February 21, 2004

The Urgent Need

The other day I received a prayer letter from Jim and Julie Leonard (Jim is the director of the Cariri Baptist Seminary in Ceará, Brazil) which went out to all their prayer supporters. In it, they expressed their desire for our quick arrival in Brazil. I have printed a portion of it below, in hopes of conveying the urgency of the task before us.

This Saturday we will welcome the new students at the Cariri Baptist Seminary, and the returning students come in on Monday. At the last count we are expecting 21 new students from all across Brazil. One young man, Francisco, has already arrived. He traveled for 8 days to get here. Six of those days were on boats, as his home is on a river up in the Amazon forest. Please pray for the safe arrival of all of our students.

This year Jim will be the Christian Service Director for the students. This job begins with contacting the churches in and around the Cariri Valley, and finding a place for each of our 70+ students to have a meaningful Christian service experience. During the semester he will be visiting each student at this place of service, and giving orientation as to how they can improve their ministries. Please pray for Jim as he takes on this new responsibility.

Please be in prayer for Andrew and Itacyara Comings. The Comings are on deputation raising support to work with us in the Cariri. Actually, one of Andrew's responsibilities will be that of Director of Christian Service. They have just over 30% of their needed support, and we need them desperately to relieve the pressures caused by being short staffed.

Posted by Andrew on February 21, 2004 5:41 PM.