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Christmas Greetings!

Once again we come to the end of the year where we get to celebrate the coming of salvation in human form, Jesus Christ. We are celebrating our first Christmas back in Brazil with hot temperatures, fans, staying in the air conditioned car a little longer than normal, playing in the pool, and the minimum amount of clothes needed. We are truly grateful this Christmas for where we are, what we are doing and what God is going to do this coming year.

Looking at the picture on the right makes me marvel at the fact that the 3 people in the picture had no idea what God was preparing (in 2011) or what He had planned when we took the picture. Going through Experiencing God by Blackaby has reminded us that God is constantly at work. So many times we miss what He is doing because we are preoccupied with what we are working on. Once we join Him in what He is doing our life is completely changed.

The biggest change besides being in Brazil and working in church ministry again, is the news that we are expecting a baby at the end of May 2014. We want to thank everyone for their support and prayers since we announced it. We feel overwhelmed by how God uses friends and family to encourage and strengthen us through your stories, testimonies and words of affirmation. As many already know, the coming of a new little Warden is definitely a work of God. We had tried for 11 years to have another child, but after two miscarriages and many tears and questions, released our worries and cares upon Christ, to the point of getting rid of a lot of our baby stuff that we had left here in Brazil. When we found out through the tests and then through ultrasounds, tears once again streamed down our faces, but this time tears of joy!

When we look at the timing of this happening, we don’t understand why: no insurance for the delivery, starting from nothing with regards to baby things, small amount of financial resources, already being old(haha). But I have been reminded a lot these last couple months of Isaiah’s words (55:8,9 MSG) “I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.” God’s Decree. “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.” We are trusting that God’s timing is perfect and He is in control of what is going on.

The church continues to have new people show up every Sunday and we continue to grow. We will have another baptism this Sunday and look forward to more people taking the next step in their walk as a disciple of Christ. We see the Life Groups catching onto the idea of fellowship and living life together. After the end of the year we hope to have at least another 2 groups started.

Next year we will be having a marriage encounter (ALMA) here in Lagoa Santa in August. This ministry has had a great impact on the churches in São Paulo and we look forward to seeing how this can be used to bring more people to the realization of their need of Christ. Couples here are desperate for help in a country that cheating is normal and marriage is a temporary institution. Berenice and I will be co-leading with my parents and taking over of the ministry after my parents leave next year.

We definitely see the power of your prayers for Adam and his learning of Portuguese. In the past 2 months he has almost been a different kid interacting with people, not having to ask what is being said. Thank you for your faithfulness in this area. He is playing soccer and basketball, which we also asked prayer for.

Thank you for taking some time to read this. If you need to get away for vacation some time, we would love to have you with us for a while to see what is going on here.

Prayer	Praise:
o   Pregnancy	o   Adam’s Portuguese
o   Building project	o   Life Groups
o   ALMA	o   Church growth

With love, Jeremy, Berenice and Adam December/2013