Dear Friends,

How We Spent Two Weeks of Our 1999 Vacation Time

(For more fun, get your atlas and see if you can find the states mentioned in this letter in bold.)

Here in Rio Grande do Sul, everyone who possibly can afford the time or the money, will spend a few weeks at the beach during our summer months (December, January, and February). So like good Gauchos, Henry and I headed for Porto Belo beach in Santa Catarina on Tuesday, December 28, 1999. But instead of scuba-diving in the crystal clear waters, Henry studied and I typed what he prepared. Following our four-day "beach vacation" we drove to Minas Gerais and the Missionary Training Center (CPO) of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPB). The course is held at the Edward Lane Bible Institute during their summer break.

We were in Minas for Henry to teach exegesis of the Gospel of John. So that’s when our vacation fun really began! What we really enjoy doing is training new leaders. For real joy and fulfillment, we’ve discovered that nothing beats investing in the lives of others! We had 33 wonderful, dedicated students: 13 women and 20 men. All of them were spending their annual vacation time (four weeks) to study at the Center. They were discovering the pleasures, the rare delights, that can be experienced by those who study God’s Word.

And just what is exegesis? It is the art and science of interpreting the biblical text. And Henry is a hard taskmaster. He is resolute in requiring that his students ascertain the author’s message to his original readers. Only after they have done that are they prepared to apply the teaching to the context in which they live and work. As his students learn to observe, think, and evaluate the text, the Scripture begins to have a new authority in their lives and ministries. Seeing our students discover the practice and importance of exegesis is really exciting for us!

Henry taught 20 hours of class crammed into 10 days. I say "crammed" because our students had another 22 hours of classes each week, plus daily chapel service, plus daily chores (like food service, dishwashing, classroom maintenance, and even cleaning bathrooms) which also serve as part of their leadership training. (Remember Jesus washing the disciples’ feet?)

Besides being Henry’s right-hand-woman, I (Lottie) am available to all the students for counseling. God has used me to share biblical insight with students facing a variety of issues in their lives, such as marital conflict, sexual identity concerns, panic disorder, parenting questions, etc. (When the counseling involves a couple, Henry and I deal with them together.) Follow-up of these sessions over the years has revealed that God has brought resolution and healing. Professionally speaking, on many occasions the time available for counseling was inadequate to the size of the concern. But our God is Adequate! And his Word is powerful! I praise him for all he did in these lives!

Our last Sunday at CPO Henry taught all the men students and I taught the women. We discussed Biblical roles of men and women in the home and in the Church. Henry told the men that Scripture teaches that the home is God’s training ground for leadership in the Church. All church leaders (both laity and professional) need to give priority to the needs of their family. Our students seemed to be both challenged and encouraged by our teaching.

After leaving CPO, we drove to Campinas, São Paulo, to meet with Daniella, the Mission’s civil engineer. We discussed plans for our church construction, and she was able to give us some helpful suggestions and copies of plans that have been used in other fields. We are now busily dealing with the bureaucratic stage of our construction: architect, contractor, city-hall, etc. By faith we hope to begin the first phase of our construction soon. Please pray with us about this, that God will guide us each step of the way and provide the resources needed.

Well, now it is August and we are moving forward on Latin American time. Our first architect was not adequate for our needs, but the Lord has sent us a wonderful Christian civil engineer who is working on a total land use plan, which would do the construction in five stages. But until the buildings of bricks are raised, the church of "living stones" is growing and becoming stronger. We have a new worship team studying music (guitar and keyboard). We have four women and eight men enrolled in a Bible correspondence course (CEIBEL). We have elected our first gaucho (native of Rio Grande do Sul) to the pre-session and several other new members are natives. (In the beginning, our church was made up mostly of people who had moved here from the northeast of Brazil.) As a congregation, we have adopted a vision statement and a strategy for growth so that by January 2002 the congregation can be organized as a new church with a session. The motto we chose is: "Every member trained to be a missionary."

We thank you for your prayers and the gift which will help us reach our goals. We believe that God has other sheep that are not yet of his fold. We want to find them and call them to follow the Good Shepherd. Please pray that we be faithful in that task.

In the service of our risen Lord,

Henry M. Haswell, Jr., and Lottie B. Haswell

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 258