Thanksgiving & Commissioning Service
November 19, 2022
Dear Friends,
This past week, our church celebrated our thanks to the Lord for this year’s provisions as well as His calling from our midst, Yago and Manoela Guedes, to go to Portugal as missionaries. We had a commissioning service for them and a Thanksgiving banquet at the same event. It was truly a joyous occasion. It was the first time that our entire church could get together at the same time and location for nearly two years. We met at a church member’s farm that has a pavilion that was large enough for us all. Yago and Manoela will have arrived in Foz do Arelho, Portugal by the time you are reading this letter. We will be praying for them and seeking to support their ministry efforts as they seek to reach the spiritually lost there. There is less than 1 percent of born-again believers in Portugal and this young couple will greatly need the Lord’s wisdom and power in sharing the gospel and winning lost souls. Please pray with us and for them as they seek to serve the Lord and obey His commission. If you believe the Lord is guiding you to aid this couple, you may contribute with the memo: “Wacaser-Portugal Mission”.
It has been many years since I have had any health issues and I am extremely grateful. These past two weeks, though, I have struggled with laryngitis and have had to call on my co-pastors to preach in my place. I haven’t felt very ill, but my voice was too weak and raspy to communicate without being a distraction. I am grateful to be able to count on these young men who are doing an excellent job of faithfully delivering the Word. I seem to be much better today (Saturday) and intend to preach at both services tomorrow. Challenges like this are great reminders to me of just how much I depend on the Lord for every large and small grace. I pray for His strength and ability to honor Him with my mind and my voice.
Just a little reminder that in Brazil, below the Equator, we are entering into our summer months and the 3-month school break. Since the public schools are our traveling evangelistic team’s main venue for outreach, we change our focus during this period to assist the home church with the Christmas program and to minister to the poor and homeless in our own city. The volunteers who are from other cities will get a couple of weeks to return home to visit with their families on the holidays but will return shortly after New Year’s Day to begin preparing for the outreach trips scheduled for next year. The Lord blessed greatly this past year as we were privileged to share the gospel to over 40,000 people in public venues. Thousands of those who heard responded by surrendering their lives to Christ. All honor and glory to our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Charlene and I are so thankful for the faithful prayers and support on our behalf. We humbly acknowledge and recognize that you sacrifice from what you could use in any number of ways but choose to give so that we may minister here. We thank the Lord for you and pray that you may be eternally and richly blessed.
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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Missionary Update: The Tates in Kenya [September 2012]
The Tate Family has served the Lord in Kitale, Kenya since January 2008. Their main ministry is indigenous church planting.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that the Kingdom of God is growing back in the States and here in Kenya as well. God is good, just, faithful, merciful and gracious. His word will accomplish everything He wants it to accomplish in our lives and in this world. Our King sits on the throne and rules by His mighty power. Praise be to our great God.
We will probably have some changes coming in some of our groups in the next couple of weeks. At the beginning of the year we started three groups with the hopes of them becoming churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of those groups was organized into the Baptist Church of Shangalamwe. It looks like the other two groups will be canceled but that doesn’t mean that good things haven’t come out of them. These groups often start strong with many people and then begin to fade once the attendees realize they will not be receiving any gifts. That happened to our Friday group. It has dwindled to basically one or two attendees who were not being faithful themselves and who were not putting forth much effort to help the group grow. It was time to cancel the group this past month. Also, our Saturday group has had the same kinds of problems. A local pastor who attended the group became angry at us for not building him a new building and went about sabotaging the group, poisoning it with his lies and driving people away. We have also had to cancel this group this past month. However, out of this group has come a young man, Titus, who has gone on to form five other groups himself. We plan on continuing to mentor and teach this young man on how to lead these groups and on how to lead these groups into becoming churches. He is doing an excellent work. People are being saved in his groups and most of the attendees are hearing the Bible taught verse-by-verse for the very first time in their lives. So, with the canceling of two groups this past month, we will be looking to start a couple of new groups that we hope to eventually turn into house churches. Nathan and I are not discouraged about the canceling of these two groups. At the beginning of the year we looked at things realistically and decided that if even one out of every four groups we started became churches that we would be happy with that. We are excited about starting some new groups in the near future.
At the Baptist Church of Shangalamwe we finished teaching about elders this past month. We taught about the need for elders, the responsibilities of elders, and the characteristics and qualification of elders. It was exciting to hear and answer their many questions concerning elders as we taught them concerning this topic from the Scriptures. Once we had finished all the teachings, the church obeyed the teaching of the Word of God and chose and appointed a qualified elder for the church. Afterwards, we gathered around him and prayed that God would give him strength and wisdom as the first elder and spiritual leader of the young church. This is an important step as this young church needs to have spiritual leaders to lead it in the future after Nathan and I are no longer around. May God bless this church with much spiritual growth and maturity and may He bless their new elder, Richard.
Very briefly, my car situation hasn’t changed. It still hasn’t been confiscated but I also cannot drive it or else it will be confiscated, impounded and basically stolen from my by the authorities. Barring a miracle from God I will not be able to keep the car. Please pray that God’s will be done in this situation whether it is for me to keep or lose the vehicle.
Until next month, beloved.
May God’s peace and joy be with you.
For the glory of God in East Africa,
Roger & Julie Tate (and Emily, Amy, & Josiah)
P.O. Box 96
Kitale, Kenya 30200
rojuta[at]gmail.com
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Missionary Update: John & Alta Hatcher in Brazil [September 2012]
Missionaries John and Alta Hatcher have served the Lord in Brazil since 1955, planting over 70 churches that are still in existence.
Dear Brethren and Fellow-Workers,
Greetings from Brazil. We are happy to greet you once more from the land where we have labored for more than fifty-five years. We are thankful to our Lord that He has been pleased to use our children and grandchildren in the work of His vineyard in many parts of the world. At our age we are aware that we soon will be in His presence forever.
URAI- The work in Urai is going well. There is a fine group of young people in this Church who are dedicated to the Lord and busy in His work. Along with the Congregations at Rancho Alegre and Sussumo there are some that do visits from door to door distributing Gospel tracts.
This past week Kathy, one of her sons, and Maria were here for a two day visit. What a joy these visits bring to our lives. Sometimes we are so homesick to see them; it is hard.
ELECTIONS- This is the time of electioneering for the offices of State and City officials. It is a very noisy period with loud speakers on, what seems to be, most of the cars.
ASSAI- This month the second son of Dona Maria passed away. He had suffered with cancer for nearly ten years. The sad part is there is no assurance he was saved. Sunday morning, his widow came to service. Her name is Jirlene. She has two children, a girl and a boy. Please pray for her and for her children. Alta and I go to Assai each Sunday morning and we praise the Lord for health and ability to go these sixty miles each week.
CAR PROBLEM- Rather, owner problem. Three weeks ago I failed to put the radiator cap on and coming home the engine overheated and cracked the heads. The heat melted the wires but the car stopped on a curve in front of a small business. The man who lives there was able to fix the wires enough for us to arrive home. The two mechanics who do my work have put our car in first class condition and I am trying to remember the radiator cap.
In all of our years of experience, this city of twenty thousand is the most difficult we have encountered. Pray for God’s mercy on Assai.
On September 14, Alta will have her eighty-seventh birthday, the Lord willing. She is in good health and her eyes are great.
In His Love,
John and Alta Hatcher
Caixa Postal 112
Urai, PR, Brazil 86280-000
jhatcher[at]uol.com.br
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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [September 2012]
Odali and Kathy Barros have served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil for many years. In addition to leading their newest church, they also run “Alpha Omega Family Development,” which provides a home and stability for needy people, many of whom are recovering drug addicts, etc.
September 2, 2012
Hope all of you friends and supporters are doing great and enjoying the Lord’s blessings. We are doing great. We want to give a special thanks to all of you who have faithfully supported our ministry and BFM. We are very grateful for your faithfulness. Our ministries would be impossible or very difficult without your help. We also are very thankful for those who pray for our ministries. Knowing that someone is lifting us up to the Lord is so comforting.
We have had a great month here with those we work with and the adults that we have been helping and especially in the church. We have helped several families for short period of time. We are especially excited about our Sunday school. God has given us a special group of kids to work with. It is very hard to get teens to come to church just about anywhere. Even those kids that have been coming to church since they were little, when they become teens, they usually quit. Well, our biggest number is exactly teens that range from 12 to 16 yrs old. We are not even doing visitation. They are bringing their friends. It’s like having Alpha and Omega back for a day.
They arrive here at about 9:15 AM and leave here about 1:00 PM. How would you like a Sunday school that last 4 hours?!!! If they could, they would stay longer. These kids live in a poor part of town but worst of all right in the middle of drugs and prostitution and everything else that goes along with that. Not too many options right! That is why we try to spend as much time as we can with them. Last week we had 56 that came, not counting the adults.
Sunday Morning Service
SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE
We have two people that are coming almost every Sunday. Please pray for them. I will tell you just a little about each one. The lady is probably in her forties. She looks like she is anorexic, but is actually an alcoholic. She became that way after she killed her husband. Our prayer is that she will accept the Lord and Savior and receive forgiveness. So that she can live a new life. The other one is a teenager about 16 years old. A few Sundays ago I was driving the bus and got stuck at the bottom of the street where there is a big dip. I go down that street every Sunday and that had never happened. I believe that God had a purpose that day. When I got out to see what I could do and if I was going to need help, the teen came my way. He was drugged. He asked what I was doing, where those people were going and if you had to pay to go, and last if he could go. I answered all his questions and invited him to come. He said he would go but was going to get a friend. Well then I thought he wouldn’t be back. There probably is no friend. I was wrong!!! He actually got the friend and came. Watching him in Sunday school is so gratifying. I don’t think that he ever went to Sunday school. He is like a little kid. He wants to get involved in all the activities. Please pray that he will understand God’s love for him and accept Jesus as Savior also.
Tito (14), Odali and Kathy, Gabriel (12), Jonas (13)
We had a meeting with all our members and made plans for the church and made groups for the different activities that each one could and wanted to help in. Our son Tito age 14, who already helps in the toddler’s class offered to help with visitation and to make an invitation pamphlet to hand out. Yesterday none of the group had done anything, so he started making the pamphlet and asked Loran who is here form the US to help him. They got the pamphlet done and he went to hand them out. Loran offered to go with him and they went. We praise God for Tito. And pray that he will continue to let God use him.
Thanks again for your love prayers and support. God bless each of you.
Love in Christ,
Odali & Kathy Barros
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Caixa Postal 182
17400-000 Garca, SP
Brasil, S.A.
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