Well it’s been a busy couple of months for us since we were last able to get a newsletter to you all! We want to thank you for the continued prayers and support during this busy time! We’re excited to tell you some of what we’ve been able to participate in and many ways we have seen the Lord at work!
June was full of children’s programs, which we had every weekend. It was a great opportunity to meet a lot of the children in the area as well as interact with other people involved in the churches. We are truly blessed to be working with a lot of people that have a desire to see the Lord’s kingdom grow. With two of the start-up children’s ministries that we are heavily involved with, one now has 22 kids in attendance and the other has 26, many if not almost all of them come in off the streets and have been regularly attending now and hearing about the good news of Jesus Christ! Please continue to pray for the hearts of these kids and for the Holy Spirit to work in their lives as they are under the Word of God!
For us here in the month of July, unfortunately our planned trip to Paraguay didn’t work out, however, we were able to really do a lot in its place and still spread the news of Jesus Christ! Instead of spending a week in Paraguay as we had thought, we ended up spending that same week in the Amazons instead! We had found a Christian company that had a medical ministry in Northern Brazil and we were able book a trip with them and some of the proceeds from our payment went to their ministry directly. The trip was amazing and we had a lot of opportunities to share about Christ, even with some of the people on the trip with us. One of the guys that stick out in our minds is a guy that Jon was able to talk with from Jerusalem named Daniel. Jon was able to use some of the things that he’s experienced in his life to be able to relate that with Daniel. Jon gave his testimony about how he came to know Christ as his personal Lord and Savior and shared the gospel with him. It was an awesome opportunity in which Daniel said that he’s never seen people who are actually excited about their faith before. Nathan also had a great chance to talk to a couple from Russia and really challenge them with the truth of the gospel as well. We continue to pray for those we met and encountered that they would remember the Words of the Lord, as it does not return void!
Right when we got back to Campo Mourão we had our first out of two camps for the youth in the Campo Mourão area. We had a good turnout of about 40 youth and we were all really blessed being able to be involved during the week. The theme was “Run for the Goal” which was a play off of the World Cup which happened to be finishing up around the same time. We were both able to talk with a lot of guys as we served as counselors during the week, and Jon was even able to talk to a couple of guys who decided to start coming for basketball meetings regularly on Mondays. The guys go to church off and on, so we pray that the contact through playing basketball with them will lead to them wanting a real relationship with Christ.
The very next week we had kids camp! There were 58 kids that came and by the grace of God we had a very large staff. Nathan was able to share two evening messages in Portuguese. One was about having the image of a Christian on the outside but not having Christ in your heart and the other was on sharing Christ’s love with the people you know. He had a very good response from both lessons. Jon was the primary driver for both camps, coming and going, bringing staff and students as well as running to town when needed. It was a great opportunity to talk with the staff and students during the drive to see how they were doing and talk with them about their lives. Many of the children from camp and around the area have rough backgrounds that are very painful. Please pray that the Lord continues to work in all of there lives now that the camps have ended.
Shortly after the camps finished, Bethany & Amanda flew out to return home, leaving on August 11th for the United States! It was certainly a busy time with all the people that wanted to see them before they left! Moving forward without Amanda and Bethany will definitely be a big change for both of us; however, we have a lot of things that are ahead of us at the same time. We will be continuing with our weekly street evangelism, leading in praise and worship weekly, work within the local churches, and making the most of every opportunity to share Jesus Christ. This upcoming weekend, we have a trip to Maringa planned with a lot of the youth in the area as well as from Pastor Jonathan Abel’s church in Maringa. We will be going to a concert by a very famous Christian singer here in Brazil called Fernandinho. The guys that Jon plays basketball with are also going and this will be the first concert that they will be able to go to. Please be in prayer for these guys specifically (George, Tiago, Josevaldo, & Mateus) as well as some of the other youth that are attending, that they would continue to develop to be strong Christian leaders.
We also ask prayers for one of the big undertakings that the both of us will be pursuing in the upcoming month in the updating and revising of the “Manual Evangelico” (AFLC Catechism & Church Life Book) to be available for the churches by the Annual Conference in October. We have been working on editing, formatting, revising, and adding to what was previously written back in 1956 in order to make it new and improved to best target the church needs of 2010. Nathan has also been working on the production and translation of the material from the Ambassador Institute that we are looking forward to implementing down in Brazil. Both of these projects are in Portuguese, thus we ask for continue help as we work though what seems like a large task
We do want to thank you all for your prayers and for continued financial support as we see the hand of the Lord at work! Recently it has been brought to our attention that one of the students that is studying here at the Bible School is no longer able to continue to study without the financial support of $500 to pay for his second semester of classes. Even though we have been having some financial struggles ourselves, we have decided to commit to helping this young man, Douglas, continue in the studying of God’s Word. Along with your continual prayer for the work of the Lord, we would ask that if you feel so led to help us financially we would certainly appreciate it.
Thank you all again and God bless!
Jon Nelson and Nathan Olson
To support us in our ministry in Brazil, please send your support to:
(Jon and Nathan)
AFLC World Missions
3110 East Medicine Lake Blvd
Plymouth MN, 55441
