We worship together, prayed for one another and I spoke from John 10. We looked at destructives paths and things that rob us, destroy and kill us spiritually. Then we reflected on Jesus as the good Sheppard and how he came to give life to the full. I challenged them to lay their lives down to seek that fullness of life that Jesus offers and not to be robbed of that and not just by those destructive paths and things that kill us spiritually, but also not to be apathetic in their relationship with God but to go for it with him. I guess my desire for this group is that they would really grasp who Jesus is and would be radically transformed by him and would want to reach other for him. When Jesus enters our lives things don’t need to be the same ever again; our lives have meaning and pursuing Jesus can be a real adventure to say the least. But you also come to realise that that passion for Jesus is God given and something that he only gives, I keep praying that as I push them towards Jesus that he would indeed transform them.

In other news Marcus Throup and his wife Tamara go back to England soon. I think this will affect the church somewhat, especially as the other pastor is feeling down and that is making life a little difficult in the church for everyone, but saying that the congregation as a whole are looking to do more in the local community and this week we will be starting an English course for the community, it’s practically free and we will incorporate the bible into it. It’s a great opportunity as good English courses here in Brazil are expensive and not many have the money to do one. A lot of people in the local community have been blown away by it and seem really grateful for it, praise the Lord. Do pray that the Lord will use this course to save people and bring them into the life of the church and pray that the church will be ready to receive people.