Dear supporters and praying friends,

“Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;”
Ephesians 6:6

Hello! We greet you with the love of Christ. This year we have set our goal to develop our relationship more
intimately with our precious Savior and Lord. We hope this letter finds you doing well and that you have a
similar goal for this year.

As the year 2019 began, we decided to challenge our deaf attendees to learn how to serve in the church. In
January, we started with them bringing food for fellowships after Bible study and cleaning the deaf room on
Wednesdays. They seemed to enjoy taking turns bringing food and drinks, as well as helping clean the room. In
February, we encouraged some of them to lead songs in the Bible study on Wednesday nights and also to lead
in taking prayer requests. We praise the Lord for two men in the class being willing to lead the congregational
songs and the prayer requests. Since Portuguese is not their first language, they had a difficult time expressing
the song in Portuguese. We translated it into sign language to help them understand the meaning of the songs.
When we did this, we saw their eyes shine as they were enlightened and understood, and then they enjoyed
singing for the Lord. We are also continuing to work with one man who is learning how to express in sign
language the songs that praise our Lord and encourage the deaf to sing with joy and meaning. We are also
teaching the deaf how to worship the Lord in giving of themselves, not always coming to the Lord to get
something. Recently we have started giving them a verse each week to memorize and have also added the
books of the Bible for them to learn. It has been challenging for them, so please continue to pray for us in our
deaf ministry as we teach and for the deaf as they learn and grow spiritually.

In the month of March, we were excited to have our first special speaker from the USA, Bro. Bruce Kelly, a
deaf pastor from the Atlanta, Georgia area. He brought his friend, a deaf pastor named Carlos, who is from Rio
de Janiero in Brazil. We had a small group of deaf that attended the Friday night preaching, and a few deaf
responded to the message. After the service we had a fellowship and snack time. On Saturday, we had a drama,
special song, preaching, lunch, and a testimony. There were a total of 39 people that attended, 19 of which
were deaf. We had a great time. A good group of men came forward to rededicate their lives and get right with
the Lord. As we were closing the day with a group picture, a deaf couple with a baby showed up, thinking the
service had just begun! They joined us for fellowship and afterwards we were able to get their contact
information. We found out that they had ridden in an Uber car for 40 minutes to get to church! Please pray for
this new couple that needs
the Lord.

In Christ Alone,
Michael, Ruth,
Giovanna, and Roniya