White Christmas - Santos Brazil style

Merry Christmas / Feliz Aniversario To All

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas / Feliz Natal. Now is the time to remember and celebrate God's wonderful gift of love - His son Jesus, who paid the price for our sins and for the privilege and joy of having a restored personal relationship with God. "For God SO loved the world (you and I) that he gave his one and only Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16

Handgliding - Santos, Brazil

Here are some photos we took of handgliders over Santos.

Handgliding Over Santos

Here is a short video of someone handgliding over Santos. There is a mountain on the border between Santos and Sao Vicente and the handgliders take off from there, high over the cities and the beach.

A Beautiful View Of Santos

Here is a video we made from one of the mountains between the cities of Santos and Sao Vicente. It is a beautiful view of Santos and the beach and ocean. In the background is the city of Guaruja.

Free Concert On The Beach

Tonight we went to a free concert on the beach by the State of Sao Paulo symphony orchestra. The event was sponsored by the State of Sao Paulo government, and it was attended by several thousand people.

More Santos Pictures

Here are some more photos we took around Santos: some of the scenery around Santos and neighboring city Sao Vicente, surfers, and a soccer game on the beach.

Christmas In Santos

Here are some photos we took around Santos showing the Christmas spirit.

3 Years Of Ministry

We are finishing our 3rd year here in Brazil, helping churches to share the Good News of Jesus in their communities. God is doing amazing and wonderful things, and it is a great privilege and joy to be a part of what He is doing. Here is a summary of what God has done so far:

- over 40,740 people have accepted Christ and committed their lives to Him.
- over 825 teachers have accepted Christ in the schools we have spoken in.
- 3 principals, 3 vice-principals, and 10 school coordinators have accepted Christ.
- we have spoken in 59 schools in 3 years.
- we have helped 40 churches to share Christ in their communities.
- we have trained over 1000 church members & leaders to share Christ person-to-person through the People Sharing Jesus seminars.
- we estimate that we have shared the Gospel 2000 times in 3 years (person-to-person, and in schools, churches, homes,...)

God is truly doing "immesaurably more" than all we ask and imagine, for His glory.

An Important Meeting

Today we had an important meeting at the education department for the municipal schools in Santos. We have already been able to schedule events to speak in 5 state schools in Santos for next year, but without the approval by SEDUC, the Santos education department, we would not be able to speak in the municipal schools of Santos. There are 27 state schools in the city of Santos, and there are 72 municipal schools, so getting the municipal school approval is an important step in our ministry work in Santos. We are praising God that He blessed our meeting today and that we were able to obtain the approval to speak in the municipal schools. God is good !

Surfers

Today was a windy day in Santos, and the ocean had some larger than usual waves, and so there were quite a few surfers all day today. Here are some photos we took.

Sharing Christ In A Favela

Yesterday we had the opportunity & privilege to work with Igreja Batista Marape of Santos in a favela (slum) in the nearby city of Cubatao. The church has a ministry for children in a school located in the favela, and they asked us to help them and to speak to the parents who are there waiting for their children. The church reaches out to the community in Cubatao once a month through this ministry, and there were many children at the event. The church puts on a play with a Biblical message, and then they split the children up into groups by age and have a Bible lesson about the message presented in the play, and they also share the Gospel with the children. After I spoke to the parents, 13 of them accepted Christ and committed their lives to Him. What a joy it is to serve the Lord.

Part of the favela in CubataoSome of the children participating in the programSpeaking to some of the parentsInterpreter Camila and I sharing Christ

Traffic, Traffic, Traffic

We spoke in our last school of the year on Monday and Tuesday in Sao Paulo. The school is located in a poor section of the East Zone of Sao Paulo, and it took quite awhile for us to get there from Santos. We spent 2 1/2 hours each way, each day, to get to the school and back, totalling 10 hours of driving time in 2 days ... and it was all worth it. Actually the drive from Santos to Sao Paulo is not bad, only 1 hour. But then the fun starts. We spent 1 1/2 hours each way (each day) in the Sao Paulo traffic, which was horrible. Besides the bad traffic, the drivers in Sao Paulo are pretty bad, so that makes it even more fun. But it was all worth it, and God did a great work in the hearts of many students and teachers. 683 students and 13 teachers accepted Christ and committed their lives to Him. The church we worked with, Igreja Metodista Livre, did a great job, and they had 8 people to help us on Monday and 5 on Tuesday.

we were in the Sao Paulo traffic for 6 hours in 2 days

Nancy and I with part of the church teamInterpreters Eduardo & Victor and the church teamInterpreters Debra & Andre and part of our team

Brazilian Sunsets

Here are some sunset pictures we have taken in our new city of Santos. We love living here so far, and we are really looking forward to joining God in what He is doing here.

The Last School Of The Year

Next Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning (Nov. 23 & 24) we will be speaking in our last school for the year. The school is located in the East Zone of Sao Paulo. The school year in Brazil ends in early December, and then summer vacation goes on until mid or late February.

After that we will be having some more meetings in schools in Santos to see if we can schedule speaking events for 2010. At this point we need to schedule more schools for the 1st half of 2010, and we are trying to get them scheduled at least until the end of May before the school year is over. We will also be meeting with pastors and churches in Santos and the surrounding cities in December, January, and February to schedule preaching dates and other events to help the churches to share Christ in their areas. Please pray that God will open up many new doors for us to share the wonderful news of Jesus.

We Finally Moved

After a long process to buy our new apartment in Santos we finally were able to move this past Tuesday. We have been very busy getting settled in, and yesterday we unpacked our final box. We still have alot of organizing to do, and some painting and decorating to do also. We really love our new place and the city of Santos is a very nice place to live. Below are some more photos of Santos.

Tomorrow we will be going to church at Igreja Batista Marape to meet Pastor Sidney, who is very interested in working with us, escpecially in the schools here in Santos. He is a friend of our good friends Pastor Odilon and his wife Olga, who was the pastor in our Brazilian church in the US in Marietta GA. Our church had a Brazilian church there because many Brazilians live in the Atlanta area. We will be having some meetings later this coming week in more schools here, to schedule events for 2010. We were supposed to be speaking in a school in Sao Paulo on this coming Monday and Tuesday, but they had to reschedule the event for May 2010. So at this point we have only one more school to speak in this year - November 23 & 24 in Sao Paulo. We will be having meetings in schools until December and also with some pastors & churches, but our schedule will not be as demanding until the start of the new school year in late February 2010.