April 2009

The preparations of last month paid off as the School of the Bible opened in March. 19 students began to study with us, in 2 classes (Tuesday evening and Saturday morning.) Four of those students have visited us on Sundays. They are Caio, Roseli, Marcia, and Valdivino. Marcia has asked for a study on baptism, which will begin next week. Please keep them in your prayers.

The School of the Bible on Tuesday night

Francisco is also studying with several people we would like you to pray for: Jorge and his three daughters; Serra and Albina; Aderson and his wife; Elito; and Analda. These are precious opportunities to preach Christ. Our attendance last month averaged 24, with 20 visitors during the month. The school of the Bible averaged 10 students per week.

A highlight last month was the trip the ladies took to the Metro congregation in São Paulo. Alessandra drove Cida, Analda (2 visitors), Liduina, Florinda, and Marcia to the all-day conference. They all returned invigorated and encouraged by the experience of being with so many Christian women (there were about 150).

(l. to r.) Floringda, Liduina, Analba, Alessandra, Cida, and Marcia

Our sermon series last month was about the one-another passages in the Bible. Love one another. Be patient with one another. Accept one another. Encourage one another. If we grow in these attitudes of mutual service, the church can't help but grow to be more like Christ, and grow in number as well.

Ladies invasions: The ladies of Praia Grande, along with Gilda Rodriguez from São Vicente, have been “invading” each other's homes each week and having an on-site devotional. These visits have been a great encouragement to our members, a gret opportunity to gtet to know each other, and even reach out. One of the invasions was at the home of our former neighbor, Claudia, whose daughters have participated in some of our youth activities.

The "invasion" of Claudia's house: Claudia and her daughter, Alessandra, Taynara, Jane, Liduina, Marcia, Ofenisia, and Gilda

The highlight of the month for our kids was the trip to the Zoo Safari in São Paulo. It is a drive-through zoo where you can see lions and tigers up close, as well as monkeys climbing on your car, and you can feed the deer and camels. The kids loved it and are begging to go back.

Missionaries by necessity have to wear many hats. I have been recently wearing the hat of a pedreiro, or bricklayer. We have put a small flower bed in the front of the church building and are working on finishing part of the loft to accommodate a small library. Bricklayer is the more traditional translation, but a pedreiro here really does everything from laying cement blocks and framing molds for poured concrete to laying tile. I have been working more with blocks, and will graduate to tile in a few weeks.

Couples event: March saw the first of what is going to be a regular couples event in Praia grande. Couples from São Vicente joined us, as well as a number of visitors, for a seminar on the rights ways to deal with marital conflict. That was followed by a wonderful dinner together. Chris gave the class, Marcia's mother Ofenisia watched the kids, and many others helped with the dinner. May God bless us with strong relationships and homes, to His glory, and to the strength of the church!

There is such a thing as "good conflict"?

Ofenisia with the kids

The fiood was GREAT!

Marcia and her husband, Edson, one of our regular visitors, and Alley

We are proud to announce the opening of the first of what we pray will be many of the church body's cell groups. We began a small study in the home of the Carlos and Adriana Guerrero family. We have had several visitors to the group, including their neighbors from both sides, and as a result Adriana's father Manuel has been coming regularly to worship with us on Sundays. Please pray for Manuel and Eva, whom we have been trying to reach for some time. Pray also that this group can grow and multiply as a true cell should.

We are very busy about the work here, with the constant prayer that business will not overshadow fruitfulness, nor distract from spirituality, but truly produce a spiritual return in the Kingdom. May God bless all of our work.

The congregation, with regular visitors Marcia, Valdivino, Analba, and Alley's sister and brother-in-law, Jefferson and Priscila

March 2009

This last month has been mainly focused on preparations for the opening of the School of the Bible. We will begin classes in March. Our first blessing of the month was the opportunity to buy desks for a very affordable price-about ten bucks each. So we brought them to the church building and repainted the ones that needed it most. We now have 18 nice school-style desks ready for our new and returning students.

Liduina and Alley help reorganize our classroom space

The Liras and Kelleys both had a wonderful surprise in the visit of Ken Lewis from the US. Ken is a former missionary and mentor for Francisco, and also the one who introduced Alley to Chris in the US. It was wonderful for our whole team to be reunited once again with such a good friend and brother. Thanks, Ken, for the visit!

As the preparations for the opening of the School of the Bible continued, I finally was able to contract a real phone line. I wired the outlets in our offices after they left us a wire dangling from the post, and we were able to make calls and follow up with everyone interested in the School of the Bible. Thanks, God, for the phone line. I had also hoped to get Internet through the same phone line, as I was told that DSL was available in our area. However, after much calling, it turns out that all the ports are full and the telephone company has no projected date for opening additional ports for Internet connections in our area. Who knows when we will have good Internet at the office.

Materials ready, calls made, fliers distributed. Class begins tonight!

We were able to pass out 3000 fliers as we got ready for the School of the Bible opening this year. The response was pretty good, with about 50 calls. Pray these contacts will come and fall in love with Jesus through our school and church body.

Pedro Sobrinho leads us for the first time as we take the Lord's Supper

The preaching theme for February was Grace. Grace in your life, and letting others experience grace as well. It was a wonderful breath of fresh air in a negative world to realize that someone loves us so much he would do the unthinkable just so we could have the chance to return that love. No guarantees that we would, just the chance. God loves us that much. May we all serve and obey Him diligently this month.

Worship service with visitors Edson, Jorge, and Nalda present

May our obedience lead to fruitfulness, and our efforts multiply into the growth and joy in the Kingdom that God wants so much for us to experience.

February

Hello everyone! This last month has been very rewarding for us. We hope that you all have been blessed and grown spiritually as well.
We averaged 24 adults and 7 kids for worship in January. January is summer here, so we always have the blessing of a few visiting families.

Liduina and the kids' class

In January we had the pleasure of hearing Carlos Guerrero preach again. Carlos is a very encouraging brother who always greets us with a smile. He is a dedicated brother who will be a blessing to the congregation as we work him into the worship schedule.

Carlos preaching in Praia Grande

Continent of Great Cities hosted a missionary conference in Itu the first week in January. Itu is just two hours from us, so we had the pleasure of five days of great teaching by Don McLaughlin from Hebrews, as well as treats from the US. The best part was meeting many other missionary families on the field, some whom we had not seen since our training in Abilene.

Don McLaughlin concludes our study of Hebrews

Missionary Conference participants in Itu

When we returned form the conference, it was time to run some tests on Jonathan. He has an undescended testicle, and will have to have surgery to correct it soon. He was born that way, but in Argentina we were told by his doctor to not worry about it. Here they said that it would have been corrected in the first year. We were a little shocked to discover that what we thought had been good care had in fact been lazy and primitive. So we set about getting the pre-surgery tests taken care of, which included a round of hormone shots that could have resolved the problem without surgery. They were six shots, one per day, in the bottom. Jonathan did a great job handling that, but by the end he was wary of even driving by the clinic. The last test was a blood test, and, well, it is hard for kids to have blood taken, especially when they are already very wary of needles. We were thankful for that to be over. So please keep Jonathan in your prayers as we schedule his surgery. We will try to let you know as things progress.

I continue to preach and teach classes in Praia Grande, and preach occasionally in São Vicente. While the School of the Bible has been out for the summer, I have been preparing the last part of our three-part course, which will begin in two weeks.
Aside from those normal activities, we organized a youth event in Praia Grande at the end of January. The theme was Summer! So we decorated with surfboards and beach umbrellas, made punch, and had a great time. When the kids arrived, we greeted them with some popular Hawaiian phrases. The game-show style activity and devotional were all aimed at teaching the kids to evaluate the message of the world, and decide who they should trust-God, or TV, the Internet, and friends. We hope this will be the first of many activities for the youth here in Praia Grande. There were 11 kids, and 8 adults helping with the event. Alley's sister and brother-in-law came down and helped us with the activities, adding the wonderful energy that only two thespians can. Thanks, Jefferson and Priscila!

Priscila, Chris, and Jefferson personify the messages of the world

Thanks to our lunch helpers, Ofenisia, Francisco, Marcia, and Silvana

"Mahalo na'a loi" or "Thanks for coming!"

The year is looking like it will be a busy and full one, and we hope and pray that that means growth in the church here through the School of the Bible, personal studies, visitors, youth activities, and everything we do. Please join with us in praying for four full classes, lots of open hearts, and the wisdom to do all that we can to preach the Gospel!

January 2009

The work in Praia Grande is going well. We average 22 on Sundays and are working on learning new songs. In December we were encouraged by many visitors from São Paulo. One of the families that visits us frequently is from Campinas, about three hours away. They love to stay and visit, and even treated us to pizza after worship. It is so nice to be appreciated!

We would like to give a special thanks to the Christ’s Heritage congregation in Lynwood, Washington. They graciously donated a digital projector to the work here.

The new digital projector

New possibilities open up with digital technology!

It is a wonderful and flexible tool for both outreach and worship. I was told about this special donation in a phone call on Sunday evening. I wanted you all to know it was the same evening the bulb burned out of the old overhead projector we had been using. I have no doubts that God is looking over the work here and blessing us. Many times that blessing comes through you.

Another special thanks goes out to the Kite family, who generously responded to a previous newsletter with a donation to help us with the church's legal fees as we try to set up our official non-profit status. Thanks for the timely help! We are currently awaiting the city's approval of the statute, at which point we will be official and can apply for a CNPJ number. This is our tax-exempt number that will allow us to recieve donations from businesses for food baskets, camp supplies, building materials, and even properties. Please pray that the process will continue smoothly.

The Holiday season is almost always a busy season, even though it may be a different sort of busy. I started off December with a urinary tract infection, which had me down with a fever for two full days. Then Christmas and New Years, which here on the coast means lines for everything. An hour to get to church (7 miles away). Lines of an hour in the supermarket. Parking gets scarce. The water pressure drops significantly, and in some neighborhoods, including the church building, there is no water at all on the 24th and 31st of December. The motorcycle helps me get through the traffic and park a little easier, but I guess I still like the laid-back pace more than hyper city speed.

Brazilians usually eat Christmas Dinner at midnight Christmas Eve, then open presents. It makes for a late night. In fact, at about 10:00 Christmas Eve, our neighbor Bete called Alley and told her that all her family had cancelled, and they were alone. Alley went over, and took some fajitas (our Christmas Eve dinner) for them to try. Alley stayed until after midnight, which in Bete's eyes was like forsaking her own family to be with theirs, so it meant a lot. We tried to be as American as possible for Christmas this year, which meant celebrating the next morning, so Alley was free to encourage this dear neighbor.

We had to work hard to convince our Brazilian family to try opening presents Christmas morning instead of Christmas Eve. After it was over, though, they all seemed to like it that way. Jonathan and Stephanie absolutely loved it-more for the presents than the schedule.

Chris carves his first Christmas bird(s). Turkey and Chester.

Christmas dinner was in the afternoon, outside, since the weather was nice (80 degrees). We took advantage of the fact that everyone was here to take a team picture too.

Please join with us in prayer for the Guerrero family. Carlos and Adriana had been struggling financially until about six months ago, when they both got new jobs. They had been growing in their faith and Carlos has even preached for us twice, but recently they have begun to be with us less often, and haven't come to worship for the last month. Please pray that they won't let the jobs God gave them become stubling blocks to their faith.

Our new sister in Christ, Florinda, got really sick last month with a bad flu. Alley stopped by to visit her and she could barely get out of bed. Florinda is retired, and didn't have much food in the house. Alley made a quick trip to the supermarket for some basic necessities, including coconut water, one of the best electrolytes there is for combatting dehydration. Florinda was so encouraged that she began to feel better right away. Florinda is working on putting one of her favorite Psalms to music.

We celebrated the end of the year with a pot luck on the last Sunday of December. Everyone brought different dishes and we spent around three hours eating and fellowshipping after worship. The end-of-the-year pot luck was delicious.

Gingerbread houses are irresistable!

It was truly a great evening, perfected by the lime mousse for dessert, made by Edson (a professional cook, and regular visitor). We then invited everyone to our house to ring in the new year later on that week.

Marcia and Carol checking email. We started our New Years party about 10 am.

Marcia and her son Lucas and her mother Ofenicia came, along with Francisco and Liduina, Florinda, Alley’s sister Priscila and her husband Jefferson, and her cousin Carol. So we had a full house and a wonderful time of fellowship.

Chris and Lucas playing LEGO Star Wars

Lucas got a haircut in the afternoon, and Chris did after that!

Priscila, Ofenicia, Liduina, and Marcia preparing dinner

Marcia's mother, Ofenicia, is a member of the church from Aracaju, Recife, in NE Brazil. She wrote a letter to the church in Sao Vicente looking for a congregation for her daughter and son-in-law to attend. Adauto showed the letter to Francisco, who went to visit with Marcia and Edson. When we inaugurated the building in December of 2007, Ofenicia came and brought Marcia with her. Since then she has been a faithful member, and even volunteers to help Francisco and I clean the building every Friday. She is a dear sister to us. Please keep Edson, her husband, in prayer, as he is considering baptism but still has a few doubts.

New Years dinner

They have a fireworks display at the beach every year, so all went down to the water to ring in the New Year and watch the show. Everyone loved it, except Stephanie, who is terrified of fireworks.

Another highlight of the month was meeting as a team to plan next year’s calendar of events. We spent four hours together thinking through sermon topics, youth and married activities, ladies events, and everything we could think of in order to get ahead of the game next year and be as fruitful as possible in helping the church grow. I look forward to describing each event to you all as they happen.
May God bless you all in 2009. May it be a year filled with purpose, faith, hope, joy, peace, and love, as we each grow to be more like Christ; our Savior, our example, and friend.
Chris and Alley Kelley

December 2008

Dear supporters, family, and friends,

We thank God daily for your prayers and support. You truly are a part of the mission here in Praia Grande, Brazil, even though you may never get the chance to see the work here firsthand (in this life). Please continue to remember us in your prayers, for boldness in speaking the good news, for health, and for the safety and growth of our children.

Alley started off November attending a week-long women's missionary conference hosted by Continent of Great Cities (http://www.greatcities.org/). It was a time of deep encouragement and renewal for the women who participated, and Alley was truly blessed in many ways by the experience. Thanks, CGC! Thanks also to Liduina who helped me with the kids while Alley was gone.

We have been involved helping the team that will be moving to Brazila next year in several ways, but this time it was one of the members of the team who helped us. Otavio Calegari offered to come to Praia Grande and give two lessons on sermon preparation. Several members from
São Vicente participated, as well as Pedro and Eduardo, two of our newest members. The Brazilia team will be leaving for Brazilia in January.

(Left to right) Members of the Brazilia team: Junior and Patricia lira, Renato and Carol Pereira, Alessandra and Otavio Calegari.

At the end of November we had the privilege of participating in a goodbye conference for family members of the team in São Paulo, at which Otavio's mother finally decided to be baptized!

Otavio (right) and his sister (left) accompany their mother as she confesses Jesus as Lord.

I can't imagine a better way to begin their work in Brazilia.

We took a little "break" in the middle of November to go to São Paulo for a number of things. The first was that we made the final payment (in Brazil) on our house, and recieved the title. It took half a day of signing and bank transfers, but it was an inportant step for us as homeowners. The next day we picked up Junior and Patricia Lira at the airport, who were returning from two months of fundraising in the states. It was great to be reunited with family and be helpful in hauling all the luggage to their house. Th bonus was that they were carrying a serious payload of things our family had been holding, waiting to send to us via someone travelling to Brazil. So we had an early Christmas with Junior and Patricia, opening things like Red Vines, Zip-Lock bags, marshmallows, and most important of all, Peanut Butter. We can't get those things here so it is wonderful when people send us a taste of home. Thanks to all who participated in those care packages!

A day later, while still in São Paulo, we attended the wedding of Patricia's sister. The next day we finally returned home. It was good to stay with family and be there when they needed us.

Church members sharing pizza after worship. The pizzeria is next door to our building.

The church continues to prosper here. Eduardo, a member through the School of the Bible, finally found a job. Francisco, who was having a lot of leg pain, has been doing physical therapy and is recovering well. He walks with a cane, and probably should from now on, but the pain is gone and he is able to make his visitation and study rounds much better now. We still average about twenty on Sundays, but continue to recieve visitors on a regular basis.

(Left to right) Marcia, Liduina, and Edson , after worship service

Edson, Marcia's husband, worship with us regularly. Paulo and his son João visited recently. Paulo is the brother of Antonio, one of my students in the School of the Bible.

November brought the conclusion of Module 2 of the basic Bible course in the School of the Bible. Of my first 15 students, 2 continue faithfully (Eduardo is already a member). Next year we will reopen with Module 3, as well as the first two. Please pray that we can find a great group of students who will be truly interested in the Word and living it out in thier lives.

In all the hustle down here, I forgot about Thanksgiving until someone mentioned it to me in a phone call (the day before). Alley and the rest of the family here jumped to put together a delicious Thanksgiving meal, with a little Brazilian flavor thrown in. It was one of the most meaningful in my life, though, because I was feeling far from home. Thanks, Alley.

It's not, truly, how much you have, but with whom you share it, that makes the difference. We wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year wherever you are. May God bless you all as you seek to grow in the faith and knowledge of the Lord, and as we share together in the work of the Kingdom.

Chris

November 2008

Dear Friends, family, and supporters,

October has been a very active month, for both Alley and I and the kids. We have really been kept on our toes over the last few weeks. Surprises do have a way of finding us, don't they?

I have been working hard on the development of the church statute here in Praia Grande, which is the legal document that will allow us to function as a non-profit legal entity here in Brazil. It is quite complicated at times, and though we are working with a lawyer, he doesn't always understand our doctrine or church structure, so it depends on me in many ways to get done. I don't mind learning the process, as it will help me serve the congregation here in the future. Recently we finishied the final draft and submitted it to the Prefecture (city government) for approval. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the cost of finalizing all the documents would be over $2000 dollars! We had about half that on hand, but still need another $1000 in order to recieve the documents when they are completed (about two weeks from now). Please pray for this need, and if anyone is, in spite of the financial situation in the US right now, capable of helping us with this need, please let me know as soon as possible. Without these documents the church here will continue to operate as an underground (illegal) entity, and I believe we need to do everything we can to comply with the law of the land.

We are still averaging 21 people in worship, with visitors present every week. Marcia, one of our newest members, volunteered to help us clean the building on a regular basis, which was a big help. After getting things cleaned up, Francisco usually makes a snack and hosts an informal study. Eduardo is nearly always there to help as well, which makes for great fellowship.

Construction in front of the church is nearly finished, which has increased the flow of pedestrian traffic and our own visibility. We hope this will gain us some more contacts and visitors.

In a windstorm, our sign blew down just as they were ripping up the sidewalk. It looks MUCH better than this now!

The School of the Bible will close for the year after our final exams in December. Eduardo is the most faithful of all the students, but there is still a small group who is seeing the course through to the end. Carlos, Carlos Antonio, and Edmilson are all wonderful students, and I ask that you pray for them by name as they study with us. Also, please pray for Ana and Emilene, who have not been able to continue, but whom I hope will return next year.

Eduardo is the son of Dick Farney, jazz musician of "Copacabana" fame

Did you know that phone lines can rust? If you have enough humidity in the house, they can! We have lost phone and internet on two separate occasions due to humidity inside the house corroding our phone lines and causing loss of signal. Hopefully our new, shielded wire will do better than the last one! In addition to the corrosion problem, our communication situation suffered again when Service Pack 3 crashed our computer, and we had to wipe the hard drive and reinstall from scratch. Thankfully, I am learning a little from the past, and had a great complete backup that made it very easy.

I have been watching the kids a lot recently. Alley and the other ladies of the congregation were invited to organize the games at the Ladies Conference in Vargem Grande Paulista. Marcia, Liduina, and Alley all participated, along with ten other women, and organized games and fun time for 400 women! In the history of the event, never have that many women participated in the games, but with Alley's talents of persuasion, everyone participated this year. Due to the great contacts she made there, we have been invited to direct the Jr. Teen camp next year as well. The biggest shocker last month was definately the car incident. We lock our car at all times since the kids like to get inside and push the buttons. However, that didn't stop Jonathan from climbing up, grabbing the keys, opening the door, startign the engine, and putting the car in reverse. He drove it backwards, scraping along the wall of the house, and into the bicycles. I was working in the back at the time and took quite a shock to see him go by. He was a little scared too, but not hurt. The car suffered greatly, though, with a broken window, mirror, and a dorr and two panels damaged. After freaking out, calming down, and calling the insurance, we had the privilege of repairing the car to the tune of a thousand bucks. Note: the insurance wouldn't cover the damage because Jonathan wasn't a licensed driver.

One of the highlights of the work here is the privilege I have to be studying with Pedro and Marcos. Pedro is a new convert, less than a year old. He is very shy, but asked us to train him to pray, read scripture, and preach! SO we meet together weekly to study and practice the basics of public service. Pedro has an attitude that brightens the room every time he arrives, and gives hugs like a bear. I know his presence will bless the congregation as he continues to grow into his dream: to preach the book of James.

Pedro, studying

I also continue to study with Marcos Serrano, a member fo the Sao Vicente congregation. He preached last Sunday for the first time since we have been working on sermon preparation. It gives me great joy to see this young man put into practice the techniques I am teaching him, but even more importantly, put into practice the Word itself. Pray for both of these "young" men as they grow in their ability to serve the Lord.

Marcos Serrano

We would like to send a big thanks to our newset supporters, Christ's Heritage church in Lynwood, WA., and the Kersey family. Thank you very much for helping in the work here in Brazil. May God use us together to build a strong and loving church family here, to the glory of the Lord.

With uncertainty everywhere, let me remind us all that it is not in physical things that we have our hope. Our sense of security shouldn't be in our retirement or savings. Instead, as members of a spiritual Kingdom, our treasure is stored in heaven where moth and rust can't degrade, and thieves can't steal. I hope that our hearts are truly there, and therefore, our treasures, and that no matter what the scenario economically, we can smile and trust that our futures are truly secure. May God bless you all.