Thank you so much for your continued prayers. We are deeply grateful. We look forward to coming back to the USA. Please pray for us and our travels. Pray you enjoy the below update.
Thank you so much for your prayers for the church. The church has resumed to meet in the evening in person. In the beginning of coming back from the restrictions, we decided to only meet in the morning. Now that we are back to evening services we are starting to see an increase in attendance. Elba is doing a 4 part series on heroic faith. She has finished 2. The first was called confident faith, and it was surrounded by the life of Abraham. The second was called patient faith which was about the life of Job. During this time, we need more faith than ever.
Altamira was at level red, which is the highest level, about 2 months ago and it is now at level yellow. Praise the Lord the cases have dropped significantly after being so high for many months. Not sure if the herd effect is coming into play?? Essentially all business, parks and beaches are back open but people must continue to practice safety measures to dampen the spread of the virus. Public schools are still not open. The public schools do not have the mechanism of online schooling so the children go without. When you drive around the city, it is probably about 50%+ of people wearing mask now. Below is a picture of our beach in Altamira. I took this picture about 1 month ago, the crowds are getting bigger. Thankfully, since taking this photo, Altamira continues in level yellow. We pray for a return to level blue for Altamira and the rest of the world.
At the church, and us personally, we are still being cautious when we have interactions with other people.
In Brazil we celebrated Children’s day. The church did not want the children to be left out. So the children’s ministry did a “drive through” for the children. They came and the church was able to provide some treats for the children, a bit of entertainment, and get their photo taken. We regulated how many children could come in at a time. It worked really well, and the children appeared to enjoy. However, it is sad to see the kids wearing masks. We are praying this is only temporary. The last pictures are from a year ago. We look forward to having more children’s day like that one.Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
We are starting to prepare for our trip back to the States. We leave here the 27th and will arrive in the States on the 28th. We would appreciate your prayers. The girls continue to stay focused on their online schooling. They will continue their school via online when we are back in the States.
Continued prayers request:
· Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation that we help people draw close to God as we navigate this time.
· Please pray for Elba. She is still working through her migraines. We are praying. She is trying to regulate the medicine now due to bad side effects.
· Please pray for the Lord’s will, and for the buyer’s financial situation as we continue to move forward with the sale.
· The rejection of this virus from you, your family, friends, and to be thrown out of this universe forever.
· Our trip back to the United States. That we will have safe travels, and that our time will be fulfilling and productive.
Please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional and financial health for us.
Thanks and much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa
