End of the Year

Here's some last minute pictures for the end of the year. We are in our auditorium full time now and except for discovering that the roof leaks, we're happy as clams.

Also my neice's husband, Geoff Hayward, (husband of Bethany) came to Brazil on a surpise business trip. We had a whirlwind trip to nearby Campinas to show him the delights of "churrascaria", or Brazilian steakhouse.

We hosted the local pastors and wives for our annual fellowship dinner. This year we did it at the church instead of at our home. We had around 34 present.

The cooks!

Love to all, Graham and Rene

Serving with Baptist Mid Missions since 1986

moving up

November apparently brought the hot weather in to stay, but moving upstairs will be a "cool" way to remember this month. Here's some pictures of our first major events in the new auditorium: a wedding, first Sunday services and a baptismal. You may not be able to see that we still have some finishing work to do, namely sanding all the plaster, filling in around the windows, but the work is being done.

The baptism mentioned above took place on the 22nd of November. David, Celso and Edsom were baptized. Amen!

Here are two special events we had this month. The "good-bye" for Brother Eduardo and his family. he is now the assistant pastor of a nearby church. His family has been in our church since the founding.

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Here's Pastor Daniel, our missionary in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo. We had a campaign to raise money for his building. Here are some of the banks we made and used to collect this special offering.

Lord bless, Graham and Rene Foran

Serving with Baptist Mid Missions in greater Sao Paulo since 1986

Fall... Spring...Fall, Err...Summer?

South of the equator the seasons are reversed from those in the Northern Hemisphere. We are entering our Spring season. Its interesting how close the temperatures sound to the ones we're hearing about back home in Tennessee. Some days we have all four seasons.

I took Rene to visit the flower show in the city of Holambra, a Dutch outpost in Brazil. A couple of generations back a group of Dutch moved here. They mostly worked in agriculture, milk and milk products etc., and most famously the production of flowers. Every year they put on a big production with typical dutch folk culture, food and dress. It was fun to see and taste. Definitely, Dutch with a Brazilian accent. No tulips. I guess they won't grow here.

For the last two years I have served as secretary for All Brazil, that is, all the Brazilian areas of service of Baptist Mid Missions. We're divided into three separate regions, South, Northeast and Amazon. Every year each region has a conference for organization and fellowship. Once about every 5 years we have an "All Brazil" conference. 2010 will mark our 75th year in Brazil, so we are having a very special conference. It's been my job and privilege to help organize this event. You see the anniversary symbol that was designed especially for this year.

We are always proud of our kids. These are some of our Brazilian kids. Saved in our ministry and called to serve. The couple on the left are Rudge and Marina. Rudge was the bane of the Jr. High class. He was so full of life he just couldn't sit still. As he got older his restlessness became worldliness. Thank the Lord he got saved and eventually went to the Bible College where he met and married Marina. They serve the Lord in the Amazon region.

The family on the right is Cintia and Yuri and their son Arthur. Cintia was saved in children's church in our Cotia work and her family then moved to Barueri where they got involved in our church there. Yuri came to church because he was interested in Cintia. She wouldn't date him, but invited him to church. Yuri was saved and they both went to the Bible College in Curitiba. They married and are now serving the Lord in Osvaldo Cruz, a small town in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo.

As usual, here's a couple of shots of the auditorium We're offically out of money as of Friday. Thanks for praying for us. Thanks for helping us. Lord bless,

Graham and Rene Foran

Katie came to call

We got really excited to have our youngest, Katie, come to visit for two weeks between working at the Northland Camp and starting BJU. Katie hasn't been back to Brazil for three years, so even though it was a short visit, we thought we should bring her back to see friends and get some of her Brazilian documents up to date.

Not to mention visit her aged parents!

We did have a great time and Katie was able to get he Brazilian voter registration card (she's Brazilian by birth) and Social Secuity number. She even learned to drive a stick shift! I gave up trying to teach her to drive and shift years ago. She learned to drive an automatic in the states and learning to shift only took her about two days.

Here is a picture of our new church...well not really.

Its the Sala Sao Paulo, a center for orchestra and fine arts in downtown SP. We took Katie to hear the Sao Paulo state orchestra. The ceiling is made up of movable platforms that can be alterred according to the acustical needs of each performance.

Here's a picture of the inside of the church with the men doing the work. Each one was saved at one of our churches from the past. Our current electrician was saved at our current church. Plastering is all but done, doors are being put in and windows are coming.

Nathan and family began deputation in August. Here's the picture they are using for their prayer card.


Thanks for your prayers and friendship.

Graham and Rene Foran

Back to school for the preachers

We talked about it for a long time and we finally did it. Since last year when Pastor Danny Sweatt from Berean Baptist in Atlanta visited, we've had plans for a special pastor's modular course on Church Administration.

During the last visit, we had a get together with local pastors (as we always do when we have someone here who knows something worth hearing!). Brother Sweatt said while treating some other subject, "It's too bad I don't have time to go into this, but I have a full course on Church Adminsitration". Whereupon, one of the men said, "Will you come back sometime and teach it to us?" Brother Danny said, "Yes, and I'll bring someone very good with me."

And that's how it happened. Brother Sweatt brought Dr.Chuck Phelps (formerly Trinity Baptist in New Hampshire, formerly Marantha Baptist Bible College and now Colonial Hills Baptist, Indianapolis) with him and we had a terrific time for three days. Pastor Dorivaldo, whose church hosted the meetings and is President of a statewide pastor's fellowship, said the level of instruction was equal to any conference or seminar he had ever been in.

Thirty-five pastors participated, during the three days. One of the pastors came up to me and asked, "Now when is the next one scheduled?" I was sad to say that nothing is planned yet, but who knows? The two pastors taught for about 4-5 hours each morning and we had a Bible conference each night in which they both preached. We tried to make the trip worth while to them as well as to us.

We have been able to squeak through another month of construction. I'm not sure how long we'll be able to go on. Here are some pictures of the interior walls and the outside as of July 28. We are close to getting inside. About $6,500 if the dollar doesn't sink any more!

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Graham and Rene Foran

June is over

Dear friends,

June is over and a lot of activity with it. We just said, "good bye" to the teens and leaders from Calvary Baptist Church in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. We had 15 young people and sponsors here for eight days. We had a two day youth outreach (two night time programs and promotional actiivites in the park and at an english school);

Sunday services with music, preaching, teaching and drama provaided by the team; five presentations at a public school with around 700 students hearing the gospel several times;

a trip to Rio de Janeiro (sight-seeing and participation in the Wednesday night service); broken down van on return trip (late night pizza and, thank the Lord, a convenient hotel); packing and last minute "rush" (read, "crawl") to the airport.

Two weeks prior to the Calvary team, we had the BJU soccer team

here (17 counting driver). We had games and evangelistic

testimonies for four days.

Between the two teams we had our Sweethearts Banquet. Brazilians don’t celebrate Valentines Day, but have this day on June 12.

We had 30 present and a

professional magician who was saved in our first church in Sao Paulo provided the entertainment. He and his wife were also the first couple that I married, way back when.

It was great to fellowship with them again.

The weather has been cool, but that is great for me. Construction goes on. Here are some of the windows we have installed.

June is over, but July is coming and I'm trying to get ready for a conference on Church Administration we are sponsoring for the local pastors. (14th -16th) Danny Sweatt, from Berean Baptist in Atlanta and Dr. Chuck Phelps, formerly president of Maranatha Baptist Bible College will be conducting the meetings. We'll have three days of meetings. (8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. and nightly) Pray for these training sessions for national pastors.

Lord bless, Graham and Rene Foran

Prejudice revealed in foreign missionary

Okay, I do admit it. I am very prejudiced! I can't help it though, I am afraid that I think this little girl is the cutest thing I ever saw! I am willing to confess to favoring her brothers too, but this doll is too much for her grandaddy's long distance heart. I just want to scrunch her up in my lap. Notice the "owey"on the knee.

But here are some pictures from our construction. You can see the "before and after" progression as we cover the outside of the building.

Here are some pictures from our formal organization meeting. You see our youngest couple....

the oldest couple...

all the people present...

and Pastor Francisco.

Thanks for your prayers and help, Graham and Rene Foran

Are we having fun yet?

Remember when people would ask, "Are we having fun yet?" Well, this week, Rene and I both, on different occasions made the same remark. "We're having fun now." We both know what the other is trying to say. The first few years of church planting is "work". Pure, simple, no frills, hard work.

Then all of a sudden, things start to gel and the Brazilians take over more and more and you are just preaching and teaching and...well, having fun! This usually means that we are about to leave and start over. We aren't leaving just yet. There is more "work" left to do, but it is definitely a good sign. Thanks for praying for us and keeping us here with your faithful support.

I've attached a few pictures, virtually at random. They are shots from last month. The men's Sunday School Class, the Primary classroom,

Nathan preaching during his visit,



the Traver family singing (notice Emily at the far right under the mike!),




and the construction. (Jeff don't worry, I was just using your car to haul some sand. The back door is practically as good as new, or will be when we get it to shut.)


Also, here's a note about our conference coming in July. Dr. Danny Sweatt of Berean Baptist, metro Atlanta area and Dr. Chuck Phelps, of Maranatha Baptist College will be doing a conference on Church Administration. Anyway they are coming.

Lord bless, Graham and Rene