On the first Saturday we had a youth rally with about eight area churches and one from about 60 miles away. (One great thing to note: when we started our first church in Cotia in 1988, only two of the participating churches existed. Now we have these and other good churches on the west side of Sao Paulo!)
Pastor Steve Allen, music minister from First Baptist Church, Troy, Michigan was our speaker and he and his family provided special music.
We had planned on around 150 teens and had 268 present. We ran out of chairs and places to put chairs if we'd had more. It was fun for the teens, who love getting together. We do need our auditorium finished. Now more than ever.
Wednesday through Sunday night, July 16-20 we had Evangelist Lin Croxton with us. We had good attendances and many decisions. This is Lin and Carol's fourth (?) time with us and I'm sure the best ever as far as enthusiasm and outreach.
I am not sure of the exact number of visitors we had, but I had some leftover Bibles on hand and decided to offer them to whoever brought at least three visitors. I had ten Bibles and we gave all of them away. People who brought more than three didn't get extra Bibles, so I know we had many more.Among the decisions we had two men who told me they received Christ as Savior. We have been praying for Edson, one of the men saved, for a long time. His wife was baptized last February and his son is in the new member's class now.
One of the joys of living and working here is seeing our young people grow up, marry and start their own homes. Sunday night (2oth) we got to visit with Lucidalva and her husband Edson. They were married in December of 2007 at our Barueri church and live in Sorocaba. They are members of the New Life Baptist Church there. I met Lucidalva's family going door-to -door visiting many years ago in Barueri. She and her sister and Mother were saved and have been in the church there for years. Edson and Lucidalva met at one of the youth rallies, like the one this month. The rallies have more than one purpose, you see. They brought Nayara, another of our "girls" from Barueri and Edson's sister as well.
Here are some shots of our picnic on the 4th of July. Not really warm, as you can see by the sweatshirts!
You'll see some stray MK's attracted by the food and fireworks.
Thanks for praying for us. Keep us informed of your doings, too!
Lord bless,
Graham and Rene Foran
