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