July Amazon Update!

Jul, 20

Praise the Lord that God continues to give the church grace and favor by helping others come into a loving relationship with Him. What an amazing privilege that we get to help others find Him. The church continues to receive new people into the church, and lives are being changed. We are so grateful. Please continue to pray for us to continue to reach out more into the community and be a church that is welcoming and life transforming.

We had our yearly pastors retreat this month. We had most of our pastors in the North of Brazil come for a week to get retooled, and rest. The week long retreat gave the pastors time to reflect, and reconnect with one another. The objective of the retreat was not to cram teaching down their throat but to allow them to step away from the work, rest and have some fun. We brought up a specialist from Rio de Janeiro to talk about family dynamics, what causes stress and how to identify it in their lives. It is very easy for pastors to neglect themselves and their families in an effort to help others. We have seen many people in ministry get burned out because of this very reason. We are always trying to be proactive to prevent this from happening to the pastors and leaders.

Alyssa turned 7 on July 4^th. What she wanted the most was for Brazil to win their match, and fortunately they did. We will not mention the games that proceeded this win. Alyssa had a nice birthday party, and then had a sleep over. I am not sure how much sleep was actually achieved but they had a great time. Here they all are for their princess morning breakfast. Also, Camilly and Alyssa’s hair turned green and yellow for their love of Brazilian soccer.