Missão Xingu: Blaylocks in BrazilHello Friends, June is celebration month around here! This month Amanda and I celebrated 17 years of marriage! We deeply enjoy each other’s company, and have felt God’s smile upon our marriage. Our sweet kids also prepared a “surprise ceremony” for us to commemorate the occasion. This month Amanda and I both turned 40! My birthday is exactly seven days after hers. I like to say its because God made her and then seven days later His work was complete! She likes to roll her eyes at me when I say that. We were able to mark the special occasions with some local friends, with each other, and with the well wishes, phone calls, texts, and videos so many of you sent. Thank you for your love and support. Here in Brazil there is also Festas Juninas during this month. While celebrated in all parts of Brazil, the Northeast part of the country where we live takes these celebrations to a whole new level. Ive never seen so many official public holidays in one month. These festivals are akin to harvest festivals and also align with several important events in the traditional Church calendar. People dress up in traditional, farmer-style clothing, light large bonfire, have fireworks, tradional Forró music, and prepare many traditional dishes. Needless to say, it has feels like this month has been one-long celebration. In the midst of all this there has been both some amazing times of ministry, and times of sorrow and hardship in the church here (more below). Thank you all for your love and support. Thank you for celebrating our family. And thank you for your prayers! Love, The Blaylocks Prayer Request
Ministry UpdateWe currently have two groups started that are on the path to eventually becoming churches. Last month, I wrote about the unexpected passing of someone from one of these groups. And then we had a round of flu and Dengue fever sweep through it. So it has been a hard month of lament and recovery from illness. We seem to be getting on the other side of that, and last week we were able to get together for the first time in about a month for dinner, celebration of each other’s company, and some planning for next steps. We have seen some multifaceted growth in the group that currently meets in our house these last few weeks. There are some new people coming. Some of that is the result of relational outreach. Some of that is a result of people “doing the stuff” – that is noticing what the Father is doing and joining Him the work of supernatural ministry in the community. We have been experiencing a remarkable guidance of the Holy Spirit during our times of sitting under The Word together, and the entire group has been feeling engaged and empowered in the work of the Five Step Prayer Model during our Ministry Time. Everybody gets to play! In two weeks we have a friends of ours coming from the Vineyard in Puerto Rico. Eileen is a retired physician who is also trained in the areas of trauma, inner healing, and prayer ministry. We will be hosting a week long clinic on these topics working with various groups that have either been the victims of abuse and trafficking, are experiencing burnout and compassion fatigue, carrying church hurt, or are wanting to invite Jesus into other places of wounding. Please pray for grace, healing, and love for these clinics along with wisdom as we pastor these folks on the other side of this event. Until Next Month!
© 2025 Derek Blaylock
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