February 2008

Dear Partners in Christ,

This letter brings greetings from Decatur, Georgia. We arrived in early January and are settling into life in Mission Haven, which is home for PC(USA) missionaries on interpretation assignment. We hustled and bustled to leave Brazil two days after our last worship service.

The Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPIB) has become a very strong church. When we went to Brazil over 17 years ago to work in church planting and evangelism, the IPIB needed more pastors and evangelists. Now the church has become very strong, with plenty of able pastors and lay leaders. It’s beautiful to see how Brazilian church members have become such strong evangelists and teachers.

Some of the happy kids at the youth retreat.

Before we left Brazil we were blessed with a beautiful service by the five churches in the presbytery. Each church had a part in the service. We heard lots of choirs of all ages and beautiful words of appreciation. A youth group even had a few words in English during their goodbye tribute to Daniel. The church had a very strong youth program, and Daniel was excited to be able to be a part of the middle school group.

An even larger blessing was experienced on December 30, when 25 people joined the church. In the church where we were working, perspective members must participate in a six-month communicants class before they can join the church. They met every Monday night to learn about Jesus Christ and what Presbyterians believe.

A few of the adults who presented their children for baptism.

For many years, church members had been presenting their children before the church for prayers and blessings. Gordon spoke about our responsibility and privilege as Presbyterians to have our children baptized. Thus, when those 25 people joined the church, other people responded, and 45 people were baptized. It was beautiful to see so many people respond to that privilege we have as Presbyterians.

In previous letters, we’ve mentioned the thrill of the presbytery’s first youth conference. The first annual conference, it was a beautiful experience, with 120 youth participating in worship, study, and play. Your gifts to our Extra Commitment Opportunity (ECO) fund enabled a number of youth to attend who would have never had that opportunity.  The IPIB has very committed youth and a bright future.

We are on interpretation assignment through the end of March. We are anxious to share with you news about PC(USA) mission, especially in Brazil. We look forward to seeing you. Our supporters have made our work possible for over 17 years. Please contact us if you’d like to have us speak at your church. Although we are only on interpretation assignment through March, would be willing to speak later in the year.

Both of us will be looking for church work. Gordon would like to work in a large church, perhaps as associate pastor with responsibilities for visitation and nurturing. Dorothy hopes to find work as a Christian educator or in the community with children or the elderly.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and monetary support, which has allowed us to stay in Brazil for this amount of time. Brazilians are very dear people; we have rich friendships and wonderful memories and have received many blessings from our time in Brazil.

We hope to visit many of you and share about our work. Right now it is snowing here in Georgia. Last month, we were walking along the beach in tee shirts. Please pray for our adjustment, our visits, and finding future work.

In Christ,

Gordon and Dorothy Gartrell

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 276