For this past week, Tati and I — alongside a team of 8 other adults (and 3 kids) from Harding University Global Outreach Program, Matt Bell and Dee Was from Florida, and many Lithuanian counselors — worked at Ruta Christian Camp in Lithuania. It was an amazing experience working with all these 6-13 year-olds! Our team from HU planned and taught the daily Bible lessons and we also worked as counselors/chaperones. The Vilnius CoC does an amazing job reaching out to these kids and their families. We’re so thankful that the Lord has allowed us to come here and be used by Him! ❤?
Group PictureThe American TeamMaikon and his cabin
We made it to Lithuania. Our Global Outreach team from Harding University will be here for two weeks as we will be encouraging the congregation in Vilnius and working at a kids camp! We’re excited to serve the Lord in this beautiful country! ?
Our survey trip to Portugal started in the beautiful city of Porto. We really enjoyed meeting our brothers and sisters at church today. The congregation, although small, was very biblical and sound (and it very much reminded us of the small churches back in Brazil). Porto receives quite a lot of tourists and today we had a sister (named Carol) from Switzerland, for whom Tati helped translate most of the worship service. The message was brought by a brother from the church in Brasilia. After church we had lunch with many people from church at João and Aline’s house. We had a great time of fellowship with one another and the food was delicious! It was indeed a very good day and we feel good!! Thank you, Lord! ?❤
The church in PortoFellowship with some of our brothers and sisters in Porto
Maikon has been taking his Bible electives in Missions pretty much since he started at Harding in 2016. Recent changes in the BMIN Program have allowed students to switch Bible majors if they so wish to. Maikon has taken advantage of this and switched to a BA in Bible and Missions.
Maikon will now graduate with a BA in Bible and Missions
On Friday and Saturday (Jan 25 and 26) we attended two Missions Advisory meetings at Harding University. Tati and I got to make good and valuable contacts for possible future supporters. One of these contacts was brother Donald Collins from Hot Springs Village, AR. He attended the event and wanted to meet us and learn more about our plans for South Florida.
Top: elder Donald Collins Bottom: the event speakers, Alan & Rachel Howell
This Friday Tati and I met with some families in the BMIN Program. We wanted to share with them some of our dreams for future mission work in South Florida or Portugal. Mr. Marvin Crowson (Director of Domestic Missions at Harding University) was there with us too. We all fellowshiped, ate pizza, talked about our survey trip to Deerfield Beach / Boca Raton this past November, and prayed about possible team formation. We love these families and would love to team up with them! ❤?
BMIN Families Dreaming About Doing Missions Together
In the morning we had coffee with Mauricio Yegros (a Paraguayan missionary at the Coral Springs CoC here in Florida) and Chris Fry (Director of Latin Mission Teams at Great Cities Missions). They were both very excited and encouraging of our plans for South Florida. Mauricio had been here in the area for 5 years and he gave us good hints and suggestions. Something awesome about the work that Mauricio has been doing in Coral Springs is that they have been using Let’s Start Talking as a way to reach out to the Hispanics. He told us that this method works really well with the immigrants in the area.
In the evening we had a delicious dinner at a Brazilian restaurant in Boca Raton. Carlos Preciado invited Mr. and Mrs. Guzman, as well as Mr. Olivo (Outreach Minister at the High Pointe CoC in McKinney, TX) to join us. Carlos had spoken to them about us and they were excited to meet us. Carlos and Erika Guzman lived in Brazil for many years and we know several church people in common. They now live here in South Florida and were also very encouraging of us moving here.
So far the response we’ve been having from everybody has been really positive. We also like the area very much. Well, let’s keep praying… ?
1st photo: coffee with Mauricio Yegros and Chris Fry 2nd photo: dinner with Carlos Preciado, Carlos and Erika Guzman, and Luis Olivo
This weekend, Maikon participated in “Guided by Christ: Friending People of Peace“, a workshop organized by Harding University’s Outreach America. It was a moment in which we all got to introduce ourselves and share with each other our plans and dreams for missions in the USA and abroad.
