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February 2003
This is a very hastily written email report. Please excuse the
errors.
Here is our news and prayer needs:
We have several crisis situations in our church just now. The
Lord is faithful. He will build his church and the gates of hell
will not stand against it! I believe we are at a turning point,
and Satan is attacking us on many fronts. Henry has been asked
by national leadership of the Presbyterian Church of Brasil (IPB)
to become the supervisor of all new church developments in Rio
Grande do Sul under the Nacional Mission Board (JMN). He has accepted
and is currently traveling around the state to visit five other
new church developments with the director of the JMN, Rev. Lorival.
When we returned from our three weeks of teaching at the Missionary
Training Center we find some of our local leadership is under
attack! So I will count on your prayers!
Remember elder Evaldo (from the Taquara congregation) and his
wife who are having a crisis in their marriage caused in large
part by non-believing members of their families who would like
to "bring down" this faithful leader. Things are calm
now, but there is a lot of pain that needs to be worked through.
Remember elder Gersoni (of the Caxias congregation) as he faces
financial reversals, that he might not become discouraged and
might learn from these experiences to manage better his business
dealings. He needs to find a house to rent (that he can afford)
for his family of five. They are staying with relatives just now.
Remember elder Idalino, as his work responsibilities are very
heavy right now (working 14 to 16 hour days). He is responsible
for quality control at his shoe factory. He preached a fine sermon
Sunday night, but tiredness was written on his face.
Remember elder Wagner and my husband, Henry, and our deacons
and those men and women who lead the various ministries in the
church.
Tomorrow I will be leading an all-day workshop on teacher education,
preparing new teachers (three women from Caxias) for Sunday School
and encouraging a few experienced ones. On Saturday I will be
meeting with my executive committee of the presbytery-wide Presbyterian
Women (called SAF here). I was elected president, and we are 48
days into the ecclesiastical year and I have done nothing yet.
I need to get organized and make our calendar for the year. We
want to do God's work not just busy work. (Note: January and February
are our summer vacation months here.)
I hope this very quick letter will give you a glimpse into what
we are about. Oh, and our new car is wonderful! Praise God. It
is a semi-new Volkswagon Parati station wagon. It has a heater
and air conditioning, a CD player and a radio, tinted windows,
scotchguard seats, and still has that "new" smell. It
was a real gift from the Lord. The original owner is from here
in Sapiranga, and he just always drove Chevys and changed and
then was sorry and wanted to go back to a Chevrolet. Or at least
that is what he thinks, but we feel God had him change his mind
so we could pay the semi-new price instead of the new price. Praise
the Lord! And thank the Presbyterian Outreach Foundation for their
gift, which made it possible to replace our 12-year-old car with
300,000 kilometers on it.
Thank you.
Lottie Haswell
The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 258
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