Honoring John and Ruby Abel

John and Ruby Able travel to Brazil annually to hold evangelistic meetings.  Most of our churches in Brazil have been started or strengthened through these meetings.  This March John became ill and was taken to the doctor.  The doctor diagnosed him with congestive heart failure.  This illness cut short his trip to Brazil.  It is questionable if John will be able to hold evangelistic meetings in Brazil in the years to come.

The Church in Brazil honored John and Ruby for their lifelong service in Brazil on Sunday, March 27^th.  It was a wonderful service with a ladies choir from Arlington, WA singing.   There were many from the AFLC in the US who spoke,  World Missions Director Del Palmer, Missionaries Connely Dyrud, Jonathan  Abel and Paul Abel, Lutheran Ambassador Editor Craig Johnson and World Missions Committee members Glenn Mork and Paul Handsaker.  There were also many from the AILLB (Brazilian AFLC) that spoke, President  Joel Mendez,  the chairman of SETELL (Seminary) and Miriam Infant Home Silvio Santos Paes and  the Dean of SETELL Natanael  Camarg.  John Abel was helped up to the pulpit and he addressed the group at the close of the service.

Please praise God for the ministry of John and Ruby and pray for John’s health in the days ahead.

Andy and Monica Coyle Commissioned

Andy and Monica Coyle, AFLC Missionaries on loan to Eastern European Missions Network , were commissioned by EEMN on Sunday afternoon, April 10th at 2 p.m.   The service was held at the AFLC Schools Chapel in Plymouth, MN. 

The Coyles will be deployed to Ukraine in the days ahead so please keep them in your prayers as they make their final preparations. 

Brazil Video Project–April 2011

Update from Andrew Abel

Dear Family and Friends,

                I am finally getting an update out about my trip to Brazil in January to work on a video documentary of the AFLC Brazil mission field.  First off, I want to thank everyone who prayed for me and supported me financially for this project.  I am happy to say that this portion of the project has been fully funded, thanks to you!

It has been a busy semester so far, and I am finally getting caught up with life. I have been keeping busy with school and work here on campus as well as working on the Brazil video project. We just had Spring Break here at Northwestern, and now my schedule has lightened up a bit allowing me more time to work on editing the video.  This is part of my senior project as I look forward to college graduation in May.

Now rewinding a bit, my time in Brazil was a great blessing! I was able to spend some time with family, see many friends and visit seven of the AFLC churches. I spent the first week with my sisters and their families since my parents had not returned yet. The next week I took off for Maringá with Missionary Jonathan Abel and his family. I spent a couple of days in Maringá and then continued on to Campo Mourão where I spent four days getting footage in the churches, orphanage, Bible School and Seminary. I then returned to Curitiba with my parent’s pickup that had been with Jonathan while they were in the US.

Upon returning to Curitiba I visited the churches in the area and spent a week recording audio for the annual Passion Play in Bateias. This event usually draws about 1000 people to hear and see the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Due to some circumstances in Brazil they have decided not to do the play this year but I am already working on the sound tracks for the 2012 play.  Each year some scenes are changed and different voices are recorded.

One thing that stood out to me about this trip to Brazil and my work on this project  was the excitement of the Brazilians towards the project. I was well received in all the churches  and people were very willing to give me interviews and to help me out in any way. I would like to eventually have a Portuguese version of this project so that the church in Brazil can also benefit from it.

Well, I think that is it for now. The Brazil video project will be available to view in the beginning of May. When it is completed I will send out a link for you to be able to view it online and instructions on how you can order a hard copy if you would like.

Thanks again for your support of this project!  Please pray that the final result will be a blessing to the AFLC and to the missionary outreach in Brazil.  I will keep you informed of future projects.

In Christ, Andrew Abel

Kvale Connection–March 2011

Steve is currently assigned to a Wycliffe/SIL partnership project. SIL is the Summer Institute of Linguistics based in Dallas, TX. The goal for this computer
project is to make more language resources available to language workers
around the world.

It’s also a joy to be able to revisit supporting churches now and share ministry updates. We are looking forward to sharing at a supporting church on the West coast for the first time and attending their district Bible Conference this Spring.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing, by the word of Christ. 
Romans 10:17

Wycliffe Bible Translators and The Seed Company work in partnership with
Faith Comes by Hearing, which produces Scripture in audio form made available to those that cannot read or are in situations where it is inconvenient to keep written materials with them (like soldiers) or maybe they are not allowed to. Wycliffe Bible Translators remains committed to the vision for the Scriptures made available to every people and every tongue.

One of our recent language releases is Akha. About 56,000 speakers in Thailand, the Akha are farmers that have also become known for their artistry. When including the surrounding region, it is believed that nearly 600,000 people speak Akha. And now they can listen to God's Word in their own language!

There is so much more to read about the Kvale’s.  This is just a taste of their informative newsletter.  So check it out here and also know what to pray for the Kvale family.