In May we enjoyed participating in a conference for teaching camp director
s how to teach sexual purity concepts to young people. We were blessed by a speaker from the U.S. name Bob Tissot and had fun meeting other people who work with camping in Brazil. Many of the ideas we learned we incorporated into our July retreat and will use again as we travel to other places to teach youth.
Paul and I enjoyed planning a retreat for our pastors and wives in Campo Mourão
. We used several hands-on experiences to involve the pastors in the learning process. Most of our national pastors were able to attend. We are thankful for the gifts donated to the National Leadership Conference Project which made this event possible. It was also nice to be appreciated by the pastors for all my hard work in organizing the event. They pooled together to buy me a beautiful azalea.
Fishers of Men was the theme of our Children's Camp in July. We had a great week! One of the activities was random prayer times. At the blast of a loud horn everyone knelt down wherever they were and prayed for one minute. The silence was awesome and it was amazing to experience how much you can pray about in one minute! This was our granddaughter Deborah's first camp experience with Grandma and Grandpa at the ARCA (she's the last little girl on the right in the canoe).
Fifty-six youth participated in a Purity Seminar based on I Thess. 4:3-8 at the ARCA during July. It was a weekend full of fun interactive studies and teaching. We enjoyed having eight of our nieces and nephews participating in the retreat. Pray that these young people will stay true to their decisions to wait for God's best for them. The theme of the retreat was "To Love is to Wait and To Wait is to Walk." Three young men who are in drug rehab spent a week with us and also participated in the seminar before starting another treatment program. Please 
pray for Alex, Jean and Julio (see photo) as they try to get re-integrated into life. All three boys have accepted the Lord and are trying hard to walk in victory. Also pictured below is Shepherd who has lived with us for the past four months. Pray for him as he travels to the U.S. and enters a military academy to finish his high school education. Maybe we'll have an "empty nest" again for awhile.
Editor’s Note: There is so much more to read from the Abel’s newsletter. Click here to see more pictures and their prayer requests!
