Healing Grace and Souls Saved
August 27, 2021
Dear Friends,
Charlene and I got a message from our daughter, Jessie, early in August telling us that she had COVID. She had been working at camp with a group of youth from her church the week before. Several members of her team had contracted COVID about the same time as she. Charlene and I have both had the virus, so we know it is a serious illness, but we both recovered quite well and were expecting that Jessie would do the same. After a week of Jessie getting sicker and being admitted into the hospital, Charlene and I decide that we should travel to Tampa, Florida to give our daughter some moral support. We wouldn’t be able to visit her in the hospital, but she would know that we were near. The day we arrived in Tampa, Jessie’s doctor called me and told me not to lose hope, that there were still a couple of things that they could do to try to help her. We didn’t even know that she was so sick that we should lose hope in the first place! The doctor made it very clear that Jessie was struggling for life. After getting off the phone with the doctor, Charlene and I nearly lost it. We cried like we have never cried before. Our baby girl was hanging in the balance of life and death and we weren’t even aware of it. In my prayer immediately after this call, I confessed to the Lord that I trusted completely in Him and that I knew that, before Jessie was my girl, she was His girl. I did also share with the Lord that I didn’t feel like I was ready for Him to take her home yet. I asked Him for mercy and healing grace. After our personal prayers, I contacted our sending church’s pastor, Darrell Messer, and the executive secretary of Baptist Faith Missions, Dave Parks, and asked them to spread the news of Jessie’s condition with everyone they could. I also contacted my church in Brazil and our ministry volunteers from Projeto Vida and asked them all to pray earnestly for Jessie’s healing. Folks, let me say to the Glory of God, He began immediately to bring healing into Jessie’s body. The very next morning, Jessie’s doctor called me again and told me that she was improving quickly. The next day she messaged me to say that if she continued to improve at the rate that she was improving that she would be released from the hospital in two to three days. It wasn’t two to three days, the next day she was released to go home. She was given some medicine to continue taking at home, but she never went backward after those prayers began to be offered on her behalf. Six days after the doctor first told me how sick Jessie was, she was already home from the hospital and back to work! Our God is an amazing God. He hears and He answers prayer. We know that He would still be God and He would still be good if He saw fit to take Jessie on to heaven, but we are extremely grateful that He had mercy on us, her parents, to heal her and give her more opportunities to serve Him here in this world. We praise His Name! We know that some of you heard of Jessie’s condition and prayed for her healing, and we want to take this opportunity to thank you for your earnest and effective prayers.
We are also happy to share that our evangelistic outreach teams are being able to get back into the public schools and parks here in Brazil. This past week they ministered in a small town about halfway across our state toward Paraguay. The Lord blessed and there were over 20 professions of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Many of those who surrendered to Christ had never heard a clear presentation of the gospel. The team’s volunteers were amazed at how the Lord used them to minister to people who felt hopeless. We pray that the doors of opportunity will remain open and that no more lockdowns will interfere with being able to get into the public schools and town squares with the message of God’s love.
We serve a mighty and good God, and we are grateful. Thank you to those who pray for us and give so that we may continue to serve Him here in southern Brazil.
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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Sharing the Gospel with Disillusioned & Depressed Partygoers
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
March 4, 2020
Dear Friends,
Having finished our two-week missions training seminar, we now have four new fulltime volunteers working with our traveling evangelism team. The team went to work immediately after the seminar during Carnaval week here in Brazil. I’m sure you have heard of, or seen on TV, a taste of that awful “lust-fest.” Fortunately, our team was able to interact with many of the festival-goers, without having to be involved in their immoral practices. They shared the gospel with dozens and several people repented and surrendered to Christ. Our team formed groups of three volunteers to mingle with the people at large gatherings on the beach to pray and look for individuals who might give them a hearing. Contrary to appearances, quite a few of the party-goers were depressed or disillusioned with life and were open to discuss God’s plan for their lives. We train our missionaries on how to approach people outside of the walls of the church building with the gospel and, thankfully, the Lord saw fit to use them to bring several to Christ for salvation.
The Brazilian school year has begun again and so our traveling team will begin to go into the public schools where they were invited to share the gospel through skits and testimonies. Our newest volunteers haven’t had that opportunity yet, and they are excited about it. It is one thing to mingle in a crowd sharing the gospel one-on-one, but quite another to stand before groups of 300-500 people performing a skit or sharing your personal testimony. Please pray for all 15 of our traveling team members.
Charlene and I have started back our English as a second language classes. Between the two of us, we have 44 students between the ages of 8-17. All but five of these students come from the community around our church and are not church members. She and I give the English course free of charge so that we may have the opportunity to get to know them and their families and to share the gospel with them. We have been doing this for a couple of years, now, and we have people in our church who came as a result of this means of outreach. We are looking forward to being used to reach those that the Lord has sent to us this year as well.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support so that we might continue to share God’s love in our corner of His field of service.
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
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God is Changing Lives through the Power of His Word
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
September 2, 2019
Dear Friends,
The winter break from public schools ended in August and our evangelism team was invited to minister in several schools in 4 different towns. The sheer number, alone, of people who were able to hear the gospel personally through our volunteers is amazing (over 5000 in one month). Most of these people have never set foot in any evangelical church. In the town of Prudentópolis over 300 people professed Jesus as their Lord and Savior!
I want to share three testimonies from among those who surrendered to Christ so that you may praise God together with us for His love and grace.
Projeto Vida preaching the Gospel in a public school!
Projeto Vida sharing the Gospel in an elementary school.
One teenage girl lives in a home where there is constant fighting and she herself is constantly abused emotionally. She had attempted suicide and even her own sister had tried to kill her. She was experiencing a deep sense of depression and hopelessness. When our group shared the gospel through a skit about family life without Christ and then followed that skit up with a message from God’s word, that girl sensed God speaking to her heart about her need for Jesus as Lord and Savior. When one of the volunteers was speaking to her personally after the presentation, she publicly called upon Jesus to forgive her for her bitterness and hatred of her family and accepted the forgiveness and mercy He gave her. She rejoiced immediately with what she knew was salvation by God.
In another situation, a lady sought out one of our female volunteers to share her deep sense of worthlessness. She had been betrayed and abandoned by her husband. When she was a girl, she had also experienced abandonment by her father. When he left, her mother had resorted to prostitution and became addicted to drugs. In her heart she harbored a powerful sense of resentment and hurt. After hearing the message of the gospel, she understood God’s love and forgiveness and was able to forgive those who had hurt her. She understands that Christ is now her defender and that she no longer needs to get back at those who have abandoned and abused her.
This last testimony reveals how powerful God’s word is.
When we go into a town to minister publicly, we park our van in a centrally located park or square. There we offer free haircuts, blood pressure checks, family counseling and activities for children. These services attract quite a few passersby and those who have heard from others about what we are offering. In the town of Paranavai, a woman kept hanging around our booths, but wouldn’t enter into any of them. This went on for most of the day. Anytime a volunteer would try to get close to talk to her she would shy off and not let them engage in a conversation. At the very end, when our team was getting ready to close up the tents, she finally came to the counseling tent and asked for a Bible. She still didn’t want to talk, so she just took the Bible and left. Later that night, our team returned to the same square to perform gospel skits, share testimonies and preach the Word. Not only did that woman show up, but she came with her husband. She had taken the Bible home and had let him read it. At the end of the gospel presentation, he came to the front to share the news that he had surrendered to Christ as His Savior. He said that he had only heard about Jesus by word of mouth from others, but that he had never read the Bible until that day. He also said that God had stirred in him a tremendous hunger to know His word more. Oh, how amazingly does our God work!
Please continue to pray for us and for God’s blessings on our ministries.
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
Amazing Demonstrations of God’s Power at Work
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
August 4, 2017
Dear Friends,
In their mission travels this past month, Projeto Vida experienced some amazing demonstrations of God’s power at work through them. One of their first stops was at a school that invited them back a year after their previous work there. Back then, there was a boy who was known as the biggest trouble-maker of the school and community who sought to disrupt the outreach efforts of Projeto Vida during their gospel skit presentations. Now, a year later, they found out that the boy has trusted in Christ and has been baptized and is growing in his relationship with the Lord. He told them that he had heard the truth of God’s love through them and that he wanted to be forgiven and become a part of God’s family. His teachers confirmed that he had indeed become a different kid since their last visit.
Another great report was from a young lady who had gotten involved in drugs and had caused much anguish and turmoil in her home. Her behavior had become so bad that her mother had gotten discouraged in her parenting and had become a drug user herself. During the gospel presentations, this girl was convicted of her sin and came forward to repent and surrender her life to Christ. She shared with the missionaries that she was very concerned for her mother’s salvation. The missionaries encouraged her to go to her mother to ask for her forgiveness and to pray for her to trust Christ like she had just done. I pray that this lady will also come to Christ.
Zoe, our American teen missionary, has arrived in Brazil and hit the ground running. She was super excited because shortly after her arrival there was a major evangelistic event in Curitiba, her field base, where she participated in street corner evangelism with the Projeto Vida teams. She is also getting the exciting chance to learn how to do fire-breathing and fire-eating feats in order to draw crowds to hear the gospel in public parks and squares. Zoe will be learning Portuguese quickly now that she is totally immersed in Brazilian culture and is obligated to hear and speak the language every day. Pray that, soon, Zoe will have the privilege of winning her first convert to Christ through her own use of Portuguese rather than speaking through an interpreter.
Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby Wacaser
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Stateside Address:
3912 Casaba Loop
Valrico, FL 33596
Field Address:
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Sobrado 1, Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
Phone: (813) 481-7007
Cell Phone: (813) 727-6405
Email: bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
Give: Click here to give.
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Team from Florida Heading to Work with Projeto Vida
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
March 4, 2017
Dear Friends,
Charlene and Jessie are super excited! They will be leaving in just a few minutes to spend a couple of weeks in Curitiba, Brazil. During the first week, they will be catching up with friends and taking care of some business details. I will be joining them after that to begin a week of evangelism in public schools and parks together with Projeto Vida and the youth team from Bell Shoals Baptist Church from Brandon, Florida. We are expecting to have the opportunity to share the gospel to over 3000 youth and teachers during the time we will be there.
This will be the first full year that they will be using the newly purchased travel van that replaced one of our old buses. We are grateful that this mode of transportation will make Projeto Vida’s mission trips more efficient, quicker and will allow them to get to more secluded areas. We are thankful to all who contributed to make the purchase of this van possible. We want to continue trying to obtain other vans to replace the old hard to maintain buses, but we’ll keep these old buses rolling as long as we can because we still get the gospel to tens of thousands of lost folks yearly.
We are so thrilled to see how the Lord has used this ministry to transform people’s lives. Every week we see many making a public profession of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We know that God is pleased with this because it is what Christ commanded His disciples to do. We also know that there is rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents and comes to Christ. We are also thrilled to know that there are literally hundreds of young men and women scattered across the globe sharing Christ as a direct result of how the Lord used them and blessed them when they participated with Projeto Vida as a short-term missionary or volunteer. God has greatly used and blessed this ministry and we expect even greater usefulness in the future. Thank you for your prayers and support.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Stateside Address:
3912 Casaba Loop
Valrico, FL 33596
Field Address:
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Sobrado 1, Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
Phone: (813) 481-7007
Cell Phone: (813) 727-6405
Email: bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
Give: Click here to give.
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Evidence of Transformed Lives in Schools
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
November 2, 2016
Dear Friends,
Last month I shared that our outreach partner, Projeto Vida, was able to obtain its first travel van. Overcoming that hurdle was a great victory by itself. Now that they have the van, it is being customized for the type of community service that we use to open doors to sharing the gospel. Among the services that are offered when we pull into a target community are free haircuts, family counseling, blood pressure checks and intercessory prayer. The van itself has built-in awnings and frames to accommodate these services. The van also transports up to 17 passengers and pulls a trailer that contains all the sound equipment that is used in the public presentations of the Gospel.
Two teams were out in cities near operational headquarters with the old buses as the van’s preparation is being completed. These teams were in 5 public schools where they had great liberty to share the gospel with students, teachers and administration. We are so amazed at how many principals come to us after our events to share how much of a difference they see in their schools after our team’s interaction with their schools. We know that this is evidence that God is transforming lives by the indwelling Holy Spirit who has come into those who have surrendered to Christ.
This week they also their bi-monthly Missions Training Seminar. There are over 20 students coming from all over Brazil to attend this specialized training. They will spend two weeks giving theological studies of missions and then two more weeks of “on the job” mission trips for the volunteers to go with our teams into the public schools and parks. We have seen hundreds of students come through this training process, many who have become full-time missionaries upon completion of our training and many others return to their respective churches to challenge their congregations to be more missions-minded and focused on a practical level.
Charlene, my daughter, Jessie, and I are getting ready to return to Brazil early next year to assist a group of youth from our church here in Brandon, Florida. It looks like we will be having around 30 youth involved, along with some adult sponsors. We are looking forward to returning to visit the churches we established there while in Curitiba to encourage them, however the Lord sees fit to use us.
We greatly appreciate your prayers for us and your support of Projeto Vida’s evangelistic endeavors.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Furlough Address:
3912 Casaba Loop
Valrico, FL 33596
Field Address:
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Sobrado 1, Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
Phone: (813) 481-7007
Cell Phone: (813) 727-6405
Email: bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
Give: Click here to give.
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Missionary Update: The Wacasers in Brazil [March 2016]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
March 5, 2016
Dear Friends,
It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord provides opportunities to make Him known to others on a personal basis. I’m still not great at it, but I am learning to look around me as I live life day by day to see where God is opening doors for me to share His love. This week’s opportunity came in what seemed on the surface to be a mistake on my part. We have been living in our neighborhood for several months and early on, we met a Christian family who lives a few houses down. They have several teenaged blond haired boys. As I was coming home and was several blocks away I saw a blond teenaged boy walking down the street toward our home. I assumed that he was one of our neighbor’s kids, so I stopped to offer him a ride the rest of the way home. As I began talking with him I realized that he was not their son, so I apologized for my mistake and started to drive away. He called out to stop me and asked if I really would give him a ride since he was still quite a way from his home. When I told him that I would he got into my car. His name is Cody. On the way to Cody’s house I found out that he had been suspended from school for what, he said, was a false accusation of vandalism; putting glue in the teacher’s seat. I knew I only had a few minutes with Cody, so I used his suspension, whether his fault or not, to begin sharing how the Lord had found me in my youth, when I was a vandal (and worse) with the love and forgiveness that only Jesus can give. I told him that God loved us, and despite our sins, truly wants to have an intimate relationship with Him. I didn’t presume him to be guilty of vandalism, but I did want to share with him that the Lord sent His Son Jesus to save us from all sin if we will just believe and surrender to Him as Lord. Our ride was short, but I continue to pray that God will use the message I shared with Cody to plant a seed which will eventually bear fruit to the glory of God in his salvation.
Gratefully, my dad still doesn’t have any pain. God continues to answer the prayers of many to bless both him and us, his kids. We can see that he becomes feebler as each week passes. He is sleeping approximately 22 hours per day and even in his hours awake he is often confused. Charlene and I will be leaving to go to Brazil for 2 weeks starting tomorrow and we are hoping that he can endure until we return. Please pray for him about this, if it can please the Lord.
As I mentioned, Charlene and I will be leaving tomorrow to go back to Brazil for two weeks. We will serve as hosts and translators for a group of 40 youth from Brandon, Florida. Our outreach teams, Projeto Vida, are getting geared up to receive and assist us in getting the gospel to several public schools during Spring Break. We expect to be in about 8 public schools during in one week’s time. Please pray that the Lord will open the hearts of many to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and that He will also protect the group from spiritual and physical harm.
I’m looking forward to our next letter when I expect to report the results of this trip and of the many conversions to Christ that we hope to see from these efforts.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Furlough Address:
3912 Casaba Loop
Valrico, FL 33596
Field Address:
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Sobrado 1, Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
Phone: (813) 481-7007
Cell Phone: (813) 727-6405
Email: bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
Give: Click here to give.
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Missionary Update: The Wacasers Stateside from Brazil [October 2015]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
October 4, 2015
Dear Friends,
Charlene and I just returned from a two week trip to Brazil. We had to count on family members to cover for us taking turns caring for my ailing father. While in Brazil we were able to have a meeting with our evangelism ministry, Projeto Vida, and make plans for the next few months of outreach efforts.
My young replacement at my former church, Alek Rossi, has been doing a great job. Everyone we talked to about how the church was doing gave excellent reports on how well he is pastoring the flock and teaching. We saw several new families attending and the church is still baptizing new members. Alek asked me to preach on the Sunday that we were present. It was a welcome privilege to be in my former pulpit teaching God’s word and seeking to make Him known to the lost. It was clearly evident that the members have truly embraced Alek and his wife as their leaders. It was also clear that the members have embraced the responsibilities of caring for their facilities. Actually, I got a little ironic laugh out of seeing how well they have done that. For 4 years I sought to transfer to the members the importance of attending to the small details of cleanliness and upkeep of the grounds while they also gave loving attention to the other members and visitors. As soon as we drove onto the property we saw that loving care had gone into the upkeep of every little detail. I want to think that my constant example and drilling the members finally took hold, but it would have been nice if they had shown that while I was still there. I love them anyway!
While I was meeting with the Projeto Vida leaders they shared how the Lord has been blessing this year. They still have two more months to work in the public schools this year, but already they have been in 6 states, taking the gospel to over 30,000 students and teachers. We also made preparation for hosting and training missionary volunteers in the upcoming months. There will be two international volunteers arriving early next year who will work and travel with the teams in active training. Also, we will coordinate the partnership with a group of nearly 50 youth who will share the gospel in some public schools and parks.
It has been many years since we have been able to participate in the Missions Conference on behalf of Baptist Faith Missions in Dearborn Heights, MI. We are really excited about being there again in early November. We hope to see many of our old friends there and are looking forward to making new friendships as well.
Thank you for your prayers and support,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Furlough Address:
3912 Casaba Loop
Valrico, FL 33596
Field Address:
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Sobrado 1, Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
Phone: (813) 481-7007
Cell Phone: (813) 727-6405
Email: bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
Give: Click here to give.
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