Samuel Trindade, with whom we
have worked at the Lauro de Freitas congregation, will be examined,
bringing him one step closer in the ordination process. He will
be ordained a year from our meeting. At the end of November, our
presbytery will be ordaining two new pastors, one of them, Mari
Nayde, will be the first woman pastor ordained in this presbytery.
Women’s ordination became a reality in the Independent Presbyterian
Church in 1999. Quite possibly we will have a clergy couple working
in our presbytery next year.
There will be a number of conferences sponsored by the national
church over the next few months. We will attend the missions conference
for all the missionaries of the IPI in northeast Brazil. It will
be in Salvador in September. In November, there will be a conference
for adults in a neighboring state. Dorothy and I plan to attend.
Our son John and a number of young people from the church plan
to attend the older youth and young adult conference sponsored
by our Presbytery. Our daughter Elizabeth is planning a trip in
November with the youth group of our church to a youth group in
another city.
We have run out of space at the Fazenda Grande church where we
serve. We have two and sometimes three church school classes meeting
in the sanctuary. Upstairs in the fellowship hall we have four
and sometimes five children’s classes, all meeting at the
same time. Another class of young people meets in the kitchen
in the basement. The session is looking into the possibility of
buying some property more centrally located in our neighborhood
where a more ample church building can be built. The church owns
some property in another part of the city, which it would very
much like to sell. Money from the sale of that property would
serve as “seed money” to buy other property. The idea
is coming from the church leadership. This project would involve
the whole church over two or three years. We will help with it,
but at least the idea originated with them, instead of with us.
That way, they have ownership in the project instead of it being
the pastor’s project.
I‘d like to tell you about Pastor Marcos’ wife, Cíntia.
She’s 23 and has a 1-year old daughter. In early July she
underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor. For 28 days she was
on strong antibiotics to combat infection, 26 of those she was
in a coma. The right side of her face was so swollen by the infection
that she looked like a person from another galaxy. The doctors
said that if she had been elderly, she would have died. The doctor
called the family together and told them he had done as much as
medical science knew to do. But in the morning, he was astonished
to get a good report on her. He hadn’t expected her to live
through the night. Prayers have been going up for her in our churches.
She has made a remarkable recovery, though she is paralyzed on
her left side. She should be discharged from the hospital in the
coming weeks. She still has plenty of recovering to do, but she
wants to get well to raise her daughter. Please keep Cíntia
in your prayers.
Yours in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Gordon and Dorothy Gartrell
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
146
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