New Opportunities to Witness & Make Disciples
July 8, 2022
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Thank you for your prayers and support. We are very grateful for your faithful commitment for many years to the making of disciples here in France. Sometimes when things seem to be going slow God opens a new door that becomes an opportunity to witness and make disciples.
Let me tell you about a couple such events this month. At the time I received a message from my brother saying Dad had passed into the presence of the Lord, Judy and I were on the road returning from the home of Laure and Henri. Laure started coming to the Bible study at Mazere about 8 or 9 years ago. Henri started coming with her after they were married, and they hosted the Bible study at their place from time to time.
About two years into their marriage, we helped them move to a little town that is quite distant from our home and Mazere. He is a cabinet maker and she an elementary school teacher. Shortly after the move, their first child was born, and she stopped teaching to become a full-time mother. We remained in touch but his working hours at a distance from their home and caring for a child made it difficult for them to drive to a Bible study an hour away. There is no church close to them. Within 5 and half years they had four children. During a good part of this time, we were in Indiana caring for Judy’s sister who is now with the Lord. When we received notice of the birth of their fourth child we were back in France and made arrangements to visit them. Their home is a bit over an hour’s drive from us. This visit was the one from which we were returning when I got the news about Dad.
They were really concerned about their inability to be in Church and their children not being in Sunday School. We suggested to them what God had laid on our heart; starting a Bible study in their home including a time of Bible teaching for the children. They were thrilled with the idea, and we had the first meeting a couple of weeks ago. They invited Henri’s aunt and her husband, and they attended and showed a great interest. Please pray for God to use this Bible study for His Glory.
We have also gotten reconnected to a couple who were our neighbors years ago. They now live about one hour north of us. When they had dinner in our home a couple of days ago, she asked question after question about God and how to have a relationship with Him. She really seems driven to know God. When we first met them, she was an atheist.
These are only two of several incidents that we are very excited about. However, I think I had better stop for now.
Thank you for your prayer. Could you take a moment now to pray for God to speak to hearts here and give us the wisdom to pursue each opportunity that He gives us?
Your sister and brother in France,
Judy and John
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone 1-812-416-1033
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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Touched Through the Least of These
August 14, 2020
Dear Friend,
This is a second letter in just a few days. My cup is overflowing…like a geyser!
Today was a bit unusual. Judy and I went trekking much later than usual. Due to the heat we have been getting out earlier. Just a few minutes into our walk God touched us by “one of the least” of His. We had just done a loop through the shady end of a school parking lot we cross nearly every time we trek. I heard a loud voice at a distance and assumed that it was a student somewhere in the vicinity.
Then Judy twisted around trying to determine the source of the voice. Just as we got back on pace a loud voice called our names. We turned around and saw Susie. We walked back to her and noticed on approaching her that she was nearly breathless and quite excited. This special lady about our age says, “You have to come back this way. There is something you got to see.” I don’t know what Judy was thinking, but I was trying to figure out what kind of disaster needed our attention. As we approached the rear of the yard where she lives with family, Susie apologized for not knowing our last name. Now I was totally confused!
“Where have you been?” Susie asked. We explained that we had been getting out earlier. Just then we arrived at what she wanted us to see. Here, you can see it for yourself:
She said, “I made the first-time sign weeks ago and then I didn’t see you anymore. I took it in when it rained and at night so it wouldn’t get wet. It got to looking bad so I made another one.”
I had been talking to God this morning, but I declare, my Heavenly Father was now talking to me through the “least” of His. Judy and I were in a glorious daze. You know the passage, “If you do it to the least of these … you do it to me.” But, Eternal God, Almighty, my Heavenly Father was speaking to me through “the least of these”.
I first met Susie nearly three and a half years ago when here caring for Judy (remember…broken kneecap) and her sister, Peggy. Sometimes this unknown lady would be mowing the large yard behind the home where she lives when I was out trekking. The first time we spoke she was confused about what was happening behind her house. I explained to her about the church and school parking lot being expanded and assured her all was well.
A few months ago, she came running out as Judy and I trekked under the trees behind the backyard she often mowed. She pointed out that she always loved seeing us and therefore had trimmed (extensively) the tree branches that would be in our way. We were touched and thanked her. When we passed and she was out Susie always greeted us exuberantly. And, this morning God spoke through this little one. I will remember His voice eternally!
So, maybe you are upset. Maybe, you are in a quandary about the future or the value of your life or actions. “I don’t know about the future, but I know Who holds the future…” and He often speaks through the little ones on our pathway!
Hearing the Father’s Love through the little ones,
John and Judy Hatcher
CONTACT INFO
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone: 1-812-416-1033
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Hopelessness Prepares Hearts for Eternal Hope
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
January 30, 2020
Dear Friends,
We just completed our first Missions Training Seminar of the year with 30 participants. Seventeen of those were from other regions of Brazil. The first week was spent in biblical studies and evangelical missions’ theory here in Curitiba. The next week the group traveled to Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, a 20-hour drive from our base.
You may have heard or seen on the news one year ago about the rupture of a mining dam in the town of Brumadinho. In that industrial disaster, there were 270 people who were killed. Though it has been one year since the disaster, the whole town is still badly traumatized. What adds to the townspeople’s sense of fear is that there are over 300 similar dams encircling the area and it is the rainy season there. Many people moved away, of course, but most do not have enough money to uproot, move and begin life somewhere else.
Our mission team found quite a wide spectrum of attitudes among the citizens of Brumadinho as they sought to share the gospel. On the one hand, there were many who are very angry; angry at the mining company that allowed the disaster to happen, angry at their loved ones for leaving them alone and even angry, blaming God for letting the disaster happen. On the other hand, the sense of loss and hopelessness helped to prepare the hearts of several to listen to God’s word of eternal hope and salvation. Our volunteers rejoiced to have a part in leading many to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. They themselves were moved emotionally by the sight of such devastation, but more so by the joy that God used them to bring hope and salvation where only sorrow dwelt before.
Hilda, their neighbor who recently passed away.
When Charlene and I moved to our neighborhood a few years ago, we thought that it would be helpful in getting to know our neighbors if we visited each home and introduced ourselves. When we visited, we would ask if there was something that they needed that we could pray about for them. No one was outright rude with us, but there were a few who evidently weren’t interested in spiritual things. One elderly lady, though, was very cordial to us and invited us in for a cup of coffee. She not only asked us to pray for her then, but invited us to return as often as we liked. Through that one lady, we met many members of her extended family and often prayed for her and them. During the recent Christmas holidays, we were out of town and received a message from one of her daughters that she had been admitted into the hospital with lung cancer and that she was gravely ill. We wouldn’t be arriving home for a few days, but her family told us that she really wanted to see us before she died. After we returned home, the very next morning, Charlene and I went to the hospital to visit her. She seemed to be unconscious, or in a coma, but still Charlene and I bent near her ear and reminded her of our Savior’s love for her. There was no evident sign that she heard or took in anything that we said then, but in less than a half hour after we left, we got a message from her granddaughter that she had passed away almost immediately after we left the room. I don’t pretend to know all, or even much, of what the Lord is doing in the unseen realm of this world, but I am certain that He was orchestrating the details of this dear lady’s life and death for His glory. As a result of that lady’s love for Charlene and me, her oldest son asked me to speak at her funeral service. During our years of visiting with her we had shared the gospel and she had assured us that she knew she was a sinner and in need of Jesus as her only Savior. She told me that she trusted Him and Him alone to save her. I shared that news with nearly 100 people from her family and friends and let them know that they too could have the certainty of their own salvation if they surrendered to Christ. By the Lord allowing that dear lady to “hang on” for just a few more days and minutes, a door of opportunity arose for us to share the gospel with her family.
We can see that God is at work all around us in huge citywide events, as well as small individual circumstances for us to make His love known to those who are lost. We want to be attentive to His guidance to step in and share the message of grace.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1[at]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
Read more
