Year in Review and a Brief Look Ahead

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

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

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

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

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!