We have been traveling for personal vacation time which was very nice and needed. We ended our time in Brasilia and the church asked Elba if she was interested in hosting a woman’s conference. She agreed and spoke to the women. During the conference she talked about the empowerment and transformation of women in ministry and encouraged the women to step up into leadership.
As a strong woman leader in a predominant male hierarchy culture, Elba is unique because women in leadership is not embraced by everyone with welcoming arms especially in the North where we serve, but also in the South of Brazil. It is a fight not only to be heard as a woman, but to be respected and to have authority. Elba has done a great job in establishing and positioning herself as a woman leader, and is passionate to keep empowering and pushing through the resistance and removing all of the barriers. We really believe that if we are to evangelize this world, we all need to participate and lead.
After the conference, Elba spoke at 2 of the churches in Brasilia. During Elba’s preaching she wanted to make it clear to the congregation by saying “you invited me to come and speak to the women and empower them, I believe that was accomplished, so now, let them do it.” It seems clear to us.
After the conference we went to our missionary care retreat. The missionary care retreat is awesome as it allows all of our missionaries to come to one place and be with one another. Our missionaries are now spread out distance wise and almost all of our missionaries are serving alone. Serving alone in a foreign land with a different culture is difficult and challenging. Day by day we walk out the call of God in our lives and our dependency to lean into the Holy Spirit is crucial. Community with other missionaries who are walking out that same journey is incredibly refreshing, re-energizing, and encouraging. We highly value this time. We were grateful for Danny and Penny Meyer to come to minister to all of us.
My sister Lynn came down as well, and she helped with child care at the retreat while we were in the meetings
Unfortunately, during our travels our cat, Bob, passed away. It was very sad and there were tears. He was a good cat, extremely smart and a good rat killer. We will miss our Bob. During that same time, one of our dogs had a litter of pups. They are cute and are just learning how to start walking around.
We appreciate you so much for all your prayers and support. May the Lord’s joy and comfort be upon you always.
Please pray for spiritual, physical, and emotional health for us.
Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa
