Beauty Day at the church went great this last month. Sarah went all out decorating and the women all had a good time getting their nails done, massages and make-up. It was neat having Sarah's mom and sister here to help out with that day (along with helping out with the baby for a month). The speaker at the event was great and a sister of one of the church members here is already planning a beauty day at their church for this month! She came and helped out with nails and then asked to borrow all of the supplies and decorations.
This month I was able to preach at our church once and it seemed to go well. The same weekend I also spoke at a Friday night end of the season event for Upward basketball at one of the missionary's churches. I had a good time doing that. Sunday school has also been exciting this month as a couple new missionaries have arrived on the field and have been participating. We had 12 in our class on Sunday and we have seen how Paul starts putting the theology he taught in Romans 1-11 into practice in chapters 12-16. God has used the study of Romans greatly in my life in the area of theology and practicality. I continue to be more and more convicted of my great pride and grateful for God's great grace! This past month I was also able to start a study on God's will with one of the SS class members. It has been a great time of one-on-one study and accountability and it is neat to see both of us grow through the study. Next week I will be leading a youth group service on Saturday afternoon and then will be preaching again the following Sunday (15th), and may have a chance to visit an indian village a couple hours from here.
The past few days I have been at a conference called Good Soil; Evangelism and Discipleship. I have now taken the course in English and Portuguese and I get more excited about it each time. Have you ever wondered why there are people out there who make professions of Christ, but you never see their life bearing any fruit? This course tells you why as well as gives you tools that will till the ground to allow for good soil when planting seeds. If this sounds like a commercial, it is because it is. haha. I love this material and thing that every Christian should be familiar with it. For more, email me or go to www.goodsoil.com
My English class with Juarez kind of turned into a Bible study a couple of weeks ago. Please pray that it continues that way!
We also just bought our tickets to go to the Amazon for December 7th! Pray for us as we know that it will be a big adjustment! I will be honest that I am a little more nervous now. In 2005, I joined ABWE as a single missionary headed to the Amazon; in December of 2006, Sarah joined up with me to head there. I was a little more nervous with a wife, but confident we will be fine. Now when Evelyn came along, it is a whole other story raising a baby there. I say that so that you will know a little more how to pray for us during this time. I think that the key word is adjustment. We certainly know that the Lord is with us and are excited about the missionaries we will be with who have adjusted well and have had plenty of tips for us.
Thanks so much for your love and prayers! They mean so much to us! All for HIS glory, David, Sarah and Evelyn
Evelyn is doing great and Sarah is the best mom ever. We recently started posting videos for our family to see Evelyn using a flip channel, which is basically a program for the video camera we bought. As soon as we upload new videos to the channel, an email is sent to those on the list. I did not want to put the whole update list on it because it would get annoying to some of you getting these emails 2-3 times a week, but if you are interested in having access to these 30 second to 2 minute videos of mainly Evelyn doing everyday normal stuff, let me know and I will add you to the list. If you just want to see a couple videos, I have posted a few videos on youtube and facebook and you can follow the link below to see them. I will also continue to post my favorites there.
New Baby
September 21st, 2009 -
Evelyn Grace Carrel: Born on September 20, 2009 at 8:30 AM
weighing 3.23 kilos which I think is 7.1 pounds and 49 centimeters which is 22
inches. She has a full set of hair and has been healthy so far. Sarah is doing
fine after a natural birth, just sorer than she has ever been before. Her hair
color is light brown and her eyes are blue, but apparently those things can
change after a while. I will be posting pictures on our website and on facebook
for those who want to see our first family picture with Evelyn and other cute
shots. I also wrote about the whole experience on my blog.
Bits August
September 1st, 2009 -
Ola from sunny Brazil. At least it has been sunny the last few days, which has been a great contrast to the winter and cold here (which I was trying to flee from when I came to Brazil). Hopefully it stays warm. Of course Sarah has been reminding me to enjoy the cooler weather cause starting in December, we will not see cool weather for three years. Speaking of December; we are planning on heading to the Amazon in early December. Our field council there has suggested that we do an orientation in another town, Sao Paolo de Olivenca, which is up river a bit from where our ministry base will be (Santo Antonio do Ica). So we will go to SPO for several months to receive training from some veteran missionaries (Al and Kim Yoder) who have solid ministries in youth ministry, camp ministry, counseling and several other areas. We are excited about the knowledge that we will be able to receive from them during this time. Al and Kim were the first missionary couple from Brazil that we met when my dad took us to the Amazon in 1993. He helped us get our Visas at the border (we had flown to the border of Brazil despite having our visas rejected in the states, you can't do that nowadays). Al also has an airplane ministry, but I don't think that he can train me on flying during that time. haha So we graduated from language school last Friday and had finished classes the Friday before that. It is crazy how time flies. We now sarcastically say that we are fluent in Portuguese because we graduated. There is still so much to learn that will come with time spent with Brazilians. Please pray that we will constantly be in contact with Brazilians that will increase our Portuguese as well as that we will be influenced and be influencing each other to live more godly lives. Sarah is still going strong with the women's Bible study. They are hoping to finish up the Story of Hope this Friday. The ladies are so excited about starting up another Beth Moore study. It has been neat to see their progress in learning the Bible and I am even more excited about seeing Sarah mature so much as she depends on God weekly to be able to teach these ladies. Almost every week she comes home with tough questions that had come up during the study. She then researches those questions and goes back prepared to answer. This has also helped both of us understand more about what we believe and why we believe it. Sarah is also starting another study in just a few minutes with a couple other young ladies using an English women's practical theology book. She worked on translating the ideas from it this past week. Pray that study really grows the young ladies and that more join as well! Thank you for your prayers in preaching this past month. I know that helped so much and now we are using the same sermon for our English Bible study on Sunday mornings. This past week we had 9 in the class and some very good discussion. It has been neat to see them grow. I am also doing a men's study in about an hour going over Isaiah. We should finish that soon and hopefully start something else. Well, the next update should be telling you that Evelyn has arrived! I just looked at the moon and it is almost full, but the due date is not until the 25th. We will keep you all updated! Thanks so much for your prayers and support! This last month ABWE had me do a review of the committed supporters and what was actually coming in and the new support we have is 19 dollars over-supported! Praise the Lord for His provisions. As Dr. Kemp (our college Bible professor) always said in Truths that are Timeless and Universal and we have seen all over our study of Romans, God is Sovereign! We find great comfort in that. All for HIS glory, David and Sarah Carrel
Bits from Brazil
July 31st, 2009 -
Three more weeks and we are done with our formal Portuguese training and will graduate (hopefully) from Language school. Pray for us as we have a few more big assignments and then as we give our testimonies for our graduation. We are both excited and nervous for this time. Pray with us that we will still continue to learn the language as there are still plenty of things that we do not understand and people still have to have plenty of patience as they listen to us. On top of that, we still hear that we are not from around here almost every day. So now, sometimes I just try to tell people that I am from Acre, Brazil, which is a state that has pretty much nobody in it (kinda like North Dakota). I then say, "well, have you ever met anyone from Acre? Then how would you know what their accent is like?" (I do eventually tell them the truth).
This month I had the opportunity to preach twice in Portuguese at our church. I really did not feel too comfortable preaching in Portuguese and pretty much read the messages that I had prepared and had someone help me edit beforehand. At this point I am nervous about the people being distracted by my accent. So pray that I can have more confidence and that God would be able to speak effectively through me for His glory. I preach again on the 23rd of August on Romans chapter 9, which is a difficult text to preach in English, much less another language. Another speaking opportunity I had several times this month was on Skype. My good friend Nathan Sloan was doing camps in South Carolina this past month and for 3-4 weeks in a row, he called me with our webcams hooked up and I was able to answer questions and talk about being a missionary. A couple days ago he told me that as a result of one of those times one young man had decided to be a missionary! Now, I am sure there was a lot more influence in this young man's life then just 5-10 minutes on Skype, but praise the Lord that God can use this technology and us in the US even while overseas!
Last night I was able to give a short challenge to a group of basketball players at a coworker's church nearby. I play basketball and then soccer every once in a while on Thursday nights there. I talked about the big war and little battles that we are in on this earth. There are several unchurched young men that were there. Sport's ministry is probably the most effective ministry in churches here in Brazil. Pray that we would be involved in the proper ministries. There is a possibility of doing another tournament this month or next. Pray that we are able to get the proper things together. Also, continue to pray that we can make contacts here for the church.
Living in a different country definitely has its ups and downs. This month we had our electric turned off because we didn't pay our bill! Imagine, they do that in other countries too. haha. It was due to a misunderstanding on my part (it was my fault, I never put the electric in my name), and is ultimately due to my language deficiencies. Yesterday it took us a while to get home because of my lack in sense of direction and the road system that they have here where it is so tough to turn around. So at times things get frustrating. There are times we miss our family (really all the time, but sometimes the feeling gets really strong). I am not trying to complain here, just showing you all how much we need and covet you all's prayers. Thanks so much for your prayers and your love! We feel it so often and we know that is what keeps us going! We love you all. All for HIS glory, David and Sarah
Baby update: We checked out the hospital yesterday and it looks pretty nice. I don't know if they do this in the US, but Sarah will go to 5 different rooms while she is in the hospital. I found that interesting; one for a check up, another waiting, another to give birth and then another in recuperation, and then off to the room to stay for a couple days. The baby is 15 inches long right now and 3 and a half pounds and she thoroughly enjoys exercising, especially in the evening.
Bits June
June 30th, 2009 -
5 down, 1 to go. We can't believe it, but we finished our fifth session of language school last week and we only have six more weeks of class! Sarah keeps telling everyone that she feels like she needs another year of class. And she has a great point to that as there are still so many concepts we have not fully grasped and there are so many times when we do not understand. But then I look at how far we have come, and I am very encouraged. We can pretty much communicate to everyone and whether it is the easiest way to say it or not, we generally get our point across. However we still hear the same thing this Yankee heard all the time in school in the south: "you ain't from around here, are you?" I guess college prepared me to hear it even more here in Brazil. Oh well. Another ten years in Brazil and they may not be saying that anymore.
Sarah started the Story of Hope with the ladies Bible study this last month and although a few of them were hesitant to study a basic book, they are all really glad they are going through it. A few of the ladies go back to the states for the month of July and so they are breaking for this month, but then they will be back in August going through the New Testament stories and then take a look at the Bridge to Life, which is the back of the Story of Hope that explains what the Bible says about God, Man, Sin, Death, Christ, Cross, Faith, Life and how the decision to believe what the Bible says results in salvation. So often I think that we get into studying passages and stories and forget to look at God's overall plan of redemption which involves the whole story of the Bible. When you study the Bible chronologically with a focus on those things, you see God's Sovereign control and His brilliant plan for salvation!
I have stayed busy studying for Sunday school each week in which we are going through Romans, as well as doing a Men's study through Isaiah. I have not studied the prophets that much in my life and I have learned a lot from Isaiah. This next month pray for me as I will be preaching in Portuguese on July 12 and 26. The first time will be over Romans 7:1-12 and the second over Romans 8:1-17. Romans is so deep and requires quite a bit of studying, so pray that I will be able to communicate God's message through Paul to the Romans in a culturally relevant way to the Brazilians here! I am excited and nervous about the opportunity as we can never take lightly the preaching of God's Word.
Also, please pray for the church down here as we seek to reach out. The people that we are trying to reach are a really tough group to try to reach. Despite hard work in numerous outreach events, we have had few people show up. The people here work a lot and then spend time with family on the weekends and so there is really little time that they want to spend at a church. Pray that God will do a work in their hearts so that they will be more open to the gospel.
Thank you to those who heard about me having issues of my back and prayed for me. I would not consider it too serious now thanks to your prayers. Please pray that it will heal completely so that I can be my normal active self again. I miss playing soccer. ha. Also, our move went well and we are settled into our new apartment! I will leave the address below for those who need it. Thank you for all your faithful prayers and support. We are so blessed to have so many friends! God bless. All for HIS glory, David and Sarah Carrel
Baby Update: Evelyn is moving all around now and has definitely grown. Sarah has been very healthy and we are looking forward to the end of September!
Address: Costa Rica 17/701 Bloc A Jardim Lindoia, POA, RS 91050-210, Brazil
Bits May
June 2nd, 2009 -
We had another couple join our Sunday School class this past month and they have been contributing greatly! They have also both started attending the men's and women's Bible study.
Sarah has started going through The Story of Hope with the ladies Bible study. Each week brings a different set of challenging questions. Pray for her to have wisdom in her answers.
Thank you for your prayers for the soccer tournament. It did not exactly go as I dreamed it would go, but we did accomplish our main purpose, which was getting the gospel out. It rained on Saturday and I initially canceled the tournament, but then ended up having it with three teams (three guys who thought they were weather forecasters convinced me to have it). We did have one young man interested in starting to attend our Thursday night Bible study. Pray he comes! You can read more about it at my blog, if you would like. I have also made some contacts with some more players and we are looking into having another tournament in a nearby town.
A couple of months ago I had mentioned about my grandfather being sick. He was able to say goodbye to many people, give advice to many people, before he had a rough few days last week and passed away on Sunday afternoon. I was able to see him on Skype a couple of times after he had been sent to his home for home care the last couple of months. Please pray especially for my grandma and aunts at this time, as well as some family and friends that are traveling to be there for the funeral.
We have also been asking for prayer in getting an apartment here. We have found one, negotiated a price, and are just working on the documents we need in order to rent the apartment. Pray that the process goes quickly and smoothly!
All for HIS glory, David and Sarah
Baby Update: And the name is.... Evelyn Grace. I still don't have a belly cause of the baby, but Sarah's is starting to grow.
Bits April
April 29th, 2009 -
A month ago we were anticipating the arrival of my brother to film and make a video for the missionaries here. As soon as he arrived, we were off running. For two weeks I got to hang out with Phil, talk to him about life, see different cultural aspects of Brazil and wear myself out. It was great. There have been so many times that I have wanted to brag about my family here in these updates, but I have refrained, but let me just say that Phil does a good job with films and if you ever need a film done, he is the man for it. The missionaries here were very happy with the outcome of the trip, Phil enjoyed seeing this part of the country, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time talking to Phil about all kinds of things. I shared with him that I can be in ministry trying to lead others into a closer relationship with Christ, but if I am not having a positive impact on my family as well, it will be worth nothing to me in the end. On this trip, Phil and I were both able to challenge each other spiritually, probably with him challenging me quite a bit more. Thank you all for your prayers for his safety.
Sarah's Bible study has been going well. Each week the ladies bring up more and more tough topics (So on Monday mornings from 10 est to 1, be praying for wisdom for her). Sarah has really been challenged spiritually during this time and it has been neat to see her really grow. She has never led a study like this before and especially with a majority of them being unbelievers, she has had to think through quite a bit. The ladies are enjoying it though and they are already planning their next study. (By the way, Sarah's pregnancy is going well, there is an update on the PS).
I am really excited about planning a soccer tournament here. I have mentioned before that I play soccer with some of the kids in the area on Sunday afternoons. I have wanted to figure out a way to reach them more and after attending a tournament at a church this month, I thought that it would be just the thing. So I asked some friends here if they would help me run it and they loved the idea. Then I asked the guys I play with if they thought it would work out and they said it would; so probably some Saturday this month we are going to have it. I am going to have a Brazilian give their testimony and then invite them to study the Story of Hope as well. I do not believe that many of them have much, if any, spiritual background. Please pray that the tournament goes well and that God's name will be glorified.
Another opportunity this month has to do with videos. I am almost finished with the Story of Hope, in video form, on youtube and facebook. It has taken quite a bit of time, but I think it has been worth it. There is another missionary here who uses the Story of Hope all the time; in fact, he has helped out with the training for it at the home office, as well as having a part in its development (the materials, not the actually story, God mainly worked that out). Shane talked to me about making Story of Hope videos in Portuguese to post online. I am pretty excited about that as I think that Brazilians would find it a little cooler than the Americans have. haha.
One other prayer request has to do with housing here. We need to find another place to live from July until November/December as there is another couple arriving here that has three kids and needs this house. So we need to find a place that is furnished that we can live in for that short period. Please pray that something will work out. Well, thank you all for your prayers. We cannot make it here without them. Sarah mentioned last week about the peace she has had with being here and I am sure that has a lot to do with the many heartfelt prayers that have been offered on our behalf. Please know that they do not go unappreciated.
All for HIS glory, David and Sarah
Baby Update: Sarah felt the baby!! She said it was really cool and that it was like a little flutter. I was pretty mad and jealous cause I could not feel it. She said it would be a while before I could feel it, but a couple days ago, I just happened to have my arm across her belly when the baby kicked or something. Sarah said, "Did you feel that; that was the baby." And I wasn't even trying to feel it! Very cool indeed. In a week and a half we have the next doctor's appointment and the doctor will give us a go on getting an ultrasound in which we will find out the sex of the baby. Despite not knowing that yet, we still received our first gifts for the baby. A neutral yellow outfit with lambs on it from the Brazilian couple in our church who just received Christ right after we arrived here!
