Missão Xingu: Blaylocks in BrazilHello Friends, I hope this newsletter finds you well and enjoying your summer. This past month has been an incredible month both in our personal lives and in the ministry here in Jampa. This month we celebrated Josiah turning 10 years old! We are so proud of him – he is thoughtful, kind, hilarious, and quite the critical thinker! He is also our resident Minecraft expert and lego master. We celebrated his birthday by doing all of his favorite activities, eating his favorite foods, storing loot in his new Minecraft chest, and to top it all off, he gained his first stripe on his belt in Jiu-Jitsu to recognize his hard work and dedication to the sport. We are also grateful for our blossoming Danilo and Gabriela along with their two sweet kiddos. Danilo is an English teacher and their household is very fluent which certainly helps us communicate better! This couple is warm, engaging, fun, and hospitable. We appreciate them very much. We met them through a weekly Pickleball match, which has been ton of fun, and have appreciated their participation in group with their love and insights. Below is our ministry updates for the month, along with our prayer request. Thank you for journeying with us in this and for your love, prayers, financial support, and encouragement. Love, The Blaylocks Prayer Request
Ministry UpdatesPictured above from left to right is Eileen, Selah, Rachel, Laly, Derek, Jen, and Phil. Jen and Phil are our good friends and fellow gospel coworkers here in the city. They run an organization called Hope Ministries which seeks to help women in prostitution and trafficking situations leave that life through benevolence and support, job training, and becoming disciples. We do our best to assist them in this endeavor and likewise they work with us in forming these new groups and churches. Laly is their soon-to-be daughter-in-law! Rachel is an amazing young woman currently serving at a church in Rio and is considering moving here to Jampa to serve with Jen and Phil. We enjoyed meeting her, and especially appreciated the way she loved and doted on our kiddos. Eileen is a friend of mine and student at the School of Sustainable Faith. She is a retired medical doctor and is trained in trauma and inner healing ministry. She was gracious enough to give of her time, expertise, and resources to come lead these workshops for us. This past month we hosted two different trauma and inner healing workshops. The first was a three night event with a group of more mature disciples who help in both of our ministries here. The Holy Spirit used Eileen in a might way to bring some much needed healing, naming of burnout and trauma, and prayer ministry for this amazing team. She also facilitated a one day workshop for some of the ladies who the Lord has rescued out of those horrible situations. These ladies are new believers and have a lot of healing yet to come in their lives. That one day of ministry was powerful! In the few weeks following this these women have been on fire for the Lord, are sharing their faith, praying for people (and seeing God miraculously answer prayer for physical healing!) and have generally felt strengthened in their faith. Additionally, this month we have been very encouraged by seeing some fruit from our labor here. We have been looking for more ways to be active in the community so we can meet more people. Over the past few months these relationships have grown, and we are seeing increased attendance in church as a result! One of the ways we are interacting with our community is that Amanda and I joined a local Muay Thai studio. We were the only 2 people in the class time we chose to attend, but felt like God told us to stay at that time. One day in class, Derek felt God prompting him to bring up a certain word. He found a way to casually bring it up in conversation, and this connected with our Muay Thai teacher. This led to a personal conversation and an invitation to church, which he and his girlfriend attended that weekend. At church he was brave enough to share his heart and some hard things, despite being with many people he had never met before. The people in our church surrounded this couple with love, and spent a great deal of time praying for them and encouraging them. It was so neat to see “everyone gets to play” that night! Every person participated in loving on this couple! Some got words of knowledge and boldly shared with them, some prayed for them out loud while others prayed silently, and some received a mental picture to share with them. This is the very heart and soul of Vineyard ministry and we are so happy to be a part of it! Until next month! Peace!
© 2025 Derek Blaylock
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