October 2008 already!

It seems like just last week that I finally got my last newsletter out to you all... wait, it was just last week. Well, with internet working, communication is soooooooooooooooo much easier!

September has been a busy and rainy month here. To begin, the road on which the church and School of the Bible is located is under construction. They ripped up the old road and are putting in a boulevard with bike path down the middle. This will be very nice and increase foot traffic where we are located, and hence, our own visibility and advertising. But for the present, it is just a big mud pit up to our door. The construction generates significant noise as well, so in order to make the best of it we moved our School of the Bible classes upstairs next to my office, which has worked out very well.

The School of the Bible is currently offering classes Tuesdays from 7:30-10:00 pm, Thursdays from 7:30-10:00 pm, and Saturdays from 10:00 am to 12:30 and 3:00 to 5:30 pm. Our current students are Eduardo (who is now a member of the congregation here in Praia Grande), Ana, Carlos, Edmilson, Antonio, Emilene, and Donato. Please keep them in prayer, as with the rain, they haven't been very consistent (except Eduardo). Many of them come by bicycle or motorcycle, or even by moto-taxi, so the rains really do dampen their spirits (pun intended).

The kids are doing well.

Jonathan sports an expression that is a cross between "What, me worry?" and "Bond... James Bond."

Leticia

Lucas

Stephanie and Isabelle
Lucas, Jonathan, and a visitor

Alley and Liduina took the ladies of the congregation to a conference for women in Ipiranga. It was the first time that Marcia and Florinda were able to participate in an event for ladies in the church, and they loved it.

Marcia Santana holds Stephanie

Marcia and Florinda, who was baptized two months ago

Our congregation is doing well. I would like to remind you of the people who worship with us so that you can be praying for them by name.

Francisco and Liduina Lira, Alley's parents and our coworkers

Marcia Santos Santana and her son, Lucas. Her husband Edson is a regular visitor that we hope will be baptized soon.

The Guerrero Family: Carlos, Adriana, Isabelle, and Leticia (above)

Eduardo Dutra e Silva Neto, a member who made contact through the School of the Bible (above)

Dona Florinda was baptized two months ago after a study with Francisco. Her husband visits regularly with us.

Pedro Sobrinho, our first baptism

The Rodriguez family: Adauto, Janette, and Ailton are members at Sao Vicente who attend with us and have been a great help as the work begins. Ailton and Adauto both give classes and preach.

Valdir, and his children Marcos, and Vanessa, are also members of Sao Vicente and regularly attend with us in Praia Grande. Marcos regularly helps with songleading.

Last weekend was voting day. Here in Brazil the vote is mandatory, so it is a day filled with activity as many travel, and of course it is the season for politics. The most popular form of advertising here is not TV or even radio, although they are used. The most common thing to do is get a car and mount speakers on top, and pay people to drive around, blasting the jingle of a certain candidate. They also stand at street corners and wave big flags, and of course pass out a lot of flyers.

As a church we got together on voting day, and at Pedro's suggestion, had a pot luck. Pedro himslef made a wonderful feijoada, which is black beans and sausage, among other things. Others brought dessert, salad, and drinks. It was our first real congregational meal, and we all had a wonderful time. Pedro has a fantastic attitude and wants to learn to preach. We are already studying with him toward that goal. He also makes a great feijoada.

Last week, after 7 months of construction, the electric fence was finally installed, and improvements on the house have ended (except for those little things). We are very glad that the house is much more secure now, and that we won't have crews in our house working anymore for a while.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers for the congregation here, and for the effectiveness of our work. The Lord is blessing us, and we pray that the results so far are but the firstfruits of a great harvest here.

May 2008 Newsletter

Well, our lives are quite the fruit basket upset with all that is going on down here. Between construction, the church, studies, School of the Bible, youth activities, and being parents, we are pretty busy. We long for the day when the construction is finished and we can walk in the house without feeling rubble crunch under our feet. (Do you ever stop to thank God for the clean floor in your house? I suggest you do it right now if you haven’t. God does use experiences like this to remind us to be grateful.) The kids don’t seem to notice the crud, however, and love to walk barefoot anyway. Stephanie especially seems to hate wearing shoes, socks, and sandals. She has taken her shoes off as many as 20 times in one day. How can we convince her that broken ceramic tile has sharp edges?

Construction on the front wall is almost complete

The house is looking a lot better now

Enrique, our electrician. He and his wife will be studying with Francisco and Liduina beginning Tuesday.

Ricardo (top) and Tiago working on the side wall of the house. Ricardo and his wife are studying with Francisco and Adauto on Thursday nights. Tiago is interested in the School of the Bible, but his current schedule doesn't allow him to attend.

Alessandra working with the kids to make cards for Mother's Day

Alessandra and the kids' class decided to make origami to present to the mothers of the congregation on Mother's Day. Lucas taught the origami, the girls made cards, and Chris made lunch. The best part is that the idea came from the kids themselves. Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there!

Jose and Audiclea, recent members who moved to Praia Grande from the state of Bahia

Claudio (right) is one of our newest members. He brought his daughter Claudia (middle) and granddaughter Richele (left) to visit worship services

Carlos and Adriana Guerrero, and their daughters Isabele and Leticia

Life is about normal for the kids in spite of the construction mess

Worship in São Vicente

20 people in our house (11 came unannounced) makes for a lively evening

Nivaldo and Francisco chatting before School of the Bible class

The school of the Bible is going well. We are well into our study of the Old Testament, and though we have lost a couple students, mostly due to busy schedules, they all remain very interested and committed. Please pray for these students: Nivaldo, Eduardo, Edmilson, Neuse, Luis, Elma, Claudio, and the Rodrigues family.

Luis and Elma, a couple attending the School of the Bible on Saturday mornings

School of the Bible class on Saturday morning

We had our first youth activity ever on the Santos coast here in Praia Grande two weeks ago. There were 10 youth from the Praia Grande and São Vicente congregations (including 2 visitors) and 4 adults. We opened the activity with some Bible trivia games, then Junior Lira gave a lesson about the rich young ruler. We finished with a snack of sandwiches provided by our adult volunteers (Liduina and Janete). Both the youth and the organizers were very glad to finally begin a work dedicated to youth here on the coast. May God bless our future activities and contacts to be fruitful in taking the Gospel to the youth here.

Please continue to pray for our newest members in Praia Grande: Claudio, Pedro, Carlos and Adriana, Jose and Audiclea. They are dealing with the challenges that normally come with an increased commitment to Christ. May God bless us all as we grow and conform to the image of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is for that reason that He saved us on the cross: that people all over the world become like Him, even from cultures and places that are very different. Then He will truly be the first among many brothers.

Chris and Alley Kelley

April Newsletter

First of all, we want to thank all of you who have been praying for our safety over the last month. We appreciate it deeply. Safety continues to be a concern for us as we work on the house and try to establish routines after the attack, both at home and at work. God has been with us and we trust firmly that if He wants us here, and we believe he does, then here we will stay until He decides otherwise, and not anyone else. But we do try to do all in our power not to temp fate.

We began last month with a neighbors meeting to talk about security. We met the neighbors, had barbecued hamburgers, and visited for about two hours. There was a firm commitment

from all that we would watch out for each other, especially while leaving and arriving, and be each other’s security service. Our neighbors are all very nice and we feel grateful for the opportunity to meet them all, build relationships, and share the good news with them.

Our house continues to be under construction. The front wall is almost done now, lacking only the final stonework and the installation of the new doors. Work has begun on the back of the house (breaking the existing wall) in order to upgrade the wall to be able to accept the electric fence. While this is a nuisance in the short term, it will be great to have the added safety once it is done.

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on March 17th. We treated ourselves to an evening in São Paulo and a concert. It was a wonderful moment of peace in a busy section of our lives.

Chris continues to study with Marcos from São Vicente and Pedro, our newest member. Claudio, a regular visitor for the last month, placed membership on Sunday. He is very excited to continue learning and has enrolled in the School of the Bible on Saturdays.

The School of the Bible is finally open! We opened on the 25th of March, a terribly rainy day, but in spite of that have 13 students now enrolled: Neuse, Edmilson, and Nivaldo on Tuesday evenings, Lourdes and her daughter Adraiana on Wednesday afternoon, and Adauto, Jane, Ailton, Claudio, Luis, Elma, Eduardo, and Marly on Saturday mornings. Marly is a visitor in our small group that meets at the Rodriguez home. Please pray for these new students. They are all eager to deepen their understanding of God’s word, and therefore, His will.
The Churches of Christ have an annual men’s retreat called ENOC and a corresponding ladies’ retreat called ENOCA. We were blessed with the chance to participate this year and met many wonderful members of the church from all over Brazil. Jonathan really liked the jungle gym.

We are thankful to those of you who wrote letters of appreciation to our neighbors and the police who helped us the night of the assault. Last week we had the chance to go and present the letters to the sergeant of the police battalion nearest to us. He was very gracious and pleased to receive them. We offered our help to anyone in the department who might need spiritual counseling or study, as people who risk their lives daily for other’s safety. He invited us to return and talk to the Captain when he was there, and we made arrangements to do just that.

Crime still continues to be a problem here. The other day while Chris was at driving school to get his license renewed a man was shot 3 times while trying to foil a robbery attempt down the street from the school. Later during the day, he and his driving teacher witnessed an assault on a motorcyclist in a parking garage downtown. We appreciate your continued prayers for safety.

Some of you may have heard about the Dengue fever outbreak in Rio de Janeiro, just a short plane trip from São Paulo. The military has set up emergency facilities to deal with the growing number of victims. We didn’t pay much attention to it until the first fatality this year in the state of São Paulo occurred—here in Praia Grande. There are now three confirmed deaths from Dengue here in the city. See these sites for more information: http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/DVBID/DENGUE/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23736088/
We appreciate your prayers for us and all of Brazil.

Even though reports of crime and epidemics create a great stir, it is important to note that we are already in action to combat the greatest threat to human life: sin. It destroys families, wrecks marriages, causes addiction, creates ignorance and enslaves all of mankind. Let’s keep in mind that if the problem of sin is treated, the threat of death loses its scariness. Homes are healed. Lives are changed. In other words, good overcomes evil. Thanks be to God that in Jesus Christ, the solution is already here. May this message reach all in Praia Grande, and the world, who need it.

Firmly,

Chris, Alley, and the family

March 2008 Newsletter

February, in spite of being the shortest month of the year, has been by far the most challenging! Maybe it’s because it had 29 days this year.

Chris has continued his regular weekly activates, including his training of Marcos Serrano to preach, the Friday night small group at the Rodriguez home which is studying Ephesians, his language class with Eloisa, and Sundays in São Vicente and Praia Grande. We give thanks to God that each one of these activities is growing and being blessed. We average 30 in attendance in Praia Grande on Sundays, and three more families placed membershipin February: Jose and Audiclea, who recently arrived in Praia Grande from the state of Bahia (Jose is looking for work so please say a prayer for him as you read this), Marcia and her son Lucas, and Moisés and Claudia and their two children, from São Bernardo, about half an hour north of Praia Grande.

In addition to the weekly activities of our schedule, there has been a lot to do to prepare for the opening of the School of the Bible. Chris ordered a phone line for the church, which is a cell phone that receives calls at the same rate as a land line. So the church has its own phone number now!

This is a great blessing as people call us to sign up for the School of the Bible. We also printed 5000 fliers with our new number in order to advertise. Of course, you can’t have students without textbooks, so Chris has been working hard on the materials for the first class. It is called the Basic Certificate of Theology, and is divided into three parts: the Old Testament, New Testament, and Early Church. This is a free course and will prepare everyone to read and understand any part of the Bible. Thanks to Eloisa, his language teacher, it is proofed and ready to be printed and bound.

All this printing and advertising has a cost, but God has a way of providing. One of the members here recently sold a piece of land she has had for sale for some time. She decided she wanted to give 10 percent to the church, so I had the pleasure of receiving in the offering one day 1000 Reais! Thanks to God for providing through the members here what the Kingdom needs to grow!

In between all this good news, we began to work on the wall in front of our house after finally finding someone trustworthy to do the work. His name is Neto. He has studied the Bible before but had a bad experiences with a church in the past. We are trying to be an example to him as we work together in order to bring him back to the Lord. Please pray for him.

More good news: Francisco Lira, Jr., Alley’s brother, is going to move to Brasilia and work with a mission team there. However, he won't leave until 2009, so he and his wife Patricia have volunteered to help us on the weekends in Praia Grande until they leave. He is a talented song leader and is teaching new songs and four-part harmony to the adult class on Sunday afternoons. God has blessed us with some great voices, and I am glad we can use them as He intended: giving him the glory and praise.

Junior and Chris have already begun meetings to plan a youth ministry for all the youth in the Baixada Santista. We will meet again on Sunday to set the date for the first activity. Please pray God’s blessing on this ministry. It will be the first time ever in the Baixada Santista that the youth have a regular activity designed just for them.

Ally had the blessing to be able to give the São Vicente Ladies class devotional for February. She talked about "Why we are servants." It was very encouraging to see how thirsty the ladies were to understand more about God's plan for us to be servants, and why He chose us. They were amazed to realize how much little things in the church make a difference for the whole Body. The perfect illustration was washing each other’s feet. It is harder to let someone wash your feet than to wash someones feet, but as they experienced both roles we could see how they grew to accept, and give, grace. In spite of shyness at the beginning (most people here wear sandals and no socks all summer), we could see how they grew in the grace of serving, and being served. There was not a dry eye, or foot, in the house.

More great news: Pedro Sobrinho, who has been studying with Francisco, decided to be baptized. On the 14th of February we went down to the ocean near his home and he was immersed into new life. He is very happy about thirsty to know more about the Bible. Chris has begun a study with him every Wednesday. Please pray for him as he grows in the Kingdom.

Chris celebrated his 34th birthday on the 23rd. Alley made a wonderful carrot cake with cream cheese frosting using Dottie Mueller’s recipe (Thanks Dottie!). Yummy.

February ended with an intense 3-day workshop with Jerry and Gail Heiderich, marriage and family therapist, and psychologist. We were able to talk to them about team communication, the stress of moving from Argentina, parenting issues, family communication, and a lot of other related things. It was a very fruitful time as we prepare to do our best as teammates, and family, for the Kingdom. Jerry and Gail were a great resource to help us along the way. We appreciate the Heiderichs for what they do for the Kingdom! Thanks to Southwest for sending them!

We also need to share something unpleasant that happened at the beginning of March. As we were arriving home after going to the mall on Saturday with Junior and Patricia and Ally’s other sister Priscila and her husband Jefferson, and Liduina, Ally’s mom, two guys pulled up to our house and held us at gunpoint. They forced us into the kitchen floor after taking all our wallets, cash, and wedding rings. One searched the house looking for cash while the other held us in the kitchen at gunpoint with their .22 revolver. After going through the house they began taking the microwave, TV, stereo, DVD player, and anything else they could find.
They continued to threaten us and ask for more cash. Patricia remembered her purse was in our bedroom and went in to get it, followed by the older one. She soon returned to the kitchen and joined us on the floor.

When Jonathan and Stephanie began to cry, the one with the gun began to threaten to shoot them in the head if they didn't shut up. Ally and Liduina did a great job keeping the kids calm. Jefferson at that point began to cry and moan as if he were really scared in order to take his attention off the kids. Jefferson is a trained actor, and did a great job. He then convinced them that there was a purse in his car. He led one outside to the cars, which were still parked outside the house with the gate open, all the while holding his hands in the air and begging the thief not to shoot. Even though he had no gun, he didn't think to ask Jefferson to stop. Jefferson opened all the car doors and let the guy search both vehicles, and then they returned inside. The one who was holding us with the gun told us that if we didn't give them more money in 30 seconds he would shoot someone.

Suddenly we heard scuffling noises and someone shouted “Police!” and I grabbed Ally and the kids and we all hit the deck in case there was going to be a shootout. The guy with the gun threw it on the ground and was tackled by two officers. Jefferson and Junior shouted that there was another, and the police searched the house and found him in our bedroom, unable to escape through the bars on the window.

The police took them into the living room and beat them for a few minutes before taking them to the cars. We began to calm down slowly. Liduina has high blood pressure and was suffering a lot. We made her lie down and tried to keep her calm.
We began to tell the police what had happened and what had been taken. They went to the thieves’ car and found everything there, plus a stash of cocaine the thieves had been using. One of them was 19 years old, the other 17.

The police beat them outside again after the youngest one told them he was a minor and would get off without doing time. Then they drove them off to the police station, followed by Jefferson and Junior who would make statements and bring the evidence home again. They arrived at about 5 am and told us the outcome. Both would go to jail for 2-4 years, one in Juvenile in São Vicente or Santos and the other in prison in Guarujá. Because they were caught in the act, in Brazil, there is no trial or wait time. The next day they stood before the judge and then were shipped off.

God was with us through the whole ordeal, which lasted about 45 minutes. We were amazed that the police arrived and caught them in the act, which is a very rare thing in Brazil. We asked them how they knew, and they told us that one of the neighbors was an angel and called them. As it turned out, the neighbors across the street heard the robbers yelling and saw what happened from the beginning, and called the police the whole time that we were held inside. Their names are Roberto and Elizabete. We believe that God will use what happened to bring us closer to this couple. They are wonderful neighbors and have a daughter that is 2 years old who is partially blind. We hope that through our growing relationship that we can help them see that God has a plan for everyone, o matter what the circumstance. We are forever in their debt for the help they gave us.

As we tried to calm down afterward, we realized how much God had been in control even as we feared the worst. Even though police procedure in a case like that is to wait outside and either negotiate or catch the bad guys, we were told later by one of the two officers who are evangelicals that when he saw the guy with the gun through our front window, they decided that they couldn't wait. They were very quick, secure, and professional. I don't think we could have had a better response even if we were in the states. Later the two christian officers came back by the house to make sure we were OK and answer any questions or concerns we had.

We continue to recover, and try to go on.

We were very blessed in that things ended up about as well as they could in a bad situation like that. Bad things happen to good and bad people alike, but the difference is that God is with those who believe in Him and in His power. In spite of what happened we know God has a purpose for us here. We will continue to serve Him here in Brazil as his spiritual warriors as long as it is His will to do so.

Please pray for us continually for safety and fruitfulness in our labor. Pray for our new members, new brother, the church, and the opening of the School of the Bible. And don’t take anything for granted. Thank God for the blessings and families you all have, and enjoy them from the heart each day.