Kids & Teens Learning to Sing and Play Instruments
October 24, 2023
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We thank our Lord for the blessed month we have had. We pray and hope that each of you have had a wonderful, blessed month. We thank each of you for your faithfulness in your support and prayers. May God continue blessing each of you. This month has been really great. We are working with the youth and kids and helping them learn to sing and what instruments they want to learn. Pray that God will help those who are learning to work with these kids and teens. Kathy is working with them at the mother church and at Ubim. Pray that this will encourage them to grow and use their talents for the Lord.
We are looking at some other places we may possibly start having services in the homes. Please pray that God will lead us and open these homes.
The work of the remodeling of the Cacau church is coming along and the construction of the camp also. The Lord willing, soon we will be able to use both places.
Once again thanks so much for your prayers and support.
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.
Read more
Blessings in Ubim
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.
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.
Gabriel 
Friday Night Service 
Jump rope with kids in Ubim
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.
Read more
Back in France!
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are back in France! A week ago, we stepped off the plane in France. What a delight to walk out of the baggage claim area to find Philip and three of our granddaughters waiting for us. Amanda and Camille were at our house putting finishing touches on cleaning and preparing lunch. We are thrilled to be back to the place that God led us to 22 years ago.
Though there are still many restrictions here because of the Covid virus, within a couple of days we encountered many of our neighbors. However, Sunday crowned our joy as we sang in person with the members of our congregation. Though we have been meeting online with the church at Tournefeuille, we could not hear each other singing. Sunday was a very small foretaste of heaven where numberless multitudes will be praising the Lord together.
Yesterday, we had lunch with the Veuillet family from our church. Jean-Luc is one of our teaching leaders. We had an excellent meal and time of fellowship together. This family is a great blessing and encouragement to us as musicians, teachers and committed believers. They just bought a house that is further from our meeting place by about 20 minutes on the road. However, this a small city that desperately needs a gospel witness. I am hoping that this could be the beginning of a church in that community.
We just learned that the house in which we live and hold our church meetings is going to be sold. The rental agent is to meet with us in a couple of weeks to discuss alternatives. Please, pray for us that God will direct our hearts in this matter. Or, if you would like to donate $500,000.00, we can just purchase the house. In case you are wondering, it is not a mansion. You can call Darrell Messer or Randy Jones who have been here for details.
We thank God for each of you and your faithful participation in what God is doing here.
May the Lord bless each of you,
John and Judy
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.
Read more
Trekking for Jesus
May 11, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Are you feeling shut in? Daily living has been quite different for most of us during the last couple of months. However, we are very thankful for many blessings that God has showered upon us during this time. Eternal life, the union of our spirit to God, is not affected one bit by the viral crisis other than for the good. We thoroughly enjoyed reading the letters of the lady missionaries in the Mother’s Day issue of the Mission Sheets online posting.
One of the many joyful experiences of the last month has been meeting with our church in France! Due to the danger of transmission and the governmental restrictions the congregation decided to meet live online. During the first meeting about 6 weeks ago Judy and I were moved to tears and had a hard time singing during the worship time. The online interactive fellowship has been GREAT! We are so thankful for Philip, Amanda and several other members of our church who work diligently each week to make these meetings a reality. We thank God for giving humans the technological abilities to make this kind of communication possible. Not only have we met with our church in France, we have also been able to “go to church” in America and Brazil. In ALL things God works for good!
Last week, Amanda sent me a text forwarded from a French friend of hers. Amanda has been displaying Christ to this very nice lady, who professes atheism, for several years. The lady’s son had leukemia several years ago when he was still a preschooler. God has graciously given the son physical life and he receives piano lessons from Amanda. The lady forwarded the request of a friend who was looking for someone to help him improve his English speaking. I was glad to help him and we had our first online conversation today. All of the above to ask you to pray for my communication with this young (40ish) husband and father of two sons. He had been told by his “atheist” acquaintance what we did in France. He asked questions and God opened up the door for an introduction of the Gospel. He was interested and I invited him to join us for our virtual Sunday church meeting.
Our dear Savior has also connected us to others in our physical neighborhood who need Christ. Judy and I exercise by trekking [walking with sticks… cross country skiing on dry ground in tennis shoes 🙂 ]. It is a practically unknown physical activity in Evansville. As more people are home bound, they are walking, riding bikes and working in their garages and yards. They keep social distances, but most are looking for social exchanges. This has let us to meet other believers and be able to witness to those who need Christ. It seems that we are well known in the neighborhoods. Sometimes you can be a spectacle for Christ!
On April 30th we celebrated Dad’s 95th birthday. We are so grateful that Paul and Wanda are caring for Dad (John A. Hatcher) as they did for Alta Hatcher (mom) and Willa McGary (Wanda’s mom). Their care for the senior missionaries has enabled us, the younger and aging missionaries to continue serving in the overseas fields. Paul and family set up a Zoom party and nearly all the extended family (7 time zones, 3 continents) were able to celebrate with Dad. God has blessed us beyond our imagination and ability to recount. Trekking for Jesus,
John and Judy
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.
Read more
