June 27, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from Decatur, Georgia! We are leaving for Brazil on July 14. Our address in Brazil will be correct after that date on our home page.

We arrived in the States in time to spend Christmas with family in Houston, Texas, and came on to Georgia just before New Year's. Our term in Brazil ended with Thelma's graduation, in which she received a degree in theology from the seminary of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil in Londrina, where I have been a teacher since 1997.

We have enjoyed these months here at Mission Haven, where there are houses and apartments for missionaries on home assignment. Our sons, Michael, 16, and Joel, 10, adjusted to life here in the States with no apparent difficulty, and both did well in the Decatur public school system where they have been students in years past. Since Mission Haven has been our home many times over the years, we all feel very much at home here.

The Goodrums have enjoyed many church suppers, such as this one in Bedford, Virginia.

Our main responsibility, while here in the States, has been to visit supporting churches, and other churches that invite us to visit, and share about our work as Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) missionaries in Brazil. We always enjoy these visits, and we want to thank everyone who has invited us into your churches and your homes. So many people have done so many kind things for us, and we appreciate this very much. With our boys in school I had to do much of the traveling alone, but we were also able to make several trips as a family. All of these trips, either alone or with the family, included travels to churches in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina,  Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, and even as far away as Michigan and Washington state.

Ginny Reid buys books for Michael and Joel in Staunton, Virginia.

We look forward to returning to our activities in Brazil. I will continue to teach music and Christian education at the seminary in Londrina, and we will all resume our activities at our church there. Thelma will also begin her internship year at the church, which is the requirement in Brazil for seeking ordination. Her ministries at the church have included teaching, as well as the formation and administration of an evangelism program, a literacy school for adults, and a project to help underprivileged children with their school work. All four of us have been involved in the musical activities at the church.

Because of the financial difficulties of the denomination, the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil plans to close its three seminaries at the end of 2009 and open a new “center for theological excellence” in or near the city of São Paulo, at the beginning of 2010. Because of these changes we don't know what our future will be beyond 2009, so we ask for your prayers that a door will open for rewarding future ministry.

We thank you for your interest in our work, for your support, and especially for your prayers. We look forward to keeping in touch with you as we return to our activities in Brazil.

In Christ’s service,

Farris Goodrum
for the Goodrum family

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