A Year of Harvest + Traveling to Portugal
January 12, 2024
Dear Friends,
We are happy to report that, during the final quarter of 2023, every one of our ministries experienced growth through conversions and baptisms. The Lord has truly done great things!
Southern Brazil:
Our traveling evangelistic team, Projeto Vida, had the opportunity to minister in 3 different states in southern Brazil. The team of 12 missionaries presented gospel skits, shared their personal testimonies, and preached in 11 public schools. In each of these schools, many lives were changed eternally. It usually isn’t possible in these venues to get a precise number of decisions for Christ because it’s not permitted to give an “altar call” at the conclusion, but in the one-on-one conversations immediately following the presentations many people share how they sensed the Lord convicting them of sin and their need for Christ’s salvation.
The year 2023 was definitely a harvest year for Projeto Vida. All total, there were over 2,000 public professions of faith in Christ. There were also over 40,000 people who heard the gospel proclaimed clearly through our mission efforts. We are looking forward to even greater opportunities and results in 2024.
Portugal:
Our missionary couple to Portugal, Yago and Manoela Guedes, also experienced God’s blessings on their mission endeavors. They have now finished their first full year in Portugal. They have three Bible study groups who meet regularly. Although it is difficult to find a convenient location to hold services, the Lord blessed them with a conference center that allows them to rent by the hour on scheduled meeting days. The cost is reasonable, especially when compared to what it would cost to lease or buy a permanent location. Yago and Manoela are a highly motivated and dedicated couple. Portugal speaks the same language as their native Brazil, but the cultural and spiritual climate in Portugal is much different. In Brazil, a large majority of the population is openly receptive to gospel conversations or presentations, whereas in Portugal, the people are predominantly agnostic or apathetic toward biblical truth. Although the results are slower to come in, Yago and Manoela know that it is their calling to be faithful in sharing the love of Christ, both in word and in actions and leave the results to the Lord.
Charlene and I will be traveling to visit them at the end of January. I will be assisting by teaching at some of their meetings and Charlene will assist Manoela from her wealth of cross-cultural experience.
We are presently working on the itinerary for outreach among some native Indian tribes in Argentina and Paraguay that we plan to minister to in early March. If any of you are interested in accompanying our group, feel free to contact me as early as possible. We are excited about this unique experience and the privilege of making Christ known to these tribes.
Charlene and I are very grateful for your faithful prayers and support so that we may minister as the Lord guides us.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Currently Stateside on Furlough from Brazil
Phone: (813) 501-9328
E-mail: bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
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Students Taking the Gospel to the Masai People on Break
November 9, 2023
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ,
In addition to all the additional responsibilities and tasks I have this month, I was also privileged by being asked by a group of students to conduct an evangelism seminar for their missions group. There is a missions club at the school called Antioch. They get their name from the first city and church in the New Testament that purposefully sent out foreign and cross-cultural missionaries. The church in Antioch on the Orontes, or Antioch Syria, commissioned and sent out Barnabas and Paul to take the gospel to the Roman empire and the Gentiles nations. It was a great, mission-minded church and second in importance in the New Testament only to the church in Jerusalem. But even the church in Jerusalem didn’t accomplish what the church in Antioch did, in sending out the first cross-cultural, foreign missionaries.
Anyway, the group gets its name from this great church. What impresses me about the Antioch group is their own mission-minded attitudes. This is a group of eighteen students who have a focus on missions, on sharing the gospel with people who have not heard it or are resistant to it. On November 24th all the students in the school will complete their last final exam for the term. Most of them will take their break from school and go home to rest and be with their families until January. But these eighteen students of Antioch will not be going home right away. They have decided instead to spend ten days of their break going to Samburu in central Kenya. They want to minister to a large group of Masai people that live in that area. They will be going door-to-door (or more likely, boma-to-boma – translated hut-to-hut), holding an evangelistic crusade, and hoping to share the gospel with many of the Masai living in this area. (What do you do when you are going door-to-door and the house doesn’t have a door, only a sheet hanging over the doorway? You can’t knock, you have to call out “Hodi” – translated “hello, I’m here”). And get this: This is not a vacation for these students – they actually have to pay money to be in this group. I’ve heard of Kenyan missionaries being willing to go preach the gospel when they are being paid by western missionaries to do it. But to hear of a group of students who are willing to pay to be members of a missions club so that they can be involved with missions work in Kenya is rare indeed. I am so impressed with this group of students.
In the seminar, my main goal was to encourage them. Going to unfamiliar places and preaching the gospel to unfamiliar faces with unfamiliar cultures can be a frightening endeavor (this is something I know). I wanted to encourage them that God is with them, and His Word will not return to Him void but will accomplish what He sends it out to do. I also gave them some general tips to remember when going out to do this work: Pray, genuinely love and care for the people you will be ministering to, make your goal their good and not a conversion notch on your belt, be willing to listen as much as you are to talk, don’t argue and debate, depend upon the Holy Spirit who will do the work, remember that all you really have to offer them is Jesus, and pray. I taught them some simple methods of presenting the gospel and then gave them some time to practice and get familiar with sharing it. Did I mention how impressed I am with this group of students?
Lord, God, I pray and ask that You would bless this group of students in the Antioch club. They are giving up part of their term break and expending their time, energy, and money to bring the gospel to a group of Masai living in Samburu land. I ask that You bless them and their efforts. I ask that You empower them with Your Spirit and that Your Word would proceed from them with power and effectiveness. I ask that through them You would bless the Masai people they are going to minister to. I pray that many of the Masai people would hear the gospel message of Jesus and some of them would believe. I ask that as a result of these students’ ministry that Your Kingdom would grow and expand and that Your name would be glorified and Jesus exalted. Amen.
Blessings to all,
Roger, Julie & Chloe
CONTACT INFO
Roger & Julie Tate
Moffat Bible College
P.O. Box 70
Kijabe, Kenya 00220
rojuta@gmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
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