Celebrations In Brazil

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous thing, things planned long ago.  Isaiah 25:1

Hi everyone!
Time to get you up to date on our happenings on this side of the world again.

I will start with our Bible School in July. We had a good number of students this year. There were quite a good number of adolescents. We averaged 80+ per day. Our granddaughter was here and told the missionary story about Samuelita, the little Mexican boy. She dressed the part of the Mexican lady with the big hat. The kids loved the story and were really quite well behaved this year. A number of them responded to the invitation to ask Jesus into their hearts. As a result of this, we have started having regular meetings every other week with the ones from our neighborhood. We average 6 to 10 and last week we had a visitor. I am the granny and can help in any capacity and it has been fun getting to know these kids and pray for them. When they have an un-even number in games, guess who gets to help make the numbers even?? I am loving to get to know them better to be able to pray for them. My one desire is to see them come to a saving knowledge of Salvation.

This year, in August, we did not have our regional picnic with all our churches for lack of interest in most of the churches, so they postponed it. I missed it. Also, in August, Skip and I celebrated 59 years of wedded bliss. We had a quiet time but had no cake as I am sugar free anymore. Doing well at controlling my blood sugar. Takes some doing but it is pretty well stabilized. Also, my blood pressure has stabilized after two months of trying to get it down some and I think we have succeeded (Dr Humbert and I). I hope it works well for a long time.

September was mission’s month and we had a missionary speaker every Sunday. It worked out very well. One Sunday we had a group from the Bible School where our young lady is studying and she came as well. Two of these students are Indians from another mission church from the church where one of our missionaries last year ministers. A very dedicated group of kids. Josie is doing well in Bible School and loves it. She was the therapist for Skip since she went to college for that. We sure do miss her.

Had short videos of some of the missions the church supports. I would like to do that but have not succeeded yet. I need to get together with someone who knows the ropes and do it.

October brought us into Autumn and it seems just like summer. We are wondering how our summer will be. But we do have one or two days every week or so where it does cool down in the low 80’s.

I turned 83 on October 9th. Man am I ever thankful to God for all these years. I am so glad I am able to be up and around and especially help take care of Skip.

Also, on October 20th, we had our big yearly picnic with the other two of our churches in this area. It was a cold day that day and we had to have Skip stay inside as it was a little windy and all is open with just a roof over our heads. It is at a farm not too far from our place which works out well and there are no steps to go up and down. It was good to see and visit with old friends and meet new ones. We were around 70 people there and the message was really good and singing was good also.

The ladies’ ministry is still going strong and we are doing what we can to help the church and the pastor. However, we could do more but everyone is busy with jobs and time is so limited so we don’t visit nearly enough. We are planning a ladies’ retreat on the 23rd and 24th and will have about 30 ladies on our little farm where we go but we shortened the day as we have another regional ladies’ meeting on the 22nd and our leader wants as many of us to go as can so thus we had to shorten. The theme this year is “At The Feet Of Jesus”.

On the construction of the Church, we are hoping to get the floor in come December. Would be nice to have it in before Christmas.

Skip remains the same in handicap. Walks with his four-legged cane. His speech is improving more as the days go by and he manages to get out a word that helps to know what he is trying to say. He enjoys sitting on the back porch watching the birds in the trees behind our house. One morning I saw two beautiful Toucan birds flying from tree to tree. Wish I could have gotten a picture. He does not complain though he says his right side hurts constantly but sometimes more than others. He does greet the people in Portuguese now and repeats their greetings in Portuguese. I guess I can say he has his good days and his bad days.

We have a baptism on December 16, a lady and a young man.

We are so thankful for all of you who so faithfully pray for us and those who so faithfully give of your finances to keep us here. We appreciate you in our lives. Thanks for your love.

We praise the Lord:

• for your faithfulness in praying for us and we do feel His love for us and His help as you pray for us. Thanks so much!
• for the good number of adolescents who are coming out to learn about Jesus and His love
• for friends who are willing to help us.

Pray with us for:

• Skip’s health and mine too
• for our work with the adolescents
• wisdom for the leaders for the construction – that we can put in the floor in Dec.
• for our ladies’ retreat on the 22nd and 23rd

May you all have a great Thanksgiving with family and friends

Yours in Brazil,
Skip and Betty