Current Events

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!

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

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

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

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. :)