June 2013 Newsletter
We’ve been in the city of Pacajá for a year now and working with our Brazilian team mates for six months. We’re in a neat phase of expectation and newness as we work together to establish a church here. We appreciate your prayers and support.
For six months now we’ve been meeting as a church in our garage. The group is slowly growing and we now have 4-5 families that come regularly. Logan and Justin are leading worship with Marsha, Justin on guitar and Logan on the drum. Our main focus at this early stage is getting to know people and getting known in our community. We’ve been having cookouts, get-togethers, visiting people, and anything else to get to know people personally.
Events focused around special days are great for building relationships. We had a film night for Good Friday and a Mother’s Day event that was extremely successful as we honored the mothers in attendance. 
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We seek to apply the Gospel to the daily reality of our community (its interests, its problems, its culture). To that end we’ve started a few outreaches.
One is a community development center we call CDR. CDR Pacajá is currently offering an English school, though we hope to offer more programs with time. English as a second language is a felt need of many Brazilians, even in a small rural community like Pacajá. Marsha is teaching introductory English and next semester we hope to offer two levels, Marsha teaching one and Logan the other.
Another activity we started is a weekly soccer game. Ferreira is the champion of this project and is doing a great job organizing and inviting new people.
Most soccer in Brazil is very competitive which ends up leaving out kids, older, injured, or busy enthusiasts. Our soccer group is much more recreational and relational. It’s turning out to be very relevant to a number of folks.
In March we broke ground on construction of a multi-purpose building. It will serve as our CDR building and the initial church building. In the future we hope to build a larger attached auditorium. Part of the project strategy is to get better known in the community as we run after material work with others, and visit with curious neighbors.
Two short-term teams, the Marabá church planting base, and a number of financial supporters have been a blessing to us as we undertake this large project. If you’re interested in helping out, please contact us.
We’ve been overseeing a small church plant in the interior (KM 120) for several years. The leaders there come from Maranhão, the next state over, and have a very large extended family there. For some time now Virgilio and Joana have wanted to share with their family how God has radically changed their lives.
Prayer requests:
