David and Sharon Taylor

God of Wonders: 2012 Kids' Club

2012-01-26T13:10:00.007-02:00

In my last post, I mentioned that we had had a special prayer time at church for our upcoming kids' club and asked that you all join with us in prayer. The first day of club, the rain came pouring down and the weather forecast was for pretty much nonstop rain the next several days. We were somewhat discouraged and came up with a backup plan to have the club that day and see whether any kids came. If none did, we would postpone the club until the following week. But God was testing our faith, I guess, and He graciously brought out almost 30 kids that day even though it was still raining and the next days were beautiful and sunny. There were 50 kids total who came to at least one day of the club and follow-up visits are already being made to their homes.

We rented a trampoline for a couple of days and it was a big hit ...

Lots of fun games ...

Reciting the memory verse

Song time

Story time ... Our theme was God of Wonders and we taught about creation, the fall, and the Savior

The puppets helped emphasize the main point of the story

Snack time

Being silly

We have much to thank God for:

* answering specific prayers regarding the weather
* bringing out a good number of children
* our neighbor who graciously offered to watch Gabriel and Juliana so that I could be freed up
* two teenagers whose family has recently joined our church. They were a huge blessing to us, helping to give out invitations, get the decorations set up, help with game time, music and puppets
* a lady at our church who made yummy snacks for the kids
* a 12-year-old girl who has come back for services and brought along a cousin of hers
* supporters who give generously to us so that we are able to host these kinds of events
* people who lift us up in prayer; God hears and answers
* the opportunity and privilege to share the gospel with children who have never heard before and hopefully have an impact in their lives that will last forever

Coming Together for Prayer

2012-01-17T10:05:00.002-02:00

This past Sunday our church group had a potluck lunch after our Sunday morning prayer time. We wanted to encourage our people to come out and pray together, something which has been very difficult. It was also a way to welcome a couple of new families of believers who have joined us recently and get them to interact with our regulars in a more informal way. These families have already been such a blessing and a help to us and we are thankful God sent them our way.

Here are some things we prayed for that you can be praying for us as well:

* That God will be glorified through the kids' club we are having at church this week

* For good weather during the kids' club (it ALWAYS seems to rain, regardless of what time of year we have the club.)

* That many children will come and be impacted by the gospel

* For good opportunities for follow-up visits

* Spiritual growth in the lives of our church group -- those in leadership as well as the newer converts ... we all need to continue to be transformed by the gospel

* Salvation of several who have attended our church, including the husbands of two of our ladies

* For several children who come regularly on their own. They have little or no encouragement at home to be going to church. In fact, recently the mother of one girl has prohibited her from coming. Pray that God will save these children at their young age and use them as shining lights in their homes.

Thank you for your interest in our work. Wherever you are right now, will you please just take a few minutes to lift some of these requests up before God's throne on our behalf?

Year-End Activities

2012-01-02T20:10:00.010-02:00

Here is a picture summary of the past couple of weeks around here ...

Six new puppies!

Having fun at the Christmas playground in the mall (Mom, do we HAVE to stop and take a picture?)

Making lots of Christmas goodies

Working on a 2000-piece puzzle (WHOSE idea was it to get a puzzle with so much blue sky?)

David's debut as master turkey griller

Christmas Eve meal (we're SO glad that David's parents could spend the holidays with us)

Our creative fireplace and opening stockings on Christmas Eve

EVERY year, there is the discussion: What IS that animal on David's stocking?

Christmas morning breakfast is not complete without homemade cinnamon rolls

Reading the Christmas story and finishing the advent calendar with baby Jesus in the manger

Fun opening Christmas presents

Fun playing with Christmas presents

Christmas service

Children's Christmas presentation

After service food and fellowship ...

...

New Year's Eve get-together at our house

Several church people came by

Playing video games

Setting off firecrackers at midnight to bring in the New Year (a big tradition here)

Little fire poppers for the little boys (I don't know what they're actually called)

Bringing in 2012 with loved ones

Total Impact: Christmas Outreach Event

2011-12-13T10:33:00.006-02:00

This past Saturday, we hosted a neighborhood outreach event at our church in which we offered several different services, as well as clothes and other items, for free. The idea was to give of our time and resources freely as a way of demonstrating the gospel, in which God gives forgiveness of sin and eternal life to us through His Son freely.

Things didn't quite go as planned. For example, one of the things we wanted to do was a car wash. We were all set up, with a pressure washer, lots of soap and rags and tire cleaner. God even gave us a beautiful, warm sunny day. However, as is often the case on Saturdays, there was no water. The city can't keep up with the water demands, so frequently on the weekends, they will just shut off the water. But we were able to provide other services, such as ...

Manicures

Pictures taken, edited and printed on the spot, and given in a frame

Haircuts

Blood pressure checks (sorry, I don't have an "action shot" of that)

Lots of free stuff to choose from

One on one gospel presentation for everyone who came.

Our church building is located beside a bar. This is not a problem on church nights since the bar is closed. But on Saturday afternoon, there was a lot of activity over there and a few of the drunks came over to get their blood pressure checked. One joked that when he drinks, his blood pressure drops to a normal level, but the next day, it will sky rocket. So sad to see people enslaved to something that is so damaging to them physically as well as spiritually. One man insisted that God would let him into heaven because God is love and won't turn anyone away. He saw no need to repent of his sins and follow Christ in this life.

I checked one woman's blood pressure who had come along with her friends just to look around. At first, she didn't want to check her blood pressure, but her sister insisted, so she agreed. As a former nurse, I have checked hundreds of people's blood pressure, but I have never personally seen someone's pressure be so high as this woman's. It was 210/100 (normal is 120/80 or lower). I had to take it twice because I couldn't believe how high it was reading. I told her she needed to be seen by a doctor right away.

We were encouraged that all of our church people came out to help at some point during the event. It is so good to see young believers learning to give of themselves. We are praying that God will use this event to touch people in our community and bring some tangible result in the near future. One woman who agreed to have us visit her had just buried her brother that very day. Pray that God will open her eyes to the fact that life on earth is short, but it matters because who or what we believe in for salvation determines our eternal destiny.

How Christmas is a Little Different in Brazil

2011-12-06T14:56:00.011-02:00

I thought I would do a little cultural blog and point out some things that are different about celebrating Christmas in Brazil. For example, the big celebration is usually held on Christmas Eve with a big meal (often beginning at midnight) and presents. Also, since it is summer time here, you can ...

Go swimming in your kiddie pool with friends ...

Hang up your Christmas lights outside in your summer clothes ...

Have a yummy cookout ...

Buy your Christmas decorations along with your beach toys ...

and make Christmas tree shapes in the sand.

Since we are in the tropics, you can also find palm trees decorated in Christmas balls and lights (although most of the decorations are very American-looking),

but you might have to shake the termite wings out of your artifical tree from when they took over your house last Christmas season.

One of my favorite Christmas foods in Brazil is Panettone. I think it actually originated in Italy, but it is a classic here this time of year. It is a sweet, soft bread with either chocolate chips or crystalized fruits. Prices range from a couple dollars to $20 or more, depending on the size, brand, extras, etc.

I don't know how much an 8 ft. artificial Christmas tree would cost in the States, but this one is R$199, or US$110. But if you notice on the paper on the box, you can pay for it in 10 easy monthly payments of R$19,90 or US$11. That way, you can be done paying your Christmas tree off by next September.

I hope this video works for you because you won't want to miss hearing the gingerbread men singing a traditional Brazilian Christmas song. :)

Advent 2011

2011-11-26T12:09:00.001-02:00

Black Friday is over and yet something tells me the mad rush has only begun. What are you most eagerly waiting for this Christmas? Better yet - what are you functionally waiting for this Christmas - sure we say one thing, but our hearts scream another. Things that compete for my joy once again this year are gifts, yummy foods, family fun, christmas tunes, and a thriving church (by that I mean a church full of people). All wonderful gifts from God, but all pseudo joys.

This year we have developed an advent guide to use with our church. It is designed to help us build a sense of anticipation and waiting for two events. One which has already happened and one which is to come. Christ has come, and yet we want to help one another feel like Israel did as they awaited a King. At the same time - we realize we now await a more glorious event - the coming of our Savior - redemption from these mortal bodies and joy with Him forever in heaven!

If you would like a guide like ours to help you and your family think heavenward this year, the village church has a great guide online which you can download and print off here. It is of utmost importance that we as leaders and fathers guide our children to consider Christ above all this season. It is our one and only joy.

Gratidão (Gratitude)

2011-11-22T13:59:00.001-02:00

Thanksgiving Day is not celebrated here in Brazil. Maybe it is a uniquely American holiday, I don't know. I'm planning on putting up my Christmas decorations and maybe making a special meal for our little family in honor of Thanksgiving Day this week, but it's just not the same as celebrating with a bunch of family and friends with that big huge feast spread out on the table, and the separate side table filled with all the yummy desserts. I want to list a few things that I'm thankful for -- big gifts and little gifts, but all of them special because they come from the hand of a loving God who cares about each one of his children.

* A visit from my sister Jonna. We haven't seen each other since 2008, and the 9 days she was here were hardly long enough to get caught up. It was so fun to show her around our city and introduce her to our ministry and have her help with the music and go shopping together and stay up late every single night in good conversation. Her trip was really a special gift from God to our family.

Here we are drinking freshly squeezed sugar cane juice with lime. If you've never had this, come visit us -- we'll hook you up. :)

* Root beer floats. Ok, so this would be one of the smaller gifts, but still, I'm thankful for it. Jonna brought us, I mean, David, some root beer and Dr. Pepper. He was so kind to share it with me. :) Wow, it was so good.

* New clothes for our kids. Again, Jonna brought us several items of clothes for both Gabriel and Juliana. Some were from her, some from a friend, some from Christen, my sis-in-law. That was such a big blessing. God knew what we needed and he provided. Even a fun Superman outfit for Gabriel who wears it al the time.

* Renewed interest in a couple of people who left our group quite a while back. It's interesting because these two were the first two to join our studies back when we were beginning in 2009. It was a painful loss to have both of them walk away, but recently they have come back around. I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit who continues to work in people's hearts even when we think that there's nothing else we can do. The woman who came back said that she was in several churches the past few months, and she missed hearing about Jesus. She said it was so good to come back to our church with her boyfriend and be able to hear God's Word being taught and to hear about Jesus.

Going out for pizza with some church people, including the woman I mentioned and her boyfriend on the left. Pray that God will be working in both of their hearts.


After-church fellowship.

* Our church kids. We really have a great group of kids. Sure, they have their moments and it's almost impossible to keep them completely quiet during lesson time, but I know that they are learning and growing in their knowledge of God and the Bible. Most of the ones who come walk over 2 km to get to church. The mother of one of the girls told me that her school teacher asked her one day, "Are you a Christian?" When the girl answered yes, the teacher said, "I thought so." I don't know what prompted the teacher to ask that, but I know the kids try to live in a way that pleases Jesus. Please pray for our little group of kids, that those who haven't been saved yet will place their trust in Christ soon and that they will all grow up into godly young people, spared from the scars of a life lived without Christ.

Gotta love those beautiful faces.

* Gabriel and Juliana. They are so different from each other, but they both make me laugh and teach me things about life and about myself that I never knew. Things like how my heart can hurt when a friend hurts their feelings; how feeding a very picky 20-month-old can be more challenging than finals in school, how proud my heart feels when someone compliments my son on being kind and sharing, how preciously sweet it is to see my little girl run to David and say, "book! book!" and snuggle in his lap to leaf through her favorite book.

* My husband. We celebrated 7 years of marriage in July. I think that working together in ministry these past few years has caused us to grow closer to each other. It's exciting to be working towards the same goals together. I'm grateful for David's generosity, his willingness to help people even when it's inconvenient for him, his passion to teach and preach and share God's Word, the fact that he eats anything I cook for him, that he doesn't complain when the dishes and/or laundry have piled up, and many other things I could list.

God is good. I need to step back sometimes when things are hard and discouraging and analyze all that God is and has done for me. I quickly see how much God's hand is evident in every aspect of my life. What has he done for you this year?

Proposal

2011-10-18T09:57:00.001-02:00

Inlight of what God is doing, we haveprayed about a proposal we would like you to consider and pray over. Godhas graciously given us a small group of believers and a rental to meet in. From the beginning of our first services wehave stated the vision of our church:

· The Exaltation of God in all things

· The Transformation of God’s people

· The Proclamation of God in Christ

God has been exalted, he has been transforming, and He is being proclaimed on a weekly basis. We are looking at what God is doing, and simply trying to think ahead for what He would be pleased to do. We realize that a church building is NOT the church, but it would be helpful for several reasons.

The Neighborhood. Our location is in a strategic spot. To the east there is an establishedneighborhood and to the west, there is an establishing neighborhood. New homes, small businesses, schools andhospitals.

Ministry Avenues. Having a church buildingwould facilitate us to accomplish outreach ministries in greater ways than wehave been able to:

· Kids’ clubs (Space for activities)

· Hospitality events (Ladies meetings, giving outof food baskets, etc.)

· Athletic ministries

· Meeting spiritual needs for larger groups ofpeople

· Better chances to receive first-time visitors

GospelDeficiency. I can safely say that out of 100 surveys Ihave made, only one person has been able to explain the gospel to me in its simplestform. This is by far the greatest reasonto have a facility in order to shed light on the glorious gospel so as to bringmen to Christ.

This endeavor would be impossible on our own,so here is the plan. The Taylor Team hascommitted to invest as much as we are able into this project. Our church here is also committed to thisproject through their personal giving. Considering the fact that many of ourpeople make around $600 per month and this is a very expensive city to live in,it will be exciting to see what God does through their efforts. Wewould also like to ask YOU to consider giving, either as churches,families, or even individuals.

3 Step Process

Step 1: Propertyand Building.

We would like to buy one property andbuild part of our building so as to get out of the rental. For a property of 3,800 square feet,we are looking at $55,000. For our firstphase of building we will need approximately $20,000. So, weare asking you to prayerfully consider giving to this need of $75,000. Between my brother and me, we have roughly40 supporting churches, so here is one way that could happen:

40churches at $1000 + 200 families at $100 + 200 individuals at $50 + 200individuals at $25 = Step 1 Complete!

Step 2: 2^nd Property

As one property would be small, we would like tobuy an additional property. We haveconsidered some options to get the second property, but they all includemoney. This second step would cost another $55,000 (R$90,000).

Step 3: Auditorium

The final step would be to build an auditoriumand adjacent classrooms. We are askingthe Brazilian Christians to play a larger role in this step.

If God leads you to help, you can send anygifts to our mission address designated as BuildingProject.

God bless you all andthank you for all you do! David, Sharon,Gabe and Juliana

Feel free to post any questions in the comments area.

Gabriel is 4!

2011-09-24T23:06:00.000-03:00

I became a mother four years ago yesterday. I was thrilled, exhausted, thankful, relieved, excited, scared, happy and clueless. I had no idea what being a mother to that baby boy would do to me. It has probably brought out the best and worst in me as I grow daily in learning who he is and trying to parent him in a God-honoring way. Somedays I am overwhelmed by how much I love that little boy and somedays I am ashamed of how impatient I can be as a mother.

For his birthday this year, we treated him to a Happy Meal at McDonald's. Yes, that is a treat here. I think he had a Happy Meal back around Christmas time last year. So it was a big deal for him to get that special little toy and have his own food to eat, instead of sharing Mom's (i.e., mine). As we were sitting there eating, he said, "Wow, this is a fun party!"

(Gabriel took this picture of his Happy Meal toy)

Then we took him to a toy store and let him pick out a gift he wanted. It took him a while

(maybe that was kind of mean of us to do, to give him all those options and say "you can only pick one."), but he finally settled on a Cars bat and ball set.

(Um, no, you can't have the $350 jeep)

Today, we invited our church people over for a little party. I made cupcakes and little hotdogs and we had a great time.

(Another picture I found on the camera that Gabriel took of one of his toys)

Mommy and Daddy love you, little son. You are God's precious gift to us. We had no idea what to expect when you arrived, but you have turned our world upside down. You have taught us what it means to love someone unconditionally, to set aside our desire to eat/sleep/shower/go places whenever we want to attend to your needs, to humbly admit we were wrong when (before children) we used to think "my kid will NEVER do THAT", to feel almost physical pain when you are hurt. We love your love for books, your facility in learning numbers and letters, your silliness that makes us and Juju laugh, your excitement over even the simplest things, your attention to detail. And while your insistence that things be done the same way every time can be a bit frustrating, that is part of who you are, and we love that too. But maybe you can ease up a little on having to have your blankets tucked in just so at night. :)

Tonight, after everyone had left, Gabriel said, "I got 4 now, but I'm not big! I'm still little!" I guess he was imagining he would have a huge growth spurt to show that he is now a big 4-year-old. He can never understand that to Mommy and Daddy, he is growing way too fast.

Two-in-One Post

2011-09-17T09:40:00.008-03:00

I have two different things to blog about today. I'm a little behind, partly because there's a lot going on to keep me busy and partly because our laptop was down yet again this last week.

For 13 weeks, our church kids have been earning points for church attendance, memorizing verses, bringing visitors to church, etc., in order to win a pizza party. At first, they weren't trying very hard, but after I assured them that they would not get a pizza party if they didn't achieve the goal I had set for them, they got busy, earning even more points at the end than they needed. So I made a bunch of pizzas, and we had a fun, but crazy, evening with them here at home.

(probably the only time they were all sitting quietly the whole evening)

(Playing "the dice game")

I decided to have them do the same thing the next 13 weeks in order to win a Christmas party. The kids were very excited when I told them about this and were still talking about how fun the pizza party was. So while it may seem like I'm bribing them to be doing these things, here are some of the benefits I've seen so far from giving them this extra motivation:

(what was left of the 4 pizzas -- that's a chocolate dessert pizza in the middle)

* Several of them didn't miss a single service. By being at church, they are hearing God's Word and His Truth is penetrating their hearts.

* Most of them still remember several Bible verses, especially one that we learned together using a little song/chant.

* One boy brought his sister to church in order to earn points, and she has not missed a service since. She is 11 years old and seems to really be soaking in what she's learning.

My last post was about our plans for an outreach event to hand out food bags to people in need. Thanks to some generous contributions, we were able to purchase 27 food bags, and had quite a few used clothes to give away too.

Here are some of the praises from that event:

* Most of our "core" group was there, having brought friends in need to hear the gospel and receive some food and clothes. It was great to have their help and see them reaching out to others.

* David presented the gospel using some paintings and I heard several comments from people about how clearly they understood the message. For sure, most of the ones there had never heard the truth of God's offer of salvation through repentance of sins and faith in Jesus' work on the cross on our behalf.

* Word is spreading about our church in the neighborhood. Several day after the event, a woman saw David and asked him if he was the man handing out coupons for free food bags. She asked if she could have one too, and he told her if she came to the service on Wednesday night, he would give her one. She did come and brought another girl with her. She says she will be back on Sunday to hear more.

So those are the highlights of the past couple of weeks. Thanks for your prayers for us and don't stop!

Let's Do Some Good Works!

2011-08-27T10:42:00.006-03:00

I firmly believe that the Bible teaches that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, not by good works (Eph. 2:8,9; Titus 3:4,5; Rom. 4:5, Rom. 10:4). I also believe that good works are emphasized in Scripture as a natural consequence of this transforming, saving faith and should be practiced (Matt. 5:16, I Peter 2:12, the book of James). Sometimes I wonder if we don't practice good works enough because our salvation is not dependent upon them. We have even been accused recently of not caring enough about people's physical needs. This is not true because we regularly help people out in tangible, material ways out of love for Christ and for them, but I can understand some of our accuser's frustration with religious groups who go door-to-door witnessing but whose churches are not known for their social helps.

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you about an outreach event we are hosting at our church next month. We will be giving out bags of food and clothing to people in the church's area. We are encouraging our own church people, many of whom have limited funds themselves, to be contributing towards this event. After all, generous giving should be a result of salvation.

Last year, we had two of these events, and were able to have several follow-up Bible studies with some of the ones who came. Of course, most people came only to receive their food, but all who came heard the gospel. We have people in our church group now who are a direct result of those events last year.

I don't usually do this on our blog, but I'd like to see if some of you reading this would like to contribute towards this event specifically. The more bags of food we give out, the more homes can be affected by the gospel. For about US$20, we can buy a premade bag of food at a local grocery store that has many basic items -- rice, beans, pasta, flour, sugar, coffee, you get the idea.

I promise you that even a simple bag of food like this goes a long way in helping out someone who needs it. And there are many people we've come in contact with here who have serious physical needs. If you would like to help out financially, let us know. If you're State-side, you can mail a tax-deductible check to our home church, and they will get the money to us. The address is:
Grace World Missions
3305 Peters Creek Pkwy
Winston Salem, NC 27127

If you are Brazilian, we can give you our bank account information. If you cannot contribute financially, please be praying for this event. I know that sounds cliche, but if there's one thing I'm learning more and more, it's the truth that God works through the prayers of his children. We long to see people come to know Christ as their Savior, and maybe the simple fact that we are loving them enough to meet a physical need of theirs will open up their hearts to the true gospel.

Total Freedom/Liberdade Total

2011-08-03T08:09:00.017-03:00

Because we changed our church name recently to Redemption Baptist Church (Igreja Batista Redencão), we decided to incorporate the idea of redemption and freedom in Christ in the theme for our kids' club. We played games involving being tied or connected to others (giving the idea of bondage), sang songs about God setting us free from sin and the joy we have in Him, and taught the story of the Israelites being freed from slavery in Egypt. I'd love to say that we had no distractions in preparing for the club, lots of help from our church people, beautiful sunny days, a big turnout for the club, and parents show up for the Sunday evening conclusion. The truth is we had to deal with a crashed laptop (which we use regularly for ministry purposes), a blown transformer, little help from our church people in preparing for the club, COLD wind and rain (it is winter, after all), small turnouts each day and no parents on Sunday night. As a missionary, it's often tempting to present only the bright, positive aspects of our ministry efforts. But we all know that things aren't always as wonderful and exciting as we'd like them to be, and we have to guard against being discouraged and frustrated when things don't go as we hope. However, we continue confident in the sovereign God we serve who uses even the cold wind and rain for His purposes and doesn't need a computer in order to accomplish His work. Here are a few of the ways in which God blessed us this weekend during the kids' club:

1) The few kids who came seemed to have a great time and several brought friends back the next day.

2) The gospel was clearly presented and the seed of God's Word was sown in hearts that probably had never heard it before.

3) My parents were able to come help us out. Mom was indispensable in taking care of our kids at home to free us both up, and Dad taught the lesson on the last day and preached Sunday night.

4) We did see many of the church people show up on club days and help out in different ways -- bringing snacks for the kids, helping out during game time and being an adult presence during song and lesson time. One older lady enjoyed it so much, she said she had more fun than the kids.

5) We have 15-20 new contacts and plan to visit these families soon. Pray that they will be interested in visiting our church and open to a potential evangelistic Bible study in their home.

6) Several kids returned Sunday night, and were able to see what a regular service is like.

7) Our crashed lap top was fixed, but only the day after club was over. We know God had a reason for that ...

Evidence of Grace

2011-07-11T11:09:00.003-03:00

Last night we had a good group in our service. The regular group was there along with 8 visitors. The numbers certainly are encouraging, but they point to something much greater: evidences of grace. You might assume then that the visitors were believers in Christ, but most of them were not! The evidence of grace we are seeing is in the lives of those who have believed in Christ and are bringing their lost friends. Anderson and Valéria, a family of 5 picked up his sister and family - a family of 4. Can you imagine 9 in a 2 door Ford Escort?

Kelly shows evidence of grace in another way. She has begun to contribute a lot like the Corinthian church. She brought some clothes and the believers were all able to benefit from them. So she brought more along with a waterjug the church was needing. On top of that she had a ceiling fan that was not being used and thought the church could benefit from it. You should see the joy in her face as she contributes.

Several have offered their help to clean the church weekly, including Anderson who went to another man that has been attending and asked him if he would help him clean the church this week. Two men cleaning the church - can you believe that?

Last night, a 72 year old lady came uninvited. She has been looking for a baptist church close by and really enjoyed the service. She told me after the service that she will now be attending our church saying that she was affected by the message. "I actually understood the message because it was well explained and very clear". May God be glorified.

My greatest joy last night was to see the power of the gospel. The message centered around: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (Jn. 7:37) Adriano and Gislene were affected and commented on the message with me. May God awaken thirst within them and may they be saved. Lord willing there is a personal Bible study in the making there.

There were more evidences of grace - these are just a few. Glory to God.

What We Did the Last Two Saturdays

2011-07-02T19:59:00.005-03:00

The past two Saturdays, I had the chance to attend a CEF seminar on evangelizing and teaching children with three of our church women. I'm so glad they were able to go. The younger two are relatively new in the faith, but are growing tremendously in their spiritual walk and they made a big effort to be able to attend this event.

One of the assignments of the seminar is to witness to two children and turn in a report about the experience. We all have to do this in order to get our certificate for completing the course. I think it was a great assignment because it helped these two women to see how important it is to share their faith with others, and that they can learn to articulate their faith so that a child can understand it. They both gave testimonies during the session today of their experiences and it was so fun to see their joy over giving the gospel to others.

I had given one of them some wordless book bracelets and key chains on the condition that she explain the meaning of the colors to whoever she gave them to. Today, she asked me for more because she has already given them all away. She said one of her teenage nephews who has been baptized at another church was shocked to learn that his baptism didn't save him from his sins. Pray that God will continue to use these women to be a shining light in their families and in their neighborhood.

On a side note here, we are really enjoying having a building to meet in. Even though they are currently in the States on furlough, Christen wrote a great blog, pictures included, of how God worked so many things out for us. Please check it out here.

A Meeting Place

2011-06-17T17:23:00.003-03:00

We are so happy to announce that God has provided the church (IBS) a place to meet! Our church family has been praying for months in specific ways for a place to meet, in a good location, in God's timing according to his will. I confess that I felt as though God had shown us to keep meeting in our home and that I should stop praying and pursuing a rental option. My brother James and I had spent hours looking at possibilities, but they always fell through - one place of which was rented the day before we decided to go for it! But we kept it before the Lord.

So this past Wednesday, one of our converts said he had seen a real nice place, but that it may not be the best location. Little did he know that James and I had just been in that area a couple weeks ago looking ourselves! We went to look at this place yesterday at noon. The owner was there so we went in and immediately the place screamed at me - this is it! The owner shot the price at $150 more than we wanted to pay. I though "so what, everything is negotiable in Brazil." So I went home, prayed and called Agostinho, who has helped us greatly in our ministry here. He came over and we went together to speak to the owner again. After a bit of negotiation, Agostinho was able to talk the guy down to the price we wanted to spend! Thank You, Lord!

Please pray with us that God would use this place for His glory and bring many to repentance and faith. We don't want to get comfortable, as our desire is to buy land and build. But this will definitely be a big help as we get started. Thank you all who pray for us, but please don't stop.

"Until Soon"

2011-06-08T10:26:00.005-03:00

For the past two years, we have been blessed to work as a team in ministry with David's brother and sister-in-law, James and Christen. I don't know how we would have done much without them. God knew we would need each other in a brand new place, starting a brand new work. There's no price that can be put on having someone close by to work with, laugh with, talk to, share burdens with, encourage you when you're down, help when things are harder than usual, share birthdays and Sunday dinner with ... Everyone should have friends like that in their lives.

This Monday we said "goodbye" to them at the airport as they left for furlough in the States. We will miss them greatly during these next 8 months, but such is the life of a missionary -- always saying goodbye, it seems. One of the church women here pointed out that they will be back, so instead of saying "goodbye" she said, "até breve", which translated literally is "until soon."

Jer and Gabe

Juliana and Hannah

At the airport

A little farewell party after the service Sunday night

Enjoying Brazilian pizza one last time

Sisters and Coffee

2011-06-02T14:19:00.008-03:00

I love my sisters. I have three of them. It's been over three years since I've seen them. For a while after we were all grown and married, we all lived in the same city. One of our favorite things to do was to spend an evening at a coffee shop, flipping through books and magazines, talking and laughing our heads off, and drinking fancy coffee drinks. I miss my sisters a lot and I miss those fun nights talking and laughing over coffee.

My sisters and I a few months before I left for Brazil.

For the past four months, Christen (my sister-in-law) and I have been having a weekly Bible study with our little group of church women. Since this was Christen's last study with us before leaving for furlough on Monday, we decided it would be fun to take the women to a coffee shop and do our study there. The women were so excited because they had never been to one before. Plus, it was a chance to get away without any of our kids and THAT doesn't happen very often.

It was so fun to introduce them to cappuccino and whipped cream. We had a great time and laughed a lot over our delicious drinks.

We were able to do our Bible study because even though we were sitting outside and the place was pretty crowded, our tables were in a back corner and there weren't very many distractions. I think we were all challenged and convicted about sins we need to be putting off, and to be longing for the pure spiritual milk, which is God's Word.

Not to sound corny, but I am thankful for this new group of sisters God has placed in my life. None of us are biologically related, but because of the blood of Jesus, we have God as our Father, and that is a family bond that will last forever.

We're Still Here!

2011-05-25T15:34:00.008-03:00

I'm sorry for the lack of blog posts recently. There has been so much going on, and besides that, we were without internet for about three weeks. So I'm going to try to be concise and fill you in on the different things going on around here.

1- We moved out of our rental house on April 28 into our own newly-built home. It's not quite finished, but things are falling into place and we are loving it. Christen wrote a great blog about our move which you can read about here. We are so thankful for all the help we got during our transition from James and Christen, my parents and some of our church people. We couldn't have done it without them. Someday, when things are a little more organized, I will post pictures of the inside of our house. Give you something to look forward to. :) But here's one for now of our main living area: living room, dining room and kitchen all in one.

Mom was SUCH a great help, taking care of the kids (and cooking and cleaning and doing laundry...) so we could pack and move.

Dad worked HARD to help us prepare the yard for grass and to get the garage cleaned out for our first service in our new house.

2- Mother's Day -- we didn't have a special program for the women, but we did have a little gift to give them and the kids sang a little song for them. We are very thankful for these women and the evidence of grace in their lives. Christen and I are doing a weekly study with them on 1Peter and it has been so encouraging to see them learning and growing in their Christian walk.

3- Baptism -- A Baptist church in a neighborhood nearby graciously lent us their facilities for us to hold a Sunday afternoon baptismal service -- our very first one! Four people took this very important step of obedience in identifying with Christ.

David gave a short message on the symbolism of baptism, being careful to explain that baptism does not play a role in our salvation, something that many churches here teach. James performed the baptisms and it was fun to see the people's reactions. Many had never seen baptism by immersion and commented on what a beautiful service it was. It's interesting because there's not much that's beautiful about someone being dunked under water and walking out soaking wet, but the joy on their faces was so obvious as they understood what their baptism meant. Buried with Christ and raised to walk in new life!

4- Church services -- Not too long ago, we moved our Sunday morning Bible study hour to Wednesday nights. The main reason was low attendance on Sunday mornings, and after a month-long trial period of offering the same study on Wednesday nights and having that service be very well attended, we made the change. Sunday mornings we meet for prayer at our house. This has turned out to be a very special time of fellowship with the ones who come as we seek God's help and guidance together. Sunday night services are also held at our house in our garage and this is working out well enough, but please continue to pray for us to find a more suitable meeting place.

Wednesday night Bible studies are currently being held in the homes of different church people. It has been a little tight to fit people in at times, but it always works out.

5- Upcoming transition -- James and Christen are wrapping up their first term here in Brazil. Praise God that everything went smoothly with them leaving their rental house and moving their belongings into a storage space. They are currently staying with us until they leave for furlough on June 6. This means that we will be on our own in ministry responsibilities and we ask that you be praying for us during these next few months.

We are thankful for Agostinho and Cristine, the Brazilian Christian couple God brought to us about a year ago, who will be stepping in to help out with some of the teaching responsibilities.

So I think you're pretty much up-to-date now. Things are happening and God is working. This morning, David is flying out to João Pessoa, the city where we worked our first year here. He was invited to be the speaker for an evangelistic conference at our old church. Please be in prayer for him when he comes to mind.

Church Outing

2011-04-11T13:41:00.007-03:00

God blessed us this past weekend with a gorgeous day for our church picnic at a beautiful resort on the island of Florianopolis. There were all kinds of fun things to do and so much of God's wonderful creation to enjoy. With the exception of one lady who is traveling, all of our "regulars" were able to go and we had a couple visitors as well.

Our cabin was right across from this pond full of ducks and geese

Lots of fun things for the kids to do ...

Fun playground underneath a huge grove of bamboo

Friends

Lunch preparations

Mmmm ... churrasco!

Time to eat!

Gathering together to sing and have a devotional from the book of Psalms

The gang (except for James who is taking the picture)

Our littlest member. His parents professed faith in Christ shortly before his birth. How neat to think that this little guy was born into a Christian home and can grow up learning about Jesus.

This couple represents a couple of answers to prayer. The first one is that she professed faith in Christ several months ago, and then chose to leave our group to start attending a large church nearby that preaches the prosperity gospel. Even though we warned her about the doctrinal errors of this church, she joined them anyway. We cried tears over her and sent up many prayers for her. Just last week, she came back, saying she saw things at this church that she didn't agree with and that she will be rejoining us. The second answer to prayer is that her husband came along on this outing. This is the first time he has attended any of our church programs or events, and we pray that God will soften his heart so that he will join his wife in the Christian faith.

Belated Birthday Post

2011-04-02T07:32:00.001-03:00

On March 11, our baby girl turned 1. I know all parents say this, but time has gone by so fast. We are so thankful for this precious daughter that God has entrusted to us. She has brought so much joy to our little family with her sweet, calm, happy demeanor. I remember wondering before she was born how her birth would change our family dynamic. God knew just how well and easily she would find her place in our lives and now I can't imagine our family without her. My heart's desire for little Juliana Noelle (Juju) who can walk like a pro already and says "no, no"and "goal", who blows kisses and tries to growl at the dog, who right now is sitting in her high chair throwing her snack on the floor, who is so fascinated by everything she is discovering about this big world, is that she will love God and believe in Jesus at an early age. My prayer for her is that God will guard her heart and protect her from living a life that doesn't glorify Him. May God give us the wisdom we need to nurture and instruct her as she grows. We love you so much, baby girl!

How You can Pray

2011-03-15T15:15:00.002-03:00

Pray through these as you read them!

1. Spiritual growth for those who have professed faith in Christ- specifically in regards to fundamental christian disciplines such as Bible reading and prayer. Here are the names:

Anderson and Valéria
Roberto and Viviane
Terezinha and son Rafael

2. Genuine Conversion

Silene
Claudio and Lilian
Vera
Silvana

3. Conversion/Repentance

Andreia - Claims she has professed Christ, but is living in the flesh - indifferent to the truth. Has told us she is leaving our ministry.

Kelly - Claims to be a Cristian - has left us to join a prosperity theology church.

4. Patience and Grace

David and Sharon - We have spent a lot of time with these people and it is extremely difficult to get an e-mail saying they will be leaving us. This can have a very dis-heartening affect on our emotions. Pray that we will continue to believe what is true about God and his timing.

When Rain Interferes with Ministry

2011-03-05T12:15:00.003-03:00

I love rain, don't get me wrong. During these hot summer months, the frequent afternoon thunderstorms are a welcome relief. But there are times when I beg God to hold off the rain, at least for a couple of hours. I think rain is a bigger deal here in Brazil than in the States because it has more of a direct effect on people's lives here. For example, a lot of the ones who come to our services have to walk, so when it rains, more than likely they will not come, especially if they have small children. It has rained every Sunday for a month or more now, so the rain can have a direct influence on church attendance.

Brazilians also have a certain fear of the rain, that it can cause sickness if you get caught in it. When we had our kids' Bible club last July and again in October, it rained almost everyday. Parents don't want to let their kids be outside if they know there's a potential for rain.

Last week, the day of our women's Bible study was a beautiful, sunny day. As we were sitting in Valeria's living room having our study, dark clouds started rolling in from nowhere. One of the women started fidgeting a little and looking preoccupied. "I left my clothes hanging on the line to dry" she said, "and I don't want them to get wet if it rains. I think I'll send my son to go home and pull them off the line." Just then, Valeria's husband came home from work and heard what was going on and offered to take the boy home so he could pull the laundry off the line. So back to the study we go, but then the bottom dropped out, and the rain started pouring. Valeria immediately jumped up to grab her clothes off the line, and since there was quite a bit, I got up to help her too. "It's so hard to do the laundry when the clothes won't dry," she said. I agreed, thinking of my own laundry hanging on my line at home, wondering if David had remembered to take it down.

So back to the study, only to be interrupted yet again by the return of the lady's son who had gone home earlier. "Did the clothes get all wet?" his mom asked. "No, Aunt Andresa had already pulled them off the line for you." His mom smiled with relief. Back to the study ...

When I got home, the rain had stopped, but the laundry was soaking wet on the line. David apologized, but he had been in the middle of a good conversation with a young man he had just met that afternoon. It wasn't a big deal to me because unlike the other women, I am blessed with a clothes dryer.

Argentina

2011-02-23T08:34:00.009-03:00

This past week I took a trip to Argentina along with my father-in-law and a student from the seminary. Our goal was to share Christ with as many as possible, even without a grasp on the language. Even though the trip alone consumed most of the time we had available, we did have several opportunities to share Christ. Here they are:

1. A group that call themselves "Sem Terra" which means "without land". There are several pockets of 80+ people like this all over Brazil. These folks have decided that the government owes them land, so they go and live on someone else's land until they get what they want. This particular group had been waiting for 4 years on someone elses land of course.

My father-in-law saw their tents and decided we should try to share Christ. God blessed our efforts and at least 30+ came over to hear the gospel. They were very grateful we had come and invited us back! My mind goes wild wondering what might happen if someone was available to visit them once or twice a week. They have nothing to do and live 10 kilometers from the nearest town.

In speaking to their leader, I learned more about them. I encouraged their leader John to remember that even land on this earth is perishable, but that there is an imperishable world for those who repent and believe in Christ. He was attentive.

2. God presented us with an opportunity in a public square in La Cruz, Argentina. We made rounds inviting several to come here a simple presentation involving an open air painting, a drama and some music. 10 or 12 showed up and they heard of their sin and a need for a substitute to pay for sin. We met one young man from a baptist church in town and had good fellowship with him.

3. One on one's. We were able to have several personal conversations as well. I spoke to Alva who believed it was ok for man to kill another man as it would serve as an example to others of what not to do and maybe God's intention was that God take this mans life using another human being - so it must be ok. WOW! I've never had to convince someone that murder is sinful!

This trip was filled with the unknown. Where to go, what to do, how long to stay! On the other hand, the message we shared is fully known in the person and work of Christ! I am so glad we have no doubts as to what we should say to the lost. May God bless his word and cause repentance and faith in the hearts of those we spoke to.

It's Been a While

2011-02-15T13:24:00.003-02:00

I read recently that if a blog is not updated frequently, it's like a plant that isn't watered enough -- it will wither up and die. I'll start a blog update, and then get distracted (I have 2 small children, after all),

get interrupted, the internet goes down, the pictures won't load, or any number of other things that keep me from finishing and posting the update. So this post is just to bring you up to speed on our current events.

Today will be the third Bible study that Christen and I are having with our small group of women. We gave each woman a copy of the book "Feminine Appeal" based on the virtues of a godly woman found in Titus 2. It was great to discover this book translated into Portuguese. Our goals with this study include teaching and encouraging the women to be reading their Bibles daily for their personal growth, to learn how to pray on their own, to promote fellowship between them, and to begin the practice of memorizing Scripture. This might seem overwhelming, but we are taking small baby steps with them and the response from them has been extremely positive.

Last Saturday night, we had an informal service at James and Christen's house. We would like to start having these meetings at our church people's houses to encourage them to invite their unsaved family and neighbors to attend. I know James and Christen invited many of their neighbors, but none came. However, most of our own group of believers came, which was encouraging since for several weeks now, our attendance on Sundays has been very low, and one woman also brought her unsaved sister-in-law. It was a great opportunity for all of us to be together to worship God with singing and to be reminded through James' short devotional that we were once God's enemies and yet He loved us enough to send His Son to die for us. Two of the women expressed interest in having a meeting like that at their houses, perhaps next month.

Yesterday, David, my dad and a seminary student (Adriano) left on a trip to Argentina.

I guess you could say it's kind of a survey trip, but mostly an evangelistic trip. They took lots of tracts (in Portuguese and Spanish) and wordless book keychains and bracelets to give out. I'm excited to hear about their adventures. Please be praying for them, that God will give them safety as they travel long distances, that God will keep them healthy, and mostly that God will provide many witnessing opportunities for them and that people will be saved. I'll make sure to ask David to post a blog about his trip next week after he gets back.

Changes and Growth

2011-01-13T15:51:00.007-02:00

Here we are, almost 2 weeks into the new year. If you're like me, the beginning of a new year makes us think about how we've changed or grown (or haven't) during the past year and how we'd like to continue to change and grow.

In 2010, we added a daughter to our familybought a piece of property and began construction of our own house.
We had many different outreach events in which we met many new people and saw a handful of these place their trust in Christ. We got a new dog that we wish we hadn't and I learned how to make doughnuts from scratch that are pretty good. :) We read books, watched movies, saw new places, made good decisions, made wrong decisions ... all of which in a small way shaped whom we became last year.

In teaching the kids' Sunday School class last Sunday, I asked them what new thing they learned about God and the Bible last year. "You mean what we've learned since coming here?" one of them asked. "Yes," I said, since we had met them for the first time last year. They started spouting out what they had learned and I was amazed by their answers.

"I didn't know Jesus died for our sins." Rafael said. "I knew he died, I just didn't know why."

"I didn't know Jesus rose from the dead." Larissa said. "I thought he just stayed dead in the ground."

Larissa in the middle

"I didn't know the Bible existed" said Guilherme. And Ricardo and Rafael added that although they knew about the Bible, they had no idea there were books in the Bible with chapters and verses and now they have memorized the order of the books and have fun playing sword drills.

"I didn't know God created the world." Ricardo said. I asked him how he thought the world was created. "I had never thought about it before," was his answer.
Ricardo and Rafael in yellow

They went on to list attributes of God they've learned -- He's Creator, Savior, self-sufficient, incomprehensible, love, holy ...

It was encouraging to know that God is using us to teach these children wonderful truths about Himself and His Word. It also was a question I've been considering myself ... what did I learn about God in 2010? I have some answers, but I want to spend more time getting to know my God in 2011. I want to learn new things about Him and His Word for myself this year. For by doing that, I know I will grow and change and start to look more like Him.

Servant Evangelism and Christmas Service

2010-12-20T18:59:00.013-02:00

On Saturday and Sunday we handed out a Panetone (Traditional Christmas Bread) and a church calendar to contacts we had made over the past year. It was great to see the converts getting involved as well. It is truly more blessed to give than to receive. Some were hesitant to recieve a free gift, but all in all people were surprised and grateful. We also handed some out to folks we had never seen, and several spoke of their intentions to visit the church! May God use this simple gift to draw many to Himself.

Currently doing a study with this family: Giliarde and Elizete (Eloisa and Gabriela)

A freind of Roberto's: Bruno

A friend I have done many Bible studies with: Adelar. His wife will not allow me to come to their house, so he has to come here secretly.

A neighbor that has a construction store: Samuel. He gave me a tape measure right after I gave him the bread.

It was so good to have a good group in our service Sunday night! Sharon and Christen spent several weeks teaching the kids some Christmas songs many of the parents came to see their kids perform. My brother brought an excellent message from Luke 2 reminding us of the greatest joy of Christmas! James went deeper with some facets on God's grace, while keeping the message clear and understandable. After the service, Roberto told me he was really affected by James message! May God grant him saving grace!

After the service we gathered around for some food and fellowship. It is so good to start seeing God's church being edified. Last year we had a party among many unbelievers, but this year - the body (though small) was gathered in Serraria (Saw Mill)! That is priceless!

Thank you all for you prayers as God is doing a work here. We are having a couple studies and contacts are developing. It is so good to see some progress.

This and That

2010-11-23T08:26:00.008-02:00

Since our last post, we've had a few different things going on. Instead of dedicating a different blog post for each one, I'll just mention them each briefly to bring you up to speed.

About three weeks ago, the bulldozer came to clear off our little piece of hillside property and begin digging out the garage/basement. God has been so good -- it will take another post just to write about all of His blessings in getting us to this point.

Progress!

A couple weeks ago, we left for Curitiba after our Thursday night Bible study to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with our family and other missionaries there. Gabriel had been looking forward for several days to seeing his grandparents and playing with the other mk's. And of course it's always nice for us to see our family and missionary friends too.

For some reason, kids aren't nearly as interested in eating the Thanksgiving meal as the adults are ... :)

Our children are very privileged to be growing up in Brazil with both sets of grandparents living just a short drive away. Juliana is not too sure about the bite of blackberry pie Granddad Nunley gave her.

Juliana and her little friend, the daughter of my good childhood friend who is also working as a missionary here in Brazil.

Valeria, the girl on the right, is expecting her third child this month. She and her husband have been attending our services for a couple of months now and both professed to be saved. Christen and I offered to give her a baby shower, but it's a normal custom here for the expectant mother to throw her own shower. So we went to her shower to show her our love and support, and it was neat to see that there were more women from our congregation at her shower than her own family and friends. I think it was a testimony of the love of Christ that unites people into a family who might have nothing else in common except Christ Himself.

Enjoying plenty of good snacks at the baby shower ...

This week, Christen hosted an afternoon tea for the women with small children. She worked so hard for several weeks putting together advent calendars to give them to teach them to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas with their families. For most of them, it will be their first Christmas as believers and even though Brazil is a religious country, the real reason for Christmas is not emphasized.

The women have already commented about what a good time they had together that afternoon and one has said she wants to have everyone over to her house for coffee and a Bible study one day soon.

Our fun and creative advent calendars -- I even got one too! :)

Unbelievers Affected!

2010-11-15T17:50:00.007-02:00

Last evening God blessed us with a good group - many unbelievers. My brother James preached from Colossians 4:7-18 on the New Family of God. The passage paints a clear picture of what it looks like to be part of God's family and how incredibly different this is from the worlds view of family and relationship! James was careful to communicate clearly the HOW one becomes a part of God's family. Selfless giving and concern for one another emanates from the cross and establishes communities of people committed to Christ and each other. May God grant repentance and faith to those who heard the gospel this past evening.

On a side note - one of the men that attended is a professional soccer player. I thought that was pretty cool. He came here - to my house in little old São José and heard of Christ!

Sheep before its Shearers

2010-11-09T21:46:00.005-02:00

Two days ago a neighbor I have witnessed to several times invited me to help him sheer some sheep. My enthusiasm level as I left the house was pretty low. An hour at a coffee shop would have worked for me, but God had something else planned.

As we arrived, the sheep were scattered so they needed rounding up. An initial banging on a food bucket brought them out of the wood work. Now from the big pen to a smaller one. This move had the sheep going bonkers! Let's just say that sheep have "wheels" and "ups"! After quick set up of the electric sheers, Adelar whips a sheep into full submission tying up all four legs into one. At this point, the sheep lays there helpless while his eyes say hopeless. The sheep is as vulnerable as one can be. Each one just lay there quietly as my friend shaved it all off, sometimes cutting into the skin. Once he's done, the sheep gets up and wobbles off like one who has been humiliated. All I could think about was this verse:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth. Is. 53:7

This verse means more to me today than ever. Why would Jesus do that for me?

Thank you for the cross Lord!

Pray for Adelar to be affected by the cross!

Our First Juntar-Panela (Pot Luck)

2010-11-09T09:27:00.003-02:00

Ok, so this wasn't a big neighborhood outreach effort, but I thought I'd share about our potluck lunch with our little church group on Sunday. The reason it was encouraging to me was that it was so nice to see people interact with each other and the kids playing together, just enjoying the fellowship. Most of our people didn't know each other until they met in our meetings, and we want to encourage them to develop friendships amongst themselves. Several of them commented on how good it was to have everyone together, eating together and enjoying each other's company. And of course, the food was great and everyone contributed to the meal.

God blessed us with this sweet couple a few months ago. They are mature believers who were wanting to help in a new church plant and God allowed our paths to cross. They have joined us and have been a huge help in several different ways. Here they're holding our groups' two babies, Juliana and Ana Julia.

Having our own children definitely helps to attract other children to our meetings. A couple of the boys in the top picture often come by themselves. They are good friends with Daniel and now are friends with each other too. It was interesting that last Sunday, when Daniel was out of town, they both still came, even knowing that he wouldn't be here.

Last year, David and a friend built a homemade ping-pong table. It has served a great second purpose in that it fits a lot of people around it for a meal. The young couple in the front of the picture (yes, I know you can't see their faces, sorry) recently professed conversion. They mentioned to us that already their friends are making fun of them for being "crentes" (believers). Pray that God will be their satisfaction and source of strength, that they will grow spiritually and remain strong.

The young man in the foreground is our good friend who has been with us just about from the beginning. There were months and months when he would be the only one who would show up for a meeting. We are thankful for him and we ask that you pray for him as he continues to count the cost of following Christ whole-heartedly. We are in a battle for each person's soul and we've definitely fought hard for this one.

All Souls Day Update

2010-11-02T22:11:00.003-02:00

Today we set up a tent and table at the cemetery. You can read about the holiday "All Souls Day" here. We were able to hand out at least 500 gospel tracts. While several were willing to stop and hear the good news, at least triple that number had no desire whatsoever. The extremes today were interesting.

One response came back: "I don't like Jesus." To which I said "well He loved you." To which he replied: "I sure hope not!" That must be the definition of total depravity- right?

On the other hand, Maria talked to me for at least 30 minutes. She recognizes her sinfulness before God and that something has to change. She said she has a lot of resentment in her heart. So we read through James 4 and she realized that resentment is a result of a sinful heart. Maria said she had never come to the cemetery on this holiday - but felt like she should today and that she was glad we met. Praise God. May God work in her heart.

Before we left I took some tracts and walked through the cemetery. The hopelessness is overwhelming. Hundreds of people burning candles for their loved ones in hopes of speeding up their life in purgatory, or that they might please those who have gone on that they might be looking down on them in favor - in hopes that their loved one might guide them in this life.

I asked a man named Baurilho why he was burning candles. He said: "I don't know why we do this. It's just what I've always done." I asked if he would stop if he found out that it was in vain, to which he said he wouldn't.

This country needs Christ to save them from false tradition. You've heard me say this before, but it is unbelievable what is assumed and believed about God and the afterlife here. May God grant Brazilians eyes to see his glory.

Kids Month Wrap-Up Update

2010-10-30T19:44:00.003-02:00

25 Kids showed up - looks like a trampoline is the key to get kids here.

Christ was proclaimed and the kids were attentive. I'm not sure of conversions - only time can tell. Two incredible truths were made clear though - 1. we are undeserving sinners, 2. Christ died to be a substitute for sinners! I'm so glad more kids in this neighborhood are now aware of that. May they come back and bring their families.

Ok - so here's the final product. I admit that I photoshoped a bit before I took the picture - but you can get the idea. Got some work to do - but I will definitely use this tool again. Thanks Dad Nunley for giving me the paints, a board, and the confidence to do this. May God get all the glory!

Kids Month Wrap-Up

2010-10-29T19:11:00.003-02:00

This month we have hosted a simple Bible club for kids every Saturday. We have used the Jesus Storybook Bible to tell stories of kids in the Bible. The book is excellent for the way it takes each story and uses it to point to Christ!

So tomorrow is the story of Abraham and I will attempt telling the story with paint. Here is my board ready to go. Maybe you can fill in the blank if you're up to speed on your Portuguese. Please pray for me as this is a first for me. More importantly pray for good weather, many kids present, and repentance and faith among the children.

I will take a picture with it all filled out and an update tomorrow night!

All Souls Day

2010-10-28T11:05:00.003-02:00

Next Tuesday Brazilians will celebrate All Souls Day, a holiday connected with a doctrine of the Catholic church. The idea is that this day is set aside for people to go pray for the "faithfully departed" who did not quite attain sanctification before leaving earth. This is designed to guarantee a shorter stay in purgatory and a quicker arrival in heaven. Although most just go to the grave to leave flowers. Read more about it here.

We plan to reach out to those who come on Tuesday with true hope - the gospel. Our goal is to address people as they leave the grave side. We've designed a t-shirt that should cause them to ponder where their soul will end up. Pray that God would grant good opportunities and cause many to repent and believe in Christ!

(Corpo - Body, Alma - Soul, Vida Eterna - Eternal Life, Morte Eterna - Eternal Death)

Pray with us on Tuesday, November 2nd in the morning!

An Opportunity/ Dificulty

2010-10-23T20:14:00.002-02:00

Opportunity - About an hour ago I left home headed for a friends house on foot. My plan was to invite him to church tomorrow. I lined my pocket with some bridge tracks for opportunities along the way. God immediately put 3 (cool, nose and ears studded) teenagers in my way. "Will you give me five minutes to share some good news with you three?" All three agreed and I was pleased.

Difficulty - Often, someone will say that they feel unprepared to share Christ with others, but this time I felt over-prepared. Please understand the spirit with which I share - for God's glory. My struggle was to share the glorious gospel in a simple way. Surely some simple logic would work with these guys - oh but no! One thing I said for example: "Should I be arrested if I take someone's life in this neighborhood?" Pretty basic - right? Let's just say that it looked like I had asked them the square root of 83094098.

Eventually there seemed to be some understanding in their eyes - but ideally we would go straight there, not after a few strikes. Sometimes the difficulty lies not in lack of content, but in the proper use of it! Pray for us to be clear, concise, and complete! We cannot afford to leave certain things out of the gospel, regardless of education! God, Man, Christ, Response are the minimum! BUT WE MUST COMMUNICATE!

Pray for Wilson, Christiano, and Geovani.

Pray for Jhonata

2010-10-19T11:07:00.002-02:00

Jhonata is my 16 year old neighbor and was recently in a bad motorcycle accident. They had to put a titanium rod in his right thigh. I went to see him in the hospital and his attitude was one of anger and pride. He was not thankful for another opportunity in life. He was not thankful for anything his parents would do for him. His response was disheartening in light of a life threatening accident. Since then I have prayed about ways I could reach him, for fears that he might be strongly opposed to anything God or Bible. Yesterday, upon my request, he came over for a Bible Study. We read the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5. I showed Jhonata that Christ loves us even though he shouldn't because of our sin - the same way the servant girl loved Naaman, a prideful captain, even though she didn't have a reason to. That Christ died to substitute sinners, absorb God's wrath, and forgive us from the penalty of our sin. That in the same way that it was required of Naaman to humble himself and trust in Elijah's word, we must humble ourselves, repent of sin, and believe in the payment Christ made for sin on the cross. Jhonata listened, interacted, and suggested we have more talks like this. Let's pray for his salvation! His younger brother comes to our services on Sundays and is thoroughly enjoying it as well - his name is Vitor. Vitor said to his mom the other day that he doesn't want to go to Catechism anymore because he doesn't understand anything, but that at our church it makes sense - go figure!

God be glorified for this opportunity.

Club Update

2010-10-16T11:19:00.003-03:00

So things haven't gone as we had hoped for our children's outreach every Saturday this month. We've had a really low turnout both weeks so far. The first Saturday was cold and rainy -- like winter decided to have one last party on its way out.

Juliana dressed for the weather

The second Saturday was a beautiful day, but since it was the Saturday before Children's Day, a local community association hosted a free all-afternoon event for the neighborhood kids. It was a little sad to see train load after train load of kids drive by our house. Many of them were kids we know who have come to our events in the past. They would smile and wave at us and I wanted to yell, "Please! Come here to our club! We're having fun here too!" But, well, it's hard to compete with the Fun Train. :) But the few kids who did come seemed to have a great time and we're glad for the opportunity to teach them about Jesus' love and His salvation.

Here are some pictures of the fun games David planned for the kids:

What team can get through the giant maze first?

Don't let the ball drop as you race down the line!

Run through the chalk maze on the ground ...

and take a bite out of a hanging "rosquinha" (no hands, Saimon!)

David telling the story of Naaman the leper and his servant girl

Craft time -- thanks to one of James and Christen's supporting churches who sent some fun craft materials

Eating canjica for snack

Learning the Bible verse with gestures

In hopes of getting more kids to come the next three weeks, David rigged some speakers on top of the car and made a recording inviting neighborhood kids to come participate. Right now, he's driving around with the recording playing loudly. Now, before you think that's a little odd, it's actually very typical here to announce things this way. Several cars drive by our house everyday announcing everything from the sales at a local grocery store to the healing and miracles service that will be held at a certain church. Let's see if this method helps get the word out and bring new kids to our club. I'll post a brief update either tomorrow or Monday about how things go today and tomorrow in our services.

*Update: Well, we didn't have the turnout we had hoped for, but we did have a few more kids show up, which was great. We had a fun time playing games and acting out Bible stories. We are still praying that some kids will come back with one of their parents for a Sunday service so they can win their free book.

Two Birthdays and October Plans

2010-10-01T08:02:00.007-03:00

Gabriel and David both have birthdays in September, so it's a special month for us. Gabriel has been looking forward to his big day for a long time now, and we were able to celebrate his birthday with both sets of grandparents and some friends in Curitiba.

Here he had just woken up from his nap and was so excited to see all the birthday preparations.
He sat at the table kind of mesmerized by everything -- the cake, candy and presents.

Gabriel is a very determined child and loves having a routine. He has been a big challenge for us in the parenting aspect, but we are very blessed to have him as our son. He loves to sing, watch tar-coons (cartoons), sneak onto Daddy's computer and move the icons around, take things apart and try to figure out how they work and eat apples -- sometimes several a day. He is a great big brother to Juliana, who just adores him. Sometimes he just looks at her and she starts grinning. He has an endless source of energy that I wish I could tap into, and he's also very shy but he's learning to greet people when they come to our home for services and to play with the kids who come instead of clinging desperately to David or me. Almost everyday he says something really cute or funny that makes us laugh out loud. Like the time his pants were too big around his waist and in frustration he said, "Mommy! My pants keep walking away!" Or the fact that he calls David "Uncle David" instead of "Daddy" when his cousins are around. I'm so thankful for this playful, sweet, strong-willed little boy and pray that one day he will learn to love God and place his faith in Jesus for salvation.

David's birthday was yesterday and it was nice to celebrate it with James and Christen and their kids. Having family around to work with and share special days with is a blessing that we try not to take for granted. God blessed me more than I could know when I met David almost 8 years ago. It has been great being married to this man for just over 6 years now, to follow his leadership, to learn from him as he grows in his walk with Christ and to share my life with him. I admire his wisdom and patience in dealing with different aspects of ministry, his love for God and His Word, his desire to see Christ exalted in all things and his passion to see people be saved. I'm thankful for the good father that he is to our children, taking time to play with them, correct them, and care for them.

On a completely different subject, for those of you who keep up with the happenings in our ministry here, we will be having a kids' club every Saturday this month. Brazil celebrates Children's Day, which falls on October 12th, and it's a pretty big deal here. We're using this as an opportunity to reach out to the kids in our neighborhood again and hopefully get to meet their parents as a result. As an incentive for coming to a Sunday service with a parent, we will be giving away the Jesus Storybook Bible -- one per family that comes. This is such a well-written book, very Christ-centered, and we were so excited to find it already translated into Portuguese. Here is a link to the book if you're not familiar with it. We ask for your prayers this month, that God will give us fruit as a result of this outreach effort.

Happy 188th Independence Day, Brazil!

2010-09-07T10:48:00.008-03:00

Today, September 7, is Brazil's Independence Day, so I thought I would acknowledge that in a blog. We don't have big plans to celebrate today. There probably won't be any fireworks tonight, but people do have the day off and probably did most of their partying last night so they could sleep it off today. There might be a parade downtown, but I honestly don't know if there is or not.

The thing is, Brazilians aren't overly patriotic, unless it's the World Cup. Then they will put up flags and wear their green and yellow. I don't know of anything that unites Brazil as a whole like the World Cup. The country comes to a stand still when their team (beloved, if winning) is playing. When a goal is made, you can stand outside and hear the entire city celebrate with firecrackers and honking horns.

When Brazil sadly lost this year in the quarter finals, the flags quickly came down and the yellow team shirts were put away. Our big consolation at losing so soon in the World Cup was that at least Argentina lost too!

We love Brazil. After all, both David and I were born and reared here, and now we have a daughter who was born here as well. It's a part of who we are and now we even own a little piece of it. :) God has placed us here, and our plans are to spend our lives here laboring to teach and spread the true gospel among a people who are so misled and deceived by false doctrine and religion.

We are fighting for Brazilians in a spiritual sense. Sometimes our efforts seem so frail and meager in comparison to how huge the need is, but slowly we are seeing the difference that the gospel is making here in our neighborhood as a person here and a person there are being affected by it. Our service this past Sunday night was so encouraging in that we had our biggest group up to this point. A young mother who came last week for the first time came back with her husband and their two children this week. Another young mother who took her daughter to our VBS a couple months ago came for the first time with her daughter and her niece. She has been doing a Bible study with James and Christen and has shown an understanding of the gospel.

So today we celebrate, or at least acknowledge, Brazil's Independence Day, the day it declared freedom from Portugal. But we are far more excited to be involved in the process of freeing Brazilian people from the captivity of Satan.

Tradition Trumps Truth

2010-08-21T13:38:00.003-03:00

So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. Mt.15

Every Saturday - the local Catholic church offers the typical catechism classes for youth. Interestingly, several of those we have worked with closely chose to send their kids to these classes, as well as attend our sunday studies. The notion is that if the children are exposed to several religions, they will be well-rounded and balanced. I call it the fruit salad mentality - the lie that says there's a bit of good, or shall we say - a bit of truth in each one - so combined, they become the ultimate truth. Sure - their thinking might not be this calculated, but this is always how it plays out. What is missing at one church will be taught at another...

Often I question the parents about the meaning of catechism. The answer comes back empty, with something like:"well, I did it when I was a kid and I think it's important for them". Catechism (teachings of particular doctrine) is certainly important, but why is teaching more important than WHAT we are teaching? Parents don't know and the kids are clueless!!!

Jesus made it clear that tradition rooted in man made rules nulifies the Word of God. False tradition does not marry with true Christianity - it opposes the true gospel! The gospel is God-centered while false tradtions are man-centered, "but it's end is the way to death" Pv. 14:12.

Father - disillusion brazilians of their hopes in the false gospel.

Prayer Requests

2010-08-18T10:54:00.003-03:00

Take a minute to pray over these requests as you read them.

1. Zalmo - an alcoholic with no hope. He showed up here as drunk as could be, with a flat motorcycle tire - asking if he could leave the motorcycle here. One thing led to another and I am meeting with him regularly - but it is a sad situation!

2. Adelar and Ivani - Ivani took offense to some things I said in a Bible study with her and her husband Adelar. The comments were along the lines that man's biggest problem is what comes from within (a sinful heart), and not our circumstances around us. She is so bitter about it that she had Adelar call here to cut off all ties with them. Another sad situation!

3. Saulo and Gisa - next door neighbors. Their 16 year old son, Jonathan, has been nothing but trouble. God has brought his life to a halt by means of a serious motorcycle accident. He will be in the hospital for at least a month. Pray God will give us an entrance into his life.

Pray for us - that we will believe Psalm 50:20 -"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Ask God to give us wisdom in our actions and reactions. Thanks.

July Happenings

2010-08-09T09:24:00.016-03:00

Wow! July came and went so quickly and there's so much to write about! To sum it up, we were able to host two separate missions groups who came to help us with two kids clubs. It was hard work, but fun and God blessed our efforts in spite of the weather (it was cold and rainy during our open-air club) and our own shortcomings, and here are some of the highlights (in no particular order of importance) ...

A chance to present the gospel twice at a school nearby

Contacts made from doing a door-to-door survey -- we are starting Bible studies this week with new families as a result

Great food at our neighbor's house who cooked a great meal for us each day the second group was here. We are halfway through a six-week Bible study with this family.

Good burgers from a local restaurant -- meat pattie, ham, cheese, corn, peas, tomato, lettuce, potato chips and homemade mayo -- not of any importance, but just an interesting cultural note

Fun times with Rachel, David's sister, who spent a good part of her summer vacation here with us. She brought ingredients for smores -- how thoughtful!

Group #1 from São Paulo -- it was cold and rainy while they were here, but we were still able to enjoy an outing to a local fort during their time here

We had daily devotions with both groups. Here we're having devotions at the beach. It was a really special time. Thank you, James and David, for challenging us to have godly ambitions.

You can hardly see her, but the woman in this picture is a mom who brought her son (in the red) to our VBS last year. She has made a profession of faith in Christ and this year she helped us in our second club and brought her son and nephews every day to participate.

The boy on the left made a profession of faith during the second club. He has come many times to our Sunday School and has always shown a lot of interest in the gospel. Pray for this young boy, that he will remain firm as he reaches the hard preteen/teenage years, that he will not be lured away by everything the world has to offer.

Group #2 from Curitiba included both mine and David's parents and Rachel. It was great to work with family and to have both Grannas here to help take care of the little ones.

Dad concluded three of the days with great paintings illustrating an attribute of God and concluding with the cross of Christ

Song time -- by the third day, the kids were singing the songs really well

Good outcome in both clubs. We have around 50 new families to visit. The mother of the second boy on the left has already agreed to start a Bible study this week.

Good story time with James and David. The theme of both clubs was "The Real Treasure" focusing on God and His attributes.

Game time is always a big hit with the kids. We are thankful that the neighborhood school allowed us to use their gym for the second club.

There are many other details I could write about, but I think this is good for now. Thank you for praying for us. There is so much work to be done here. The more we come in contact with people, the more we are seeing the importance of God placing us here to spread the gospel.

To São Paulo and Back

2010-06-21T09:24:00.004-03:00

Last week we took a 24-hour trip to the nearest American Consulate in São Paulo to register Juliana as an American citizen born abroad and to get some other documents taken care of. Gabriel stayed with James and Christen while David and I made the quick trip with Juliana. We weren't too thrilled to have to do this, but then a missionary informed us that we would be very close to a big mall that has both Applebee's and Starbucks in it. That may not seem like a big deal, but it was so nice to have a little taste of home! Just sitting at these places brought back good memories of times in the States with family and friends. It helped to "matar saudades", which is hard to translate into English, but word-for-word means "to kill longings for someone or something you miss." Like I said, hard to translate ...

We were very grateful for the efficiency of the American Consulate -- we were in and out in an hour with Juliana's American birth certificate in hand and the rest of the documents to be mailed to our house. I think we also left São Paulo grateful that we don't have to live there. It's huge and crazy and a different world than our São José.

So why am I blogging about such a simple event? I can see God's hand in everything that happened. From the safety He provided on the flights and taxi rides (seriously, our first taxi driver almost side-swiped a car), to how everything went so smoothly at the Consulate. From providing some fun places for us to eat, to giving us a sunny, perfect-temperature day. I believe God pays attention to the smallest details in our lives. I mean, if He knows how many hairs are on my head, then certainly He knows that I really like Starbucks mocha frappuccinos with whipped cream. :)

Quick Update

2010-05-28T10:03:00.006-03:00

It's a little after the fact, but earlier this month we hosted a ladies' tea in honor of Mother's Day. Sadly, I didn't check my camera's battery before the event, and it was dead, so I didn't get any pictures. However, my sister-in-law, Christen, took pictures and wrote a great blog about our time and you can read about it here. I invited several different women, including my next door neighbor. She asked if she could bring her adult daughter and I said sure. It was interesting that my neighbor did not come, but she told her daughter about it and she came and brought her sister-in-law too. I had not met either of them before, so I was glad to have 2 new contacts. A few days ago, I talked to the daughter again and asked her if she was interested in having a Bible study with me. She said her family is busy with building their house right now, but that when it's done, she'll come to me for a study. More than likely, that was a polite way of saying she was not interested, but I'm praying that God will work in her heart so that she actually will come for a Bible study soon.

It has been nice to have a family of 5 join us for our Sunday morning Bible studies the past couple of weeks. James and Christen have been working with them and we would love to see the whole family receive Jesus as their Savior. We are longing to see genuine fruit in our work here. Recently, we have been tempted to be discouraged as people we have come to know and care for and have had Bible studies with have lost interest or become offended by the gospel for one reason or another. Instead of taking it personally, we have to remind ourselves that they are actually rejecting Christ, not us, and that God calls us to be faithful in proclaiming the gospel and to trust Him for the results.

As for our little family, we are doing well. Juliana is growing too fast! I am a little sad that she has already outgrown some of her clothes and has moved up a diaper size. Why do mommies want their children to stay little? She is generally a very happy, easy-going baby and she seems to have easily found her place in our lives.

Gabriel is always full of energy and is a little more high-maintenance than his sister ... well, a lot more high maintenance. He surprises us almost every day with things he has learned. Not too long ago, I walked into David's study to see Gabriel sitting at the computer. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I writing e-mails."

We are excited about some upcoming things:
1- the World Cup (soccer). I plan on doing a blog about that in a few weeks including pictures that show Brazil's passion for this sport and specifically this event. Go Brazil!

2- potentially buying a house or a piece of property on which to build a house. David has been running around a lot recently meeting with realtors and builders, trying to find a good spot for us and getting estimates. We live in a very hilly area, so we're praying for a piece of property that is flat. :)

3- going to Sao Paulo. Juliana needs to be registered at the American Embassy as an American citizen and my American passport has expired, so we (minus Gabriel) are flying to the nearest American Embassy in Sao Paulo to get those important documents taken care of. That may not sound exciting to you, but we found out there are both Applebee's and Starbucks close to the Embassy, so we're looking forward to that!

4- having a kids' club in July. We are already planning for this event. It was an effective outreach program last year and we are expecting to have many more kids come this year.

Easter Outreach Results

2010-04-05T08:54:00.004-03:00

Result - Christ was preached and God was glorified! As you can see, there was only a handful of friends present, but God used the gospel visually and verbally to touch hearts. James focused on why Christ suffered emphasizing the justification of sinners. Adelar (first on the right in the group of three on the left) was someone I met last week and seems to be affected strongly by the gospel. Sharon and I will do a Bible study at his house on Tuesday evening.

Cristiano (here in the back) has been a work in progress. I have had two studies with him and his wife Debora. He works 10-12 hours a day making it difficult to meet up - but we will not give up.

The small group of 4 teens in the front attended a series of 6 gospel studies at our house last year. I had not seen them since. Praise God for bringing them!

José Augusto on the back row has attended 3 of our evangelistic events!

As you can see we had chairs set up for 70 or more. Obviously this did not happen - so we take refuge in clear Biblical truth: I Cor. 15:58 - "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

Easter Outreach

2010-04-01T09:35:00.005-03:00

Please pray for our Easter outreach here in Brazil. We have handed out a few hundred invitations and will be showing Mel Gibsons version of "The Passion of the Christ" at a local community center. God has granted us several opportunities to share the true gospel with some as we handed out invitations. Adelar and Ivani invited me in and we spent over an hour on the gospel and Bible related questions. Also shared clearly with Sireneu an older gentleman who lives alone and drives a taxi for a living. As a Catholic he told me he had never heard the gospel quite like that before.

Here's our plan with the movie. We will start the movie at 7:30 and pause about 50 minutes in right before the crucifixion. At this point my brother James will explain the "WHY" of what is about to happen - then we will play the rest. Pray that this will impact all who come - as many have already seen this movie. May God cause many to repent and believe in Him as a result of the true gospel message. Pray for us this Friday at 6:30 Eastern! Thanks.

Pray for Aguiar

2010-03-22T23:08:00.005-03:00

Aguiar is a self-proclaimed Spiritist/Catholic. The implications of this in regards to his salvation are something like this. Work hard to exercise love, forgiveness and charity all the days of my life (Catholic part) so that my soul can evolve from one life to the next producing in me the goodness necessary to be accepted by God (Spiritist part). In lay terms: salvation by works. "The Passion of Jesus Christ" by John Piper has served us well to explore the gospel and all it's truth with Aguiar. He is ever so slowly connecting some dots - but has not yet been granted faith and eyes to see! Please pray with us for this man. He has a beautiful family that is simply falling apart because of selfish, sinful, unforgiven pride.

Aguiar on the right

Aguiar is evolving for sure - but not in the way he would hope! I cannot take you into his living room to listen in on a study -but I beg you to pray for us every Monday evening. May the Spirit of God illuminate his understanding of the true gospel - JESUS PAID IT ALL!

Light in Darkness

2010-03-17T07:12:00.008-03:00

I am deeply excited about an opportunity God has granted. Our local video store rents out all sorts of books as well as movies. In talking with the owner, Tiago agreed to make available some books of my choice - gospel centered books! I stopped by last night with these three to begin with. "The Passion of Jesus Christ" and "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper. "The Gospel According to Jesus" by John MacArthur. Tiago cleared out a section of his frequently read books and placed mine right on the middle shelf! I cannot tell you how much this means, especially in a community like ours! We can scarcely find these books in Christian bookstores here - much less in a video store. Tiago says that his books go out more frequently than his movies and that he is sure people will read them. Please pray that this will happen and that many would repent and believe in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. I have included my name and address inside the book cover for assistance in understanding any ideas in the books. I will keep you posted as to the repercussions of this evangelistic method. May God be glorified!

Juliana Noelle Taylor

2010-03-16T14:26:00.009-03:00

We are excited to announce the birth of our daughter, Juliana Noelle. She was born March 11 at 3:38 AM, weighs 7 lb 6oz, and is 18 inches long. She came a week past her due date, but when she decided she was ready to come, she came quickly, for which mommy is grateful. She is beautiful and healthy and we are so thankful for this precious gift from God.

One day old

First family picture

Gabriel examining his new baby sister

Juliana and Granna Nunley

Daddy's heart has already been stolen ...

... and Mommy's too

Dr. Daniela who delivered Juliana

Grandpa and Granna Taylor

Gabriel loves "Ju-ana"

It's fun having cousins around

Back home from the hospital

Welcome home, baby sister!

Already loving the hammock

Granna and Grandpa Taylor with all the grand children

Youth Retreat

2010-02-22T12:28:00.010-03:00

I was asked to bring some challenges to the youth retreat in Curitiba - where I grew up. Sharon and I drove up and Sharon stayed with her folks as she is about 8.5 months pregnant. The grandparents didn't seem to mind too much.

Meanwhile, the Lord blessed in wonderful ways. On Saturday my focus was true conversion and the righteousness of Christ. On Sunday we jumped into the life of Peter to see how conversion and Christ's righteousness became evident in his life. Monday morning, we opened up for a time of questions and answers. Myself along with 2 other pastors answered all sorts of questions the teens had. Here are some of the questions they asked:

1. If a Christian commits suicide, does he loose his salvation?

2. Did God purposely harden Pharoah's heart, so as to keep Israel from being freed?

3. How can the Bible help our understanding with ethical issues such as stem cell research, euthanasia, and the death penalty?

4. If someone commits a sin, and repents, but unfortunately commits the same sin after repeatedly confessing, could this person still not be saved?

5. How should we respond to God's love toward us, who placed our sins on Christ shoulders, considering us justified before Him?

I was pleased to hear these good questions. It is a reminder that we must never assume that a group of "Christian" kids has come to understand or appreciate the fullness of God's Word. I believe many there were affected by the Biblical answers and God was truly honored in this.

On Monday evening there was a bonfire and several shared of what God had been doing. I chose to impersonate Peter's denial and wrap up with a couple challenging thoughts on how we deny the Lord daily with our actions. On Tuesday, I closed with John 21 where the Lord Jesus challenges Peter in three areas: love, sacrifice, and discipleship.

Pray for these youth as they go back into the real world to live out their faith.

Outreach Efforts

2010-02-11T19:19:00.004-02:00

The past two weekends we've tried a couple of different outreach efforts here in our neighborhood to try to create more contacts and to get to know people by meeting a specific need. The first event was soccer. Now, you may not think that providing an hour of soccer for 15 teens and men counts as meeting a need, but some might beg to differ. :) David used this opportunity to clearly share the gospel with these men and he and James will be following up with them in the near future.

Taking a few minutes before playing to share the gospel.

Our second event was more of a compassion outreach where we provided basic food packages for 10 needy families. Here in Brazil, most big grocery stores carry pre-made food packages that include the basics -- bags of rice, beans, flour, sugar, coffee, and several other items. We went out the day before to hand out coupons for these food packages. There was a catch though. While the person could receive the food for free, they had to agree to come at a scheduled time the next day to pick it up and be willing to listen to a gospel presentation. There were 11 people who came and they all listened well while David talked to them about their greatest need -- forgiveness of their sins and the eternal salvation of their souls.

Sharing the gospel message before handing out the bags of food.

A couple of people who received coupons were unable to come pick them up, so David dropped the food off at their houses and presented the gospel to them in their own homes. At one house, 15 people gathered around while he presented the gospel to them. They were attentive, even asking questions, and all of them said they had never heard the message that David was sharing with them. They can't seem to grasp the fact that salvation is free.

Helping themselves to the bags of food

Pray for us as we try different means in reaching the people in our neighborhood with the gospel. Pray that God will save people here and that we will be faithful in proclaiming the gospel whenever we have opportunity.

Walking home with their food -- pray that we will have good follow-up opportunities with the ones who came and be able to do more in-depth Bible studies with them.

6 Month Plan

2010-01-23T14:03:00.003-02:00

For those prayer warriors out there - here is our 6 month plan of attack in ministry. May God use these events and their outcome for his glory.

Jan. 30 - Soccer Outreach: We are aiming to host some free soccer for about 10 men. Our goals - share Christ, and make future follow-up contacts.

Feb - Compassion Outreach: Our aim is to bless 8-10 needy families in our neighborhood. We will hand out coupons for a food basket to specific families. Upon their arrival they will receive spiritual food and then some physical. Our goals - share Christ, show compassion on those in need, and develop future contacts. We are calling it the "Not by Bread Alone" ministry.

March - Door to Door Evangelism: Hear me out before you scratch off this antiquated method! We will go door to door with a gift (the book The Passion of Jesus Christ). We will offer the gift along with an explanation of the gospel, and an invitation to next months event. Our goals - share the gospel clearly in 5 minutes or less.

April - The Passion Movie: We will use the local gymnasium to show the movie on the Friday before Easter. Our goals - Stir people's hearts to think about Christ's suffering, share the good news, and gain contacts by means of a prize drawing at the end.

May/June - 2 Children's Bible Clubs: 3 day club for kids ages 6-12 which includes games, Bible time, and a snack. Our goals - Lead children to Christ, gain contacts to visit kids parents.

Pray with us over these endeavors - that God may use these events to save many!

Year in Review and a Brief Look Ahead

2010-01-07T19:27:00.009-02:00

We rang in 2009 in Curitiba with some of our family and shortly after, we headed back to João Pessoa to continue working at Valentina Regular Baptist Church. In January, we had a great teen week of camp and in February, a great family Carnaval retreat, in both of which David acted as the program director.

Family Carnaval Retreat at supper time

The church at Valentina called Pastor Gildo to be their Brazilian pastor and in March, we said goodbye to the church members we had grown to love in the short year we were in João Pessoa, packed up our stuff and headed 2200 miles away to where we believe God was calling us to serve next, alongside David's brother and sister-in-law, James and Christen.

Our family with Pastor Gildo and his wife Lucia

Our family with the Cavalcanti family at Valentina; he was the head deacon while we were there

Packing up the moving truck in João Pessoa

For six weeks we waited for God to provide us with a house to rent. Sometimes it seemed we hit a road block at every turn and we wondered how God was going to work things out, but He did and at the end of April, we moved into our new home in the city of São José, only a few blocks away from James and Christen's newly-rented house.

Our house in São José

After settling in, we began to try to get to know our neighbors and walked up and down the streets in our neighborhood handing out invitations to a six-week Bible study in our home. When no one showed up, we wanted to become discouraged, but went back to the drawing board and came up with a new plan. In July, we hosted two weeks of children's Bible clubs in our homes. We were glad with the good turn-out and began to follow up with the kids' parents. We have been able to have several Bible studies as a result of making contacts in this way.

Last day of Bible club at our house. These kids received a certificate for perfect attendance.

On a more personal note, in July we celebrated 5 years of marriage. Gabriel turned 2 in September and learns something new everyday, it seems. Right now he can count to 10 in Portuguese, with just a little help, and loves to sing a Portuguese song called "toque-toque". He loves chocolate; any kind of ball; and his cousins, Jer, Hannah and Daniel.

The cake options at the store were very limited -- hence the pink cake for Gabriel's birthday.

In October, my ultrasound revealed that we are expecting a baby girl. In November, we were given the very generous gift of a 4-day hotel stay at Foz do Iguaçú by the Christian Hospitality Network. We were blessed by their kindness and thoughtfulness to missionaries all over the world.

Our family at the beautiful Iguaçú Falls

In December, we hosted Christmas parties in our homes for our neighbors. We played some fun Christmas games, then shared with them a devotional on why we as Christians celebrate Christmas. We concluded with some refreshments and gave each family a gift book on Jesus and who He is.

Playing games at our Christmas Party

David's sister Rachel came to visit from the States and both mine and David's parents came to spend some days with us around Christmas. Having family around to celebrate holidays with is not a privilege many missionaries have, and we are grateful that God has blessed us in this special way.

The Taylor Family

Christen, my mom, David's mom, myself on Christmas Eve

My dad and I on Christmas Day -- I was his "secret santa". I wonder how many times I've given him a new book for Christmas. :)

We concluded 2009 at James and Christen's house, watching fireworks over the water from their balcony with them and our friends Viviane and Roberto.

myself, David, James, Christen, Jer, Roberto and Viviane

Our plans for this year include having weekly Bible studies in our home on Sundays at 10 A.M. with the hope of developing a core group of believers and being able to rent a place for regular meetings, continuing to have Bible studies in people's homes and pursuing new contacts. Our baby girl is due to be born in the beginning of March and we would love to be able to buy some property on which we could build us a house this year.

This is the view from the piece of property that we are hoping to buy for our future home.

We had no idea what God had in store for us during 2009 and of course we have no idea what is in store for us in 2010. What we do know is that God is completely sovereign and that what He chooses to give us this coming year is necessary, and what He chooses to withhold from us is not.

Christmas Party

2009-12-24T09:22:00.007-02:00

The Taylor team decided to invite our neighbors and friends for a gospel party under the code name of "Christmas Party". The event was to start at 7, but by 8:20 there were only 4 friends here. It wasn't long after that - things took off!

We started off with some games to get everybody losened up. Seems like the adults enjoyed the games more than the kids.

After some games, mom Taylor and Christen took the kids to learn of Christ birth and I was able to share why Jesus came using the Matthew 1 passage. My emphasis was on Jesus name and it's meaning - primarily to save his people from their sins. Our neighbors were extremely attentive and I believe God was glorified.

The kids came back in and acted out the Christmas story for us - a nice finishing touch on the evening.

May God cause many of our neighbors and friends to repent of their sins this Christmas season, and put their faith in the work and person Christ. And may we look to Jesus as our Savior and Lord this Christmas season and glorify Him as such - above all other things (i.e. presents).

November Update

2009-11-26T13:48:00.001-02:00

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. I Pet. 2:24
Dear Friends,
Why did Christ come? I have heard a dozen answers to this question in the past two weeks. What do you say? While the answer is multi-faceted, the Bible declares a primary reason: the salvation of lost sinners for the glory of God the Father and the good of man! God is granting us opportunities to declare a clear gospel!
Unfortunately it is not so clear to everyone. Christiano and Debora are a young couple with no exposure to the gospel and curious. I asked him last night: “What makes Jesus any different in your mind than the man who discovered Brazil?” He said: “Nothing – I don’t know much about either one.” This comes as a bit of a relief to us in the sense that most Brazilians are so tangled up in a religious web, that it is difficult to sort through it all. The night before, my brother James and I sat with Aguiar and Vanilda. Aguiar is a Spiritist/Catholic that believes that if a person will exercise love, forgiveness and charity for a good part of his life, he will gain favor with God and enter heaven. The debate was long and hard! The Scriptures seemed to press him against the wall as he made every effort to wiggle out of their implications! Pray for us as we teach patiently so that “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 2:24-25)
Pray also for other studies we are having with: Maurino and Luci, João and Patricia, and João and Maria. We are also doing studies with the two that have professed salvation: Roberto and Andréa.
We have one request that is on our hearts and would ask for your prayers. We believe that God has led us here indefinitely and we would like to purchase property and build a home. The difficulty we are having is in regards to acquiring financing for a home. In speaking to a certified CPA, we were advised that the best option would be through someone state side who might take out a loan on our behalf to whom we would pay off the mortgage. This is before the Lord and His plan is best and we wait on that.
We are grateful for a ministry called the Christian Hospitality Network. They granted us a 4 days and 3 nights, expenses paid vacation at the Iguaçu Falls. It was fun to go with most of my family and enjoy some relaxation.
Sharon is doing very well with were her pregnancy and if you haven’t heard we are expecting a girl! Name suggestions are welcome as we are having difficulties.
FYI – Gabriel has now changed his name from Bagel to Gabers.
Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!
David, Sharon and Gabe
P.S. Please let us know if you now have an e-mail address and would rather receive our updates via e-mail!

Candidates for Grace

2009-11-12T21:38:00.003-02:00

João (69) and Maria (65) live in a one bedroom, one bath, and kitchen. They have taken in two children off the street to raise and occasionally house a couple of granddaughters for days. They make a wopping $240 per month. After rent and utilities - that's $50 for groceries and everything else. They have 5 daughters and 1 son. The kids behaviors range from prostitution to drug addiction. One of the granddaughters is having baby #2 at 18 years of age. João does what he can to make some extra change, but his children drain him faster than it comes in. João and Maria have attended the health and wealth gospel church and bought into some of the lies. They are seeking Jesus for what he can give them, but then wouldn't you if in their shoes?

My original title for this post was "Soap Opera". I am so deeply affected by lives like theirs, especially on thanksgiving day with deep gratitude in light of God's grace. First off, I must humble myself to understand that though my bank account is stable, my spiritual account is as deeply bankrupt apart from God's saving and sustaining grace. I must also acknowledge God`s electing grace and realize that His grace comes by no merit of mine which He might look ahead and save me for! Who am I and what makes me any different than João and Maria? Simply God and His sovereign purpose for His infinite praise! May God use us to the praise of His glory to speak truth into the lives of João and Maria. May their eyes be opened as mine were. May we never gloat self-righteously in our condition - because we too are ever so wretched candidates in need of His grace!

Andrea's Story

2009-10-19T15:43:00.003-02:00

This summer, we had two weeks of Children's Bible Club which we blogged about here .
A woman named Andrea happened to see the sign outside of our house advertising the club, and decided to bring her son to attend the last two days. She mentioned that she was interested in learning more about God and the Bible, and a few weeks later, we began a six-week Bible study with her. She was always attentive and seemed interested in the gospel. What she had been taught all of her life had caused her to be afraid of God, knowing that her life was not pleasing to him, but not knowing how exactly to change that. She was trying to change some sinful habits in her life so that she would be acceptable to God because she felt he wanted nothing to do with her because of her sin. When I asked her what she would say to God as to why he should let her into heaven, her answer was that she really wanted to get in.

Her understanding of the gospel continued to grow as we studied, and when we were finished the six-week study, she said she wanted to continue. Last week, she told me she was facing a difficult decision in her life and didn't know what she should do, but wanted to know God's will. As she shared the details with me, I immediately knew that God already had a couple things to say in the Bible about her situation. I asked her if she considered herself to be a Christian and her reply was "yes." Not wanting to place doubts in her mind, but wanting to know if she truly understood what it meant to be a Christian, I asked her some more questions about how she knew she was a Christian. She said that she was trusting in Jesus for her salvation and believed that he had died on the cross for her sins. She said she finally understood that God's love for her was personal and that she didn't have to do any works to receive his salvation. Amazingly, she said that the Christian life was not a life of suffering, like she had always believed, having to follow a list of rules of what to do or not to do to earn God's favor, but the desire to make necessary changes in her life came naturally once she placed her trust in Christ.

Yesterday, Andrea and her son, Saimon, joined us for our Sunday morning Bible study. She and I currently meet on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to study the Bible and when I invited her to come on Sunday too, she was excited and said that she gets sad on Thursday because it will be several days before we have another study. Andrea is a talented musician, and she brought her guitar to play along with David. She quickly picked up on the songs and David said she was filling in places with notes he wasn't even playing. It was great to see her using her talents to praise God.

I am learning more and more the power of the gospel to change lives. God chooses to use us in the process of salvation, and that is amazing. Just recently we were discussing all the other religions we are in "competition" with in this neighborhood. It's easy to get discouraged when we are automatically associated negatively with another religious group. What distinguishes our message from every other message out there being taught to those around us? We concluded that our message is the only life-giving one. It's the only one that has the power to give someone new life in Christ and fellowship with God. We are here in São José, Santa Catarina, Brazil because God wants us to take this life-giving, life-changing message to the people here.

Last week we began a study with a woman named Adriana, and this week we will be starting one with a couple named João and Patricia. Wednesday, David and James are starting a study with a man named Aguiar, and James and Christen are currently involved in two other Bible sudies. Sometimes the work seems slow, but then God begins to open doors and give us entrance into people's homes and lives and it's exciting!

Vilson and Jandir

2009-09-16T09:39:00.003-03:00

Please pray for these two men today. Last night they were in my home and we discussed in detail that the gospel is God-centered. We studied Mark 7:20-23 where Jesus makes very clear the origin of all sin and rebellion - deep within us! Vilson has heard the truth several times now, and last night he brought his brother as well. Jandir is a former Pentecostal, convinced that he's been baptized in the spirit, spoken in tongues, and therefore will be accepted into heaven. I would ask then that you pray that God would open their spiritual eyes and turn them from darkness to light. God has given us wonderful entrance into the lives of these men and we are grateful. Thank you for praying.

Soccer and Religion

2009-09-01T21:51:00.002-03:00

If you have an incredible memory you might just remember a comment in our deputation presentation in regards to values that are a huge part of Brazilian culture. Soccer and religion rank among the top. Interestingly enough, there are incredible likenesses among soccer fans and religious fanatics: likenesses that shed light on why they are so valued among this people.
Some of these very thoughts stemmed out of a conversation with an unbelieving friend.

My objective is to share some core values that each hold and allow you to make the connect.

Soccer Fan Values:

1. Fair weather devotion - a devotion strictly based on their teams performance. Cheering, chanting, and fireworks are the norm for my winning team, but so is rage, anger, and cussing should they lose!

2. Spectator Critics - everyone is doing it all wrong and I can see it all - (the ref was unfair, the other team cheated, and my own team can't kick a ball) Given the chance - this person could do much better, but would never try.

3. Status Symbol - highly esteemed when this is one of the few status symbols one can afford. Currently one of local teams has a record better than in the past 30 years - you can imagine.

Religious Values:

1. Man-centered worship - a search for the perfect church on the basis of it's charisma, leadership, and worship (code for music). Permanence in such a church last's only as long as the bang. The back door swings open and the backstabbing begins.

2. Passive behavior - one who reluctantly follows religion, criticizes it's inconvenience, and eventually walks away from its pressures.

3. Evangelical attention - displayed by it's new found evangelical vocabulary, and fancy black suit - drawing a fresh look from it's long despised neighbors and their pre-critical looks.

I would conclude these things to be true of any people group in some fashion or other. Almost daily conversations have burdened my heart for a people that - like the man I see in the mirror - are extremely man centered. The gospel smorgasbord is available and you will find a wide variety of "what's in it for me" gospel. The true gospel has strong competition because the true gospel is the diametric opposite of religion - preaching about a man who came and died a horrible death! I beg of you that you pray for us in our weakness and insufficiency as missionaries, that we might boldly speak of a God-centered salvation that solely based on Christ's merit, once for all who would believe, and is not negotiable. I recently heard a speaker say in reference to Charles Spurgeon: " He can certainly preach the gospel better than I can, but he can never preach a better gospel than I can!" This is fuel for my fire and I pray it will be for yours. May God so help us to be less concerned with ourselves, our thoughts, our desires, our money, our politics, our families, our dreams, and more concerned with the proclamation of His glory.

2009-08-01T12:16:00.002-03:00

We are grateful for two weeks of successful VBS! Between our two homes we shared Christ with 50 kids and 11 parents. One of the parents has requested a 6 week evangelistic study in her home. Andréa is a single mom in need of a Savior - pray for her. Our intentions are to follow up in the homes of the kids. Now that we have built their confidence, a Bible study might come easier. Thank you for your prayers and support! God Bless!

Bible School

2009-07-29T22:33:00.007-03:00

God blessed us last week! The Bible school was at my brothers where we were able to communicate the gospel clearly to 20 kids and 8 parents. This week we transitioned to our place and God had entrusted us 30 each day so far. Each day we meet for 2 hours divided in four segments - games, song and story time, craft, and a snack/wrap-up. Our objective is two-fold. 1. Communicate the gospel clearly to the children that they might be saved. 2. Make contacts with parents so we might teach 6 week evangelistic studies in their homes. Pray with us! Here are some pics and a video

We'll let you know how it all ends!

Gabe and His Hair

2009-07-04T20:46:00.003-03:00

Update with some Funnies

2009-06-30T09:18:00.003-03:00

#1 - The Bible study in our home is going well. There are 5 teenagers and 2 adults who have been faithfully hearing a gospel truth each week. Lesson 1 was on the authority of Christ, lesson 2 on the crucifixion of Christ, and last week we studied about the resurrection of Christ. Tonight our study will take us to a definition of grace - I can't wait as this is of utmost importance in a culture where grace is dependent on works! Ironically 6 of the students have been coming because of me, right? Wrong. One of the adults has relentlessly pursued his friends to come. Trust me - I am delighted that they are here - no complaints. The last two studies have been interesting though. Imagine yourself teaching the lesson, when all of a sudden you are interrupted, so that a student can clarify something or explain a brand new idea vs. maybe asking a question. He is interesting in that he will explain the whole thing with all confidence, many times using information I have shared with him in private, and then at the very end say something like - correct me if I'm wrong David. You must believe that I am delighted this is happening! My prayer is that he will repent and believe in Christ so that these truths will be a personal reality to him and he will go on to teach himself!

#2 We have recently been watching the Confederations Cup - a soccer tournament among 8 teams. The tension in the room is always high - especially anytime Brazil plays. Little did I know this enthusiasm was contagious. It seems my son quite enjoys Brazilian goals as well. See for yourself.

Ransomed, Resurrected, Called

2009-06-22T10:34:00.004-03:00

Just a quick reflection from a book our families are studying together on Sundays. Yesterday we addressed the question: "How are we born again, or how does God regenerate us?" Notice these three verses in I Peter 1.

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

Because of our depraved hearts and sinful rebellion against God, he bought us back with His Son's precious blood - imperishable.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

The resurrection births us to new life and our life becomes his life in us. Our new birth is a result of his new life in the resurrection!

23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

The abiding word of God is what makes the effectual call in our lives to see the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ! Praise God for making me alive unto salvation!

There is a reference in each text to imperishability. We are united to Christ in these works, and our union is imperishable. This is the only imperishable reality a human can experience in this world! Rejoice in the imperishability of your salvation today - not even a bad day, or a bad performance on your part can alter your status as a genuine believer!

The Day God Planned for Me

2009-06-16T23:09:00.004-03:00

I left home around 10 with intentions of dropping off a package at the post office, paying a bill, updating my military status and getting my car inspected. This was a little more ambitious than I thought. I pulled number 43 at the post office - only 3 in front of me - great - this should be quick. Number 41 walked up with his package - and only a package - no tape, and no address! Meanwhile a disgruntled number 42 decided to fill my ear with his thoughts about number 41. I waited a full 10 minutes with my tiny little sealed, addressed, package. Ok - now let's go to the bank to pay my bill. This time the wait would be longer - 10 in front of me. I got comfortable, reading a good book. Meanwhile I watched a teenager walk in and right up to counter to be seen. Not sure what was going on there. I decided to get some information for my next stop with the guy after me as we clearly had some time. He was well-intentioned and being new in town- I believed him. After 30 minutes at the bank, my agenda took me across town, across the bridge, into down town Florianopolis. I arrived at the military joint only to find it closed for lunch. So I had some food and headed back an hour later. Sargeant Djalma kindly informed me that my need would take me back across town - close to where I began. Ok - here we go. I arrived at a very small office - one desk, two computers, and 4 employees - 2 outside smoking - 2 helping another person. My sense was that of an invisible man. My need seemed to take a back seat to any distraction in the room - phone, mail, interesting conversations of any sort. After a good while, my situation was made clear and simple. Here's what you will do: I need a copy of your social security, your license, a proof of residence, your birth certificate, your military document, and a picture. All this simply to do internet research on my situation which could take anywhere from 3 days to a month. Ok - that makes sense. "Just another 45 minutes and you will be set to go." Let's go get a car inspection - this should be quick! Honestly, an hour and a half went by quick in light of the rest of the day! I'm also not suprised that I've failed the inspection. "Just head back once you've made this $100 fix and we can sign you off."

If you've read this far and think I'm venting - your wrong. I strongly believe that God planned this 8 hour adventure, to prepare me for 1 hour this evening. I arrived home looking forward to some fellowship with my brother and family. God decided to wrap up the day by bringing a freind to the gate - who came for a Bible study. How did my day prepare me for this? I confess that for part of the day - I objected God's sovereign plan for me. There seemed to be a conspiracy against the flow of my day - let's slow it down - however possible. By the end of the day though, the Lord had granted me an incredible level of patience to sit down and calmly share His Gospel graciously. The result: a clear understanding of the cross, repentence, and faith. Glory be to God. He has crafted my day for His purpose and for my good. My advice to you: never take a bad day for granted!

A Long-overdue Post

2009-06-08T10:53:00.006-03:00

It's hard to believe that almost three months ago we left the city of João Pessoa to move 3000 km away toFlorianópolis. We are glad for the year God gave us at Valentina Baptist Church and thankful that we were able to leave them with a Brazilian pastor. The church members hosted a going-away lunch for us and we were touched by their many kind words, gifts, letters and even tears at our parting. This is Pastor Gildo and his wife Lúcia.

The search for a house to rent in Florianópolis took longer than we thought and there were many obstacles in the whole process. In fact, there were times when I think we both wondered whether God actually wanted us to move there or not. But everything has worked out so well and our house is only 10 blocks away from James and Christen's house (David's brother and sister-in-law with whom we will be starting a new work here). Here are some pictures of our new home.
David's study (Gabriel loves to mess in Daddy's top drawer -- so much fun stuff in there!)

Part of the kitchen/dining room

Our bedroom looks out onto the front street

Gabriel's room

Our living room

Our house -- I love the contrast of the pine tree and the palm tree

We went on an outing a couple of weekends ago to a place someone recommended to us. Just the drive itself was so beautiful and we were amazed at God's creation over and over again. Here are some pictures to entice you to come visit us sometime.

On a different note, pray for us this week as we begin a series of Bible studies in our home. It's a six-week study that uses the book of Mark to explain Christianity. We have gone out several times this past week to invite our neighbors and hand out flyers. Pray that people will come and that many will be saved. Several have said they will be here, so we are encouraged by that. Pray for wisdom for David and James as they lead these Bible studies and for Christen and myself as we teach a class for any children that may come. We are excited about what God has in store for us. Thank you for your faithful prayer and support!

Affected by the Gospel

2009-04-13T08:03:00.001-03:00

During this time of transition between ministries, we have been privileged to sit under the ministries God has entrusted to both Sharon and my families. Last week I heard my brother preach the word faithfully in the morning service and then had the same treat in the evening, this time by my father. My mind takes me back to a recent service in Joao Pessoa where we were pastoring. I asked the congregation to raise their hands if the majority of their close family was unregenerate. At least 90% raised their hands and my heart sunk. I have so much to be grateful for! The greatest of all treasures has changed the lives of the ones we love the most!

Last evening I was deeply affected once again by the gospel. We attended New Life Baptist Congregation, a congregation I had a part in helping get started with dad back in 2002. My brother and family have been helping there in the past year. The choir (a dozen out of 35 who attend) brought a series of 8 songs reflecting on the blood shed by Christ for our sins. After the music, my brother brought our attention to Mark 10:45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. He focused his brief thoughts on the last three words of this verse. Ransom - price paid for our rescue, For - not so much "in benefit of" but rather "in the place of", Many - those who will repent and believe! The exposition combined with James passion and zeal for the lost impacted me greatly. I am so glad that we are moving south with such a strong message, as well as a brother and family who are committed to a God-centered proclomation of the gospel. May God glorify himself through His message and our faithfulness to proclaim it in São José.

Praying for a House

2009-03-25T08:39:00.003-03:00

Just a quick update for the three of you who check our blog ... :) We arrived in Curitiba safely last week. Our car was waiting for us when we got here and our belongings are waiting in São Paulo for us to release them once we find a house to rent. Last week, David and I traveled to São José along with James and Christen to look for a house. We found one that would have been a good option, but someone else is ahead of us on the waiting list and we won't know until this weekend whether they got it or not. Even then, we still would have to be approved as renters -- a process which can take several days. The amount of documentation that realties here require just for renting is amazing and often frustrating.

Yesterday, David drove back to São José with his dad to keep looking for a house. There just aren't that many available and of the ones that are available, most of them are not good options for us due to size, location and/or price. However, we are confident that God has called us to serve Him in São José and that He has the right house for us there. We have to patiently wait on Him while we pray and continue looking for a house.

Here are some specific prayer requests:

* patience as we wait for God's clear direction
* quick approval as renters once we find a house
* safe arrival of our belongings
* contentment as we adjust to living in a new place
* opportunities with our neighbors to share the gospel and have home Bible studies

This is a picture of the house we are on the waiting list for, just so you can have an idea.

Thank you for your prayers for us.

Current Events

2009-01-23T21:02:00.004-02:00

Hello All,

As of recent the Lord has encouraged our hearts in very visible ways. Unfortunately we are more inclined to notice and cling to these blessings, as if they were better simply because we notice them. May God help us realize that each day comes loaded with benefits from the Almighty!

First off - we are grateful to have been with family for Christmas, and for the opportunity to survey the city of Florianópolis in Southern Brazil. We drove up and down different neighborhoods, looked at real estate and rental options, and even slipped in a steak house. We believe God is directing us to a city of 200K called São José, just outside Florianópolis. We believe this to be an area deficient of gospel proclamation. May God direct and bless our endeavors!

Second, we had a wonderful week of teen camp last week. 85 teenagers showed up and I believe God visited us there! We encorporated a stronger emphasis on spiritual matters, and the difference was evident. For example - one cabin of guys showed up on Monday ready to party, but by Wednesday, they repented of their attitudes, and even shared the gospel with a lost soul in their cabin. The comment as I heard it was: "We have'nt acted like Christians yet this week, but we are committed to doing that now!" This kind of change of mind seems to be evidence of the Holy Spirit's work! I was very encouraged on Friday evening as one of the teens gave evidence of saving grace in his life with a wonderful testimony of genuine conversion! Praise God!

Last, but not least, we are grateful for a 21 year old named Israel. He attended our church all day on Sunday at his own will. After the service, one of our deacons began sharing Christ with him. After a while I was invited to the conversation, and so I too questioned his reasons for wanting to be saved. Israel made a profession, but I would ask for your prayers for him. He seemed to be looking for relief from his problems, vs. redemption from his sin! I was as clear as I know how and my visits to his house have already begun! May this be true repentence and genuine conversion, and may Israel follow Christ all the days of his life!

These are some of the joys. There are many more that are brewing and we will keep you posted! God bless you all and please do not forget us in your daily talks with our Sovereign Lord!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-03T12:58:00.005-02:00

With all the Christmas activities at church and then getting ready for a three-week trip to visit family in South Brazil, I've neglected to keep up with our blog. This will be a quick summary of the month of December for us.

Since every Saturday night, the men, women and teens each have their own meeting, they each also had their own Christmas party. I spoke at the women's Christmas get-together and David spoke at the men's and teens' get-togethers.

This is a pretty typical cake to have at parties. Gotta love the huge chocolate shavings on top. So good!

One of the families at Valentina have a little beach house that they graciously make available to the church for special occasions. The men had their Christmas party there.

The teens went to the beach at night and had fun playing games in the sand.

I taught the kids a couple of new Christmas songs and had them present them at our Christmas service. The picture doesn't do it justice, but the kids all dressed up in costumes -- angels, shepherds, Mary and Joseph, wise men -- and sang their songs. The first song started off by inviting children from different lands to come see the newborn Jesus, so some of the kids were dressed in outfits from different countries (hence the little boy wearing a sombrero in the manger scene) and they gathered around Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. It was a lot of work to put that short presentation together, but it was worth it and the kids did a great job.

The past couple of weeks we have been in Curitiba spending time with our families. We had some difficulty getting here since we forgot to take any kind of document for Gabriel to travel and then our flights kept getting delayed, but we made it only about 7 hours after we were originally supposed to have gotten in.

Gabriel is having fun playing with his cousins. He especially loves to follow Jeremiah around, who is less than a year older than Gabriel. I can see those two getting into a lot of trouble together ...

David and Gabriel model their Christmas presents -- their soccer team jersey. Note: I do not claim this team. I cheer for a team that's actually good. Haha.

My parents, Gabriel and I at the New Year's Eve service at the church where David grew up. The service started at 9 PM and David was the special speaker. Then we had supper around 10:30 and everyone stayed until past midnight to bring in the new year together.

So that's it in a nutshell. Tomorrow David heads to Florianopolis with his brother and Dad, so I'm guessing our next blog will be about his trip. Happy New Year from the Taylors in Brazil!

Thanksgiving in Brazil

2008-12-02T09:10:00.007-02:00

Because Thanksgiving Day is not a recognized holiday here in Brazil, we had a very untraditional day. We left on Tuesday of last week to go to the little beach town of Pipa with the Reiner family for a couple days of camping.

Our "tent"

Exploring the campground with Daddy

Different ...

The place we stayed at was beautiful and unique and we had fun spending time at the beach, exploring our campground and walking down the streets of Pipa at night.

Gabriel loves playing at the beach

Beautiful scenery

In Pipa one night

We walked by this torch and Gabriel said "ot, ot". I took a picture because it's the first word he has said without being prompted.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day by eating some great turkey sandwiches at a bakery in town. I'm not being facetious -- these were beautiful, Panera Bread quality sandwiches and that is hard to find here in Brazil.

We headed home that afternoon on what was supposed to be a two-hour trip. But our car began to overheat and no matter how much water David put in the radiator, it would quickly leak out and the car would overheat again. After several stops, we finally found a mechanic who said he could temporarily fix the problem so that we could at least get home that night. By this time, it was dark and we were getting hungry and Gabriel was getting impatient. To add to the problems, we hardly had any cash on us and a lot of places here still don't take credit cards. We were literally looking for change under the car seats and in our pockets to get enough to pay our mechanic and get some food to eat at the mechanic's mom's little eatery beside his shop. Thankfully, food and car repairs are much cheaper here in Brazil than in the States.

On our way home ... at one point we had to cross a river and this guy rowed us across

As I sat at the table eating rice and beans and waiting for the car to be fixed, I couldn't help but think of family and friends in the States and miss them a bit more than usual. Perhaps because it was supposed to be a special holiday, I was feeling a little sad that we were at that place and in that situation. I had to tell myself that I was being given the opportunity to put the Thanksgiving spirit into practice that evening and that I have so much to be thankful for.

We finally made it home that night almost seven hours after we left Pipa. But we made it home safely and Gabriel fell asleep for most of the trip and our car is now repaired.

Valentina's Anniversary Conference

2008-11-24T15:19:00.003-02:00

The church we are working at this year in Joao Pessoa just celebrated their 23rd anniversary. Every year they have a three-night conference that the church members really look forward to. This year the theme was "Perseverance of the Saints: Marks of a Healthy Church". David was the speaker and did a great of job of bringing challenging and convicting messages about sound doctrine, genuine conversion, church membership and personal transformation.

Each night we had special music presentations. I say special because it is rare to have any music in our services besides congregational singing. The women, teens and church choir worked hard in learning new songs to present during the conference.

We were glad to welcome about 30 people from the church in the city of Malta for one of the nights. They came on Saturday afternoon and left the following afternoon. They all packed into this bus to make the 5+ hour trip.

This church is special to us because it is Valentina's "daughter" church, founded by Ray Reiner just a few years ago. Their pastor is a graduate from the seminary in southern Brazil where my parents are ministering. He actually had my dad as a professor for several of his classes. Having Malta join us gave us a good reason to have a church breakfast and lunch. It was a great time to get to know them better and to have some good food.

Every night we had a great turnout for the services. The church people brought several unsaved relatives and neighbors and pastors and members from other area churches joined us as well. It was a good problem to have to bring in extra benches and chairs and still have people standing because there was nowhere to sit.

It is customary in a lot of churches in Brazil to serve tea and coffee after the service. If it's a special service, there will often be cake, cookies and crackers as well. Most people stay for a long time after the service enjoying their snack and fellowshiping together.

Because I can't resist posting a picture of Gabriel, here he is with one of our church teens. It was nice to have several of them watching after him and playing with him so I could be free to help out with different things.

Thank you for your prayers for us. We are tired but happy. Tomorrow, we plan on going on a little trip with the Reiner family to get away for a few days and to celebrate Thanksgiving together. However, this weekend David will be preaching at another conference at another church in town, so keep praying for him.

Women's Retreat

2008-11-18T21:33:00.003-02:00

I'm a little late is posting this blog, but decided I'd go ahead and post it anyway. A couple of weekends ago, I was able to go to my first ever women's retreat. David graciously agreed to keep Gabriel while I was gone for a couple of days. The Brazilian women were impressed that David knew how to handle Gabriel on his own and I was thankful to be able to get away for a bit and rest.

The theme for the weekend was "Beautiful in God's Eyes" and our speaker was a pastor's widow. Her testimony was powerful and the challenges she brought us in the morning and at night were convicting and much-needed.

During the day, we had a lot of free time and I was able to get to know some of the women from our church better. We had a good time sharing stories and laughing. There were a couple of seminars in the afternoon and early each morning, before breakfast, several of the women would get together to share testimonies of God's grace in their lives and to pray. It was encouraging to hear how these women have stood faithful in spite of very difficult situations.
Each of us received some pretty note paper on which to write encouraging notes and give to whomever we chose. These notes were placed in a box and at meal time, they were read out loud by this lady, Jeruiza.

It became one of the highlights of the day as we all sat there and listened. She was so expressive in the way she read each note and we couldn't help but laugh.

I had a good time and am glad for the chance to go. Oh, and David and Gabriel did just fine without me. They even went to the beach together! But I think they were both glad to have me back home with them. :)

Thirty Faithful Years

2008-10-20T12:18:00.004-02:00

This month marks the 30th anniversary of my parents' arrival in Brazil. My dad grew up in Virginia and my mom grew up in the West Indies, the daughter of missionary parents. They felt God's call to Brazil through the ministry of missionary Russell Gordon, and came without much knowledge of the country and its culture or language, with their two-year-old daughter in tow.

After finishing language school in Fortaleza, they headed to the city of Sousa where they worked with Russell and Judy Gordon. From there, they went to the city of Patos (Ducks) where they spent 8 years and founded two churches, one in Patos and one in the small town of Santana de Mangueira (Saint Ann of the Mango Tree).

They went back to Fortaleza, where Dad served as director of the MK school where all five of us kids graduated from. He and Mom taught classes there too and were responsible for a church in town for several years and then went on to help in starting two more churches in the area.

Now they are in the city of Curitiba. God led them there about six years ago and they are both teaching at the seminary there and are involved in a church plant as well.

Throughout all these years, they have been faithful to God and to the ministry, to each other and to us kids. They have endured difficulties with Brazilians and American missionaries, with loss of loved ones in the States and with sickness. They have seen ministries flourish and converts grow and become missionaries or pastors themselves. They have also seen ministries wither and many who professed to believe, walk away, but I have never seen their faith in God falter.

Now that I am here in Brazil as a missionary myself, my love and admiration for my parents has only grown as I begin to understand a little better what all they have gone through. They are so well loved by anybody who has known them. Whether it's a supporting church in the States, peers from their Bible college days at Piedmont, fellow missionaries here in Brazil or Brazilians who were involved in one of their ministries, people are always pleased to know that I am the Nunleys' daughter and always have the kindest things to say about them. I am thankful to have such Godly examples who have gone before me, showing me what living the Christian life is all about. Showing me that loving God and giving my life in His service is a small price to pay. Showing me how to be faithful to a faithful God even when the fruit of my labor isn't readily apparent.

Mom and Dad, thank you for your example to us. I know I speak for all of us kids in saying we're proud to be your children. We love you and we thank God for you.

Dia das Crianças (Children's Day) 2008

2008-10-14T19:48:00.007-03:00

We had the privilege of putting the program together for a day of celebrating Children's Day at camp. Our theme was David and Goliath and we tried to incorporate that theme throughout the day and not just at story time. The teens from our church all came out to help and they did a great job (you'll be able to pick them out in the pictures wearing their matching green and white shirts). There were 81 children who came this past Saturday to spend a fun day at camp designed just for them. (in case you're wondering, Children's Day is a big deal here in Brazil, with presents and all) Here are some pictures of our day ...

Some of the teens stood at the entrance to welcome the kids to camp.
At the chapel, waiting for story time to begin. We sang some songs and then acted out the story of David and Goliath. (ironically, David played the role of Goliath ...) We don't have any pictures of the skit because I was narrating the story and David had a role to play, so neither of us thought to hand the camera to somebody else to snap pictures of us. The skit went over really well and the kids were attentive. The Biblical David was compared to Christ at the end of the story, and how Christ was also a young boy who would grow up to fight the ultimate battle for His people and deliver them from Satan and sin through His victory on the cross, like David delivered the Israelites from the Philistines by defeating Goliath.

The kids were divided into two teams (the Israelites and the Philistines) and had fun playing games that were named after actual battles in the Bible. Here we have the Battles of Mizpah and Gilboa. At the end of the day, the Philistines won ...

During the Bible competition, if the kids gave the correct answer, they got a chance to hit this Goliath using a sling shot.The boys got to make sling shots for their craft. The girls made bracelets.

There were various tournaments throughout the day -- swimming, carpet ball, penalty kicks, knockout. The kids could pick two to participate in. Here, the teen guys take a break and play some carpet ball. David and one of our men from church built this carpet ball table and the kids loved it. They had never seen one before and many asked if it was going to stay at the camp. There were happy to know it is.
Lunch time! The little boy in this picture is the son of a pastor in town. The boy's mother was a little girl in my parents' ministry when they were just starting out.

Jon Reiner, the camp director and missionary we're working with here, arranged for a horse to be brought for the day for the kids to ride. He also had someone set up a trampoline and had a lady come and make popcorn and cotton candy all afternoon for the kids.

Cake and pop to finish out the day. The kids were exhausted (and I think the teens and adults were even more exhausted), but they had a great time.

I think this little boy sums up how the kids felt after their day at camp. We hope to see many of them back at camp in January for their summer week-long camp.

Gabriel's Overture

2008-09-25T22:43:00.002-03:00

Gabriel's First Birthday

2008-09-22T08:45:00.006-03:00

Tomorrow Gabriel turns 1. This time last year I was 8 days overdue and very miserable and emotional (i.e., crying all the time). God has blessed us so much with this little boy in our family. He brings us so much joy and he makes us laugh everyday. Granted, we've lost several nights' worth of sleep since he arrived, but it's all worth it. We celebrated his first birthday on Saturday afternoon with the kids from our church. I know Gabriel won't remember his big day, but we wanted to celebrate this milestone with our new friends and thank God for His blessing.

The birthday boy wakes up from his nap just in time for his party.

The party table. No, I didn't make any of the food. The plate on the left of the cake is filled with salgados (little pastries stuffed with meat and cheese), and the plate on the right is filled with doces (chocolate and coconut sweets).
Family picture ... Daddy picked out the colorful cake.
The church kids who came to celebrate with us. The American kids are Jon and Jenny Reiner's children -- the missionaries we are working with here in Joao Pessoa.
Blowing out the candle with Mommy's help (and careful observation from Jonas on the left and Davi on the right).
Gabriel with Lissandra, one of our teens who really loves Gabriel.

Yummy lollipop, and I think it's about time for another milestone -- first haircut. Baby André, the little boy who was born shortly after we arrived, and his mother Conceição.

Taking the first bite of his cake.
This was just the beginning of the sticky mess, but he loved it.