Dear Praying Friends and Supporting Churches,

Thank you for continuing to be used by the Lord to give us the opportunity to serve him here in Belém, Brazil.  I hope our latest report finds each of you well and prospering in the work of the Lord.  It seems that as we draw closer to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ the world is becoming increasingly chaotic.  It is a comfort to know that amid so much available information and competing narratives that our God remains the same and our purpose is clear.  Let us not grow disoriented by current events but let us keep our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and work to reach the lost with the Gospel.

Our two weekly Bible studies are continuing, and the men seem to be finding the time in the Word valuable.  Uncharacteristically, we were not able to meet with one of the men last week. As we were confirming the plans for the next meeting, he commented he had truly felt the lack of the Bible study we missed.  The other man that we are studying with has been eager each week to look into the Bible.  He is an English teacher.  He faithfully reads the Scriptures in Portuguese and English.  Aaron and I have been able to offer him Biblical advice on several occasions.  He has found it to be helpful.  This past week one of his English students came to Bible study with him.  While his main motivation was to hear and speak English, he showed some interest in spiritual things as well.  I believe it would be best for him to engage with the Bible in Portuguese and have already offered to meet with him at a different time to study Basic Bible Truths in Portuguese. 

As always, I appreciate your ongoing prayers.  We want God’s direction as we press on in the work.  I pray the Lord continues to bless and encourage you in His work, and that each of you enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving.

For the Glory of God,

Chris Bell

Brenda’s Bailiwick

Greetings from surprisingly dry Belem.  I am having to remind myself to pray for the rebuilding and recovery in the Southeastern states of the U.S. It got bumped out of the news cycle by the election and out of my brain by 101 other things—none of them Dalmatians. I’m sorry; I will try to do better this month.

Chris and I agreed going into October that we would strive to have “purposeful” company at least once a month, but it wasn’t until this week that the 2 R’s finally made it over for coffee, brownies, and Sarah’s apple muffins. The third R, their dad, has moved to Spain to be with their mom, so the 2 young men—one in college and working full-time, and one in his last year of high school—are on their own. As you may remember, they live in the same building as we do and are very active members of a prosperity-gospel denomination. I hope we can keep in touch and be good witnesses. They are quite busy as well, but the eldest told me that anytime I want to invite them over for coffee or lunch, I can go ahead…

We–the Mendozas and the Bells—have also begun holding a family worship service here at the Bell house on the first Sunday evening of each month; we enjoy and appreciate worshipping with the church in Ananindeua, but in addition to giving us time to fellowship, this will give the preachers regular opportunities to preach in Portuguese. In our inaugural service, Sarah played the piano, Aaron preached, and Caleb ate the pizza (after the closing prayer and with a little help).

Elijah is well and enjoying his job. His tickets to come for Christmas have been purchased and we are looking forward to seeing him.  Please keep him in your prayers as he makes decisions about the upcoming school year.

Sarah has enjoyed a few days that haven’t involved heavy homework but not many. On the bright side, she still regularly taps me out in jiu-jitsu on Saturdays, which is bound to be some encouragement.  She seems to be enjoying her culinary class, and we are certainly enjoying eating her homework—the dog never even gets a chance.

Please pray for me as I am finding it hard to make time each week to work on the Portuguese revisions of the Basic Bible Truths study; I am afraid this is largely a discipline issue—hopefully putting it “on the record” will help as well.

Thank you for reading and for praying!

In Christ,

Brenda

Prayer Requests:– Preparation of hearts in Belém to receive the Gospel – Following up with Contacts– Language Acquisition – Outreach Efforts – Bell Academy