January 5, 2000

Dear Friends,

Grace and Peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all.

Well, since the Christmas rush of 1999 has gone and a new millennium has dawned without any Y2K problems, we are without excuse and are thus sending this newsletter to you good folks. We want to:

THANK, our Heavenly Father for His faithfulness and care. He led us through another year of life—both of us are now 50 years of age, and we celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. Please pray that we will have good health and wisdom!

THANK you all for your faithful support, both prayerful and financial (salary, construction project, books, coconut trees). We appreciate it very much. It is a blessing and privilege to serve the Lord and have you all as partners in mission at the Lay Missionary Training Center (CTM) in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso.

REPORT to you that there is a printing mistake on page 253 of the 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study. It is written: "Former Mission Co-workers Mike and Irene Sivalee report. . . ." Please cross off "former," as we are still mission co-workers of the PC(USA), assigned to the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPI).

REPORT several happenings during the year 1999:

There were 13 students living on campus. They came from the states of Paraná, São Paulo, Espirito Santo, Rondônia, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. We also received a student from the Evangelical and
Reformed Presbyterian Church of Peru. Thus, the CTM fulfilled one of its dreams—to serve churches from other Latin American countries. Our Peruvian student, César Orlando Ramírez, was invited by the session and pastor of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Luziania in the state of Goiás, to do his internship during the year 2000. Furthermore, we admitted a student who was HIV positive. Despite of all the difficulties, Ivania completed her first year with high grades and a higher self-esteem! Praise God, it is a
miracle! She is getting stronger each day with prayer and medication. She was invited to do her internship at the Shiloh Project of the IPI in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, in the south of Brazil. She will be working with people with drug problems and HIV-positive patients. Please pray for our 23 students who are serving the Lord through their internship in various parts of Brazil.

Our first graduating class Yes, believe it! After long and hard labor of four years, on November 27, 1999, we had our first graduating class ceremony. It was the first time in its 96-year history that the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil produced missionaries (six) from its own denominational school! We have a great and bright future ahead of us, and thanks be to God who has led us this far! Our beloved PC(USA) can be proud of its contributions; it has been a "strong partner" of this project since the idea of having a missionary school came into the hearts of IPI leaders in the late 1980s. Our students, Moura and Adriana, will continue their study, as they received scholarships to study at seminaries in São Paulo and Londrina. Elionete and Daniel are serving in the states of Tocantins and Rondônia; Isaias is in an urban ministry in Botucatu, São Paulo; Maria Elena will be a "monitor" for first year students and my assistant at CTM. Please pray for each of them!

Construction We are constructing a building with four classrooms, two bathrooms, a library, a reception area and an office for the director. We need funds to complete the project as we need to: put in a ceiling ($2000), buy electrical materials ($2500), buy floor tiles and labor ($3000), paint, etc. ($2500) a water tank ($25O), and labor to make a base for the water tank ($200). If you’d like to support these things, please send your check to Central Receiving, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),100 Witherspoon St., Louisville, KY, 40202-1496 and write on the memo line "ECO #864544 (for Sivalees’ Lay Training Center, Cuiabá, Brazil.)" Please send us a copy of your letter so we can keep a record and confirm to you when the funds arrive here.

In summary, our five years at the CTM have gone well, having served the 42 students who went through our school. With the help of churches in the United States, Brazil and Ireland, we built a house for the caretaker, remodeled the director’s home, built a women’s dorm, remodeled the men’s dorm, built two small apartments for married students, planted over 500 coconut trees, bought over 650 books for the library, and poured new concrete on various parts of CTM.

Future We expect to have at least 20 new students arrive on February 26, 2000. Among them will be another student from Peru and a student from Argentina. Also coming are eight students from our presbytery (Mato Grosso and Rondônia). It will be the largest group to date. We hope to complete the work on the building we are now constructing and remodel our kitchen and dining area in 2000.

Our next home assignment is from December 15, 2000, till March 1, 2001.

Please continue to pray for our health. Again, please send news from your church. Put us on your mailing list, and have a prosperous New Year 2000!

Abraços em Cristo

Mike and Irene Sivalee

The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 252