1 John 2:6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

We have been busy reconnecting with our Brazilian brothers- and sisters-in-Christ after being Stateside for 2 months.

Last week we visited many of our partners along with a videographer, Zach, from the States who came to bless us by creating a film of the Lord's work here in Rio de Janeiro.

While we were in the States a dear Brazilian pastor and his wife had their first baby. How wonderful it was to reconnect with them and meet their new little girl! (click here)

Here are a few video bits from last week after we were given permission from one community's malitia to enter in with a camera. Normally we don't enter with a camera, and so it was a little tense as we tried to honor their privacy and at the same time obtain some good footage and walk where Jesus would.

Click on the links below:

• Men's bible study
  

• Women's bible study

• Walking the streets

Please pray for God's continued direction as our Rio City Team strives to further His Kingdom! Most importantly, please pray for fruit that remains!

Walking where Jesus would walk,

Diane and Jeff

Blessed to Be Here!

Visiting a supporting church while in the States

What a privilege it is to be here in the name of Jesus Christ! We arrived home here in Rio on Sunday afternoon after a 24-hour delay in Washington. We have arrived encouraged, renewed and refreshed (just a little bit tired) after time with family, friends, churches and our tri-annual conference.

We returned to the Rio airport on Monday to go to the Federal Police and check on the status of our visa process, as well as welcome Zach, a young man who is serving the Lord by making a video of our work here. He will be staying here with us this week, shadowing our team and filming the work that God is doing here in Rio.

Tomorrow night we will host one of our quarterly Network Dinners with our Brazilian partners here at the Mission house. We are anxious to re-connect and hear how everyone is doing after our 2-month absence.

Good news---we have our Identity Cards! They expire in a couple months and were late, but this is the first time in our 6 years here that we have managed to receive them! PTL!

The above photo of us and Tom was taken at a supporting church's Sunday School class our last Sunday in the States. They are studying the book, "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, a book we highly recommend. We have used this book as part of the training of short-term mission teams. We were asked to give some first-hand perspectives on how some of these principles apply here in Brazil.

Please pray for fruit that remains as we begin the work that He has prepared for us to do here in 2012!

Blessings,

Diane

Jumping Into Life with the Family of God!

We've all heard the old saying about having guests stay in your home…. “Like fish, they begin to smell after three days.” Diane and I have had numerous opportunities these last few years to stay in people’s homes and become involved in their lives when we are in the states. Currently, we have been in the states for about 2 months to raise support and attend our tri-annual mission training. We have needed places to stay along the way…more than three days! It has been wonderful how God has helped us to make it work!

In November we arrived at the doorsteps of our generous friends in Des Moines, Jeff and Bernie. We arrived right before the Christmas season and we needed housing for almost 3 weeks---not three days! Maybe they wondered if we were going to “smell like fish after three days?!” They already had a dear friend of theirs, “Lynne” staying full-time in their home after losing her dear husband in an auto accident. It was wonderful to spend time together, pray together and encourage one another.

Once again God worked in amazing ways and took what could have been a tense situation and made a huge blessing out of it! The 5 of us became like family. We laughed together, cried together and sought the Lord together. Jeff and Bernie were busy practicing for a Christmas program and all the other holiday activities that come with this joyful season. There was a lot of hustle and bustle as we celebrated Jesus’ birthday!

When the 3 weeks were over we huddled together like a family parting ways. We had a few tears, shared a few gifts and hugged like dear sisters and brothers. How good is our God!

The next time you have an opportunity to house somebody or a need to be housed, and you’re looking at more than just a few days, take a chance on God’s family and dive in. It might not be such a fishy experience!

Thank you Jeff and Bernie, you are amazing!

Serving together,

Jeff

God's Workmanship

Jeff has the honor of baptizing a dear brother-in-Christ!

Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

A week ago we traveled back to the United States as we have our tri-annual ReachGlObal training in January. As well, we need to raise additional support to continue our work in Brazil for 2012.

Traveling back to the States and visiting fellow believers always gives Jeff and I an awesome perspective of the body-of-Christ at work. While each church and ministry are all working in their own distinct way, using their unique gifting, we see one commonality---Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. We see the body striving to do good works, resulting from the love that flows from the greatest sacrifice of all, the death of Jesus on the cross.

It's wonderful to see the body at work, and greatly encourages and refreshes us to return to Brazil, to the work that God has called us to.

While we've been here only 9 days, we've seen the body-of-Christ working in so many diverse ways!

• A supporting church is at work to fight poverty.
• Another is making a strong stand against abortion.
  
• A family is moving across the states to become involved full-time in worldwide crisis relief.
• A christian couple is counseling couples in a marriage mentoring ministry.
  
• Brothers- and sisters-in-Christ are going on short-term mission trips to share Christ.
• People are praying, supporting and encouraging their missionaries

For us personally, one of the highlights was when Jeff had the honor of baptizing Grant. Grant is a devoted member at one of our supporting churches. Last year God tugged on Grant's heart to join a team going to serve alongside of us in Rio. God used the trip to encourage and grow Grant in his walk with the Lord. This culminated with Grant's desire to be baptized (he was baptized as an infant). To know that we had a little part of God moving in Grant's life is so encouraging as to why God has placed us 6,000 miles away from our family and friends in Rio de Janeiro.

We've seen so many good works, after only 9 days! Truly, we are created in the image of Christ, as we have seen his love shine through his people! We have seen the character of Christ demonstrated through the lives and work of so many people!

We look forward to how we will see God at work through the rest of our visit here to the States!

Serving together,

Diane and Jeff