Dear friends,
How thankful and joyful we are to God for how He leads us. The moment we made the challenging choice to obey God, to take a step back, we experienced more strongly His guidance in our lives. After our visit to the Netherlands, we have been working on a YWAM base in Rio de Janeiro for the past few months. It has been a blessed time in which we were allowed to grow closer towards each other and closer towards God.
Looking back on our visit to the Netherlands
We really enjoyed the special moments and conversations with our family and friends. Unfortunately, it has not been feasible to see and speak to everyone. Despite the Covid pandemic and the summer holidays, we were warmly welcomed in your arms during the blessed moments in church, grateful we are! Our visit to the Netherlands has also been very good for Saulo’s language development: he is now able to communicate in both languages (Portuguese and Dutch) and to switch between the two languages without thinking!
Restoration
Before we came back to Rio de Janeiro, God very clearly shared with us the word: restoration. We experienced this on all levels, in ourselves, in our relationship with each other and our relationship with God. But also in our relationship with the YWAM base and our role here. This YWAM base, called JOCUM Carioca, has stood empty for years, in which nature took over and no maintenance took place. The base is in a restauration proces, with the main goal that God’s glory can be seen again in this.
Following an encouragement from the Bible book of Nehemiah, we understood that God invited us to redecorate “our” soft pink house. How grateful we are for your donations that have come in, which have made it possible to restore this house! The house has no more leaks and associated mold problems are solved as well, the wall tiles that fell off the walls have been removed and the walls have been restored, the bathroom has been made safe and hygienic and the rotting wooden doors and window frames have been replaced with new maintenance-free material. At the moment the last details are being finished and then we can give this gift of restauration to the base, full of gratitude: thank you! We hope and pray that the next missionaries will richly experience God’s glory when they come to live in this house.
The house when we entered.The cottage restored, almost ready.
Back to the Amazon area
The recent period in Rio de Janeiro has been especially good for Lucas to focus on his Master’s degree in “Linguistics applied to Bible translation”. The first year of study is now completed. This second (and last) year of study is mainly the preparation of the final project: translating the Bible book of Ruth into the tribal language. Can you imagine that this ethnic group does not yet have a single part of the Bible available in their language?!
We are therefore extra happy with the news that the doctor shared: Lucas’ shoulders have recovered well! We are therefore very much looking forward to moving back to our home base in Porto Velho at the end of January.
Please pray with us for:
- The situation of a new legal regime in Brazil: missionaries and religious organizations are prohibited from entering some indigenous tribes.
- Our move back to Porto Velho and the accompanying journey. It is five full days of driving by car!
- The process of translating the Bible book Ruth.
- Thank God with us for how He has guided us this year, preparing us to return to Porto Velho healthy and full of faith and trust.
We wish you a merry Christmas and a prosperous 2022!
With love and blessings,
Lucas, Christa & Saulo
