Dear Prayer Team

Dear Prayer Team,

Greetings from the rain forest of Brazil!! Well...we are not exactly in the rain forest, but it is raining, and where we live, there are lots of trees, wild birds such as parrots, toucans, small squirrels, and last week, we saw a wild monkey running in the middle of the divided highway! We have been here in Brazil for over a month now, and we are still trying to get adjusted to the differences between here and the States. But we love it!! People are getting saved, being discipled, and it is wonderful to see the results of changed lives.

PRAISE ITEM

WE HAVE INTERNET IN OUR HOME!!! Since it was quite the process to get it here, we are all very excited!!! The desire of our hearts is to stay in better touch now that we don't have to go somewhere else to write our letters. If you want to contact us by e-mail, we should be able to answer our letters more quickly now.

PEOPLE

Continue to pray for our new convert, Adam, and family. They are doing well, but have had some sickness and have missed church. This past Sunday they were not in the service. Pray also for Guilherme, a man who was saved as a result of the special couple's banquet we had recently. Not only did he receive Christ as Savior, he also made the decision to restore his marriage with Ivonete! We are all very excited for them! They decided to go on a "honeymoon" and guess where they went? Back to the city where we formerly worked--Maceio in the stat of Alagoas! We can understand their desire to go there, since it is truly a beautiful city. Pray also for the Bible study that we are participating in, which has been a blessing. There are four couples who are involved. One of the things we are all working at is setting aside a specific time to spend with the Lord each day. One of the couples admitted that they did the entire lesson Sunday afternoon right before the study. We were so thankful for their honesty and openness! Pray that God will honor Odair and Miquele, and that soon they will be having faithful daily devotions. Another part of our study is memorizing key passages of Scripture. This has been a challenge, not only for the new converts, but also for us "old converts!"

CONSTRUCTION

As you know, construction has always been something that John has enjoyed in the ministry here in Brazil. It seems that not much has changed, since last week, he had a total of three constructions going all at once...the roof being put on the church auditorium, an upstairs storage/classroom, and also a garage for our van. Between the three of them, John's wheels were running most of the day! In the U.S., we didn't have to charge up his battery all that often, but now, he is on "E" (empty) every other night!! He continues to do what he did before...buying construction materials in different places and giving out the Gospel as he goes from store to store. The people of the church were surprised when he wanted 60 invitations to the special event we have planned for this coming Saturday night--which is called "Corn Fest" (details below). Yesterday I noticed that there were very few invitations left in the glove compartment of the car. He has invited so many people!! But continue to remember to pray for the constructions that we have going on...especially the covering of the church auditorium. We are now meeting in the fellowship room beside the kitchen, and it is pretty full in our main weekly meetings on Sunday nights (attendance has been in the lower 60's).

SPECIAL EVENT

As we mentioned, we are planning a special evening this coming Saturday here on the church property. Harvest is over, and the celebrations throughout Brazil begin. There are typically three major festivals, St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Anthony which are commemorated by having a bonfire, shooting off fireworks, and eating traditional foods made of corn (corn bread, corn pudding, roasted ears of corn, corn cake, popcorn...on and on the list goes). We have waited until the end of the public happenings to do ours and are calling ours not a Saint Day, but a Corn Fest. Since we have plenty of space, we are able to do this for the community and it has become a big annual event. Our goal has been to invite only unbelievers, since the purpose is to reach the unsaved with the Gospel. John has been asked to speak, and we are expecting at least 100 people to come. We are asking that you pray with us that the rain will stop, and that many will accept Christ as Savior through this ministry this coming Saturday evening.

HEALTH

Thank you for your prayers for John's health. He has done very well--minor difficulties only, and we are very grateful to the Lord for the way He has answered our petitions. Otherwise, we are doing fine...Jeanne had a 2-3 day flu last week, but is doing fine now. She is at the moment helping build a bench, since we are planning to have lots of extra people on Saturday night. Please pray for Josh who is having hip surgery in Iowa City today. After having gone to the doctor for a checkup/x-rays, it was discovered that there were several areas of his hip that were not getting proper blood flow, and for this reason, it did not heal correctly. Pray that this surgery will be successful, as the only other option after this would be total hip replacement. We are also requesting prayer for the church people. Many have had a harsh flu, and some have even had to go to the hospital, as did Adriano yesterday.

Where would we be without our prayer team? Probably not here in Brazil, and we are grateful to you for your support. THANK YOU!!!

Working together for Christ,

John and Bev Leonard