Begun in Faith

When I first met Pastor Ericléia, she was three months pregnant with Alice. We had to push back their initial interview to become the pastors of the Anapolis team because she went into labor. Celebrating precious Alice’s birthday always brings back memories of that time. The first two years of her life were with a team of missionaries and the second two years were in a pandemic. And every day with her is an adventure. Last year her birthday was Pocoyo themed and this year was PJ Masks. Ericleia is trying to get her to like Alice in Wonderland enough to do a themed birthday someday, but that’s kind of a hard sell for a small child. It’s hard to top super heroes in pajamas. Preparing for the party was especially fun because Alice was so excited for it. She saw all the red, green, and blue things coming together and she knew it was for her. She already loves any party, but birthday parties are the best, and this time she got to actually be Owlet, the best super hero of the mall. The o

                Pastors Marcos, Ericléia, and I are all taking seminary classes online through the Brazilian seminary (STNB). It’s a great program because you just take one class per month, except that means we have finals week every month. This month, finals landed on Brazilian Valentine’s Day, which is June 12 th . Obviously, it’s not actually Valentine’s Day, because I think Valentine’s Day has to do with St. Valentine and the Catholic calendar, but June 12 th is Dia dos Namorados, roughly translated Couples’ Day or Brazilian Valentine’s Day. We wanted to do a couples’ event at the church the day before, but with all of us needing to study, we wanted to do something simple. And then our leaders stepped up in ways they never have before. Something’s been happening in them, and me, over the past few weeks. It’s been so encouraging to see them respond to God and each other in new ways. We handed over a lot of the decorating and menu planning to the church leaders, and it was quite th