I am glad to report that finally, after much waiting, it seems as though God has revealed a little of His plan for our future. Samuel has been semi-officially assigned as pastor at the little church in São Lourenço da Serra. Whether or not he ever becomes completely official will probably depend on whether he finishes his theology degree or not (don’t hold your breath). However, I am content with the progress and thus our time living in Bairro do Engano draws (at least for now) to a close. We have decided that we need to live nearer to São Lourenço to be able to minister effectively there, have found a house appropriate to our needs, and should be moving in the next couple of weeks. Praise God!

Loved Ones,

Well, it is that time again, and I hope that you are managing to write to everyone you have promised to. Seems like each year I receive more and more copies of newsletters…. Seems to be the way to go. I can’t imagine trying to write personally to everyone on my newsletter list unfortunately.
Happy Christmas to you all. I wonder what you will be doing. Imagine some people will travel, and others just enjoy time at home, with, or without friends and family. Whatever you are up to, I hope that you
manage to extract yourself from all of the commercialism and remember that what we are really
celebrating is the coming of the Most High King.
As yet, I am not sure what we will be up to, probably nothing too exciting, but I do know that Samuel and I are preparing a special children’s service at church for the 23rd. I am practicing with the children who come, plus some of the children from the church’s AWANA programme, and we are going to present, karaoke style, four Christmas songs and a skit that goes with them. That reminds me; I need to make the invitations.

Amados (Portuguese lesson for today.. means loved ones),

Just a quick note to let you know that we are all alive and kicking here in the Brazilian jungle. Winter, although cold, usually means a bit of a break from the rain, which is great.
As well as all of the “normal” things, like looking after two lively children, a house, a husband and an ever increasing number of animals, I am in the process of organizing the first holiday Bible programme ever in this community.
I have invited the four churches (two little Pentecostal one, a Roman Catholic and another that is more like exclusive Brethren than anything else a NZer would know) to participate, but only the two little Pentecostal ones want to be involved. Due to the fact that no-one even knew what an EBF (initials in Portuguese for a holiday

We are planning a Vacation Bible school for the July holidays. Tonight we are going to talk to one of the little local Pentecostal pastors to see if he agrees to us using their church. I have already talked to his wife who seemed to like the idea. I was surprised that she didn’t even know what a VBS is. Talking more to her, and then to the wife of the other Pentecostal pastor, I discovered that neither of the churches have any programme at all for children. I must admit that I sam rather shocked and disappointed to hear this. Not even children’s Sunday School. I hope that we can get a space sorted out and people who are willing and capable of helping us.
Talking to the principal of the little school I discovered that her estimate of homes in the area is somewhere about 400, and there are about 270 children aged from 4—18 in either pre-primary or secondary school. The school principal has agreed to let me use the school on Saturday afternoons if I decide I want to do a club similar to that which we ran in the slum. The school principal says that one of the things that needs to be done urgwently is to have some sort of prevention programme so that the local girls aged 12+ don’t get pregnant! I’m thinking and praying about it. Have lots of ideas but have 2 small children to look after, too. We’ll see.