"Its Summer time in the City"

Dear friends,

This last week was super hot and humid, with lots of typical summer thunder storms. Today is back to cool weather and rain all day long. Its Summer Time in Sao Paulo...though not offically summer until the 21st.

Rene and I made a trip to the interior of the country to the state of Minas Gerais. I preached a "Couples Conference" for Brazilian missionary Rodenele. The little town of about 4000 people now has a Baptist Church going strong. The new pastor, Luciano, and his wife Renata were children in the church we started in Cotia in the 90's.

It was a seven hour drive to and from the meetings and on Monday morning we took off early because we had a Pastor-Wife fellowship at our church that night. I grilled the chicken and sausage for everyone. We had 38 present. The fellowship was great and no one seemed to be in a rush to leave.

Rene and the ladies of our team put together a Christmas Tea for the church ladies. There were 34 present for that event. The ladies each brought a small gift and then drew names upon arrival. Each woman got up and made a little speech in which they tell funny or nice things about the person whose name they drew.Then they hug. Its lots of fun for them...I guess its a woman thing.

We've been spending a lot of time at the parsonage lately. Our new pastor Rodrigo and his wife, Driele, will move in as soon as we can get it ready. We've been plastering and sanding walls; making electrical and physical repairs and now, painting. On the outside we're putting in a car port and stair from the car port to the entrance of the house below.

Rene celebrated her birthday on the 21st of November. She enjoyed all the cards and calls she got. We will celebrate our 34th anniversary this Friday, the 17th of December. We will go walk around a new mall then go out to supper.

In addition to the regular preaching and visiting, I also made special trips to conduct a children's meeting, do a teacher seminar,

lead the board meeting at our Bible college in Curitiba,

participate in the ordination of Jorgival one of "our boys" who is in his first pastorate.

Here he is (with tie) and the men who pastor the churches we have started in the Sao Paulo area. From left to right: Barueri, Cotia, Jandira and Carapicuiba. On the far right is John Birch, no I mean, Jeff Traver, our co-worker.

Thanks for your prayers and friendship. May the Lord bless you,

Graham and Rene