Evidence of God at Work in Believers in France
Missionaries John Mark and Judy Hatcher have been serving the Lord in Tournefeuille, France since 1999. They define their ministry as “disciple-making.”
December 6, 2018
Dear Co-laborers in the service of our Saviour,
This is my last letter to you this calendar year. It has been an unusual year in many ways. Returning to the ministry in France at the beginning of the year brought us great joy.
My mother, Alta Hatcher – known to many of you, left this world to the presence of the Lord in March. Her departure was not complicated and her last words were repeatedly, “I love you, Jesus.” This year has been marked by the departure of several who had a special place in our lives. We miss them greatly. But, to be “absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” This thrills our hearts and encourages us as we seek to be a light where God has placed us.
Just after I sent my last letter, my nephew Odali arrived with his entire family. He is married to Amanda’s sister, Carrie. Philip and Odali had worked out the details of this trip to surprise Amanda on her 40th birthday. It was a surprise to us all and we certainly enjoyed our time with them. Odali is the son of Odali and Kathy Barros who are also supported by BFM as missionaries in Brazil.
This month has been one of good Sunday and weekday meetings. The evidence of God at work in believers is a cause of gratitude to God. Please pray for the service on the Sunday before Christmas when the children and youth of church will be presenting the Gospel in a special program.
Judy has had some good opportunities with a young lady who has come for years to the youth meetings. Her mother is muslim and her father, separated from her mother, is atheist. She is a school friend of our oldest granddaughter here, Abigail. Amanda, our daughter-in-law and co-worker here, has also had opportunities to communicate with this young lady about Christ. Please, pray for this friend of Abigail.
We enjoyed the live interaction that we were able to have with those of you who were at the Thanksgiving Conference at New Hope B.C. The faithful support we receive through Baptist Faith Missions provides for our needs and is a constant source of Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Dinner in France
I have included a photo of our Thanksgiving Dinner with Philip and Amanda. They had us in their home to celebrate Thanksgiving on the Saturday after the U.S. Holiday. Wendy, who works with us and four friends of our granddaughters were with us as well.
Abigail, along with another Christian friend, are organizing a fellowship group for Christians at their High School. In a school of three thousand there are just a handful who profess faith in Christ.
You have probably seen news of the riots and disruptions that have been taking place in France this past month. These began as demonstrations against the increase of taxes on fuels which already were about 80% of the price we pay at the pump. The manifestations have been an inconvenience but have caused us no real harm. Thank each of you who have prayed for us.
May the Lord bless your time together with your families this Holiday Season.
From France,
John and Judy
John Mark & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher[at]aol.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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Outreach for Youth and Teens
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.
November 26, 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are thankful to our Lord for His care and blessings in our lives and ministries. We are all doing well and our son Jonas, who the tree fell on, is doing well. Thank you for your prayers.
The works are doing well. We have made some changes in some of the works due to changes in some of the leadership. Especially at the mother church, Pedras Vivas, we are doing a lot of outreach for the youth and teens. In the communities, there is not a lot for them to do, the enemy works hard. There are drugs everywhere. We had a special day at the camp and we also went to the city of Iranduba to a park. The two outreach days were fantastic.
The work in the community of Multirão is doing great. They are running in the 50s in attendance.
We are working and encouraging our members to get more involved in different ministries. Pray for them to see the need and where God wants them to serve. There are so many communities within an hour of where we live and many have no churches. We pray that God will raise up more men willing to preach so more places can be reached.
Thank you for your constant prayers and support. May God bless each of you.
Love in Christ our Savior,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[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
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São Paulo & Paraná Churches Gather in Marília
Jud and Raquel Hatcher serve the Lord in São Paulo, Brazil. They are part of the “SeedFactory” church planting initiative, which is a movement to plant churches in all 26 Brazilian capitals. Since 2006, 43 churches have been started in 5 states.
October 26, 2018
Dear friends,
The Lord is doing some amazing things around us and we are so grateful for all He is doing.
Family
We were growing uneasy with the education the kids were receiving, despite the local public school being one of the best in São Paulo. Through a series of rapid events we were able to enroll our children in an American Christian private school. The kids went through the assessments and necessary interviews to start and are loving their new school. We are now on the American academic calendar which facilitates when we travel to and from the States, as their academic school year will no longer be goofed. We are grateful to the BFM directors as they worked with and assisted us in the process of making this decision.
The school is located on the other side of town and with morning rush hour it took 1 hour and 40 minutes to arrive. The Lord again showed us His hand of grace and provided a good house. The first day of school was also our move-in to the house. We are now three minutes away by car.
The school has a great athletic program. Sarah and Laura are on the JV basketball team and Benjamin is in the boy’s soccer team. Melissa is learning how to play basketball. We are overjoyed with the academic and athletic attention our kids are receiving.
Raquel is working hard at making our new house a home. I admire her “can do” attitude as we work together in this home and school transition with the kids.
Ministry
I recently had the privilege to serve as the key-note speaker at the Baptist Faith (informal) Association of São Paulo and Paraná churches. These were churches started by John Hatcher and Odali Barros during their ministries in that region. Churches from all over drove into the city of Marília for this holiday event. The event was organized by Baptist Faith Church, led by Pastor Gilberto Stefano. Gilberto was mentored in pastoral ministry by Grandpa and he is a tremendous leader. There were 588 people in attendance. Marilía is a 5-hour drive from the capitol. I went and returned on the same day to fulfill my other commitments in São Paulo. It was a sweet, sweet day and it was amazing to see so many friends.
Our move still allows us to continue working with the three home gatherings in the other part of the city. It also allows us to expand. In this next phase we are looking to lease a meeting hall or school for church gatherings. I met yesterday with a pastor whose English speaking church does not use their facilities on Sunday evenings and sent a lease proposal for their consideration for us to use the space on Sunday nights and once a week. The location is situated near two subway stations of a recently inaugurated train line. If the Lord opens this door, this will be our new base and training center. Our team is coming into place too. We have a worship leader and a “knows everyone” leader that will compose our leadership team. Pray for us as we wait for the decision to lease the church’s facility.
Grateful always,
Jud Hatcher
Judson & Raquel Hatcher
(859) 544-9040
judsonhatcher@gmail.com
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Visiting Relatives & Recalling God’s Faithfulness
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.
September 25, 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings to all of our dear friends and supporters. Hope you have had a blessed month. We have had a great month.
This month I had a wonderful time with 2 of my brothers. We made a trip together to visit our relatives and the place where we were born: Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre. That is where Brother Bobby Creiglow worked. We lived up in the jungle 3 days’ travel by boat. That is where Bro. Bobby Creiglow went once and that is when God worked in my life the desire for salvation. Back then, there was no other church except the Catholic church, but now there is a Baptist church. Praise the Lord. I also had the privilege to visit other places that I used to go with Mike Creiglow on mission trips. In the village of Porto Walter, where I went to Catholic school to study to be a priest, there was no other kind of church. The Catholic Church was the only one permitted. Today there is Baptist church there! It was so wonderful to visit the church. When I got saved, I was the only one in my family. The family really hated that I was a Christian. Today it is a blessing to be with many more in my family who have been reached and been saved. What a blessing! Thanks to all of you who have given to BFM for so many years. God bless each of you. Thanks to Bro. Bobby Creiglow and Mike who gave their lives to serve God in missions.
Things are good in the missions. This month we have a holiday that is called Kids Day. We are making plans for each mission for a special day. In the community of Ubim, we are having a sister church who offered to help with this special day. They are going to bring people who do health and beauty things. We will visit the community to invite parents and their children. It is amazing how many young people and children there are in this community. It is a place with lots of opportunities to reach these children and teens.
We are praying that God well raise up more people that want to serve in reaching out to the many communities around us. The buses that we have are of great use to us and we can bring those that live close to the church.
This Saturday we are going to have Bus Cleaning Day. We are getting them all in order, from documents to looks! There are lots of people that live close to us but do not have transportation.
Love in Christ our Lord and Savior,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[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
Festival Held to Reach Out to New People
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.
August 2, 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope all is well with each of you. We are all doing well and being blessed by our Lord.
The works are doing well and reaching out to bring new people to the churches. This month we had our festival of typical foods. The purpose of the festivals is to bring people who are not saved to know our church. We had a wonderful festival. The members got really involved and things went well. We had around 350 people who came. We had a praise time and then a sketch with the plan of salvation.
The Venezuelan couple that the husband is pastor has been of great help with the mission of Iranduba.
Tables at the festival where the visitors were served.
Special service at the festival
The work with the camp is coming along. We had a fellowship with a group of about 35 pastors to share our plans. We have had several contacts. We want to make it a place that small churches as well as large churches can have access. We also want to have special camps to reach different age groups through sports, seminars and training. Pray that God will lead us each step of the way.
Our purpose in our ministry is especially to reach out to the lost to tell them about the Lord Jesus. But also, we want to help others to grow and serve the Lord in their daily life.
Pray that God will direct us each step of the way and that lives will be reached.
Thanks to each of you for your love and support. God bless you.
Also continue to pray for God to provide a car for us that Kathy can use that holds 6 or 7 passengers.
Love in Christ,
Odali & Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[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
God is Working in Various Communities in Brazil!
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 1, 2018
Dear brothers and sisters,
Thanks to the Lord we are doing well and have had a great month. Time does not stop or wait. It is hard to believe July is here.
The works are all doing well. God has blessed as we reach out into the communities. All our works involve lots of time on the road. We are working in 4 different communities during the week. Kathy and the team of youth she works with go every Monday to Ubim to have the children’s club. Her car is 18 years old and has had lots of problems. I would like to get another car for her. Please pray with us that God will provide a means.
A special sports day at Iranduba
Service at Serra Baixa
A truck full at Serra Baixa!
Children at Ubim on Monday
The first youth night at Ubim on Saturday
Children at Ubim on Monday
We started youth meeting at the Ubim community on Saturday night. Through this, we plan on reaching out to the adults. There is an Indian tribe right behind this community and you can only go there if invited. A couple of weeks ago an Indian lady came by the church and asked Kathy what was going on there. So Kathy explained it was a kids club that taught the Bible. She asked “Can my daughters come?” Kathy said, “Sure!” Well last week we had six that came! Praise the Lord!
The services that we have on Friday night at Serra Baixa community is doing well and we always have visitors. Please continue to pray for the salvation of those that have never trusted the Lord. This last Friday our truck was loaded. We took 25 people. Kathy’s car wasn’t working.
The mother church is doing well and this month we are planning our outreach festival. This is a great time to get the whole church involved and a special time to reach out and bring people from the community close to the church to have contact with the church and to hear about God. The festival is July the 28th. Pray that we can reach many people.
The church at Iranduba is coming along. We have been doing visitation. The couple from Venezuela is helping out quite a bit there. Pray with us that God will lead us to a place to buy or rent. The place we have now is not very big and not in the best place.
Our night off is always on Tuesday, but last week a man who has been coming to our church asked us to have a service at his mother’s house. She is very catholic and he wanted her to hear the gospel. It was great! There were 25 there.
Also, we had a blessing last week. A young lady who was coming to our church wanted to get saved but her mother is very catholic and didn’t want her at another church. Well, she got saved and her mother was ok with that. Now she and a young man from our church are planning on getting married. Her mother said, “Only if a priest does the wedding.” We told her let’s just pray and God will take care. Sure enough. A couple who is their friends and are from our church got married last week. The young lady’s mother was there for the wedding. When they got home, her mother said, “I would like for you to get married at that place and have that pastor to do your wedding.” She was so happy. Praise the Lord.
We thank each of you for your love prayers and support. May God bless each of you.
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[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
Venezuelan Couple Helping in Iranduba, Growth in Serra Baixa
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.
Iranduba
Iranduba
Friday Night in Serra Baixa
June 1, 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We have had a great month and we hope that you have also! Things here are moving along in an amazing way. God has done so many wonderful things. The church and the missions are doing really well.
The church in Iranduba has had several activities going on. The visitation is doing well. We have the Venezuelan couple working with us there—the husband is a pastor. We have been letting them do several of the activities with the youth there. They are really excited. We are praying that that will continue to go well. It would be really great if they eventually could take over that work. As big as the city is, a full-time pastor would be a blessing.
We will be having the inauguration service for the church building in the community of Ubim this coming Saturday, June 2nd. We are going to take members from our other missions to help with visitation for the service.
We are excited and the team that works there are really happy to have the space to work with the kids and youth. Kathy and I will be going there Saturday nights for service since we don’t have to go to Iranduba now.
The service we have in the community of Serra Baixa on Friday night is growing. Many of the people that are coming are not saved. Please pray for us as we share God’s love with them.
Thanks to all of you who support us and the ministries and your prayers. We greatly appreciate each of you!
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[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
Mothers Day, Music Classes, and More!
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.
May 15, 2018
Dear brothers and sisters,
It has been such a wonderful month to see how God has worked! God has blessed us tremendously and the works are doing really great.
This month is Mother’s Day, so we’ve had several special days at our mission point. We take advantage of these days to encourage the children to bring their parents. Then we will have a special service with the children singing where we also present the gospel.
At the church of Iranduba we will be starting some new things. On Wednesday and Saturday, we will be going out into the community and homes to have services and special programs for different ages. We have also started keyboard and guitar classes that are going great.
The work at Ubim is going well. We will be having the inauguration of the church building real soon. Last Monday on the way there our car that is used broke down, so they did not make it there. So, they called the lady where we have the service with the kids to let them know they were not coming. The kids started crying! How wonderful it is to know that these kids love to be at the meeting! So please pray that God will help us get a car that we can depend on.
I had the privilege to preach and a village down the river. It was a thanksgiving service. Just wonderful.
Venezuela has sent all foreign missionaries away, and many of the Venezuelans have left their country. We are helping 3 families. They are Baptist. One is a seminary graduate.
The camp ministry we have started working with is doing great. We have been able to get machines working and things fixed along with other improvements. When we started our ministry back when we got married, we worked with the deaf ministry. Well, we got in touch with one of the girls that worked with us back then and asked about having a camp for the deaf. She loved the idea. Pray for this!
Kathy is in the US for the arrival of our grandson. Since he is not in a hurry to come, Kathy is visiting her father.
We appreciate your prayers and your support! May God continue to bless each of you.
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[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
