Here Comes the Bride and other news...

My poor blog has been quite abandoned recently.  Most of you follow me on Facebook or at least try to with all my posts in Portuguese (sorry about that haha).  So for those who don't already know, I am getting married on May 25th here in Brazil!  My future husband, Lucivan, is from this area and we have known each other for over 2 1/2 years. We are very excited with less than 3 months to go til the big day.  My parents and sister will be coming down to share in our joy and we couldn't be happier.  We got engaged back in July but our official engagement in front of the church was on February 2nd.  We decided to be a bit different and get engaged during the monthly youth/young adult service which was a packed house!  Here are a few pictures of the church engagement.

With wedding plans in full force, time is very precious.  Both of us are very involved in the church ministry here of discipleship and cell groups.  I have 4 disciples and a cell group in my house every week.  Lu has 5 disciples and 2 cell groups that he leads and supervises each week.  We have made a decision to really invest in the lives of these young people.  We are all so close that we act like a family with our disciples calling us "mom" and "dad" and we call them "daughter" and "son" and they call each other "brother" and "sister".  We made a commitment as a "family" to fast each Wednesday together for different purposes and to about once a month get together for a time of prayer and worship.  We know that this is what is going to make the difference in our lives, their lives and in the lives' of others around us.  Once we get married, we will be able to join forces to be even more effective in ministry.  We are praying for the Lord's direction as to His will for us but until then, we are here serving Him in this region.  Here are a few pictures of our "family"...

Part of the family :)

With my disciple Mari

With my disciple Renice

With my disciple Isabel

With an upcoming marriage, my expenses (ours actually) have gone up and will be going up more.  I would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining with us on a monthly basis in support or sending a one time gift to help us continue working in the lives of these young people and investing in our cell groups.  Thank you so much for your prayers and support throughout the years.  May the Lord bless each of you!

Address to send donations (please put my name in the memo):

Project AmaZon
PO Box 3253Peoria, IL 61612

Link for online giving (donation to make sure to select my name):

http://www.projectamazon.org/footer/donate/?category=listmissionaries

Prayer requests:

- Wedding plans

- Marriage - God's love to reign in our home

- Disciples and Cell groups