While the wait for a building permit drags on, we purchased a large tent as rainy season quickly approaches. Our new meeting space under the tent can seat about 120 comfortably and will be a tremendous blessing during the in-between stages of building our church’s own facility.
Praise the Lord, just yesterday, a step forward was taken with our building permit. The Brazilian IRS has just approved our paperwork, and we can now continue through two more stages of state and local government to officially obtain permission to build. The wait has been extremely frustrating; however, the church has continued to grow, and we have several new families interested in membership. Also, a young boy professed Christ as Lord and Savior a few weeks ago.
November and December were very busy months with year-end dinners, ministry evaluation and planning meetings individually with all leaders, and celebrating Christ’s first advent with family and friends. Since our church property was not ready to host events, we had 3 dinners/parties in the back yard of our home.
The semester of Bible studies at the orphanage finished well, and our Christmas party for the kids had 50 people in attendance. At the end of our fall programming, several of the teens from the orphanage initiated sincere spiritual conversations and prayed with our leaders. Despite their trauma and unique struggles, we experience very fertile spiritual soil amongst the precious children of the orphanage.
Another exciting highlight is a budding partnership with a group of 11 believers in a neighboring city. We have officially adopted this project as a possible church plant and our young church is dividing up the ministry responsibilities to preach each Sunday, teach Sunday School, and lead prayer meeting weekly on the porch of a home in this community. Pray with us that this group grows and becomes the first solid church in this neighborhood for His glory!
Thank you for your partnership and faithful prayers. Happy 2024 to all. May God and God alone be honored and glorified in our lives and ministries this year.