Robert and MaryJo Foster- EE Brazil Update

Well, how about a few minutes of breaking, good news? Last month from Brazil, I asked you to pray for our activities there. A lot happened as a result. For example, we were able to advance the project of the videos that need to be filmed, by talking with the young university student who had offered to help. The scripts were finished and a schedule was established. There were many meetings with EE leaders about current projects.

Much of my time in Sao Paulo was spent making various contacts. Here are three highlights:
We visited with pastors and EE leaders of a church that has hosted past clinics about an idea of mine as to how that church could partner with us in a new way, holding what we call a "missionary clinic" in another state/region where we do not currently have a church using EE training. A missionary clinic is not for missionaries. Rather, it operates as a short term missions project.

One Sunday, I visited one of the larger Baptist churches in the capital in order to meet the pastor and to learn a little about the church. This resulted in a meeting with the pastor later in the week. He has been at the church about 9 months and told us: "I want EE in my church!" From there we discussed/shared how to bring this about.
One day while working in the EE office, we received a call from a pastor in the city of Salvador. He asked if he and an associate pastor could meet with us in Sao Paulo the next day. So, the next day we listened to him tell of his desire to train his churchʼs 2,000 cell group leaders by November of this year, in order to reach a large group of people by year's end. He told us that his church's total weekend attendance in five services is now 8,000 and that he is dreaming of having 10,000. Needless to say, he got our attention!
Here is some background on that last contact: In 1999, we held a leadership training clinic in a Brazilian church in Pompano Beach, FL. Both the pastor and his associate from Salvador were clinicians that week, as they were living and pastoring in the area at that time. As we visited and discovered this, it was an important "it's a small world" moment.

Recently, as the pastor began to have a vision for training his cell group leaders, he remembered the training he received in 1999. For this reason, he traveled to Sao Paulo to talk with us. We listened, assured him of our desire to work with him and the church and mentioned our new Workshop.

The next day we talked with other members of our team and were urged to travel to Salvador and work out the details of the Workshop. A few days later we found ourselves riding to the church in the car of the associate pastor, as he pointed to a large favela (shantytown) there in Salvador. He told us, "We have 400 cell groups in that favela."

We learned that the church is 126 years old, making it the oldest Baptist church in Brazil. And, in the next 24 hours, we worked through most of the details of holding the training at their church. To be able to train 2,000 leaders of the church is obviously an incredible opportunity AND challenge for EE-Brazil.

Well, we are still working on a date for the Workshop, as the initial suggestion for October was met with some conflicts in calendars. We are now trying to nail down dates in November.

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING so fervently for this trip! As you have just read, the Lord heard and answered. Now, I ask you to pray for the follow-up on these opportunities, especially for this training in Salvador.

One closing bit of news about our family: We spent this past weekend with Brian and Taunya who are expecting their first child in January. They are expecting a boy, our first grandson. Needless to say, we are very excited for them. Please pray for the remaining months of Taunya's pregnancy and all of their preparations.

Thank you for holding us up in prayer! Finances, both personal and ministry funds, continue to be a serious matter for prayer. We remain very grateful to those who support us in this way and welcome others to become financial partners with us, too.**

And, let's pray fervently for our country at this momentous time in history and for displaced Galveston and Houston residents!

Blessings,

Robert & Mary Jo
EE-Brazil

Beach Clubs Kickoff

I wanted to give you our first Beach Club Report this year! It was a great week!

We kicked off 10 clubs!

Clubs: 10
Kids: 446
Leaders: 38 (actual is almost 80)
Total: 484
Professions of Faith: 5

Talk about Miracle Moments!!! I can’t wait to see what God does this week as we kick off our 11th club, Bear Creek!

Privileged to serve,

Tammy Terrell

Chinese Bibles Unpdate- Mandarin Gospel of John at Summer Olympics

Copies of the Gospel of John, using the new Mandarin Chinese Standard Bible (CSB) translation, were given out as gifts at the summer Olympics in Beijing. The CSB New Testament is the most accurate translation of God's Word in everyday language and will be a true source of encouragement for those who have struggled to understand outdated Chinese translations. The CSB translation of the Gospel of John has already won critical acclaim by Chinese Christians all over the world.

Hope and Help International- Ministry Report

BLESSINGS AMID BURDENS

Everyone loves blessings but human nature tends to shun burdens. However, it is often out of
burdensome situations that the greatest blessings arise. This is the case with our partners in
India.

Kukil is one of Hope and Help’s Timothy Leadership Institute students from the state of Assam. Sadly just two weeks after he had finished the second year of his TLI studies in May, 2008 his
precious wife died of breast cancer, leaving him with two young children to raise and his wife’s ailing mother to take care of. In spite of the challenges he his facing right now, he is still faithful
in God’s service.

Kukil just returned from visiting an isolated village for the first time. During his seven day stay he was able to share the Gospel with many people and four of them trusted Christ as Savior. Praise the Lord! Since the village is so isolated and poor, Kukil did not have good food or water
and he became very ill as he traveled back home. When he finally arrived home he found out that both of his children had contracted viral fever. Please be in prayer for this father and minister of the Gospel.

Since Kukil is too sick to return right now, our partner Avinash has spent the last week in this village doing follow-up work. In a report sent to us just today, this is what he says:

“The village has a major problem of alcoholism. All of the men work in farming in which they get only about $1 a day. Children and the women have a problem of malnutrition. We have a great great opportunity to serve them. Because they lack money they push their children in a very young age to work; they have no future. The government has help for them but on the way to those who need it, it is taken by the people in authority. We can be the hands and feet of our LORD to them in the mission of God. When we were there our eyes were opened and we wished we could have some more equipment to help them to know our Lord. I have now a laptop computer in which I showed them The Jesus Film and Passion of the Christ but very few of them could see the screen. I wish I had a projector; you know a big crowed turned out to see the films. All of them are hindus, but soon many of them will follow our LORD!”

Please pray for this village and for Avinash and Kukil as they continue to minister. The village
is open to the message of the Gospel. What a great encouragement to Kukul to have a hand in
taking the Good News to this unevangelized village during a year that has been such a challenge
and filled with sadness.