I'm sitting down now with my mind and heart full but completely exhausted. The 19 children that came to the children's program today are a handful. Each one of them is so special. They get in so much trouble. These are not the typical American children that understand obeying rules and respecting authority, at least a little bit. These children are completely uncontrollable and wild. It's been quite a challenge to give the lessons, which Todd has been giving in Portuguese, and have our voices heard over all these children. Now we know why everyone uses amplifiers and microphones, even in small gatherings like these.
BUT, it was so amazing! Today we gave out three Bibles to the first three children, all girls, who memorized the 5 verses of the colors of the Wordless Book.
AND, it made the other children excited to memorize the verses so they can receive their own Bible. We even got a special one for the first boy who memorizes the verses. And two boys really worked hard today and memorized 2 verses each.Praise with us for:
- Wonderful numbers in the children's program. We feel we are getting to know more of the children personally.
- Wonderful opportunities to share the Gospel message clearly.
- Wisdom in dividing our kids into two groups--to make it more manageable and less chaotic.
- Opportunities to go deeper with these children--several show promise and seem very interested in the Word of God!
- Opportunities to meet the parents of the children.
We just arrived back in Croata from a week-long trip to Fortaleza. The first part of the trip we renewed our passports, bought the Bibles for the kids' club, and showed our car we were trying to sell, besides general running around we needed to do. We praise the Lord for His provision of a buyer for our car! This took such a burden off our backs. We've been trying to sell the car since May and haven't really had any takers. The car's a good car, but automatic, which is fairly new here, causing fewer people to be interested. But we were able to sell it for enough to reimburse our work funds account with the mission, since we bought the pickup on that account. The pickup fits our needs much better interior, so we praise the Lord for His provision all around.
During this last week we also got to see Julie's sister-in-law and niece and nephew who came to visit family in Fortaleza. And we were involved in a spiritual retreat for the Avant Missionaries here in Brazil. Our pastor-to-missionaries, Phil and Sylvia Schroeder, came down to give us some wonderful devotionals. We spent time in prayer and sharing as well, and left much encouraged and refreshed.
There have been some very personal discouraging things happen in the last couple weeks, so we really needed this time to refocus and regroup. But as always, even during the discouraging times, we see God's blessing. He has provided for us to be able to go back to the U.S. on Home Assignment for a few months, and we see a real potential in our ministry here in Croata. We have been offered some possibilities of helpers to work alongside us here in Croata. God has His wonderful way of keeping His eye on us, watching over us and caring for us, giving us the encouragement that we need. God is so good, kind, and loving. We cannot complain.
Praise with us for:
- Selling our car--bringing our mission account to the black
- Being able to go back to the U.S.
- Very good time of encouragement with the other missionaries
Please pray for:
- Contacting churches in the U.S. for our furlough/travel plans
- A personal friend going through a difficult crisis
- Safety on the roads--not only is the traffic terrible with constrant threat of accidents, we have heard increasingly of robberies on the highways between here and Fortaleza.
- Continued readjustment to living in Croata--the heat, the dirt in the house, buying groceries, cooking, cultural adjustments, isolation, language barriers, etc.
Thank you for your prayer and encouragement. We are so grateful to be here, being used by the Lord to share the Gospel with children. We do pray that God would guide into how He wants to accomplish the reaching of this community for Christ. It is He who reaches hearts and minds, it is we that need to obey Him "in the doing".
Serving together in Christ,
Todd and Julie Hendry, Michaela and Samuel
