With the many ministry responsibilities of these past months plus the complications of adapting to our new mailing service, updates have been way fewer than we would have liked.
Please know we are extremely grateful to those who continued to pray for us even without knowledge of specific needs. We are confident our Father knows what we need and will provide in response to His children's appeals.
Here is a brief summary of how God has helped us through your prayers since our last update telling about our trip to Bahia for the memorial of our dear colleague, Dick Buck. Current requests in bold type.
Fifteen 3 hour classes of Analysis of the Wisdom Literature were taught to 18 students, mostly pastors and church leaders. Four students from our church, three serving in evangelistic ministries and another interested in seeing how God would use him. These classes are over, students completing reading assignments until semester's end in June.
Three messages prepared and given by Lynda to the ladies of our church as a part of the Titus 2 initiative this first semester. Her topics were: Titus 2.3-5; Forgiveness; and Childrearing given to the entire group of ladies at the church. Every 15 days there were mentorship meetings in homes, having the privilege of hosting one week.
The second part of April and all of May were to be for medical exams as well as catchup and organize weeks. However, Lynda fell April 14, getting a hairline fracture in the radial bone of her left arm and four stitches in her head. Then May 6 she had emergency surgery for a strangulated umbilical hernia. Recovery and physical therapy have taken a toll on those hours for catch up!! Pray she can be patient and diligent as she works to build back up her strength and productivity.
Lynda continues her weekly discipleship counseling sessions with 4 ladies, one in ministry and mentoring of another who will be returning to the mission field next month.
New Challenges and Opportunities for Prayer
Friday morning early (5/13), Jerry will catch a flight to Salvador, Bahia where he will be meeting with the pastor of the Pituba church (where we attended during our language school days). They will be surveying plans the church has for finishing and equipping the rooms above their sanctuary designated for the Regular Baptist Seminary of Bahia. Funds have been set aside for this important phase.
Saturday morning (5/14) Jerry will travel with Pr. Marcos Perin two hours interior to the Bahia Regular Baptist pastor's meeting, where he will meet many of the current pastors serving in this region.
After the meeting, Jerry and Pr. Gilmar will travel another two hours further interior to the town of Itaberaba, where we served for 6 years in the early stages of the Hope Baptist Church. Pastor Gilmar has recently gone to serve this body of believers after they lost their pastor to Covid 19 in 2020. Though the church has struggled, their numbers dwindling, the encouraging news is that just two weeks ago 2 were baptized and several are desiring to become members were baptized. Jerry has been talking with Pr. Gilmar seeking to encourage him. He will also be surveying some major repairs needed to their roof. Praise the Lord, He has provided through your gifts enough for this project. He is looking forward to participating in Sunday School and evening church service, hopefully meeting with some members from our time there that are no longer attending this work.
Early Monday morning, (5/16) Jerry will fly back to Fortaleza. He has been reducing our Missionary Life classes (ordinarily a full semester on campus) to 15 segments of 50 minutes each and preparing to record for the online program starting this coming Monday afternoon May 16 with a goal of finishing by the end of May.
Monday evening, we will travel across town for Jerry to speak on Communication to couples in the church of one of his former students.
All these efforts need to be bathed in your prayers to the Father that His objectives would be accomplished in each instance, that Jerry would be an encouragement to all those he has contact with as well as safety, health and energy for this very full weekend.
Thank you for partnering with us through prayer!!
Contact info:
Facebook: Jerry Neuman & Lynda Neuman
Whatsapp: +558597804453 +558592206310
Cell phone: +5585992203266 +5585992206310
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