October

Chris and long-time missionary, David Ingram

In October, Chris had the blessing to participate in the first CCC (Continent Connection Conference) for Men. This was a tremendous spiritual renewal retreat for missionaries in South America, hosted by Continent of Great Cities. The speakers were highly-qualified former missionaries and missionary-support experts and targeted topics like missionary burnout and prayer. I am thankful that I was able to participate in this fantastic event. It renewed me and helped me focus on my own spirituality even as I try to help others. Thanks, CGC!

Chris and his small group at the CCC conference for Men

Repairing the front door after the second robbery

On returning from the conference, Sunday morning I discovered that the church building had again been broken into. Stolen items were the trash can, coffee pot, a few pots and pans, the new Lords' Supper trays and cups Liduina had brought from the US, grapejuice, and a fan. We were very discouraged, again. The most important loss was the folder with all the church documents and reciepts. The cost of the door repair was also hard to swallow: 250 reais. It is, however, stronger than ever.

The smiling thief, carrying our coffee pot, aluminum pan, and a folder with all our church reciepts, was caught by the camera of the supermarket across the street. He is still at large.
One of the ever-challenging aspects of mission life: long lines.

Carlos helping install new locks on the front doors on our workday.

Jorge also helped install locks and wire the new fans we bought to replace the stolen ones.

Installing the new fans

Francisco and Liduina returned from the US, which was a great relief to us. They had a wonderful trip, but we are very glad they are back!

The School of the Bible students took their final test in December, and did very well. I am proud of their commitment and dedication to learn the Word of God. They all committed to return in March to study the Old Testament as well, and return they did!

I have been studying martial arts, which I have always loved, in order to get some exercise and I have really enjoyed it. As I progressed, I began to experience pain in my right knee. It saddened me to discover recently that I have a bone fragment in my patellar tendon. I have had to quit, and I miss the exercise, but the good news is that the surgery to fix it is fairly simple. I am scheduled for the 9th of April to have the surgery, and the complete recovery time is 2 months or less.

Please keep us and the work in your regular prayers. We continue to work on security here, knowing that our true security is not in posessions bu tin Christ, and is therefore assured.

November 2007 Newsletter

It is strange that time can seem to pass so quickly and yet so slowly. Here we are again at the beginning of another month, and so much has changed in the work an din our lives! Yet some things still are agonizingly slow. I guess that is part of life for everyone. For us, it seems like forever since we had our own pots and pans, and sheets, and all those nice things we enjoyed having in Buenos Aires. Our shipment still has not arrived, although it is in Brazil. It is d

elayed in customs, for how long, we don’t know. They said they would call us. So we wait. But we don’t do nothing!
The work here is going very well. We have finished the renovation of the building, and we now have offices! As I write this, I am sitting in my new office space, which is pretty hot considering it is summer here, and I have no fan. I can’t take all the credit, of course. One of our members, Adauto, has worked full time on the building for the last two months, with a visitor, Rovilson, and Francisco’s help, and we had a congregational workday last week in order to finish and clean every thing up. I hope you enjoy the pictures. We were able to pay a local graffiti artist to paint the front doors of the building, so we have some great name recognition value now! We still lack a proper sign, but keep that in prayer, and I know it will happen!
Once again, thanks, Mom, for your time with us. We were very blessed to have you with us. You were a great big help, at a time when we really needed it. Thanks! We will miss you, until next time!

Some great, late-breaking news is that I passed my motorcycle test, and they delivered my license! I can now ride my motorcycle all around Praia Grande. I rode it to work today! It was a great morning, with a cool breeze, so I took the road by the beach and was treated to some of God’s great morning handiwork as I went to work. I will be much more mobile now, and not leave Alley stranded, not to mention get better gas mileage. Did I mention that gas is over $5 a gallon here?
Here in Brazil they like to have holidays. They have Mother’s Day. They have Father’s Day. They have Children’s Day! That was a couple of weeks ago, and Aunt Priscila and Uncle Jefferson gave Jonathan and Stephanie a wonderful surprise!

In spite of not being completely moved into our house yet, we had the joy of hosting our small group last week. It was so nice to have good friends and family over for a devotional in our own living room, after nearly 5 months of transition!

Please keep us in your prayers, as we wait for the shipment to arrive. Please also pray for the work here to continue to grow and develop momentum. I believe God has great things in store for us here. If not he wouldn’t be opening so many doors and providing for our needs in such an obvious way. Pray for a great harvest here in Praia Grande!

Chris, Alley, Jonathan, and Stephanie Kelley