He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Matthew 28:6. Happy belated Easter!!! Praise the Lord, He is Risen!!! Thanks for all your prayers for the church, Brazil, and us.
Almost the exact moment that I sent out last month’s update, the city went into a very restrictive lockdown. The lockdown was due to the infection rate spreading rapidly, and the completely over capacitated hospitals to which I have been told that people are still waiting to get in the hospitals.
Vaccines are being administered for anyone over 60 years old. However, I understand that they are not going below 60 because they are running out of vaccines, and they want to make sure they have the 2nd round of shots for the ones that received their 1st shots. They are giving the vaccine called Sinovac, and Astra Zeneca. I will have to confess that when I heard that they were giving vaccines to 16 and up in some parts of the USA. It really makes me miss that 1st world privilege.
So, for the last month, we have been completely doing on-line services. We will be going back to church in person this Sunday but at a very restrictive capacity. We will also continue to do 2 services so that we can get people into the building and continue to comply with the spacing restrictions and not crowd into 1 service. The church family really wants to be back at the church.
As a church we have been helping to buy groceries for the ones in need in the community. We have distributed a lot of food and we feel blessed to be able to help in this way. We have also given food baskets to our other churches to help people in their community. These 2 ladies were so grateful and emotional because of the help. One of them said that she had just paid the rent, but did not have anything left to buy groceries. The food basket and hot meal came at the perfect time. God organized it all for His glory! In addition, we have been helping people with medical procedures.
The girls are doing well. They are still doing on-line school, and this is keeping them busy. They certainly miss the social aspects of being with their friends. It is tough, but they believe it is the right thing to do at the moment. Most of their social interaction is through online, except, Alyssa likes to jump on the trampoline with her cousin who lives next door in the rain. As you can, our trampoline is stretched to the max!!! LOL
We appreciate your continued prayers:
- Please pray for our church, leadership, and congregation that we help people draw close to God as we navigate this time.
- The rejection of this virus from you, your family, friends, and to be thrown out of this universe forever.
- Please pray for Elba and I that we may hear clearly where to put our focus and energy in this next phase of our lives.
- Please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional and financial health for us.
Much love, Steve, Elba, Camilly, and Alyssa
