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