Praying for a Young Teen to Stay Faithful to His Savior

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Bobby and Charlene Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.

September 22, 2021

Dear Friends,

I just came home from a visit with a 19-year-old young man who is reaping some results of bad choices. In case he or a friend reads this report, I will refrain from printing his name. In my conversations with his mother, his grandmother and with the young man himself, I can understand a lot of the factors that contributed to his getting onto the wrong path in life. His father has been a drug addict most of the son’s life and his parents eventually divorced and he has been without a father present in the home for several years. I had this young man as a student in my English classes a few years ago and I discovered that he is very intelligent and has a captivating personality. What I see in him is a lot of potential, but a lack of self-discipline and a lot of pent-up anger. Instead of applying his intelligence and natural charm to a constructive lifestyle, he has made a series of terrible choices. To assuage his anger about his absent father and lack of the nicer things in life, he chose to use marijuana and other drugs. His habit increased but his income didn’t, so he resorted to another horrible choice, to sell drugs to afford more. He got caught by the police and went to prison. His sentence was 5 years.

I had shared the gospel with him when he was my English student and, while he was in prison, he began to read the Bible vigorously. The Lord had mercy on him, and he came to a saving relationship with Christ. His behavior and his attitudes changed, and he was released from prison for good behavior after five months of serving his five-year sentence. He is on probation and must use an ankle monitor, but at least he is not still behind bars. My visit this morning was occasioned by a plea from his grandmother, who is a member of my church. She had started to see her grandson begin to make some bad choices again and she’s afraid that he’ll end up back on the same terrible path he was on before. I had a great conversation with him, and I believe that the Lord used me to help him work out some practical steps for him to avoid the pitfalls that led to his earlier situation. The great difference now is that he is a true child of God through faith in the Lord and he has the presence of the Holy Spirit to empower him to make right choices and to hold to them. On a very practical level, I am going to go and pick him up and take him to church this weekend to meet some dedicated youth that will be glad to befriend him and help him leave behind those bad habits and develop healthy new ones. As you think of him, please pray that he stays faithful to his Savior.

All praise to God, the COVID cases have nearly disappeared from our area and this has led our schools to have regular in-person classes again. Our evangelistic teams are getting invitations from several schools to come and minister to their students and staff. I know this sounds odd for public schools, and it is. The main reason this is happening is the work of the Lord, of course. On the human level, our strategy is helped by having “insiders” in some of the schools. Last week was one such case. A member of my church is one of the assistant principals and she presented to the head principal proof of our team’s track record of working with students who were unruly and problematic before, but who became well-behaved and cooperative after our evangelistic program in their school. We are excited that our team is getting more and more of these opportunities. Our volunteers are thrilled that they are again able to share the gospel nearly every week with hundreds of students and their school staff.

Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to honor the Lord with the opportunities afforded us. Thank you for your concern and faithful prayers on our behalf.

In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser

Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
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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God is Still Changing Lives!

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Odali and Kathy Barros served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil together from 1987-2013. In late 2013, they transitioned to Manaus in Northern Brazil to start sharing the Gospel and planting churches in villages along the river.

July 21, 2021

Greetings to all of our supporters and prayer partners! We hope and pray that each of you are doing great and are blessed! Thank God we are doing great. Things here are doing well and are more and more getting back to normal.

The church activities are getting back, too. More and more people are coming. There is a project near the church I pastor that works with men with addictions. Since the church isn’t using the bus, we have we have let the project use the bus. They bring around 40 men on Sunday night. Several have made professions of faith. Also, we have had other visitors and several of them have accepted Christ as Savior also. What a blessing!

We have 4 men working with us who finished the treatment and the project. Pray that they will continue to be encouraged to stay firm and have strength. One of them has two daughters. He got so deep into the drugs that he lived on the streets and lost his family. He is now working on his father-daughter relationship. We let him bring his daughters here to spend some time with him. It was a great time.

Also the services we had in homes on Friday night are back. We want to expand the areas where we have the services to reach more people. There are so many little communities in the area. Also so many of the people do not have transportation, so having these services is a great way to reach more people.

The water in the area where it was flooded is going down—almost down to where getting around is easier.

If you are looking for a specific project, we have small and large projects—from buying a lot to build a church in a new subdivision with no church, to a well for portable water in these communities!

We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. May God bless each of you!

In Christ,

Odali and Kathy

Contact Info:
Odali & Kathy Barros
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, SA
odali_kathy@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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