Sending Two Missionaries to Portugal

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

September 19, 2022

Dear Friends,

Last month, Charlene began giving English classes again and we had one student already make a profession of faith after coming to a church service on the following Sunday. We are also having students from some of our computer classes and martial arts classes attending church as well. These classes have been a great way for us to get to know people in our community that probably wouldn’t come if we only offered Sunday worship services. We are rejoicing!

There is a young couple in our church who feel called to missions and we are preparing them to go to Portugal in the near future. Their names are Yago and Manoela. Right now, they are waiting on their work visas to Portugal to be processed. In the meantime, they are helping with various ministries at our church, and I have had Yago preach in the pulpit as well. I am super excited about our young church learning that they are also a sending body of Christ, not just a growing body of Christ. It’s not going to be easy to support them, but Yago will also be a “tent-maker”, having a secular job as computer consultant to help with their support. Charlene and I plan to go visit them after they get settled in to use our experience to help them identify some fields of opportunity for gospel outreach. Less than 1% of Portugal’s population identifies as “born again” believers in Jesus Christ. At the same time, most Portuguese people claim to have religion, just not Biblical religion. Yago and Manoela know that their work will not be easy, but they know also that the Lord will be with them to work in the hearts of those whom He will call at the preaching of the gospel.

Our travel team, Alpha, is in the middle of a three-week trip to minister in the interior of our own state, Parana, and in the next state northwest of us, Mato Grosso do Sul. They have invitations to share the gospel in several schools and I will be traveling there tomorrow to minister with them. This month we have already had the privilege to preach to over 2500 students along with their school staff. There have been hundreds of public professions of faith at these events, and we constantly receive word from school principals and local pastors of what a change they are seeing in many of those who receive Christ. We are thrilled to have this liberty still open to us and we plan to take advantage of it for as long as the Lord provides.

Charlene and I are very grateful for your faithful prayers and generous support of our ministries. Thank you very much.

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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Blessings in Ubim

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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.

March 24, 2022

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We pray and hope that all of you dear friends are doing well! We are doing well. Thank God things are doing well and getting back to normal. We are being able to start back our services in the different communities. We are making plans to have special programs in these different communities and also have some special programs in schools. Since distance is a problem here, we want to go into the communities. One of the things that we are planning is to have a special pizza day in each of these places and different schools. If you would like to help us with this project, we would be grateful. We figure that it will cost around $400.00 for the places we plan on going.

Pizza Day!

Our Friday services in homes is doing well. In the village of Ubim, we have started night services. Kathy has been going there for 7 years and works with 50 to 60 kids under 15. Pray as we have services and reach out to the adults and families there.

At the main church, Pedras Vivas, we are doing fine and still working on training adults for different ministries. We hope and pray that they will see the need more and more to reach out to the lost people around us.

A special thing happened with one of the teenagers who stays here with us most of the week. He has helped Kathy in Ubim for several months. He wanted to continue helping there but because of being in school he couldn’t go. But he decided to ask the principal if on Monday he could leave a little earlier to go with Kathy. The principal said sure, bring a letter from your pastor saying that you’re going there to help every week. So, he took the letter. The day he went to talk to the principal it was a different person. She seemed to be giving him a hard time. After questioning him a lot he thought that she was going to say he couldn’t go. But was he surprised!!!! She said, you can go, and I also want you to play some praise songs here at the school and talk about God! He sent Kathy a message totally surprised!!!!!   Praise the Lord. Pray for the teen. His name is Gabriel, and he is 15 years old.

We thank God for each one of you who pray and support our ministry. God bless each of you!

Love in Christ,
Odali and Kathy Barros

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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Missionary Update: The Hensleys in Brazil [August 2014]

The Hensleys have spent nearly 15 years serving in Brazil. They run a vocational school and orphanage in Caraguatatuba and have also established a church and mission points throughout the city.

August 5, 2014

Dear friends and family,

Here in Caragua we have had an AWESOME month! It has been very busy, tiresome, and the biggest blessing of all, very fruitful.

We have been blessed to have the group from 2nd Baptist Church in Warner Robbins, Georgia with us. Pastor Mike and the group were to say the least, AWESOME. While they were here, we visited a local school. This is a new city school near our church. It is a very large school, and is new. The city closed several small schools and put them in this new facility, and it is going to be a model school for the area. We were able to enter this school because we knew the principal and one of the teachers. We did not know that the lady who is the principal there was one that we had met earlier with one of our groups. After renewing our friendship with her, we were able to go back to the school on the second day and also received an invitation to bring our groups whenever we wanted to. So we were able to talk with the English students (around 200). We also did craft projects with them, and with this craft project, we were able to witness to them. However, we were not able to give an open invitation, but we did plant many seeds of the Gospel. Several of the students came to Church on Wednesday night. We also got to know the Vice-Principal, and he and his daughter have been coming to our English class on Saturday nights at the Church. How AWESOME is the God we serve!!!!!

Prison Gospel BraceletsAnd now to even better news – on our prison visit, we were able to witness to the boys there and give an invitation to them. At this visit, we had a man from the States who gave his testimony of how God saved him from a life of addiction. And God used this to bring 52 young men to know Him as their Savior. How much better can it get? These young men range in age from 13-18 years old. Yes, this is a prison for young men (boys). We now need more Bibles to give each one of them one.

We have been ministering in this prison for about 2 years and have already done a vocational class for them. We are unable to bring them to the vocational school at present because of our need for more legal paper work. Keep praying for our vocational school.

This month that we are entering will be our month of “mission awareness”. Starting on the 10th on Sunday evening and the next 4 weeks, we will hear from 5 missionary works here in the state of Sao Paulo. The first will be the missionary to the Indian tribe that we are assisting in Patiti. This is a city about 2 1/2 hours from Caraguatatuba. Another missionary is from Sao Paulo city where he ministers to the Jews. The next is from Eufrata, the orphanage where we are helping. The next will be from the rehabilitation center here in our city where we work weekly with the people that are trying to get off alcohol and drugs.

Then to complete our month, we will be hearing from our friend in Sao Paulo city who is pastoring an inner-city church. He will be preaching on “Faith Promise” as a way for us to support missionaries. Pray that our Church will catch the vision for missionaries.

Well as you know, all news in not nessarily ‘glow’ news, so here is the rest of the story. The devil really knows where to attack. So, today as Barbara was taking Edson (our Brasillian son) up the hill to the next city to enroll in a college closer to Caragua, her car quits. You guessed it, blown motor. What made it obvious was the trail of oil on the highway. I don’t know why this little Chevy 2001 year model car with almost 300,000 miles lets us down. Now listen, this is the 3rd car in less than 8 months that has blown a motor. So I need to tell you that we really need your help financially. We will be trying to see where we can get the best price for the work that will need to be done, but without your help, we will not be able to get any work done.

Well this is not the end of the world – and there are so many good things that are happening. All we here can say is “THANK YOU, LORD!” for all that is happening! AMEN!

Like I have a tendency to say, if you would like to see what God is doing here in Caragua, just come on down. We will show you everything and put you to work. That way you can be a part of what He is doing here. But if you cannot come, send your offerings so that we can continue spreading the Word.

In His service,
AJ and Barb

Aj and Barbara Hensley
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com

Click here to give. | Like them on Facebook.


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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [May 2014]

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.

Dear  Brothers and Sisters,

We praise God for all the things that He has done the last couple of months.  As we mentioned in our last letter, we were visiting the communities that are within an hour or two from where we live.  After going several places, we have finally found several places to work.  One of the communities is called Ubim.  There were a couple of adults who used to go to the church where my brother is pastor. They moved to this community. While we were there visiting the town, we asked some people if they knew these people. Praise God, the first person we asked knew them and where they lived.  We went to their home to visit them and ask them if they would like to have services in their home.  They said, “Sure you can have services here.”  Praise God!

Barros River MinistryWhile we were visiting one day, I decided to go by the school and see if there was a possibility of using the school building for some special program. Well, was I surprised when I talked to the principal. Said, “Sure, and it would be great if you could do something for the kids in school.  You can come every Thursday if you want and stay from 9:00 to 11:00 am.” We will have our first program with them next week.  We are really excited.  There are 300 kids in the school from 1st grade to 8th grade.  We will start working with 180 kids from 1st to 4th grade. There are some kids that come to the service we have on Monday that go to that school.  We are really excited and looking forward to what God is going to do in this community.  This community is right off the river, a highway on one side and the Amazon River on the other.  On the river side you go to an Indian village.  Toe this village you have to be invited or have permission from the chief.  The chief´s daughter has been to one of our services.  Also, we visited another community farther away.  We had visited it before and were checking to see if they had a Baptist church.  There is no Baptist church but we did find a Baptist man who wants to have services is his home.  God has just done so many wonderful things.  We are already making plans to get started there.

This month we also helped at my brother’s church with a fundraiser. They are trying to finish the church building. The building they use does not belong to the church and they need to move.  The fundraiser went well and the raised $ 3,000 dollars.  They were all very excited.  We were glad we could be of help to the church.

We thank all of you for your prayers and for your financial support.   Please continue to pray for us as we work in these new places that God will direct us each step of the way, and that many may come to know the Lord and Savior.  God bless each of you!

In Christ,

Odali, Kathy
Titus, Jonas and Gabriel

Odali & Kathy Barros
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
Blog
Manaus, Brasil, SA

Click here to donate to BFM.


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