Except maybe for an bird’s-eye view of the year in the remaining hours of 2011, here’s the last GoSpeak report, with updates on Vicki’s health and Leila’s stops and starts.
Download it here: gospeak 27-12
Share it everywhere, post it on your congregation’s bulletin board, print it for your bulletin, stamp it on the forehead of your missions committee chairman. Even show it to an elder or two.
Filed under: Reports | Tagged: Brazil church of christ, missions reporting | Leave a Comment »
Stamped on my Brazilian ID card for foreigners is the date of our entry into the country: 28 November 1984. Whenever I pull it out of my billfold, I glance at the date and offer a silent prayer of thanksgiving. Along with other personal data on the card — birthdate, parents, sex, nationality, it makes up a part of who I am.
So in this month of Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for the Lord having brought us to Brazil 27 years ago today. Read more »
Filed under: notes | Tagged: anniversaries, partnership | Leave a Comment »
A baptism at Baker Heights
When Vicki and I moved to Abilene, Tex., in January, 1982, for me to pursue a master’s degree in Missiology, our team members had all gone ahead of us. We were the last ones to make the Texas move. All of them were attending the Baker Heights congregation. It had been established 1961 on the southwest side of town, near the air base, to reach out to the military.
Vicki and I attended on a Wednesday night after our arrival. The following Sunday two of us from our mission team went to the Blackwell church to preach. I was supposed to preach Sunday night, but the meeting was cancelled due to bitterly cold weather. So they asked me to return the next Sunday, which Vicki and I did. Then they asked me to keep coming, and I preached at Blackwell for the two years, 1982-83, we were in Texas. Read more »
Filed under: Features | Tagged: supporters, supporting churches | Leave a Comment »
Mike Hughes, elder at our overseeing congregation, Somers Ave. in N. Little Rock, Ark., shared yesterday what he thought was an email from me. It requested contributions for Trevor Williams in Bristol UK. But the email is a scam, written in my name, with an email set up especially at Yahoo in my name, and using the name of my wife and children.
Trevor Williams is a retired Christian worker who did work with the Bristol church, but his wife does not have the medical condition described in the email, nor do they need funds sent through Western Union. I do not know Trevor personally, but a missionary brother there provided me with information.
I have made appeals in behalf of others before, so Mike did not find it strange. Especially since this email was sent to the eldership and others at Somers Ave.
I have notified everyone I can, in every way possible, to avoid that anyone send money to the deceiver behind the email.
May our generosity not dry up because of fear. Let us use caution, but let us continue to give freely as we have been given.
Filed under: notes | Tagged: scams | Leave a Comment »
I used to work with the Shiloh TN church, outside the Shiloh National Battleground, just north of Michie. Some of those good folk are now a part of the Acton congregation. I suppose it was from that connection, best I recall, that Acton entered into partnership with us, not a few years back. So far back, that Jeremy Barrier was in college and working as a youth intern one summer when we were giving a report there. Read more »
Filed under: Support | Tagged: supporters | Leave a Comment »
A few years ago Vicki, Leila, and I studied with Sr. Odílio and his wife Claudete, in their Taubaté home. Sr. Odílio is Jorge’s uncle. Claudete is sister to Paula, Jorge’s wife. At the end of the studies, Claudete decided to follow the Lord (PDF). But Sr. Odílio held out.
More recently, Humberto and Aline have held open home studies with them. After some serious health problems, Sr. Odílio made his decision after talking today (Sunday, Oct. 23) with Jorge.
Humberto explains the next step to Sr. Odílio
When we arrived at 4 p.m. for the meeting at Taubaté, Jorge and Humberto, who had consulted earlier, suggested we cancel Bible study, in order to finish sooner and get Sr. Odilio to the baptism before it got too cold. Read more »
Filed under: Features | Tagged: baptisms, evangelism, Taubate | 4 Comments »
Vicki’s parents were foster parents for many years. One of their foster sons had been with them since he was 2 1/2, intermittently, and even lived with Vicki’s mother Jean and stepfather as a young adult.
Yesterday, Dennis W., age 34, apparently committed suicide. He was single. He had called Jean and talked to her Wednesday. He had been on medication for depression.
The people he worked for called her yesterday, and said he talked often about how much he loved her.
This comes as an especially hard blow to Jean after Cameron’s death Oct. 2, whom she regarded as a grandson.
Please pray for her and for Dennis’s family members in this time of grief.
Filed under: Prayer | Tagged: family concerns, prayer requests | Leave a Comment »
Read the GoSpeak September newsletter which highlights the visit of two brothers from Madison AL. GoSpeak Sept 2011, 27-10
We missed a couple of reports from previous months, but hope to get those up before long.
Filed under: Reports | Tagged: missions report, supporters visits | Leave a Comment »
No, we’re not moving. Just making a change in procedures.
Please note our new snail mail address here in Brazil. We have given up the post office box, Caixa Postal 11.
Our new mailing address is below:
Rua Álvares de Azevedo, 20B
12245-494 São José dos Campos, SP
Brazil
For packages and boxes, please send to our home address, which we will provide upon request. (We prefer not to publish it online.)
All other information, as far as we know, continues the same. We gave up the POBox mainly because it is downtown and we have little reason to go there any more, besides the difficulty of getting in and out on the street. Also, with the Internet, our volume of correspondence has dwindled.
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For the last several months, I’ve stepped up the devotionals to a daily schedule, and have heavily advertised them through several means, including social media. Today I received this Facebook message from Ivan in the city of Manaus, located on the Amazon River.
Brother Randal, many people here in my Facebook [friends list] really like to read when I share your articles. This morning I received a message from a non-Christian girl thanking me for the article. I’ve already contacted a sister in the congregation near my house to evangelize her. A big hug!
We’re thankful the devotionals are being used to reach people. We never know how the Lord is using our efforts for his kingdom.
Just today an unfaithful Christian, converted years ago in a Christian family in São Paulo, living now in Taubaté, mentioned that he read the bulletins we post on the church website and then sends them to his mother in the capital, who likes them greatly. We never knew!
Filed under: evangelism, Internet ministry | Tagged: devotionals, evangelism, Internet ministry | Leave a Comment »
In recent weeks, we’ve kept up the translations into English from Portuguese of our daily devotional called “Deus Conosco” (God with Us).
Since they don’t deal directly with reporting on the GoSpeak ministry, we post them to the personal weblog.
Today’s devotional is called, “So you want a good reputation?” Read more »
Filed under: Features | Tagged: Bible meditations, Bible study, daily devotional, Internet ministry | Leave a Comment »
The GoSpeak mission report covering the month of May is hot out of the oven and served up in PDF format, ready for the clicking: gospeak27-05
In this issue, you’ll read about:
Filed under: Reports | Tagged: Brazil missions, literature evangelism, online evangelism | Leave a Comment »
April’s GoSpeak report (yup, we’re late) is now online with an overview of our training efforts in past years, which provides a bit of background for the latest effort, Advanced Bible Studies.
Sorry, no pictures this time, but a good one-page review of past and present works to help people become vessels of honor for the Lord.
To read the report, click on this link t download the PDF file: gospeak27-04
Filed under: Reports | Tagged: Bible seminary, Christian training, leadership training | Leave a Comment »
Today, we broke a record for the number of Portuguese-language devotionals on the “God with Us” website and mail list. During several months in recent years we’d managed 20 devotionals during the month. Today, we hit 21 meditations. We give thanks to the Lord who allowed us to reach this mark.
With still days to go in April, we hope to break the all-record, reached shortly after the service was begun in 1999, of 23. Pray we may also hit this all-time high.
We’ll tell you in the April report whether we made it or not.
In every email sent out about the devotionals, we include a link to an evangelistic study, “A Few Minutes with Someone who Loves You.”
Filed under: Internet ministry | Tagged: daily devo, Portuguese devotionals | Leave a Comment »
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