Wednesday, June 28, 2023 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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All right, well good evening folks we're gonna be able to hear from our brother

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Jeff how one of our Missionaries and we support good to hear about what the

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Lord is doing in their lives and get an update on that and After Jeff shares with us, then we will go ahead and have our time of prayer

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Jeff if you want to go to about Ten till or five till and give a little bit opportunity for questions and so and then afterwards we'll have a time of prayer

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And that'll be the plan Okay. Well brother. Why don't you come on up here? It's always good to be back with sunny -siders and just seeing everyone again and And especially just this last year

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The Lord's really used you folks and we really appreciate your prayers for us.

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I came down with leukemia a

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Little over a year ago so we were We were back here on our furlough.

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We were thinking it's gonna be about one year This was in 2000

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About three years ago and And Adriana applied for her green card and that didn't come

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So we were delayed some but it finally came and we were thinking. All right now we're gonna now we're going back we're gonna continue on back to Brazil and And then

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I came down with leukemia and so it's been 10 about 10 months since I had the

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Stem cell transplant and I just want to just give a brief testimony of I've just you know what the

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Lord taught me and Laid on my heart during this this time during this last year here and I think if I could sum it all up And the verse it's on my mind that pretty much sums up my testimony of This past year going through treatment and the transplant is a well -known

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Verse should be I guess I know when I was a kid, but Romans 8 28

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Probably you kids probably know that verse you could you could quote it Romans 8 28 where it talks about it says all things work together for good to those who love

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God to those who are called according to his purpose and That is so true in my life and The verse the following verse goes on to say that that purpose is to conform us to Christ's image and So the

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Lord truly has used my sickness as part of conforming to his image and One thing that I experienced

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Was that it I had a renewed? First of all a renewed sense of of just God's people the love of God's people and how they

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Prayed your prayers all of you giving There were people there back in Washington, you know driving us to the clinic or Providing food, you know for our family when they you know, they'd stay home and You springing meals and stuff just all of that.

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It just gave me a renewed sense of you know, the family of God It's it's a wonderful thing.

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I know you all Experienced that here with each other it's a wonderful thing and it

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I You could see the love of Christ Demonstrated in so many so many lives.

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This is just as if Jesus was like giving me that taking me to the hospital, you know and Praying for me and bringing food for my family and Another thing is

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I Just That that verse that says teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom

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Just I was reminded again, you know of the brevity of life we don't know when God can take us but While it is today

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We we follow him and he's faithful he is so faithful to us even when we're when we slip up we're not as Faithful to him, but he's always faithful and just that working showing us his purpose

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For us even the hard times the trials his sickness It was for his purpose to conform me to the image of his son

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And he use he uses Every situation in our lives just in our daily lives.

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I was just reminded and it It may be more aware just in daily life simple things just to be aware that Jesus is walking beside me

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You know the presence of God Like that book brother Lawrence, I think way back in the 1800s that book practicing the presence of God and I have a devotional actually, you know based on that and yeah, it's just just that reminder just to be

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I Was I was drawn closer to God Also, and I remember in the past always seeing people that were going through trials and in sicknesses and how they would talk about you know that Just that presence that nearness of God to them and I remember always thinking

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I don't really want to go You know go through these trials, but what they're what they're talking about.

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It sounds good I mean it's like I want that I kind of want that and I was I Experienced that and so for that.

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I am very thankful to God and But it's you know, it's a constant

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I Wish that would that was it, you know, I'd be now

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I'm gonna be close to God you know forever, but That's not how it works

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God allowed that and it was a special time, but but daily, you know, I need to be

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Just presenting my body as a living sacrifice Because it's a battle it's

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The battle of a Christian's life. It's a battle we got a we have to keep

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Stay close to God and keep short accounts and Just walk in the light and that's something the

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Lord has taught me during the past year also Also just I Used to think you know,

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I was I never had a health problem before and I could work hard. I liked hard sweaty work

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And Then I got sick and it just I can't do it.

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I still Pretty, you know weak for like hard work But hopefully

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I'll be able to Pick that up a bit And get back back into it

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But you know the the Lord use that, you know just Dependence on him, you know, it's it's not your strength.

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It's mine Anyway, he can use somebody who's sick. He can use he can use anyone.

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It's because it's not us. Anyway, so I Was just reminded of that it also

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It's another thing that Lord just Brought to my heart during the past year of with leukemia in the treatment as far as plans for the future

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We do want to go back to Brazil. We have our tickets bought end of July and Originally, I was

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I was thinking, you know, what am I gonna be able to do? I think probably have to do another ministry I'm gonna go back to Brazil, but maybe help out at the school or something

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Because they were telling me, you know, you know transplant patients, you know, they're gonna they're gonna have some problem things.

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They can't do and So I was thinking well, I Guess maybe

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I'll do some some other ministry, which is fine. I was ready for that but then I started thinking, you know,

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I Had this plan the Lord had laid on our hearts that and the mission had invited us to start a work a new work

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On a different River. There's a team of missionaries. They're all new and Our mission leadership thought it said it'd be great if you could join this new work same people

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Kulina Kulina people just a different area, but it'd be great if you could join it and you know

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Cuz they're gonna need your help and experience and with the people because they're gonna be just learning the language so we were ready to do that and then you know, we were delayed and and I was thinking might not work to go go back to that ministry now, but You started thinking, you know

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The Lord had that for us and if he's he's

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Giving me back my health at least for now I'm gonna

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I'm gonna keep going with that with that goal to get back to the that new work and And especially because in my last visit there to that new work there was a man there that he

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He's he we were there to tell him that missionaries want we're gonna be joining their village and to be learning their language and teaching them and So they a guy came up to me later and he said

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We really do want missionaries. We want could you come back and because he said

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I'm a missionary He heard the gospel from another Kulina You know from way upriver where Wycliffe works

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Wycliffe Bible translators and So he said I'm a missionary, but I my knowledge of the

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Bible is so my faith is small. It's like a little child And he said

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I don't know much about God's talk. That's how they say, you know God's Word so we want missionaries to come to help us teach us more of God's Word and I Thought I Couldn't promise him because at that time

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I didn't know if we were gonna be moving there or not But I said, but for sure, you know, the mission wants to send missionaries.

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So you will have a have a missionary but I Always remember that and I have is I have the audio recorded so I listened to it again and again and So that's

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That's on my heart to go back To be able to teach that that man in his his village and Hopefully and prayerfully someday those guys will

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Will be spreading and he then he will be you know a true missionary if he he knows

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God's Word enough to To spread it to others in the gospel to his own people in his own language.

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He will have no problem Like I would in speaking the language so that's what is on my heart and So, yeah end of July July 30th, we should be flying from Seattle and August 1st we should arrive in Brazil the first six months.

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We will be helping out at the school there because I need to Kind of get established with the doctor there and in the town and kind of see how that goes with Continuing the treatment

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Which right now is for GVHD, which means graft versus host disease

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Which is very common for transplant patients the new cells kind of see the host cells as foreign like, you know, that wasn't the same as the host the person where they came from so it's like so they

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Start to attack the cells Which the doctors say is actually a good thing because you want the new cells to be finding bad stuff like cancer cells

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To fight it off But It also fights, you know, some of the host cells so and that can show up in the lungs the liver skin eyes

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In my case, it's in my eyes and I had a rash here on my chest so I have to take immune suppressants for that and Then the idea is to taper off So I I had tapered all the way off about a week and then

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I got the rash and the eye Problems so put me back on some more and I'm gonna have to taper off again

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And the doctor said probably After you're in Brazil, you'll start tapering off so I need to establish with the doctor there and See how that goes so we'll be helping out at the school there the mission school for missionaries children

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Near the capital city of Manaus I'll probably be working on maintenance maybe a

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Bible class or something And Adriana will probably be in the laundry

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Helping out with laundry maybe guest housing Cleaning up guest apartments and stuff like that and maybe some classes.

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I don't know So, yeah, we're we're excited about that and I just want to thank you all again for your prayers and It's I mean just incredible but The Lord taught me a lot through that Our children are ready and excited to go back to The two youngest

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Janissa and Braden They've been here three years in the States now. Well, you know to but Yeah, so they ever we had a really good school for them there in Washington Christian School and But they're they're excited to go back to and Braden and Janelle will be finishing their senior year back there at the school

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Janissa will be in seventh grade. I can't believe it And Sheldon is the oldest he's in Moody Aviation and Spokane, Washington so he's

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He's gonna get his privates pilots license in August, I guess So he's almost there for the private pilot license

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And then another year he'll have higher up levels Instrument rating and all that and He should finish in two years two more years

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Oh My dad also sends greetings to everyone. Yeah, we were just there a couple weeks ago and As you probably all heard he has congestive heart failure

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So he's been in the hospital a couple times, but currently he's at home I'm so David appreciate your prayers.

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And yeah, I don't know if you have any questions or no.

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Yes Well, I know what it used to look like But I I don't know what it's gonna look like now

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I mean in some senses I do but because I Mean, I haven't really been tested

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But I feel like I need to test, you know, see see what it is and how it's gonna how it's gonna work out

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Prayer I guess yeah Yeah We started with the cleaner work as a married couple in 2001

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And, you know, we were in the village one village we moved to another and This will be the third

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If it were, you know, if that's the Lord's will if it works out to go to this new village, it'll be the third village

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Third move so and we've also helped out at the school during those years for short time

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Get a little bit of a survey Okay, yeah,

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I could probably ask the Browns to they they probably know better than I do

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Yeah my dad was back on a furlough if I remember correctly and Another mission he's he was with back then.

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They called it new tribes mission. It's now ethnos 360 That's the mission agency that we belong with But a new tribes mission another new tribes missionary was scheduled to speak

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At a Air Force Base, right and But he wasn't able to so he called my dad they were they knew each other

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And asked if he could go there and take his place so he did and he met Jerry Brown and They corresponded and Then the next furlough,

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I think I think it was the next furlough the following furlough like four or five years later

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Jerry was stationed over here And tinker Air Force Base, I guess so and that's they were going to Sunnyside.

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So that's how we We my dad was invited to speak and and then from then on every every furlough, you know, we stopped by here and Got to know people and so yeah, that was when was that like 1970s

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Yeah Yes with ethnos my brothers at one point

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Almost all of us kids were on the mission field Yeah, my two brothers worked in Peru well they started in Brazil then they were in Peru Chris came back.

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He's working at the MTC missionary training center there and Missouri ethnos training center

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Brad is with front pioneer mission in Peru Beth was working at the school.

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She she came back several years ago Kerry and Roger were also working at the school there and they're back in,

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Minnesota Julie and Warren were We're in MAF and they they were in Brazil He was actually our pilot for a while And then later they moved to Mozambique and then

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Now they're back in Nampa, Idaho And oh, they also spent just they just now finished a year at the school and put a cake water kind of taking a little leave from from MAF but so that's what the family's doing and Yeah Well when

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I attended this school actually I there also and When I was there it was like there was like 80

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People like including staff students Now there's probably half of that Yeah, there's not as many students not as many mission organizations that are in Brazil now

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But the one good thing is that it kind of transitioned over more now they have

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Brazilian missionaries and their children are going there and they have the Brazilian curriculum and also the

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American curriculum and sometimes the the Brazilian parents will decide that their kids can do the

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American curriculum and they're learning English and So it's worked out really good

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Yeah, there's there's groups going down to do work projects If there's any teachers here they would really appreciate teachers

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No, I don't think no But the the Brazilian kids there they learn

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English, you know, because they're together with other English speaking kids and I know just Portuguese.

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Yeah in Brazil Portuguese Besides the tribe of there's tribal languages, but the official language is

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Brazil Portuguese Yes Yeah, ethnos 360 they they work with I Mean you have to start from zero like learn the language.

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It's a Long term ministry commitment learn the language and then learn the language and culture and start a church that hopefully and prayerfully is a church that can function on their own and so the missionaries can leave and know that you know, there's leadership there and But it's it's long long term

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And sometimes you don't see results right away No, that's it's good

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Well, my parents worked there for many years I Would say there's there's not really a there's not a self -sufficient

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Church among the coolinas yet But there's individuals now

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Individuals and they you know, they're they're families So, yeah, we want to see the

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We want to see the actual church community get started and and spread maybe we won't maybe we will see it, but Maybe it'll come behind us

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I Well Like I said that there isn't really a church yet and in the place where we're moving is it's a new work and I mean

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There's there's there's though that there are people there that say I'm I'm a missionary or I'm a pastor but they're kind of We don't know, you know the level of their knowledge

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They're saying they are pastors and missionaries and they're asking That's why

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I Really took it to heart because the man seemed very honest. He said I don't know.

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I'm my faith is small And I'm like a little child in my knowledge of God's Word and he said so we need missionaries somebody to come teach us more of God's Word, so That's in this new area, but there's other villages where We worked before We had the opportunity to give the chronological

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Starting in Genesis all the way through to the death burial and resurrection of Jesus to to a couple

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Adriana had had the the Bible study with the wife and I had the

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Bible study a little later with the husband and We are so happy to hear that they're

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They're meeting with the the cool enos in their village that we we left several years ago

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But you know meeting they had they have their group that they're meeting with and I guess he's teaching, you know

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As much as he knows, you know of God's Word to the to the people. So really thankful for that how

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God's grace, you know touch those lives and he's using those Davi and Andrea there

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Well, I grew up in Brazil and you know,

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I When I graduated from high school, I figured you know, I know the language

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I know the people and And I see you know that there's still a lot of work to be done

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God still can do a lot of a lot more and So I was you know challenged my heart to to return to the cool enos people because I figured you know, he's already given me some of the language and Just knowing the people and the culture in the area so I I you know,

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I returned to the cool enos and When I reach Yeah, yeah

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They they remember him Better yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah Yeah, when I when I was visiting this village, I had the opportunity this new village

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You know, I I Was speaking the language so they knew I was somebody, you know that had something to do with them and then

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I said I Dwayne Dwayne me Dwayne me son and then some of them some of the older guys.

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Oh, yeah Because he actually made a he made a trip to that to that River a long time ago but I never had but that was my first time but he had been there before so They knew about him

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Yeah, it's kind of a legend No, the cooling of people are

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They're pretty happy -go -lucky and then they don't get so involved in politics as some of the other tribes in that area

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No, no and yeah, so The population of the village that the new missionaries are going into is probably a hundred

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But there's other villages nearby Each about a hundred or less

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So I think there's like five or six villages just in that little area You know

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Less than an hour or about an hour apart by canoe

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Boat they have the

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New Testament. Yeah, they have the New Testament. It was just just printed Just finished about two years ago

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And they also have it on audio. In fact, we can even listen to it on the on the

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Internet And which we've been doing to try to keep the language in our mind

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Do you happen to know the gentleman's name that came to you? Yeah, Maudie M -A -O -R -I

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Yes pray for pray for Maudie and his His brother,

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I think it's his brother -in -law. He said was the pastor and He's the missionary

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It's it's his village is not the village where the new missionaries have started but it's a possibility still

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Because I think we're gonna we're gonna split our team into two groups. So we'll be in two different villages

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Yeah, also pray about there is some opposition, but it's not from the tribal people it's the government

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Indian agency Which they call Foon I Foon I is

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They they came in there and just a few months ago and The missionaries that were there the new couple they just built their house probably probably about a month before and They came in and they

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I don't know they told them They Made it sound like it wasn't that serious.

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I guess like God is just something you have to do, you know You need to you know, so they signed this paper which they weren't supposed to because Because the individual missionaries are not responsible.

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It's we're under an admission organization So it should have been the mission leadership and you know

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The lawyer and everyone that would would sign that or would look at it first but they signed the paper and the paper said that Saying that they had invaded protected land and You know, they had to get out in 30 days

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So The mission Ethnos in Brazil has a

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Lawyer that's he's working on their case now but you can pray about that that Because they said you're supposed to you're supposed to present yourself me before a foo and I Before you go in, you know, just kind of just present, you know, say

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Kind of tell us that you're going in, you know, but they didn't do that And so then they came and it said you have to get out but with prayer

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I think I think they'll be able to Resolve that and be able to go back in because For one thing it's false that it was invaded because we got permission

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They got the missionaries got permission from the people the people signed a document said we are inviting the missionaries to come all official and so We the missionaries were not invading the land, you know uninvited or anything

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But they were invited in there and also it's not protected land What the food

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I was probably referring to is that it's real close to a river That is protected land like only like anthropo people that study plants and you know, it's like a reserve

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And they're you know Amazon so But it's real close it's right right on the mouth of that river is the village

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So I think they thought they could try to put that in there and you know, this is protected land It's not it's

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Indian land, but it's not government, you know protected land Yes, unfortunately, yeah

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Yeah Well, but it was only one couple and the single guy there was another couple on the team that wasn't there at the time

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So they didn't sign the paper so it doesn't apply to them And it's only that village.

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So There's still a lot of other possibilities. I Think the Lord will work that out.